nce GIG Ash Staying In Book Reviews Senator Shane Rosss history of how the bankers, as the books subtitle says, brought Ireland to its knees, is timely its a shame Ross, business editor of the Sunday Independent, wasnt so inflammatory at the time I was buying my house. Ross knows his subject inside out and explains with a light, humorous touch such scandals as the Golden Circle who secretly borrowed 451million from Sean Seanie FitzPatricks personal fiefdom, Anglo Irish Bank, to buy up its own shares and prevent its collapse. He lambasts the Government, the banks and the hapless financial regulator for still blaming global factors and in the case of Ulster Bank, the weather! for the collapse in Irish bank shares, when the real problem was their reckless lending 100 per cent mortgages to first-time buyers, and no- questions-asked multi-million-euro loans to developers. Why were the banks in property-mad Spain still laughing? Because they had strong state regulation, Ross says. But Ross admits regulator chief executive Patrick Neary was also a victim of a terrible system that he did not invent. He also has a go at the spoofers and poodles among bank economists, auctioneers, brokers and the media, who tried to keep the deflating bubble pumped up. Brian Cowens cutting of stamp duty for first-time buyers in 2007 is, according to Ross, mere tinkering a bit strange from a journalist whose paper went on a hysterical campaign to make Cowen do just that, presumably with nods of approval from advertisers in its property section. The book ends abruptly, after bringing us up to date with finance minister Brian Lenihans fight to push through Nama and to deliver heads on plates from the banks. But what does Ross think of the bail- out? Its a bail-out for the oligarch bankers at the taxpayers expense, sure, he says, dependent on property prices rising again. But whats Rosss alternative? Seemingly that the regulation was in place when it mattered very noble, but time-travel not yet having been invented, that wont help us now. Alan Caulfield Book Of The Week The Bankers: How The Banks Ruined The Irish Economy by Shane Ross Penguin, 16 Wednesday, November 25, 2009 metrolife 17 the same role in the same situation for too long, he decides. Which explains why hes also having a stab at Shakespeare with Ralph Fiennes movie of Coriolanus, which begins shooting next year. But before that is The Bounty, aka That Jennifer Aniston Movie. There is, however, a new lady in his life the perma-bachelor will talk about: his tiny pug, Lolita so dinky when he bought her that she fitted into his palm. Awww! A bit of a girly choice, I hazard? Hey, shes a tenacious little f***er, my dog! She really is. When she was younger, I couldnt believe her insane fearlessness. Shed risk her life from moment to moment for no gain whatsoever. Thats very much my character trait as well: Im definitely insane and Ive got quite a bit of courage. Who knew that inside every Hollywood hero, theres an ickle handbag dog just yapping to get out. Law Abiding Citizen is in cinemas on Friday. Experimentation used to be a dirty word. The major labels have always liked to keep it formulaic but the internet music revolution, which empowers artists, has smashed the old model and Ash are on pioneering form. Their latest album isnt an album at all, its 26 digital singles, each released a fortnight apart, the first of which came out last month on their own new label, Atomic Heart. Theyve also just completed a 26-date tour of the UK with a schedule that took them to quirky venues from Aldershot West End Centre to Zennor Village Hall in Cornwall. Its about survival for us at the moment, trying to prove that we can do it for ourselves, says singer Tim Wheeler. This is not a proven thing we are trying, its a total experiment. Having total creative freedom is important to Ash. Had they been more in control of their own destiny in those hurricane early years, life might have been easier on them. They arrived in 1996 when debut album 1977 saw them playing Glastonbury only weeks after getting their A Levels results. It sold more than two million copies and Wheeler struggled to deal with the fame. The critical reaction to their second album, Nu-Clear Sounds, was very bad and in 1999, not long after its release, Wheeler snapped, disappearing for a few months before re-emerging in better shape the following year. Around that time I got my head together and my focus back, he