Latest news with #DavidMitchell
The Guardian
16 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Autocorrect by Etgar Keret review – endlessly inventive short stories
'It's time we acknowledge it: people are not very good at remembering things the way they really happened. If an experience is an article of clothing, then memory is the garment after it's been washed, not according to the instructions, over and over again: the colours fade, the size shrinks, the original, nostalgic scent has long since become the artificial orchid smell of fabric softener. Giyora Shiro, may he rest in peace, was thinking all this while standing in line to get into the next world …' That's quite the opener for a story, isn't it? The apt but just slightly ridiculous metaphor, which is then revealed as not an authorial pronouncement but a character's ruminations. And then we meet the character – excellently specific name – and we find out he's dead, and, in that drolly formulaic aside 'may he rest in peace', we meet the author too. The novelist David Mitchell once said that a common element in great writing, as opposed to merely 'really, really good writing', is a sense of humour. The Israeli writer Etgar Keret's short stories certainly qualify on that count. He's not always or even often trying to make you laugh, but everything he writes is suffused with a wan metaphysical wit: you come to expect the rug-pull, the sad trombone. He's an absurdist, a surrealist, and a writer who revels in the way that in a few paragraphs you can take the reader anywhere. Where some authors will set vast cycles of fiction in a shared universe, Keret does the opposite. Every story is its own universe, and the 200-odd pages of each of his collections are a multiverse. The stories in Autocorrect, his seventh, are gleaming splinters: multum in parvo. He offers yelp-making casual swerves of perspective. 'People, by the way, became extinct a short time later,' we're told halfway through the last paragraph of one story – that flamboyantly casual 'by the way' being very Keretian. In that sense, he resembles the science fiction writer Ted Chiang, with story after story serving as a thought experiment, a parable or a koan, seeded with a big idea. But what he's interested in is how ordinary people, horny or hungry or a little petty, will react in their ordinary ways to the extraordinary. Hence the opening of one story, for instance: 'The world is about to end and I'm eating olives. The original plan was pizza, but …' Or another: 'The aliens' spaceship arrived every Thursday.' In still another, For the Woman Who Has Everything, someone trying to find his wife an original present for her birthday names an asteroid after her – a few hours before that same asteroid is due to obliterate the Earth: 'The birthday card Schliefer bought had a picture of a shooting star, and the caption said 'Make A Wish' in gold letters.' The opening story, A World Without Selfie Sticks, opens with the narrator describing self-reproachingly how he started yelling at a woman he thought was his girlfriend Deborah when he bumped into her in a coffee shop. Only a week previously, he explains, she had supposedly flown to Australia to do her doctorate – and here she was back in town without telling him. Of course he was angry and hurt. It turns out the woman he's yelling at (Not-Deborah, he comes to call her) is a doppelganger from a near-identical alternative universe. She has been sent to our world as part of a top-rated TV gameshow: to win the show (and be zapped home) each of the five contestants must identify 'the one thing that exists in their world but not the one they've been sent to' (the winner of the last series had been sent to a universe without selfie sticks). I shan't spoil the twist, but it's a love story and a philosophical what-if all at the same time. The story that will get most scrutiny, A Dog for a Dog, describes the narrator and his brother heading into the Arabic quarter of an Israeli city for revenge after their dog is killed in a hit-and-run. Transposing Israeli-Palestinian hatred from a policy position to street level, it's a delicately anticlimactic, perfectly balanced vignette, shadowed by violence as well as uneasy complicity in violence and collective punishment. Meanwhile, Strong Opinions on Burning Issues winks at the psychic temper of the times, and Outside refracts the experience of the Covid lockdowns into a surreal little parable. But these are literary responses rather than position statements. (And all but a couple of the stories were written before 7 October.) Politics is mostly absent, in a low-key rebuke to the philistine school of thought that says an Israeli artist should be obliged to make political art. Other stories take us to different versions of the afterlife, or into a simulated reality where the introduction of an 'undo' feature – spill your coffee, you can set the universe back 30 seconds – poses an existential threat. Director's Cut is a real-time biopic of an ordinary man with a 73-year running time; the press screening at once winks at Plato's cave (the only person who doesn't die of old age emerges thinking the film was reality) and Borges's 1-1 scale map. There's a world not that far from our own, where AI companions are proposed to cure loneliness; and one where time travel only takes off when it's rebranded as a weight-loss treatment. Yet for all its vast reach, Keret's prose, translated from Hebrew by Jessica Cohen and Sondra Silverston, is downbeat and matter-of-fact. It's full of people negotiating the bewildering and alienating and bathetic furniture of modernity: Tinder dates, Zoom calls, Skype meetings, virtual reality, small ads, tedious queues, spoiler alerts, unexpected deaths. Autocorrect isn't so much a book as a library of tiny books, from an author who conveys as well as any I can think of just how much fun you can have with a short story. Sign up to Inside Saturday The only way to get a look behind the scenes of the Saturday magazine. Sign up to get the inside story from our top writers as well as all the must-read articles and columns, delivered to your inbox every weekend. after newsletter promotion Autocorrect by Etgar Keret, translated by Jessica Cohen and Sondra Silverstein, is published by Granta (£14.99). To support the Guardian order your copy at Delivery charges may apply.
