Liffeyside

Korean artist Rimi Yang

2012-02-03T06:37:00.002Z

The four paintings below are by Korean born artist Rimi Yang. Yang studied in both the Los Angeles Academy of Figurative and The Otis College of Art and Design. Later she also studied in Italy in the Florence Academy of Art.

Yang’s work is celebrated for its vibrant use of colour, and her paintings are said to be intuitive, instinctive balancing acts of contrasts. Yang is not afraid to borrow images from both Eastern and Western artistic masters. The influence of Japanese artist Eizan and the classical Ingres are paramount.

While drawing inspiration from the past Yang also looks to create her own individual voice by mixing various techniques from different styles. Her work is said to "Celebrate the creative duality that exists in life....she revels in the confusion mankind creates in its attempt to order the un-orderable and to explain the unexplainable".

The work of Rimi Yang exhibited last year in the Sol Art Gallery Dublin.

Orange Kimono

Queens Marriage

Memory of an Angel

Lady in a Blue Dress

The Passenger by Peter Wild

2012-01-22T19:16:00.003Z

"To sleep: perchance to dream". What do you suppose would happen if you slept for fifteen years? What would you miss? What great events in the world would pass you by? What would happen to your coterie of friends? After all you wouldn’t be there to witness the many changes in their lives. How would your absence effect your family?

This is the premise for Peter Wild’s debut novel The Passenger, the story of Whitlow a man who falls asleep one night in Stockport city centre only to wake up fifteen years later to a world that has changed.

The Passenger begins with Whitlow waking up one morning surrounded by a bunch of teenagers one of whom throws a half eaten beef burger in his direction. He finds himself rescued by a woman, who unbeknownst to him, turns out to be his wife.

The woman, Ruth, with a baby in tow, bundles Whitlow into her car and takes him home where she feeds, washes and cares for him and re-introduces him once more to his family. She gives him a notebook, which is apparently written by Whitlow during periods when he was lucid and in the bosom of his family.

As he reads the notebook Whitlow learns that this is not the first time he has disappeared only to reappear disorientated and lost. Whitlow discovers that his disappearances began one night when he stormed out of the house he shared with his girlfriend Connie. In Stockport town centre he had an encounter with a bunch of drunken men and women one of whom flashed her breasts at Whitlow causing Whitlow to run in terror.

Council workers on a clean-up detail find him coiled up asleep beside a bridge. No matter how hard they try they are unable to wake him. A story about a sleeping man appears in the local newspaper about the sleeping man from where the story snowballs and endorsed by the local mayor Whitlow, for a while, become a tourist attraction.

Reading the notebook Whitlow discovers that he was part of a band called The Sleeping Men who, released three albums and were successful for a while. He discovers that he has a wife, children and a job at which he is successful.

One of the many strengths of The Passenger is that it is populated by believable characters. For example Stacy Shenanigan, she of the bared breasts, finds notoriety on the back of the story of Whitlow’s fame. She appears on page three, and later on for example, Celebrity Big Brother. Another character of note is Connie, Whitlow’s erstwhile girlfriend who launches a media career for herself and goes from regional reporter to presenter on just about every programme of note in America.

As the story unfolds Whitlow learns his history via the notebook and the novel is told in alternate chapters. We see Whitlow emerged from his most recent disappearance and in the following chapter the earlier Whitlow relating his story. This turns out to be a magical device and the reader can really relate to Whitlow as amidst his disorientation he slowly unearths his hidden story.

The Passenger by Peter Wild is flawless rock n roll of a novel, with references to The Smiths, The Fall and Talking Heads amongst others. Without doubt it will be the literary debut of the year.

Grey Souls by Philippe Claudel

2012-01-06T21:56:00.002Z

"Grey Souls" by Philippe Claudel opens in December 1917 with the discovery of the corpse of ten year old Belle de Jour just outside a small town in rural France. A swift investigation is undertaken resulting with the arrest and execution of two deserters from the French army. As far as everyone is concerned the perpetrators are caught and dealt with and the case is closed.

But nothing is as it seems, nothing is that cut and dry. The narrator of the story, a police investigator, who remains un-named relates the story of the murder from twenty years in the future when Europe is once more faced with conflict and death.

Slowly and subtly the story behind the murder and the characters involved is told. Central to the case is the Public Prosecutor Destinat. From the beginning the narrator suspects that Destinat is the murderer. The Public Prosecutor is a tragic figure. His wife Clelia died not long after their marriage, and widowed and without an heir he effectively withdrew from the world emerging only to go into the court or for Sunday mass. He is one of the many grey souls which populate the novel.

Lilia, the school teacher is another grey soul who wanders through the novel. She turned up in the town one afternoon without explanation and immediately took up the post of teacher. Lilia is charming and polite, smiling and sincere. But is also distant no one really comes close to her. Her life and subsequent death remain a mystery which is only solved at the conclusion.

It is the narrator himself who perhaps is the greatest mystery. At the start he comes across as being an innocent he is simply one of the crowd. Piece by piece his story is told till by the end the reader is perhaps less sympathetic than previously.
One of the novels strengths is the manner in which minor characters are vividly created. Characters such as Old Barbe, the caretaker who appear for only a few pages are given equal descriptive importance as Destinat and Lilia.

A melancholic atmosphere permeates through the novel, good turns to evil and daylight is driven from the land. Everything and everyone is cloaked in ambiguity. As the narrator is told,

"Nothing’s black or white. And it’s the same with souls. You’re a grey soul, like the rest of us."

Despite the bleak subject matter "Grey Souls" is a novel which is well told, lyrical and enjoyable. The twists at the end are totally unforeseen and will only add to, rather than detract from, its appeal.

Heart of Tango by Elia Barcelo

2011-12-23T10:18:00.000Z

I have to admit I’m out of my comfort zone reviewing "Heart of Tango" by Elia Barcelo. I don’t normally read love stories I generally avoid them like the plague, read the blurb and pass on. That’s all the more reason why I was pleasantly surprised with "Heart of Tango".

The novel begins with a tango aficionado named Rodrigo attending a late night dance in Innsbruck. He has low expectations about meeting someone, his only desire is to dance. He gets much more than he bargained for when he encounters a mysterious woman whom he dances. At the end of the night she leaves without saying a word to him. Rodrigo returns to his hotel room distraught resigned to the fact that he will in all probability never see this woman again.

