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Paul Corduex reviewsreaddead Famous.Ben elton,Black Swan 2002.Oh the heat! The tropical summer heat, just saps your energy.It’s so hot here next to the radiator watching the rain lashagainst the window, I can barely stay awake! Yes kids, it’sSummer and to prove it Big Brother has kicked off yet anotherround of freaky idiots, did they didn’t they (they so did)moments and edited highlights that manipulate thehousemate’s fragile public images.Controversial. I love it! Trust the camp Scottish homo to spit in theAsian guy’s face (seems like ages ago now doesn’t it?) and ruin it foreveryone! It’s all so predictable, so repetitive, so childish. So whydo I sit Summer after Summer watching the panto freak show that isBB? You couldn’t write it! Or could you?The first of this weeks offerings is the wittily titled Dead Famous(complete with goldfish staring out of their bowl to emphasizethe pun), by Ben Elton. The older amongst you may remember MrElton from his foul-mouthed, near-the-knuckle stand-up comedyof the 1980s. If not, then you may be surprised to learn that he isthe comedy writer behind The Thin Blue Line and Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s musical We Will Rock You.Dead Famous is a Number 1 best seller than cashes-in on the BigBrother mania that sweeps the land every year. It doesn’t make adirect reference to BB but is as close as can be without upsetting thelawyers at Channel 4. The book is a crime thriller set in a televisedhouse full of wannabes and wierdos. A murder is committed andthe impossible becomes possible as one-by-one the suspects areeliminated. It is so convincingly written that I actually find myselfconfusing the characters in the book with the people in this andother BBs!If you’re venturing abroad this summer, or you just want to makethe BB high last a little longer, buy this book, it’s a well writtensurprisingly clever whodunit that will entertain and involve youlong after Davina has tottered off the stage.Our Rating 5/5Saturday,Ian Mcewan.Cape, 2005.From a whole summer of thrills and spills, to one single dayof tight gripping action. Saturday by Ian McEwan. This is anstunning book and if you’re looking for escapism and writingat it’s very best then you need look no further. McEwan’s writingincludes the award-winning Atonement, which made it to the bigscreen and was shot –in part – in our very own Redcar.Although I found the film a little slow and self-indulgent,the clarity of the writing and characters shone though.With Saturday, McEwan has again put together an amazing story. Thistime told over the course of Saturday 15th February 2003, followingthe ‘day-off’ of eminent neurosurgeon Henry Perowne. Perowneis an intelligent man, a respected surgeon, and a dutiful son to hisAlzheimer’s suffering Mother as well as being a Father himself to twoyoung adults. I’m not in the habit of re-telling the plot of the booksI review but a little is essential here. Set in London, the book opensin the Perowne home, a large period house full of books and familyhistory. Perowne is awoken from his sleep in the early hours and seesa plane coming in to land across the city with one of its engines onfire.Immediately, McEwan has begun playing with images of terrorismand he doesn’t stop throughout the rest of the novel. We followHenry’s day as he fights his way through the anti-war demonstrationsto visit his Mum and then goes-on to play squash with a colleague.However the mood of the day and of the book is changed whenPerowne comes face to face with Baxter, the ‘baddy’ for want of abetter term, who’s impact on the story and on the family as a wholeis pivotal.McEwan’s control of the characters and what drives them is amazing,as is his ability to take a potentially mundane story and turn it intoan emotional roller-coaster ride. I felt genuine disappointment whenI turned the penultimate page and realised the story would soon beover. Read Saturday if you want to lose yourself in a story and beshown how to spin a masterly tale.Our Rating 2/532. Out NorthEast www.outnortheast.com