Not Quite Dead Yet
Holly Jackson (Bantam)
**** (4 stars)
This is an entertaining surprise — it’s a clever concept with some interesting characters, but just when you get into it, the book slams to a conclusion. It leaves one a bit breathless. Jet (who hates her real name, Margaret) is a 27-year-old woman who is a bit aimless and fairly annoying with her “tomorrow is another day” and “one day I will find some purpose” attitude. And then there’s her best friend, Billy, who comes across as insipid and overly sensitive at first. It’s in the growth of these two characters that the spirit of this book lies. The main premise is brilliant: at the start of the book Jet is savagely attacked and left with a terrible injury that will see her die in seven days. And so for the first time in her life, she develops focus and purpose as she sets out to solve her own murder in the days she has left. As her time slips away, we get to understand Jet and why she lacked any kind of purpose, and we come to see Billy as the strong, good, loyal person that he is. It’s a rollicking read set to keep you gripped. — Gill Gillford
The Proving Ground
Michael Connelly (Orion)
**** (4 stars)
AI has become a hot literary topic. ‘Garbage in, garbage out’ is a major problem for generative AI. It means that AI tools are only as good as the information they draw on. In this superb thriller, LA lawyer Mickey Haller must prove that it’s a potentially fatal problem in The Proving Ground, a term Haller coins for the gladiatorial well in front of the jury where a lawyer must win or lose a case by argument. In this case Haller is leading a public-interest lawsuit against a big tech company whose AI chatbot urged a teenager to kill his ex-girlfriend. The subsequent murder case is pending. His mother insists the company bear some responsibility as it ignored ethics warnings in the rush to market. As the company fights dangerously dirty, Haller grapples intellectually with urgent current concerns around AI ethics and safety.
Faces and Phases of Resilience
Tinyiko Maluleke (Tracey MacDonald Publishers)
**** (4 stars)
Maluleke’s book is a collection of essays on political events, politicians, profiles of achievers in the academic and cultural fields, and his own memories of his youth and his family. It is a collection of his reflections on and reactions to a South Africa in transition — presumably the faces and phases of resilience referred to in the title. Among the themes he explores are women’s rights, African spirituality, and the importance of education. Since most of these essays focus on women, this makes the essay on the sidelining of Elizabeth Tsvangirai, widow of the late Morgan Tsvangirai, at her husband’s funeral a particularly moving and poignant reminder of how women continue to be what Maluleke calls “victims of patriarchy”. You don’t have to be a women’s rights activist to be moved by this essay. Other notable essays are the satiric “God Writes to Mogoeng Mogoeng”, in which the Lord commends the former chief justice for his “religious exuberance” but forbids him from entering politics; the scholarly “Re-reading Es’kia Mphahlele For Our Times”; and “Thabo Mbeki Went Home”, an analysis of the former president’s resignation speech in 2008, and more. The book is a good summary of most of the topics and issues that South Africans have been debating since the transition to democracy, delivered with a light touch. — Leshoai Thabiso
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