The Guardian
20 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Autocorrect by Etgar Keret review – endlessly inventive short stories
'It's time we acknowledge it: people are not very good at remembering things the way they really happened. If an experience is an article of clothing, then memory is the garment after it's been washed, not according to the instructions, over and over again: the colours fade, the size shrinks, the original, nostalgic scent has long since become the artificial orchid smell of fabric softener. Giyora Shiro, may he rest in peace, was thinking all this while standing in line to get into the next world …' That's quite the opener for a story, isn't it? The apt but just slightly ridiculous metaphor, which is then revealed as not an authorial pronouncement but a character's ruminations. And then we meet the character – excellently specific name – and we find out he's dead, and, in that drolly formulaic aside 'may he rest in peace', we meet the author too. The novelist David Mitchell once said that a common element in great writing, as opposed to merely 'really, really good writing', is a sense of humour. The Israeli writer Etgar Keret's short stories certainly qualify on that count. He's not always or even often trying to make you laugh, but everything he writes is suffused with a wan metaphysical wit: you come to expect the rug-pull, the sad trombone. He's an absurdist, a surrealist, and a writer who revels in the way that in a few paragraphs you can take the reader anywhere. Where some authors will set vast cycles of fiction in a shared universe, Keret does the opposite. Every story is its own universe, and the 200-odd pages of each of his collections are a multiverse. The stories in Autocorrect, his seventh, are gleaming splinters: multum in parvo. He offers yelp-making casual swerves of perspective. 'People, by the way, became extinct a short time later,' we're told halfway through the last paragraph of one story – that flamboyantly casual 'by the way' being very Keretian. In that sense, he resembles the science fiction writer Ted Chiang, with story after story serving as a thought experiment, a parable or a koan, seeded with a big idea. But what he's interested in is how ordinary people, horny or hungry or a little petty, will react in their ordinary ways to the extraordinary. Hence the opening of one story, for instance: 'The world is about to end and I'm eating olives. The original plan was pizza, but …' Or another: 'The aliens' spaceship arrived every Thursday.' In still another, For the Woman Who Has Everything, someone trying to find his wife an original present for her birthday names an asteroid after her – a few hours before that same asteroid is due to obliterate the Earth: 'The birthday card Schliefer bought had a picture of a shooting star, and the caption said 'Make A Wish' in gold letters.' The opening story, A World Without Selfie Sticks, opens with the narrator describing self-reproachingly how he started yelling at a woman he thought was his girlfriend Deborah when he bumped into her in a coffee shop. Only a week previously, he explains, she had supposedly flown to Australia to do her doctorate – and here she was back in town without telling him. Of course he was angry and hurt. It turns out the woman he's yelling at (Not-Deborah, he comes to call her) is a doppelganger from a near-identical alternative universe. She has been sent to our world as part of a top-rated TV gameshow: to win the show (and be zapped home) each of the five contestants must identify 'the one thing that exists in their world but not the one they've been sent to' (the winner of the last series had been sent to a universe without selfie sticks). I shan't spoil the twist, but it's a love story and a philosophical what-if all at the same time. The story that will get most scrutiny, A Dog for a Dog, describes the narrator and his brother heading