To his amazement he discovers that the woman slipped a calling card in his pocket. The address on the card is in the La Boca area of Buenos Aires. Rodrigo feels compelled to travel to Argentina and track down this mysterious dancer.

Here the novel’s direction changes and leaves the world of Mills and Bloom behind. We are brought mysteriously back to Argentina of the 1920’s where tango was all the rage. Buenos Aires is displayed warts and all. It is a city of immigrants, of poverty and ignorance. It is a place tango bands battle for fans and everyone seems to carry a knife.

The novel is told from numerous points of view. Rodrigo, the woman he meets, and her husband amongst others. Its structure is easy to follow and really shouldn’t present any problem to the attentive reader. The novel or rather novella, there are only 180 pages, races along with all the rhythm of a well danced tango.

As the story moves once more into the present where a woman meets a mysterious stranger at a Tango dance. He vanishes without saying a word but leaving her a calling card with an address in the La Boca area of Buenos Aires. Again she feels compelled to go the city and search for this mysterious lover.

Here the story could degenerate into romantic predictability and it is to the credit of the writer that it doesn’t. In fact there’s a nice supernatural twist at the end which to be honest I didn’t see coming.

In the Heart of Tango there’s no manifesto about the liberation of South America. Neither is it a primer for the abolition of poverty. "Heart of Tango" is a book full of tragedy, longing and love, told by a master storyteller.

I Served the King of England by Bohumil Hrabal

2011-12-08T06:04:00.000Z

When he starts his working life in the Golden Prague Hotel Ditie is told by his boss not to see anything and not to hear anything. A moment later his boss tells him to see everything and to hear everything.

And this is exactly what he does. The first half of the novel is related in an easy going style that is almost reminiscent of sitting in a bar listening to someone relate story after story. Hrabal in this sense in a born raconteur.

Throughout his early life Ditie rises up the ladder as he moves from hotel to hotel. While working in the Hotel Paris in Prague he serves the King of Ethiopia for which he is rewarded a blue sash and a medal.

The end of his tenure in the Hotel Paris coincides with the crises in Czechoslovakia over the Sudetenland. He fell in love with a German girl and because of this Czech nationalists conspire to isolate him then get him the sack.

Here the tone of the novel changes somewhat as Ditie recalls his dealings with the invaders. Looking back he realises that he is little better than a conspirator for example while he is marrying his German lover, his fellow countrymen are facing execution.

The humour returns as Ditie negotiates his way through the Soviet regime before finally reconciling himself to his fate. Ditie is somewhat of an idiot savant reminiscent of Good Soldier Svejk, so beloved of Czech literature.

Before starting this novel a reader should invest some time into researching the history of Czechoslovakia otherwise they risk becoming confused as Hrabal pushes the novel and its characters from one national crises to the next.

Darkly humorous and satirical the novel can be seen as a metaphor for Czechoslovakia from the mid 1930’s, through the German invasion and the end of WW2 to 1948 and the coming to power of the Communists.

The Soccer War by Ryszard Kapuscinski

2011-11-26T18:08:00.000Z

In November 1965 Ryszard Kapuscinski drove through five countries four of which were in a state of emergency. He had been checked 21 times and undergone four body searches, tension and gunpowder were everywhere.

The Soccer War begins with the appointment of Ryszard Kapuscinski as African correspondent of the Polish Press Agency. His arrival on the continent coincides with the birth of Africa after years of colonial domination. Kapuscinski in his own words says that he was not interested in reporting on crocodiles or head hunters, witch doctors or wild animal reserves.

Throughout "The Soccer War" we observe Kapuscinski as he engages with the people of Africa. He encounters political leaders, party apparatchiks, soldiers, local head men. Throughout it becomes apparent that Kapuscinski has a tremendous affinity for the people he meets. He sleeps in their cabins, he eats their food, he travels with them and talks to them by their campfires.

But his travels are not without hazards. He is imprisoned in Rwanda by Belgian paramilitaries and only regains his liberty thanks to a chance encounter with a Congolese pilot. While driving through Nigeria he his stopped at a road block, beaten and forced to hand over money. At the next roadblock he is stopped, covered in benzene and the remainder of his money taken. He smashes through the third roadblock much to the consternation of those guarding it.

The style in which Kapuscinski writes has been called magical journalism. His journeys and encounters read as if they were works of fictions, all of them however are true.

The Soccer War is not without irony. In 1969 he was in Honduras to cover the short lived which took place between that country and El Salvador. The war lasted 100 hours and would cost the lives of 6,000 people. He travels with a Honduran conscript through the jungle observing the war going on about him. At one point Kapuscinski and his travelling companion shelter in a small village plastered together from clay and straw. They encounter an infantry battalion and join their commander as he listens to the news on the radio. Reports contain the comings and goings at the front and the various efforts from world governments to end the conflict. The next report contains the news that the Apollo 11 rocket, with astronauts, Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins had been launched from Cape Kennedy.

Early in his wanderings Kapuscinski is asked why he was travelling.
He replies, "To look, to walk around, to ask, to listen, to sniff, to think, to write."

Alice Neel: Family. Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin

2011-11-12T10:17:00.001Z

Born in Pennsylvania in 1900 Alice Neel studied art at night while working in the civil service. After three years of night school she enrolled full time in the Philadelphia School of Design for Women.

Alice Neel endured many personal and economic hardships throughout her life. In 1931 following the breakup of her marriage, Neel suffered a nervous breakdown and after an attempted suicide spent a year in Philadelphia General Hospital. She returned once more to New York where she painted many of the artists, writers and political activists of the Communist Party with whom she associated.

Neel continually eschewed the avant-garde and concentrated instead on developing her own figurative style. As a result during the 1940’s and 50’s her work virtually disappeared from mainstream galleries. It was only in the 1960’s that Neel’s work began to gain notice thanks mostly to her work for the Women’s Movement.

Throughout her career Alice Neel’s subjects included friends, neighbours and immediate family. Neel’s realistic style is said to reflect the hardships of life and the reality of American urban living.

An exhibition of her work entitled Alice Neel: Family is showing in the Douglas Hyde Gallery in Dublin until November 16th.

