FIRST THOUGHTS

The Dubious Salvation Of Jack V.

CHILD narrators are nothing new. Neither are coming-of-age stories. But what Jacques Strauss has done with his debut novel is inject a fresh new voice, poetic and vulgar in turn, into the literary world.

Jack Viljee, half Afrikaans and half English, is 11 years old and living in South Africa in 1989 — a time of dramatic change. For him, however, the world is reasonably simple.

When the family’s housekeeper’s son Percy comes to stay though, it threatens the balance of their home.

Strauss vividly imagines the world of a pre-pubescent boy and has perfectly pitched the dubious morality of a growing 11-year-old, free from the responsibilities and sensibilities of adulthood.

In doing so, he presents us with a flawed yet vivid character in Jack and gives us an astonishing read.

Robopocalypse

Review: Ben Major

Daniel H Wilson

Simon & Schuster, £19.99; Kindle, £8.49

IT seems natural that Daniel H Wilson, the author of How To Survive A Robot Uprising and How To Build A Robot Army, would turn his attention to a documentary-style novel about an apocalypse brought on by sentient machines, and that’s exactly what he has done with Robopocalypse.

A survivor pieces together the story of what happened, recounting tales of people dubbed heroes by the machine mastermind. Initially, ominous incidents take place, including the malfunctioning of a pacification robot in Afghanistan, and a robot companion in Japan turning against its owner, before the machines try to exterminate mankind.

But the human resistance strikes back as they hunt down the artificial intelligence that started the war.

It is an intriguing and terrifying account of an all-too-real future brought to life by clever storytelling.

Tony Curtis: Nobody’s Perfect

Review: Anthony Looch

Michael Munn JR £18.99, unavailable as an ebook

ALTHOUGH he delivered a number of hit performances, the considerable acting skills of Hollywood star Tony Curtis (1925-2010) were often submerged in third-rate films.

This sympathetic biography by film historian Michael Munn tells a remarkable rags-to-riches story of a likeable man often afflicted by inner torments.

Born Bernard Schwartz, to poor Hungarian Jewish immigrants, Curtis grew up in New York’s Bronx. His mother, who bullied him when he was a child, was eventually diagnosed with schizophrenia.

In later years, Curtis said he suffered from a touch of this affliction himself occasionally. He was certainly paranoid and ultra-sensitive to criticism, and had to be treated for alcoholism and drug dependence in 1984.

His stunning, almost girlish, good looks made him a matinee idol and he chalked up six marriages and fathered six children.

His many and varied films included Biblical epics and tough guy movies. His role in the smash hit comedy Some Like It Hot in 1959 was largely played in drag. This film, from which the “Nobody’s Perfect” punch-line is taken for the title of this book, is often voted as one of the best ever made.