Washington Post Book Reviews
For You
Tuesday April 12, 2011
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THREE BOOKS ON THE ROYALS
Christopher Schoppa
NA
ISBN NA
NA pages
$NA
Reviewed by Christopher Schoppa
Kindly avert your eyes if you are already weary of the fervent media coverage of the upcoming nuptials between Prince William of Wales and Kate Middleton. But if simply glimpsing the word "prince" above made your pulse quicken, chances are you either hold a keen respect for the storied institution of the monarchy (and that includes the gushing fans already clutching official memorabilia from the Royal Collection) or have an inexplicable, slightly derisive fascination for what is certain to be an event of epic proportions. Whichever description best suits you, here are several new titles sure to be of interest:
1. "William and Harry: Behind the Palace Walls" (Weinstein, $24.95). By Katie Nicholl. The author, a veteran royal correspondent for the British paper the Mail on Sunday, promises heretofore unknown details about the lives of the princely siblings, often given the unceremonious moniker "the heir and the spare." The Wales brothers, though they differ in temperament and expectation -- one is to be the future king of England, after all -- have much in common. Both have a passion for the military, are zealously involved in charitable work (their joint office coordinates their philanthropic efforts) and share the sorrow and pain of the tragic death of their mother, Diana, Princess of Wales. Nicholl delves into all of that and the more tawdry, scandalous bits too, offering insight into the brothers' checkered relationships with Kate Middleton and Chelsy Davy.
Perhaps not coincidentally, this book was published exactly a week prior to the palace's official wedding announcement on November 16, 2010.
2. "William and Kate: A Royal Love Story"  (Gallery, $26). By Christopher Andersen. This timely book provides an examination of William and Kate's decade-long romance, including two breakups and reconciliations, from a writer well-known for his celebrity biographies of the Kennedys, the Clintons, the George W. Bushes as well as the House of Windsor in general and Diana in particular. William and Kate were initially able to keep their relationship somewhat discreet, thanks to Fleet Street's agreement with the royal family to curb the prying eyes of reporters and cameras while William was at university. But since then, and especially now, all is fair in love and juicy tidbits, and Andersen nets several that shed new light on the couple whose fairytale beginning is expected to usher the British monarchy into the future.
3. "Behind Palace Doors: Five Centuries of Sex, Adventure, Vice, Treachery, and Folly from Royal Britain"  (Random House; paperback, $15). By Michael Farquhar. While the life of Prince William and Kate Middleton after their sumptuous wedding later this month has yet to be written, those looking for choice examples of royal ignominy can open the pages of Farquhar's new compendium. He provides biographical and historical sketches of William's many famous ancestors, whose often unseemly behavior make the sizzling tabloid stories of today resemble nursery school tales. Farquhar, a former Washington Post writer, has rounded up 500 years of salacious details from Henry VIII to Elizabeth II that include invaluable family trees and a sound refutation of some of history's more wild concoctions about what really took place in those royal residences.
Christopher Schoppa can be reached at schoppac(at symbol)washpost.com.
Copyright 2011 Washington Post Writers Group
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HELIOPOLIS 
James Scudamore
Europa
ISBN 978-1933372730
277 pages
$15
Reviewed by Adam Langer
I'm suspicious of novels that are praised as laugh-out-loud, impossible-to-put-down page-turners. I don't often laugh out loud while reading; I get bored easily with purportedly page-turning thrillers, and with two kids in the house and deadlines to meet, I can put down nearly any book. But "Heliopolis," James Scudamore's exhilarating satire of class conflict in Sao Paulo, Brazil, merits just about every hackneyed plaudit one can hurl at it. It's a book that I found myself very reluctant to put down, even when I had to.
As I read about Scudamore's hero, Ludo dos Santos, and his harrowing and insane exploits inside and outside the world of marketing, I couldn't help but recall that classic "Saturday Night Live" spoof of late-night TV pitchmen hawking ridiculous, multipurpose products ("It's a floor wax! It's a dessert topping!"). Scudamore's labyrinthine novel boasts many seemingly contradictory ambitions.
On one level, "Heliopolis" is a 21st-century bildungsroman that riffs cleverly on Dickens' "Great Expectations." Here, the hero discovers some disturbing secrets about his past many years after being rescued from a life of poverty by a supermarket tycoon and his do-gooder wife. At the same time, the novel is a moving and erotic love story -- in this case, a semi-incestuous relationship between dos Santos and his married, adoptive sister. It's also a blistering dark comedy about corporate exploitation and a violent thriller whose brutality recalls the films " City of God " and "Reservoir Dogs."
That said, "Heliopolis" is not a perfect book. Books this ambitious rarely are. With chapters that alternate between present and past, the novel's structure can seem too schematic. A couple of Scudamore's plot contrivances, which enable his hero to navigate Sao Paolo's rich and exploited societies, can seem hastily conceived and overwrought. And the novel's final, disturbing images carry more metaphorical baggage than is probably necessary.
Still, what is most impressive about "all this unbecoming cuckoldry and incest," as dos Santos puts it, is how the novel succeeds at realizing nearly all of its aims. That is due largely to Scudamore's vibrant and seemingly effortless prose. Gripping and riotous, brutal and sentimental -- floor wax and dessert topping -- this laugh-out-loud page-turner is all yours for the low-low price of $15!
"Heliopolis" was long-listed for the 2009 Man Booker Prize; my money says Scudamore will take the prize before this decade is over.
Adam Langer's most recent novel is "The Thieves of Manhattan."
Copyright 2011 Washington Post Writers Group
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