My Mother

Nancy and the twins

Hartley

News of a Kidnapping by Gabriel Barcia Marquez

2011-10-29T12:13:00.000+01:00

News of a Kidnapping opens with the abduction of Maruja Pachon along with her sister in law and personal assistant Beatriz Villamizar in Bogota, Colombia in November 1990. Marquez wrote the book in order to chart the kidnappings of the two women and how it affected them and their families.

The previous August Diana Turbay, director of the TV news program Cripton and daughter of former Colombia president Julio Cesar Turbay was abducted by the same group, named The Extraditables which was a cover for Colombian drug baron Pablo Escobar.

Marquez soon realised that the three kidnappings, along with those of journalists Hero Buss and Francisco Santos Calderon are connected. Throughout the book Marquez vividly recounts the tribulations of the kidnapped victims, the initial kidnapping, the first days of captivity, the conditions they endured and the absolute terror they had to live with day in day out.

Throughout the book the tension builds as negotiations between the kidnappers on one side and the government and relatives of the victims on the other drag on. Months pass and some of those kidnapped are released. Others are not so fortunate among them Diana Turbay who was killed in a botched rescue bid.

In News of a Kidnapping Marquez, the award winning storyteller, returns to his roots as a reporter. It is to his credit that Marquez avoids the gory sensationalism of true crime writers. The reader is left with an impression of a violent Colombian society in the 1990’s slowly ripping itself apart.

Nineteen Eighty Three by David Peace

2011-10-17T21:44:00.001+01:00

Yorkshire 1983 and Detective Chief Superintendent Maurice Jobson is heading the investigation into missing schoolgirl Hazel Atkinson. Jobson, a corrupt police officer, is puzzled by the similarities between this disappearance and a similar case he investigated and solved a number of years ago, a case for which a suspect had been charged and is currently serving a sentence for.

As the novel progresses Jobson replays the events of the previous investigation particularly his part in the conviction of the suspect Michael Myshkin which was trumped up.

Nineteen Eighty Three is told by three protagonists; Detective Superintendent Maurice Jobson, John Winston Piggott solicitor for Michael Myshkin and BJ a rent boy who somehow knows the dirty secrets of the good and great in Yorkshire.

The novel which alternates between Jobson, Piggott and BJ, will be confusing for some readers. In its defence the structure of the novel fills in many blanks in the story of the Red Riding Quartet. For example we are told of meetings between two of the characters from both points of view.

Nineteen Eighty Three is much more than your typical crime novel. David Peace shines a light on Yorkshire society in the early 1980’s, a society which at the time was rejoicing in the re-election of Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister. As England seemed to be striving and thriving under the leadership of the Iron Lady, police corruption and brutality are rife throughout Yorkshire.

The novel is broken down in a series of short chapters. The writing is rhythmic, hypnotic and repetitive. The tension is built up, the horror reinforced. Police interrogation techniques are repeated verbatim again and again.

But you need to be warned. This is not a stand-alone novel. It is of no benefit to the reader to suddenly pick Nineteen Eighty Three up and expect to grasp the whole story. You will need to start at the very first novel in the series then work through to the conclusion.

In Nineteen Eighty Three there are no happy endings. Brutality reigns supreme. The perpetrators are not arrested in order to make the streets safe. The police are still corrupt, the city is still a battleground. Nineteen Eighty Three concludes the Red Riding Quartet.

An Evening with Ray Bradbury 2001

2011-10-02T15:58:00.000+01:00

An evening with Ray Bradbury took place in 2001 as part of The Sixth Annual Writer's Symposium by the Sea. On a personal note Bradbury's stories have put me in contact with some of my best friends. Walk through the streets of Dublin and listen to the echoes of "Getting Through Sunday Somehow".

In this leacture Ray Bradbury showers the audience with advice. A master class from the genius. Have you started writing yet?

Thumbprint by Friedrich Glauster

2011-09-18T09:23:00.000+01:00

A travelling salesman is murdered in the woods around the small town of Gerzenstein, Switzerland. A young man with a police record is arrested by Sergeant Studer of the Berne Police Force. The case is apparently closed, the ideal suspect has been found and the authorities should in normal circumstances be happy.

But Sergeant Studer remains suspicious. He’s an old policeman, overweight, unwell, underpaid and long since passed over for promotion. Nevertheless he has a sense that all is not well and travels to the scene of the crime in order to carry out an investigation.

Thoughout the investigation people are reluctant to engage him and at times Studer feels he is being hampered and going nowhere. A conspiracy of silence seems ranged against him. The sergeant recalls the advice of an old friend on investigating criminal cases in a small town.

"Out there in the country, in a village, the people stick together, everyone’s got something to hide. Nobody will tell you anything, not a thing. While in the town….my God, it’s more dangerous, yes, but you know the customers you’re dealing with straight away. They can’t keep their mouths shut, they let things out. God save us from country murders."

Glauster is the master of creating an atmosphere. In a few deft sentences he can create a tension filled room as a suspect is under interrogation, a fly might buzz about the room or the ticking of a clock between the suspects silences.

Friedrich Glauser was born in Vienna (1896-1938), a morphine addict, he was diagnosed a schizophrenic and spent much of his life in psychiatric wards. Between 1921-23 he was a member of the foreign legion in North Africa. Two days before he was due to get married he suffered a stroke and died two days later. Germany’s best known crime writing award is called the Glauser Award.

Scottish Painter John Bellany

2011-09-02T19:23:00.000+01:00

Born in Port Seton, Scotland in 1942, John Bellany, studied in Edinburgh College of Art and the Royal College of Art in London. According to Bellany, as a fishermans son, the anchors of his life were his Calvinist upbringing and the stories surrounding the 1881 Eyemouth fishing disaster. This is reflected in his work as reigious imagery and fishing boats frequently appear. John Bellanys work was recently exhibited in the Peppercanister Gallery in Dublin.

Unitiled

My Grandson Ollie

John Knox is Still Stalking

Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle

2011-08-19T19:00:00.001+01:00

The novel opens in a fairly banal manner. A wealthy couple, Jinn and Phyllis, travel through space at their leisure. They as they loll about the universe they see an object floating in the void. Intrigued they retrieve it only to discover that it is a glass bottle containing a message written in one of the many languages used on Earth. Phyllis entreats Jinn to read aloud the message as she is unacquainted with the language the message is written in. Jinn commences reading…..

Earth 2500AD. Three astronauts embark on a voyage of exploration to the star Betelgeuse on the far side of the universe. The three comprise of journalist Ulysse Merou, Professor Antelle and physicist Arthur Levain.

