by Tristan Summerscale

Peter Carey

BOOKS

PETER CAREY

Foyles Charing Cross

Tuesday February 2nd

Peter Carey has twice won the Man Booker Prize, and is the only person to have done that apart from South African gloomster J.M Coetzee. His new novel, Parrot and Olivier in America has been hailed as ‘his most wide ranging yet‘ and has been extremely well received. It concerns the aristocratic Olivier de Garmont, and his servant Parrot, and their travels throughout the world in the early and mid nineteenth century. This event is free and will include a reading and a Q & A.

More info here.

FILM

Sonam (The Fortunate One)
Thursday, 4th February, 20:15
The Tricycle

I confess I’d never heard of this film when I found it on the Tricycle website. The plot seems fairly universal: ‘Knowing that she has long loved another man, Sonam’s husband offers to accept him as her other husband. Sonam gladly agrees, but the new arrangement is not as heavenly as she expected, as she is torn between the two men who she loves in very different ways.’ What makes this unusual is that it is set and shot in Arunachal Pradesh, one of the most remote and beautiful parts of India, which is very hard to get to due to it being an area of strategic importance to both India and China. The film’s in Monpa, the local dialect, which probably means it won’t be for everyone but with a Q + A with the lead actor thrown in, its sure to be an interesting evening.

Information here. Trailer here.

Supporting them is I Blame Coco, a young lady who has just been given a six album deal with Island Records. Six albums? Who get’s a six album deal after doing next to nothing these days? Oh yes, that’s right, Sting’s daughter. She’s got a lovely voice has our Coco though, it sounds a bit like…erm…well…you know.

ART

Richard Wilson & Emily Prince
Ongoing

They are hardly brand new, but two separate visitors have recommended these particular artworks from recent visits to The Saatchi Gallery as worth a visit in themselves. There is also an exhibition of modern Indian art to tempt you. Richard Wilson’s 20:50 has been on display in all the different Saatchi Gallery location since they opened, and takes the form of a brilliant sculpture made by filling the room, to waist height with oil. The sculpture creates a number of stunning effects, some of which you can see from the photo above left. Emily Prince’s slightly less snappily titled American Servicemen and Women Who Have Died in Iraq and Afghanistan (But Not Including the Wounded, Nor the Iraqis nor the Afghanis) is nonetheless incredibly affecting in a different way. She has done pencil drawings from the official photographs of all the servicemen killed in Iraq, with details of their lives annotated when she could find them. Both of these are striking and original works, and the fact that the exhibit is free makes it all the more enticing an option.

POETRY

MOHAN RANA
The Whitechapel Art Gallery
Thursday 4th February, 7pm, Free

If you’re looking for something seriously out there this week then you could do worse than the free event at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, Hindi Poety Mohan Rana, reading from his works in the original, with translator (and noted poet in his own right), Bernard O’Donoghue performing alongside him. Mohan Rana has been highly praised by his contemporaries – ‘Amongst the new generation of Hindi poets, the poetry of Mohan Rana stands alone; it defies any categorisation. However, its refusal to fit any ideology doesn’t mean that Mohan Rana’s poetry shies away from thinking – but that it knows the difference between thinking in verse and thinking about poetry.’

Info here.