Mischief, dark comedy in jungle

Short, sharp guidance and observations from a journalist with attitude. All books available from Exclusives

IF YOU READ ONE BOOK THIS WEEK

Slash and Burn, by Colin Cotterill (Quercus Publishing), R250.

THIS is the eighth book in Cotterill's Dr Siri series. The elderly state coroner sets off on a darkly comic adventure as he travels with a joint Laotian-US expedition in search of a missing US airman. Much mischief from a motley assortment of Marxists, CIA spooks, drunk and corrupt politicians, and the odd jungle spirit. Good fun.

THE ISSUE

THE news that the Boekehuis, a Melville landmark and one of Johannesburg's better book stores, is to close comes as a sad blow. It is a terrible loss, another victim of what has been referred to as "the country's poor reading culture". Boekehuis manager Corina van der Spoel has remarked on the nature of consumerism and the culture of shopping malls and much else besides.

But I wonder if the Boekehuis had been perhaps better sited, it would still be with us. It's all very well being in a cosy house with a stoep where you can have coffee and cake, but if that house is hidden from passing traffic, stuck on the Media 24 parking lot, well, don't blame us if we didn't drop by more often.

Now, Cape Town's Book Lounge, on the other hand, is conveniently opposite the Kimberley Hotel bar. Browsing is such thirsty work. Location, location.

CRASH COURSE

FIRST there were the Chinese-American tiger mommies. Now their Gallic counterparts are here. A new book by an American journalist, Pamela Druckerman, French Children Don't Throw Food: Parenting Secrets From Paris (Doubleday), has been receiving good reviews for (a) being funny and (b) smart as well.

It would seem French kids are the berries. They're well-behaved, they sleep through the night at two months, they sit nicely in restaurants, they don't whine or interrupt, they read Sartre from an early age, and so on. How come?

Druckerman suggests it starts with the birth. The French don't do the hysteria that Anglophones bring to the party. As she notes: "We typically demonstrate our commitment by worrying, and by showing how much we're willing to sacrifice, even when pregnant. French women signal their commitment by projecting calm and flaunting the fact that they have not renounced pleasure."

Writing in the London Sunday Times, India Knight said: "Druckerman's book is a desperately needed corrective to received wisdom about child-rearing and what having children is supposed to do to a woman's sense of self. I loved it. It made me want to move to Paris."

THE BOTTOM LINE

"HE HAD a lot of talent but also a lot of luck. Let's not make a Michelangelo out of him!" - Hergé, Son of Tintin, by Benoît Peeters, translated by Tina A Kover (The Johns Hopkins University Press).

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