Travelling at the speed of light minus epsilon the journey will take the astronauts three years. On Earth more than 350 years will have elapsed. On arriving at Betelgeuse they discover the second planet rotating around the sun which is roughly the same size and composition as Earth. They decide to call the planet Soror and leave their ship in order to learn more about this new world.

As the astronauts descend they can clearly discern signs of intelligent life. Large cities are observed on the planet, though the astronauts land in the jungle. The first sentient being the encounter is a young human woman whom Ulysse Merou, the narrator, names Nova. They soon come to realise however that however much Nova resembles a human her characteristics resemble that of a wild animal.

The astronauts meet the rest of Nova people who like herself are reduced to a feral status. The situation for the astronauts worsens when their landing craft is destroyed by the enraged tribe.

Soon after however the encounter the real overlords of the planet, the apes. An ape hunting party is organised and Merou for the first time observes the brutality of the apes as they indiscriminately kill humans while being shocked at how readily they adopt human traits.

Merou is captured along with Nova and brought to a scientific laboratory where he can be observed and examined. It is here that Merou befriends Zira and female chimpanzee scientist. Gradually Merou convinces Zira of his intelligence, learns some simian words and is able to communicate with her and learn of the world in which he now finds himself.

In Planet of the Apes, Boulle creates a world which in many ways resembles our own. We see the pig headed Gorillas who are only interested in war, the Orangutans who thrive on flattery and the intelligent chimpanzees, the scientists, doctors and thinkers in society.

Merou though time discovers the reason for mans downfall; the complacency which allowed them to be usurped by the apes and the terrible revenge wrought on humanity by their former servants.

Throughout the novel we observe Merou as he negotiates his understanding of the ape world. The writing is exceptional and flows along. I won’t spoil the ending suffice to say that Planet of the Apes will leave the reader pondering the fragility of society and how humans react with other.

Flames and Other Stories by Angelo R. Lacuesta

2011-08-07T06:11:00.000+01:00

A migrant worker on his way to Dubai, a young girl dealing with the effects of the break up of her parents’ marriage, a student studying for her finals in university. These are among the characters which populate Sarge Lacuesta’s third collection of short stories Flames and Other Stories.

These are more than mere snapshots in the characters lives, things are changing and fate has decreed that a particular path must be followed. The characters are at a crossroads in their lives, one life is ending and another is about to commence.

On reading it soon becomes apparent that Lacuesta has great sympathy for his characters. For example in "Prize Fight" we observe a Mel a migrant worker in Manila airport. He’s on his way to Dubai hoping to put some cash together. While he’s waiting in the departure lounge the Filipino boxer takes to the ring. All the hopes of the worker rest with this champ, now washed up as he takes one last tilt at the title. The alternative is the life lived by his cousin Rey, a man apparently flush with easy money rumoured to be the proceeds of drug dealing.

"How Mr. Kee Earned His Promotion" features an unnamed Filipino exile working as a maid in Hong Kong. She’s homesick thinking constantly about her boyfriend and family. She has one day off a fortnight where she meets her friends or goes online to update her Myspace page. She negotiates her exile on her terms. Suddenly and spectacularly her anchor gives way and she comes crashing down to earth realising that she will forever be an foreigner in a country she does not understand.

Science fiction and fantasy also feature: a worker about to blast off to Titan in search of a new job; a business arrangement between a Duwende (a Filipino Leprechaun) comes to an end. The basic premises remains, life like the character, is changing and evolving and they are just at a point where that change is taking place.

Very lucid, easy to read but with great emotional depth, Flames and Other Stories by Angelo R. Lacuesta will serve the reader as a great introduction to the world of Filipino literature.

C.J. Box interviewed by Liffeyside

2011-07-28T19:49:00.032+01:00

American crime writer C.J. Box is the author of fourteen crime novels, eleven in the Joe Pickett series and three stand alones. For his novel Blue Haven, C.J. won the Edgar Alan Poe Award for Best Novel. He has won Prix Calibre 38 in France as well as The Macavity Award. In 2008 Blue haven was nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. His novels have been translated into 25 languages. C.J. Box was in Ireland last week to promote the launch of his latest novel Back of Beyond. Liffeyside caught up with him in Dublin where he was kind enough to take time out from his busy schedule to answer a few questions for us.

Liffeyside: The first question I’d like to ask you CJ is which crime writers do you most admire?

C.J. Box: Among my favourites are Michael Connolly, John Sanford, George Pelecanos, Denis Lehane and Denise Mina. I read widely not just in the crime genre, but those are the genre writers that I like allot.

Liffeyside: Which writers have influenced you most?

C.J. Box: My favourite author is probably not well known here, his name is Thomas McGuane he’s a literary writer in U.S. He’s a great stylist and I love his writing. More in the crime genre; Elmore Leonard, the way he writes and does dialogue and moves the story along. Cormac McCarthy is another real favourite. I learn from them as well as really like them.

Liffeyside: Where do you write and do you have a routine when you’re writing?

C.J. Box: I live north of Cheyenne, Wyoming. We have a place outside of town and I have a basement office where I do most writing. I split my time between that office and a cabin we have on a river about two hours away from there where I go and can really just concentrate on writing. The books are now split about fifty-fifty where I write. The process is simply no different than anybody. I get up in the morning and I go to work. I write my best in the morning and in the afternoon I usually edit what I wrote and then rewrite it.

Liffeyside: How does the process of writing stand alone novels differ from writing a series of novels?

C.J. Box: The stand alones are more difficult, they’re more challenging, but I’ve learned allot. I’ve become a better writer because I’ve been able to try and do different things with the stand alones. They take longer because you’ve got to invent whole new worlds with each one. Whereas with the series you start the series with established characters with history known by the reader in a certain place. With the stand alones you have to invent it all. You’re rewriting that first book every time.

Liffeyside: The character Joe Pickett is he a composite figure or is he based on one person in particular?

C.J. Box: He not based on one particular person. He’s kind of a typical Wyoming western archetype, a throwback sort of character, a western character. He certainly has a lot of flaws. He’s a family man and not that kind of PI private investigator and I think he’s representative of Wyoming in a way. When I was writing that character I didn’t realise how unusual a character he is. Later when I read more about the genre I realised how unique a character Joe Pickett is and I’m glad I made him that way.

