This is the part of the run-up to Christmas I always look forward to most – the ‘silly’ books, loo books, even non-books produced by serious publishers who may resent the huge piles of money they make every year while delicate, thoughtful literary novels remain unbought and unread. As it happens, I have just finished a wholly unsatisfactory book of short stories – no names, no packdrill – so a few weeks of loo books have proved surprisingly refreshing, like a palate cleanser after a hideously over-thought restaurant meal. They are all recommended for grumpy old relatives, or even yourself.
Ysenda Maxtone Graham’s Scream (Abacus, £14.99) comes in the familiar category of ‘Rants About Life’, and is full of gobbets of unadorned rage about features of modern living. ‘The disappointment of the takeaway’ is something we can all empathise with. Or:
The choice the computer gives you is ‘instal now’ or ‘instal later today’ or ‘remind me tomorrow’. You don’t want any of them. You’re happy with the status quo. The computer is probably too old to deal with the enforced change or update they are intending to inflict on it.
Or you are. Either may apply.
It’s a very bracing book, augmented by some pithy Nick Newman cartoons, and also given the unusual counterpoint of a few positive entries, which all appear in italics. There are some things, it turns out, the author actually likes: eating food at airports; and ‘the bliss of driving when Google Maps is telling you exactly what to do and which way to go’. And she adores ‘soft close’ kitchen drawers, which she says are ‘a wonder of the modern age’.
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