MARY CONWAY revels in a powerful reminder that human lives are not defined by physical perfection
Latest editorial
Satire on reality TV puts the gross in engrossing
Paul Simon reviews Rasmus by PJ Vanston (Matador, £8.99)
PAUL DONOVAN recommends the fine performances in this account of the pre-war meeting between the US president and the British king
TECLYN AROD relishes an intimate celebration of jazz improvisation that mixes local and national musicians
The missing sister, the vengeful WAG, cruise ship claustrophobia, and reanimated Avengers
Three great releases of lost concerts by Duke Ellington Orchestra, John Taylor & Stan Sulzman, and Joe Henderson
To rescue Kahlo from the clutches of the corporate art market, we need to acknowledge the overt and covert political dimensions of the work, demands GAVIN O’TOOLE
Rasmus by PJ Vanston (Matador, £8.99)
“ART may imitate life but life imitates TV.” So opines Rasmus Karn in one of his many direct quotations that intersperse the third-person narrative in PJ Vanston’s engrossingly gross novel.
Arising from seemingly nowhere, the founder of reality channel X-TV acts like a modern prophet in holding a mirror up to the world to show it for what it is and foretelling its possible future.
Similar stories
On January 2 2014, PJ Harvey used her turn as guest editor of the Today programme to expose the realities of war, arms dealing and media complicity. The fury that followed showed how rare – and how threatening – such honesty is within Britain’s most Establishment broadcaster, says IAN SINCLAIR
KEN COCKBURN relishes the memoir of a translator, but wonders whether the autobiography underlying the impulse would make a better book
ANDY HEDGECOCK relishes an exuberant blend of emotion and analysis that captures the politics and contrarian nature of the French composer
200 years since the first dinosaur was described and 25 after its record-breaking predecessor, the BBC has brought back Walking with Dinosaurs. BEN CHACKO assesses what works and what doesn’t