Liffeyside: Are you working on anything at the moment?

C.J. Box: I’m working on the next Joe Pickett book which will concentrate more on his friend Nate Romanowski, the outlaw falconer. It will be more about Nate than about Joe. I’ve got another stand alone that I’ve done a hundred pages on and I’ll go into that one next after that.

Liffeyside: How does Wyoming, where most of your novels are set, influence your writing?

C.J. Box: Wyoming is almost a character in all of the books. It’s such an extreme environment. There are huge blizzards and blazing hot summers and everything is extreme. Because it’s so extreme it tends to isolate the people who are there. What I try to do is portray that sense of isolation in a country with few people in it. What I almost think is odd about it is that some of the books are almost closed room mysteries but set in a huge location. I didn’t set out to do this it’s just the way it developed.

Liffeyside: How much research do you undertake when writing a novel?

C.J. Box: It depends solely on the theme. Every book in the Joe Pickett series centres around some kind of cultural, environmental or resource based issue. So it depends on the issue. Something I know enough about I can just start. Other ones I need to be a journalist. I go and interview people or I go and involve experts in the field. I ask them if they will read parts of the manuscript when I get it done so I don’t misrepresent their side or their industry. I’ve never had any expert never say "no", they all want whatever they do portrayed well. So what I do is to be as accurate on both sides as I can and the reader can come down wherever the reader may but at least I hope they get a balanced look at things that are a little too black and white.

Liffeyside: Would you say there are many differences between European and American crime writing?

C.J. Box: To some degree. I don’t think there’s much difference in the urban police procedurals, they’re almost the same in the US as they are in Sweden or in Ireland but I think where they do get different is in the sense of place among different writers. Outside of that urban gritty police thing that’s where the differences are made. The writers who are really successful are able to combine the two and put you in a place put so that you know it whether it’s rural or urban.

Liffeyside: What book are you reading at the moment?

C.J. Box: I’m reading two books at the moment. One, a hardback, by Don Winslow and one on my Kindle by playwright David Mamet.

Liffeyside: How do you interact with fans of your novels?

C.J. Box: I enjoy meeting them. What I find is they tend to be almost a fifty-fifty mix of men and women, which is unusual as between 70 and 80 percent of people who buy crime and mystery tend to be women. Because my books have that outdoor element men like them and allot of men read my books who wouldn’t read fiction otherwise.

Liffeyside: Finally CJ have you any advice for aspiring writers?

C.J. Box: I think the most important thing is to read widely and allot. It amazes me sometimes to meet aspiring writers who don’t read much because they’re so convinced that they’re going to be good writers that they only work in their own head. They don’t read enough to learn how to write and how to broaden their outlook. I don’t think anyone should just read crime only. They should read widely and they’ll be a better writer. Also to write realistically. Too many people write in a bubble where the characters don’t seem to actually work every day but they have plenty of money and it’s unrealistic.

Liffeyside: Thanks very much for taking time out and talking to us on Liffeyside today C.J.

C.J. Box: Thank you, my pleasure.

Puppet Master by Joanne Owen

2011-07-17T10:39:00.000+01:00

Prague 1898 and Milena Prochazova stands in the Old Town Square waiting for her friend Lukas. She observes the wooden statuettes appearing as the Astronomical clock strike the hour and recalls how according to legend the clocks creator was blinded.

Meandering through the city she comes to what was formally The House of Delights the former home of a puppet theatre run by her father. Now closed, the theatre is run down and ramshackle. While lost in her reverie Milena first encounters a sinister individual who calls himself the Puppet Master.

This meeting sets in motion an adventure where Milena and Lukas battle the Master as he accompanied by his assistants Zdenko and Zdenka attempts to take over Prague.

Lovers of Prague and its topography will find much to admire as Joanne Owen places all the action in and around the city. The reader will follow the heroes as they travel from the Old Town Square, over Charles Bridge and onto Mala Strana.

That Owen has done her research is also paramount. For example Milena’s grandmother Boiena Prochazkova lives in a house in Novy Svet called The Golden Acorn. To this day a house called the Golden Acorn exists in Novy Svet.

The many illustrations throughout the book add to the gothic feel of the tale and capture the mysterious and melancholic feel of Prague. References to Prague’s ancient legends such as Libuse and her Sister and The Ploughman King also highlight the mystique of the city and tie in nicely with the master’s attempts at subjugation.

Caveats I’d have would be that at one stage Boiena Prochazkova daughters are described as her daughters in law. Also when describing the children’s journey through Prague Owen lists the buildings they see, but she places them on the wrong side of the river. Perhaps I’m being too picky, I know Prague too well.

Otherwise I have no complaints. Puppet Master is Joanne Owen’s debut.

Turkish artist Mevlut Akyildiz

2011-07-07T18:10:00.007+01:00

Three paintings by Turkish artist Mevlut Akyildiz who recently exhibited in the Sol Art Gallery in Dawson Street, Dublin.

Turkish artist Mevlut Akyildiz was born in Ankara in 1956. He studied in the Istanbul State of Fine Art Academy, graduating in 1981. Akyildizs paintings are said "to celebrate the comedy of life and it's contradictions and poke holes in human pomposity". In this sense his work is reminicent of Colombian artist Fernando Botero, being full of zest and bristling with the joy of life. Mevlut Akyildiz's work was recently exhibited in the Sol Art Gallery in Dublin and the Cork Vision Centre in Cork.

Miss Turkey

April Fool

999th Anniversary of Erzurum's Independence

2011-06-29T19:16:00.003+01:00

Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger

September 1988, West Texas and the Parmian High School Football team, the Permian Panthers is preparing for yet another assault on the Texas State Championship. Joining them for the four months they embark on their odyssey is former editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer, H.G. Bissinger.

Bissinger left his job to travel to the Texan town of Odessa to cover the journey of the football team and record its relationship to the town’s residents. At the time of H.G. Bissinger’s arrival Odessa was enduring a recession caused by a fall in the price of oil. A few years previously the town had been the epicentre of a boom with the price of oil was going through the roof accompanied by near full employment. Now all had changed, unemployment had risen while oil prices plummeted.

For the town’s residents the Permian Tigers represent their values and desires; hard work, a sense of togetherness and a never die Texan spirit. The economy has let them down, their marriages are breaking up and money is hard to come by. They transfer all their hopes and desires onto the shoulders of the eighteen year old members of the high school football team. Young and old adore them and for this one season team members are treated as gladiatorial heroes by Odessa residents.