into the Arabic quarter of an Israeli city for revenge after their dog is killed in a hit-and-run. Transposing Israeli-Palestinian hatred from a policy position to street level, it's a delicately anticlimactic, perfectly balanced vignette, shadowed by violence as well as uneasy complicity in violence and collective punishment. Meanwhile, Strong Opinions on Burning Issues winks at the psychic temper of the times, and Outside refracts the experience of the Covid lockdowns into a surreal little parable. But these are literary responses rather than position statements. (And all but a couple of the stories were written before 7 October.) Politics is mostly absent, in a low-key rebuke to the philistine school of thought that says an Israeli artist should be obliged to make political art. Other stories take us to different versions of the afterlife, or into a simulated reality where the introduction of an 'undo' feature – spill your coffee, you can set the universe back 30 seconds – poses an existential threat. Director's Cut is a real-time biopic of an ordinary man with a 73-year running time; the press screening at once winks at Plato's cave (the only person who doesn't die of old age emerges thinking the film was reality) and Borges's 1-1 scale map. There's a world not that far from our own, where AI companions are proposed to cure loneliness; and one where time travel only takes off when it's rebranded as a weight-loss treatment. Yet for all its vast reach, Keret's prose, translated from Hebrew by Jessica Cohen and Sondra Silverston, is downbeat and matter-of-fact. It's full of people negotiating the bewildering and alienating and bathetic furniture of modernity: Tinder dates, Zoom calls, Skype meetings, virtual reality, small ads, tedious queues, spoiler alerts, unexpected deaths. Autocorrect isn't so much a book as a library of tiny books, from an author who conveys as well as any I can think of just how much fun you can have with a short story. Sign up to Inside Saturday The only way to get a look behind the scenes of the Saturday magazine. Sign up to get the inside story from our top writers as well as all the must-read articles and columns, delivered to your inbox every weekend. after newsletter promotion Autocorrect by Etgar Keret, translated by Jessica Cohen and Sondra Silverstein, is published by Granta (£14.99). To support the Guardian order your copy at Delivery charges may apply.
CTV News
5 days ago
- Politics
- CTV News
N.S. mayors concerned for local police services as province pushes larger RCMP role
The RCMP logo is seen outside the force's 'E' division headquarters in Surrey, B.C., on March 16, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck HALIFAX — Some Nova Scotia mayors say they are wary of the province's plan to increase the role of the RCMP. Under changes announced Wednesday, Justice Minister Becky Druhan said the government wants to use the RCMP as a provincial police force. Druhan told reporters that the government is auditing local police forces, and those that can't meet provincial standards would be replaced by the RCMP. She also said that all new municipal contracts for specialized services such as dive or dog teams will have to be awarded to the federal police force. Bridgewater Mayor David Mitchell says his community is happy with its local police, adding that most of the other 10 municipalities with their own police forces are happy with theirs. Mitchell questions whether the RCMP can meet the staffing levels required to provide specialized services across the province. Truro Mayor Cathy Hinton says residents are worried that changes contemplated by the province will raise costs for municipal policing. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 27, 2025.
The Sun
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Unassuming tower block was seen by millions on beloved noughties sitcom – but do YOU recognise it now?
