Short takes: Paperbacks

Reviewed by MARGIE THOMSON

Siri Hustvedt: What I Loved

The leisurely first half of Hustvedt's third novel, in which she meticulously, profoundly constructs the loves and lives of two intellectual couples from the New York art world, gracefully moves in the second half into sinister territory, in which deceit joins forces with murder and sociopathy to make a chilling read.

Along the way, Hustvedt creates an entire oeuvre for her artist character, and the book's dialogue effortlessly scans worlds of cerebral exploration: from modern art (and the bitchy, profligate artworld), to eating disorders, erotica and mental illness.

Yet Hustvedt does not hold her characters ransom to ideas: they and their world are breathed into life and as a result our hearts are fully engaged, as blind to the truth as the characters themselves.

The plot wends its way through many of the largest human experiences - love, friendship, loss, betrayal and grief - and the result is a story that's beguiling, rich and moving.

Publisher: Sceptre

Price: $24.99

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Carol Shields: Duet

No, this is not a last novel from Shields, who died this year. It's the opposite: a repackaging of her first two novels, Small Ceremonies (1976) and The Box Garden (1977). Shields didn't become much known outside Canada until Mary Swann was published in 1987, and rose to stardom in 1993 when The Stone Diaries won the Pulitzer Prize, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize - so there will be many fans who have not read her earlier work. In her introduction to Duet, Shields writes that she has always thought of these two works as "companion" novels, and indeed they are about two women, Judith and Charleen, who "happen to be sisters". Classic Shields, these are to be read at leisure for the perfect character studies and evocations of intricate domestic life that they are.

Publisher: Fourth Estate

Price: $24.99

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Keith Lowe: New Free Chocolate Sex

Food and romance are an unbeatable mix when it comes to light fiction, and chocolate would have to be the most irresistible of all, in literature as in life.

There's a twist, though: chocolate is not all it seems, as it appears in our lives in its glossy packaging. The truth is that in its most basic form, it's grown on plantations in far-away African countries, tended by workers who are slaves or little more than slaves - who never, incidentally, taste the end product of their labours.

Lowe exploits this cavernous contradiction in a most entertaining way: there can't be many romantic comedies with such serious points to be made about international human rights, and even about the conditions in Britain's factories today.

The plot is a staple: attractive young woman, Sam, makes documentary about the chocolate industry; brilliant marketing director, Matt, is first her angry adversary, and then ... but hush my mouth!

Sweet with dark undercurrents.

Publisher: Arrow

Price: $26.95

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Salley Vickers: Mr Golightly's Holiday

God, converted by his tragically dead only son to a kind of earthly humanism, is desirous of learning from people, and so, in the guise of a decent, tweedy, late-middle-aged gent, Mr Golightly, he rents an English country cottage in order to rework his one international bestseller as a modern television drama.

Intriguing idea, yet I found this a tedious book, a routine English comedy of manners, albeit of theological purpose.

In the end I felt like one of the drowsing members of Vicar Fisher's congregation, lulled to distraction by small-seeming plots (should a natural health centre be built on a disused carpark?), overly familiar characters (stroppy barmaid, truant schoolboy, failed film director), and way too much attention to the dull routines of life.

Publisher: Fourth Estate

Price: $34.99

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Helen Fielding: Olivia Joules And The Overactive Imagination

Olivia Joules is the new Bridget Jones - or perhaps the new Jane Bond.

Fielding's new character has some of the same ditzy charm as Bridget, but many more skills and a lot more pizzazz.

"Over time she had painstakingly erased all womanly urges to question her shape, looks, role in life, or effect upon other people. She would watch, analyse and conform to codes as she observed them, without allowing them to affect or compromise her own identity."

She wants to be a top journalist, but has just been shifted to the Style section of the Sunday Times, flown to Miami to cover the launch of a new face cream.

There, she exchanges loaded glances with a man she is certain is Osama bin Laden and, one major explosion later, the adventure begins. Armed with fab gadgets, her trusty survival kit, facility in four languages including Arabic, and her Rules for Living, she sets off to save the world.

Wild, silly - it's Bridget Jones on steroids.

Publisher: Macmillan

Price: $27.95