Paperbacks

Published on Thursday 2 July 2009 15:34

MY JUDY GARLAND LIFE BY SUSIE BOYT (Virago, £8.99)

IS this a book about Judy Garland? Well, yes, in a way – but it's also a very subtle, beguiling and uplifting memoir. Susie Boyt sees herself in the mirror of Judy Garland, and she sees Judy Garland in the mirror of herself. She makes you see how other people are, in a way, our own inventions. But what an invention Judy Garland is! One of the best entertainers who ever performed (Boyt says she's THE best) – but also complex, demanding and elusive. Boyt meets Liza Minnelli and swoons over her cigarette butts – wonderful. Then she duets with Mickey Rooney.

HAPPINESS

BY DENIS ROBERT

(Serpent's Tail, 7.99)

HE is a writer. She is a married lady. Oh, and he's married, too. They are exquisitely French – clever, perverse, bored senseless by ordinary life. They meet in a bar and something electrifies them. "She crossed her legs so high that I could see the white triangle of her pants." That's what he says. Very Frenchly, he also points out that he knew that she knew that he was looking at her pants. The trick of this book is that it's narrated by both the man and the woman. She says, "He attracted me, but I felt no desire for him." Soon she feels desire and a throbbingly intense affair follows. You'll read it in a lunchtime.

GOOD TO BE GOD

BY TIBOR FISCHER

(Alma Books, 7.99)

ALL I knew about Tibor Fischer before I read this book was that he was the guy who stuck the boot into Martin Amis a few years back. So imagine my surprise! This is a novel about a guy who has fallen through the cracks of British society and then goes to Miami. He describes Miami as "Heavy with light, light-heavy Miami".

The conceit is this: he is impersonating a handcuff salesman. But he's down on his luck. "I'm too old to sell my body, and my mind's pretty bare," he tells us. Fischer sounds like a serious Amis fan and this book reads like a homage – or even an apology.