THIS seemingly plain tower block appeared in a hit noughties sitcom - but could you recognise it now? The flats featured in a much-loved British TV show, although it might look a little different to how you remember it. 8 8 Zodiac House, located in London, Croydon, has been fully refurbished into 73 homes. They have been taken on by the local authority and are set to be used as temporary accommodation for those facing homelessness. But one of the flats was once home to Mark and Jeremy, in Peep Show. The duo, played by David Mitchell and Robert Webb, are remembered for their chaotic shenanigans inside the London property, alongside Matt King or 'Super Hans'. New tenants could retrace Jez and Mark's steps through the two-bedroom home and share conversations in the living room while overlooking "majestic views". One flat hit the market last year, and it boasted an integrated, modern kitchen - a step up from the iconic dingy blue one the Peep Show roommates burnt toast in. The family bathroom was similarly been renovated and a long way from the bathtub Jeremy found himself sleeping in many times. The listing, posted by estate agents Black + Blanc, Bromley on Rightmove read: "This an excellent opportunity to purchase a recently fully refurbished and renovated two-bedroom apartment in the iconic Zodiac Court. "The property is an ideal purchase for an individual looking to get onto the property ladder as a first time buyer or a buy to let investor looking to obtain an attractive rental yield." "The owners have been able to refurbish and polish the original parquet flooring, which adds to the character of the property. "The décor is light and airy and will allow a buyer to use their imagination to put their stamp on it." Measuring 792 square feet, the property has two generously sized bedrooms with ample storage in the master and integrated storage in the second. "The apartment is installed with central gas heating, and each room has large gas central heating radiators. "The apartment is integrated with double-glazed windows," the listing added. It was on offer for £300,000 and properties in Croydon had an overall average price of £438,561 over the last year according to Rightmove. 8 8 8 Now, the council have since snapped up Zodiac House as part of their initiative to combat homelessness. The flats will provide a safe space for those waiting for long-term housing. It will also see Croydon Council hit its targets for Homelessness Duty under the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017. There's a mix of two and three-bedroom flats, like the one described above, available. They will all come furnished with the essentials, and there's a 24-hour concierge. Funds are being sourced from the Right to Buy scheme, Local Authority Housing Grants, and borrowing. Jason Perry, Executive Mayor of Croydon, said: 'This is another step in addressing the significant homelessness challenges we face. "The increased demand for services and shortage of accommodation means we have to look at doing things differently, and the purchase of Zodiac House is a good example of this. 'The scheme will give us 73 residential units to support residents facing homelessness. "This will improve the Council's supply of accommodation and reduce spending on expensive temporary arrangements, as well as providing safe and secure homes for our residents.' This comes as the house that featured in a hugely popular BBC sitcom from the 90s has gone on the market with a £330,000 price tag – but can you name the show? As a clue, the main character's catchphrase was 'I don't believe it.' The property seen in the classic British comedy One Foot in the Grave was the home of the perpetually grumpy character Victor Meldrew and it could be yours for £337,500. The exterior of the terraced property in Christchurch, Dorset, featured heavily in the 1990s show. Meanwhile, Rightmove has revealed the most viewed homes so far in 2025 - including a £59 million townhouse, and an 'historic gem'. The popular property site has something for everyone, whether you're looking for your next home, or simply want to have a bit of a snoop. 8 8 8
CBC
6 days ago
- Politics
- CBC
N.S. mayors concerned province 'pushing' municipal police out as government expands RCMP role
Some Nova Scotia mayors of municipalities with their own police forces are concerned the province's move to expand the RCMP's role will push out municipal departments, leading to worse service and less local control. Justice Minister Becky Druhan said Nova Scotia will move to a provincial policing model with the RCMP providing both local and specialized services for the province, but will allow municipalities to keep their own forces if they can meet higher standards. Some of those standards include access to underwater recovery teams or emergency response teams. Mayor David Mitchell of the Town of Bridgewater, which has its own police force, said he doesn't understand how the PC government came to this conclusion when municipal services are cheaper and have shown faster response times with more local visibility than the RCMP. "I'm confused and again need clarification from the minister on how the report that says the RCMP rural model isn't working is now going to be the model that is pushed on municipalities," Mitchell said Thursday. "I see this as kind of pushing municipal policing out, and moving people to the RCMP." Druhan announced the changes Wednesday following an extensive review into Nova Scotia's policing structure. It was carried out by Deloitte and informed by a survey of 7,000 Nova Scotians, as well as an advisory panel made up of municipal police, RCMP and people from diverse communities. The report found that the current