says. I had to figure out what I really wanted to do so I worked my backside off and wrote some great songs for [third album] Free All Angels. Now we are self- funded I want to work my backside off again to make sure it works for us, and thats why we tried to challenge ourselves. This is going to be a journey over a year and I think people who are into us will really be part of something. Gavin Allen Tonight, The Button Factory, Curved Street D2, 7.30pm, 23. Tel: (01) 670 9202. www.ash-official.com Rain Gods by James Lee Burke Orion, 22 Gnarled Korean War POW and Texas sheriff Hackberry Holland first appeared in James Lee Burkes 1971 novel Lay Down My Sword And Shield. Here he is the central (slightly creaking and ornery) force for good in a stark Western thriller that carries echoes of No Country For Old Men. Holland happens on a horrific crime scene: nine young Thai women machine-gunned down and buried behind an old church. A wryly drawn set of thugs and mobster kingpins displaced from post-Katrina New Orleans are behind the sordid deed, most startling among them Preacher Jack Collins, an ex-pest exterminator with Oedipal issues and a conviction hes the left hand of God. Young, scarred Iraq vet Pete Flores and his feisty girlfriend Vikki need saving from this unsavoury collective, whose backstabbings and double- dealings are sometimes hard to keep straight. And Burkes tormented hero, who can be found at dawn pondering mans potential for devolvement back into a simian society, is perfect for the job. Siobhn Murphy The Original Of Laura By Vladimir Nabokov Penguin, 30 Infamous author Vladimir Nabokov never finished his final book. In this extravagantly packaged publication, the long-awaited surviving text of Nabokovs last novel The Original Of Laura is accompanied by perforated facsimiles of the original index cards on which Nabokov began it you can, if you wish, punch them out and shuffle them. Nabokov was dying and For The Original Of Laura is undeniably a last gasp rather than a final flourish. But while the plot in which obese Mr Wild is tormented by a novel documenting the infidelities of his young wife Flora is almost laughably self-parodic, the novel gains an eerie glow from the circumstances of its production. Nabokov (pictured) is good at capturing the febrile shadows of old age in the books best sequence, poor old Mr Wild attempts to engender his own annihilation by slowly amputating his body from the feet up, a striking metaphor for a creatively ailing Nabokov. Claire Allfree Makers By Cory Doctorow HarperCollins, 20 There is plenty in Cory Doctorows fifth novel to get technology buffs salivating 3D printers, stair-climbing wheelchairs and the triumph of blogs over newspapers. But only the most ardent will be able to overlook its one- dimensional characters and drawn-out plot. The makers of the title are Perry Gibbons and Lester Banks, who craft gadgets from junkyard materials and become the founders of the New Work movement, which decentralises business, launching start-ups across the US and, eventually, the world. As the revolution grows, though, Perry and Lester struggle to manage the movement they started. Doctorows dramatisation of the perils of protecting intellectual property in the internet age is interesting and effective he supports copyright liberalisation, publishing under a Creative Commons licence that allows readers to circulate an electronic version freely. The human elements of his novel, though, are so tortuous that I, for one, wont be taking advantage of the licence. Tom Cameron city and hes using a .44 Magnum, not a mop. Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk? Harry Brown: Not so much Dirty Harry as Old Harry: Michael Caine stars as a quiet, law-abiding OAP widower turned bad-ass gun-toting vigilante when thugs on his inner city estate murder his best friend. Batman: Who needs guns when youve got a groovy car, a flappy cape and butler- service in your cave? A nice millionaire-class Gotham boy turns bad-ass gadget- crazy vigilante when thugs murder his parents. You cant (or really, really dont want to) imagine Clint Eastwood or Michael Caine in tight black rubber, but this is otherwise the same movie in bats clothing. Larushka Ivan- Zadeh index.html2.html3.html4.html5.html6.html7.html8.html9.html10.html11.html12.html13.html14.html15.html16.html17.html18.html19.html20.html21.html22.html23.html24.html25.html26.html27.html28.html29.html30.html31.html