While Bissinger was in Odessa the1988 Presidential Election between former resident, Republican George Bush Snr and Democratic candidate Michael Dukakis was taking. Bissinger puts Bush’s electoral success down to his ability to connect with the citizens in towns like Odessa which he describes as being tight fisted, blue collared and conservative.

Bissinger unveils the racism, sexism and class divisions that run through the country personified in Odessa. He paints a warts and all picture of Permian High School where it seems more emphasis is placed on Football then on ensuring students pass examinations.

The season ends and life for the players resumes, their status as heroes over. Next year another batch of eighteen year olds will replace them and the magic will continue. Compelling and thought provoking but never boring (even if you don’t understand the rules of American Football) Friday Night Lights casts light on a corner of America often ignored and derided.

2011-06-22T22:51:00.002+01:00

Flow My Tears the Policeman Said by Philip K. Dick

Flow, my tears, fall from your springs!
Exiled for ever, let me mourn;
Where night’s black bird her sad infamy sings,
There let me live forlorn.

Imagine you are the presenter of a midweek talent show with a world wide audience of thirty million viewers. You have the world at your feet, your every whim is taken as gospel and your word can make or break a career.

This is the life of Jason Taverner presenter of the popular Jason Taverner Show. He lives on the right side of Los Angeles and associates with the beautiful people of that silicone town. His face is known throughout the length and breath of the planet. Women swoon over him, men envy him. Heather Hart with whom he has an on off romance wants to marry him. Taverner albums sell by the millions and his tv ratings soar through the roof.

Jason Taverner is also a six, a government genetic creation forty years previously. Sixes are creative, intelligent and highly sought after.

One evening he is attacked by a disgruntled talentless starlet. He collapses and looses consciousness only to wake up the next day in a grubby hotel room in a part of town he has never been. Confused Taverner phones his agent only to be told that the agent, who is also his best friend, doesn’t recall ever having heard of Jason Taverner.

Very quickly Taverner discovers that his identity cards have been stolen and that all records of him have been erased from the government data banks. His fame is worthless and through the help of a clerk in the hotel he enters a clandestine world of subterfuge and identity falsification.

His survival in this new world where race politics, drugs and a highly addictive communications system based on the phone grid depends on his ability to adjust to his new existence.

Set against the backdrop of a post civil war America where police surround university campus’s and dissenters are placed in forced labour camps in a whim Flow My Tears the Policeman Said is a nightmarish sci-fi journey through alienation, loss of identity and the dangers of drug addiction.

2011-06-09T23:12:00.000+01:00

The novel opens with when game warden Will Jensen is found dead in his home in Jackson Wyoming. The result apparently of an apparent suicide. Joe Pickett a fellow game warden is sent to replace Will. Knowing Jensen as he does Joe remains convinced that there’s more to the game wardens death than meets the eye!

Unlike most protagonists of private detective novels Joe Pickett is a mild mannered, happily married, apparently problem free individual with two daughters who only wants to live a quiet life. He has no vices and goes to bed by 10.30.

While many may find this ordinariness boring it is the one ingredient which makes us root for the protagonist. Joe is faithful to friends and family and has never strayed from his wife, though when he meets the alluring Stella Ennis he is tempted.

In the past he has fallen foul of his superiors and one of them Randy Pope sets out to deliberately make life as difficult as possible for Pickett.

Joe Pickett is the quintessential small government employee, underpaid and underappreciated. He is up against rich and powerful men who will stop at nothing developing and despoiling the Wyoming countryside to further their own profit.

Throw into the mix militant ecological protestors and hunters who feel that they can no longer operate in the countryside without getting tied up in red tape and you have an extremely explosive environment for Joe to operate in.

Pickett has sympathy for the hunters some of whom have operated in Wyoming for generations but understands the necessity of policing the area to ensure that government regulations are adhered to.

Like his creator CJ Box, Joe Pickett has a tremendous love of the mid-western countryside. His descriptions of the Teton mountains are amazing without going overboard.

Out of Range by C.J. Box is the fifth in the series of Joe Pickett novels.

2011-05-27T22:37:00.002+01:00

Chess players, old writers, dysfunctional angels are among the characters which inhabit the stories contained in Blue Has No South by Alex Epstein.

The 119 stories contained in the collection are set in all corners of the globe: Jerusalem, Berlin, Prague, Paris and London. Some stories in the collection are no more than three paragraphs in the telling, others three sentences. This for example is the story entitled “May Equations”.

“In May she turned eighty seven. Her oldest grandson helped her cut her fingernails. At night, for the first time in many years, she dreamed in Yiddish.”

The best way to read these stories is to dip in and has been compared by critics to a collection of poetry, which because of its lyricism is rather apt.

In a recent interview Epstein said he hoped that the reader would read and re-read the stories, each time gaining some new insight or understanding.

For his imagery and mystery Epstein has been compared to Kafka and Borges both of whom make appearances in the collection.

The one negative or confusing or intriguing aspect of the collection is that the title a story may have little or no connection to the story itself.

Blue Has No South is the first collection of short stories by Israeli writer Alex Epstein to be translated into English.

The Lie

2011-05-10T18:35:00.000+01:00

2011-04-07T21:20:00.003+01:00

The novel begins with English language teacher William Bradshaw travelling from Holland to Germany by train. Along the journey he encounters fellow ex-pat Author Norris. Norris is extremely nervous and may or may not be involved in some illegal activity e.g. smuggling. When his passport is examined at the frontier crossing he is on the point of collapse.

Mr. Norris Changes Trains is set in Berlin in the early 1930's and charts the friendship between the two men as they travel through the Berlin underworld. Bradshaw who is rather straightforward is in his mid twenties while Norris who throughout is considerably shifty is middle aged.

We observe the two men as they wine and dine and Norris tries to extract money where ever he can. Norris who despite his love of a lavish life style somehow he become entangled with the German Communist Party and is engaged as a speaker for their cause.

Included among their circle is a certain Baron Pregnitz who is also a Minister in the Weimar Government. However Norris is engaged in an apparent swindle of the Baron and involves a reluctant Bradshaw in his plans. All however is not as it seems and the novel has a nice twist at the end.