structure was not working, with "many respondents" from rural and Indigenous communities saying they were unhappy with RCMP performance. They raised concerns around slow response times, lack of visible police presence, and how the Mounties "are not integrated into the community." The review suggested Nova Scotia start with the RCMP for the provincial policing model, and later decide if creating a provincially run police service would be better. Current examples include the Ontario Provincial Police. Druhan said the province will invest more to ensure proper staffing levels are met across Nova Scotia, but Mitchell said he's concerned about the Mounties' ability to produce enough people when they are " already understaffed and stretched very thin." Although the report noted that RCMP are often asked to assist municipal forces with special services, Mitchell said it missed the fact that municipal forces also are asked to help the Mounties in many cases. "I kind of equate it to the report being like a trial that only hears from the prosecution and doesn't need to hear from the defence," Mitchell said. He said he has spoken to most of the mayors using the 10 municipal police forces, who share his concerns about getting lower service levels with the RCMP. Kentville Mayor Andrew Zebian said he's worried about the "hefty price" that would come if the town tried to boost its 22-person department to meet the standards. "They're not forcing you out of local, out of community policing, but it kind of feels that way," Zebian said Thursday. He echoed Mitchell's concerns about having the quality of policing change. In a small town like Kentville, it's easy to get to know the officers and they respond to calls "within a minute," Zebian said. Many municipal departments have already formalized special services with other municipal units across the province, like larger forces sharing dog teams with smaller ones. In northern Nova Scotia, Truro joined forces with Amherst, Westville, Stellarton and New Glasgow to create a regional major crimes unit. Druhan said Thursday that any current arrangements can carry forward, but any new contracts for specialized services must go through the RCMP. Mitchell said he was concerned to hear that, because the RCMP's specialized services can often be late. A couple of years ago, Mitchell said, it took "many days" for the RCMP's dive team to respond to a fatal collision involving a car that went into a river. He is hopeful Druhan will be more flexible on allowing municipal forces to collaborate with "other police services that are capable, or more than capable," of meeting the standards as she starts her tour to consult with municipalities. Yarmouth Mayor Pam Mood, president of the Nova Scotia Federation of Municipalities, said she's confident that the province has "done their homework" and the minister wouldn't be promising higher staffing levels unless the RCMP assured her they could meet the need. "I think that it would be easier for an entire province to be under one police force. I mean, that's, that's not a question. You know, nobody wants things to be scattered," Mood said. "However, you know, we have 10 municipal police forces. I understand they're doing, you know, tremendously great work. You don't fix what's not broken. So I think that the conversations that each municipal unit has with the province, with regard to how their police force is working, is going to be very important." Mood worked for the RCMP in Nova Scotia as a civilian member for nearly 20 years, she said. Funding will be the key issue for many municipalities, Mood said, because policing is often the most expensive item for local governments. "We just want to make sure we can provide that high level of service within our means. And the province is saying the same thing, high level of service within your budgetary means. And if we can bring those two things together, then that's a win," Mood said. Yarmouth contracts the RCMP for policing, and Mood said they have been "wonderful, no issues." But she said community policing is often the first thing to go when staffing levels are low, and her residents do want more Mountie boots on the street. The province's move to "layered policing" that will see community safety officers mobilized to handle non-emergency calls like hospital transfers or wellness checks could be a big help, Mood said, freeing up officers for core policing duties. The Deloitte review was partly spurred by a recommendation from the Mass Casualty Commission to examine the policing structure in the province following the shooting rampage in central and northern Nova Scotia that left 22 people dead in April 2020. The commission's final report, released in March 2023, was highly critical of the RCMP's response to the mass shooting. It highlighted issues with the culture of the Mounties, and poor co-operation and co-ordination between the RCMP and municipal police. But Liberal MLA Iain Rankin said he finds it odd that the PC government is talking about making transformational change when they're actually "doubling down" on the current hybrid model with multiple services providing policing. "I think it's time that we have a conversation about a provincial police force," Rankin told reporters Thursday, suggesting it should not be carried out by the RCMP. He said the cultural issues within the RCMP raised by the commission, and other reports across Canada, have not been addressed. "To just say we're going to allow an expansion of that police force, I think, is problematic," Rankin said. NDP MLA Susan Leblanc said it's clear that whatever policing model is chosen for each municipality, communities have to lead the process and decide what they need.