Despite the light touch percolates throughout the novel has sinister political undertones. However the reader cannot help but like the roguish Arthur Norris. The novel ends with Bradshaw returning to London on the coming to power of the Nazi Party.

Czech Animation "Klub Odložených" Jiří Barta, 1989

2011-03-29T18:02:00.000+01:00

2011-02-22T21:47:00.000Z

2010-11-25T22:22:00.002Z

Melmoth the Wanderer is the story of a Faustian pact with the devil. It begins with a journey from the lush Wicklow Mountains where tales are related of dark deeds in the dankest cells of the Spanish Inquisition.

It is 1816 and John Melmoth, a young student, travels from Dublin to Wicklow in order to attend to his dying miserly uncle. John, whose family is poor and can ill afford to sustain him in university life, hopes that his uncle's largesse will enable him to continue his studies. Instead he learns for the first time of an ancestor named only Melmoth the Wanderer, a man born in the seventeenth century but who is apparently ageless.

We are told that for one hundred and fifty years Melmoth has trawled through Europe playing on his victim's misery, tempting them with redemption should they choose to take his place in immortality.

Some readers will find the language contained in the novel archaic but it is important to remember that it was written almost two hundred years ago.

Another issue which may cause confusion is the fact that the novel is not told in a strictly linear fashion. Several characters relate the tale of Melmoth the Wanderer, as the story moves forwards and backwards in time, and tales are frequently told within tales.

Written by Charles Robert Maturin in 1820, Melmoth the Wander can be said to be part of the great gothic literary tradition that includes such authors as Matthew Lewis and Mary Shelly.

Melmoth the Wanderer, will intrigue, beguile and despite its age may even possibly frighten the reader.

2010-08-12T22:21:00.002+01:00

DI Stacey Collins is called in for questioning in an internal investigation with criminal Jack Stanley. Unbeknownst to her colleagues and the team investigating her Jack is also the father of Stacey's daughter Sophie. Should this information come to light it would surely lead to Collins's dismissal from the force.

In the meantime three mutilated corpses are discovered by unsuspecting traffic wardens in an abandoned car parked in a London back street. Collins is part of the investigating team. Initially DCI Anderson head of the murder squad is reluctant to have her on his team. However as the investigation progresses Anderson soon realises that DI Collins has a unique abilities which can only aid in the finding and arrest of the killer.

Running parallel to the investigation is the strained relationship between Collins and her erstwhile lover, criminal Jack Stanley. We learn of Sophie Collins's resentment toward her mother for keeping the identity of her father a secret from her for so long. As the novel proceeds the relationship between mother and daughter deteriorates to the extent that Sophie keeps the fact that she's seeing her father a secret.

The plot is well paced and Lewis keeps the action going at a nice even pace. Jack Stanley is portrayed in one instance as being a loving father and in the next a gangland leader and cold blooded killer. Despite her best efforts Collins finds her personal life drawn into the investigation and when her Sophie is kidnapped by the killer Jack Stanley is drawn into the investigation.

Scent of a Killer will appeal to fans of The Bill as Lewis shows an in-depth knowledge of policing. This is the second in the series featuring DI Stacey Collins, it will not be the last.

2010-08-11T20:21:00.002+01:00

We've been very quiet of late on the blogging front. Well better late than never we got married. Normal service will soon be restored.

2010-04-16T22:32:00.003+01:00

Pre-revolutionary Paris 1774. Police Commissioner Nicolas Le Floche, a Breton native who resides in the city, finds himself under investigation for the murder of his lover socialite Julie de Lasteriux. The circumstances for Nicholas look particular bleak. At the best of times the relationship between Nicholas and Julie can at times be described as tempestuous. His friends, who command his upmost trust, are less than enthusiastic with Julie never the less rally around in his hour of need.

But Nicolas is more than a policeman in the city of Paris. Occasionally he finds himself in the service of Louis XV the ailing King of France. It is this service to his king which inspires jealously and contempt among the court of Louis. And it is when he is dispatched to London on a mission for the king that Nicolas faces the full intrigue of the court and its machinations.

Throughout the novel we are introduced to many historical characters which include the aforementioned King Louis, his mistress Madame Du Barry, the Dauphin Louis XVI and Nicolas’ boss Monsieur De Sartine Lieutenant General of Police in Paris. It’s always a danger when an author introduces historical characters, will he be able to transpose them from the dead pages of a history book to a vibrant work of fiction? Thankfully in this case Parot carries it off with aplomb and once more characters such as Louis XV with all their human foibles parade through the world.

Parot is an expert in the Paris of the 18th century. The detail in the city is both minute and baroque. We can visualise both the grime of the mud encrusted streets and the ornate palace of Versailles. The problems of Paris, the poverty, the corruption and sense of social injustice percolates away in the background. Sedition and revolution lurk in the side streets occasionally rearing their heads and raising their voices, attracting the attention of Nicolas and his colleagues in the police force. Also worth mentioning is the gastronomical nature of the novel as four or five detailed recipes are scattered throughout causing the reader to rush out to the nearest French restaurant.

As for the investigation Nicolas Le Floche carries it out in a well thought out methodical manner. The entrapment of the miscreants is detailed to great effect and all becomes clear in the end as Nicolas’ service to the king and the investigation become intertwined.

With such a detailed novel and such a broad array of characters it is quite easy for the reader to loose their way. However it is to the credit of both the writer and the publisher that before the novel commences a list of dramatis personae is published.

Previously adapted for French TV, The Nicolas Le Floche Affair is the fourth novel in the series to be translated into English.

2010-03-29T21:00:00.002+01:00

Where have all the bookshops gone? Dublin, a city which prides itself on being on of the literary capitals of the worls is scheduled to loose another bookshop. Murder ink, the home of American and European crime fiction in Dawson Street is scheduled to close. One of the few specialist bookshops in Dublin, Murder Ink's departure will be missed.

2010-03-15T20:26:00.006Z

Below are three recent reads all of which have an Asian theme. I was in The Philippines in January with my fiance. Finally after three years I got to meet her family. Of course I picked up some reading material there and was pleasantly surprised. Included in this post is Connecting Flights a collection of writings by various Filipino authors. More reviews of Filipino books will follow. In the mean time enjoy.

The events in described in Alex Garland's second novel The Tesseract take place over a single night in Manila. An Englishman, fearful of his life, is scheduled to meet a Filipino gangster in a seedy hotel. A young mother ponders the love she has lost and the roads her life has turned. A homeless boy, who can only barely recall his family, wanders the streets of Manila. Weaving back and forth through time the three separate stories in The Tesseract intersect for a few brief moments marking the different participants forever. Thought provoking, fast moving and complex, The Tesseract shows that Garland has moved well beyond The Beach.

Born a German aristocrat in Estonia in the 19th century who throughout his life remained a willing servant and true believer in the Russian monarchy the biography of Roman Ungern von Sternberg reads like something akin to a horror story. From landed estates in the Baltic Von Sternberg travelled through Siberia to Mongolia. Here he would fight the Soviets in the Russian Civil War and help found an independent Mongolia. Along the way he name would be a byword in brutality, the very evocation of which was akin to conjuring up a demon. Predating the nazi's by a decade in both his interest in esoteric mysticism and depravity, von Sternberg would eventually meet with a gruesome end. James Palmer with The Bloody Baron creates a terrifying picture of a monster.

Connecting Flights Filipinos Write From Elsewhere is a collection of short stories, poetry and prose with travel as the theme. As the name suggests each of the participants in the anthology hails from the Philippine Republic. With the writer we travel to Barcelona (memoir), San Francisco (memoir), Amsterdam (poetry), Hong Kong (fiction) and Montmarte in Paris among other destinations. Filipinos writers collected here such as Dean Francis Alfar, Yvette Tan and Lourd De Veyra will be virtually unknown beyond beyond the Philippines. And mores the pity. Such is the quality of the writing that this collection deserves a much bigger audience. Connecting Flights is edited by Ruel S. De Vera.

2010-03-08T20:40:00.002Z

Immerse yourself in Ulysses. Novel available just about everywhere, lemon soap available from Sweny's Chemist on Lincoln Place. Read more about it here.

2010-02-24T20:55:00.003Z

A woman walks into a pub wanting an ex Garda to investigate the apparent suicide of her daughter. Jack Taylor is the ex Garda in question. He is an alcoholic and a private detective. Though he won't admit to the latter saying that to the Irish it sounds too much like the dreaded informer.

First published in 2001 Brandon books have reissued "The Guards" the first in the series of the detective novels featuring Jack Taylor. Set in Galway City the novels are as much about Taylor coming to terms with his inner demons as well as him solving the crime.

The Guards begins with Jack Taylor providing us with information as to the circumstances of his leaving the Gardai, the Irish police force. He is sought out by clients in a traditional pub down a back street in Galway city center.

Throughout Taylor is a fascinating and contradictory character, a hard man with a sentimental heart, a former garda with an intense dislike of the police force, a philistine with a tremendous love of literature.

Indeed literature features throughout with Taylor saying that his life no matter what books have been part of his life. Poets and novelists are liberally quoted and Taylor is shown to be much more than the average down at heel private investigator.

Ken Bruen's Jack Taylor novels can be said to be a paean to old Galway city. A Galway city prior to the arrival of mass tourism and the building boom. Throughout Taylor laments the passing of the old city and the genuine Galwegian. Ken Bruen knows his city, knows it's history and people only too well. Fast paced and dialogue driven "The Guards" will keep the reader riveted till the last page.

Winner in the Best Novel category of the 2004 Shamus Awards, The Guards has recently been adapted for film. It stars Iain Glen as Jack Taylor with Tara Breathnach and Nora-Jane Noone also starring.

2010-02-19T20:19:00.003Z

An American film producer on vacation in Thailand is found dead in a seedy hotel in Bangkok. Detectives Sukum and Sonchai Jitpleecheep, affable hero of the novel, of the Royal Thai police force are sent to investigate. From glancing around the room Sonchai is able to correctly deduce the manner in which the American was murdered. Sukum is awed by Sonji's powers.

Beginning with Bangkok 8, The Godfather of Katmandu is the fourth in the series of novels featuring Thai detective Sonji. Narrated by Detective Sonji Jitpleecheep of the Royal Thai police force, the reader is lead through the seemingly impenetrable labyrinth of Thai culture and customs. Sonji is both an insider and an outsider in Thai society. His mother (a Madame) is Thai while his father is an American GI whom he has never met. He is cosmopolitan having spent part of his childhood in Paris where he learned to appreciate the great auteurs of French cinema. Something, which will be of invaluable assistance in solving this case.

Because of his mixed blood and methods of deduction Sonji is viewed with a mixture of both respect and suspicion by his colleagues in the police force. He is usually called upon to deal with crimes involving Farang (foreigners).

Sonji will conduct us through Thai high society where we will encounter drug-addicted doctors, old ladies reminiscing for the days of the raj, and centuries old secret societies. We encounter Sonji's boss in the police force Colonel Vikorn, the chief of Police in the Bangkok and a major drug dealer in Thailand. Sonji informs the reader of Colonel Vikorn's rivalry with Zinna a General in the Thai army. A rivalry concerned not with national security but rather who is destined to become the country's biggest drug lord.

The action in the narrative switches from Bangkok to Katmandu, where Sonji is dispatched by his boss to meet a seemingly drug dealing Buddhist Lama. From this point things start to go downhill for the good detective. Sonji already a practicing Buddhist comes under the spell of the Llama. He asks this Lama for mystical enlightenment and the Llama reluctantly agrees. On returning to Bangkok Sonji endures great personal tragedy resulting in his marriage coming asunder and his descent into a netherworld of mysticism and drugs.

The Godfather of Katmandu is at times humorous, at times mysterious but never ever boring. For an exotic well written thriller with an entertaining plot and characters you can't help but empathise with you would be well advised to look no further than here.

2009-11-28T21:13:00.011Z

Los Angeles in the 1930's and a murder is committed. America is in the grips of the depression. Hollywood wannabe's Robert Syverten and Gloria Beatty meet by chance outside Paramont Studios. Both have come from hardship in the rural midwest to the bright lights on Los Angeles. Both have dreams of making it big. Both have so far failed.

They decide to enter a dance marathon taking place in an amusement pier by the city beach. The prize is $1,000 and it's known that Hollywood producers frequent these marathons looking out for a new potential star.

All of life is contains within this novel, greed, envy, lust, the rupture of ideals. We see the depths to which the contestants are forced to debase themselves in order to win the prizemoney. The promoters of the dance marathon even propose holding a sham wedding in order to draw the customers in. The dancers become mini celebrities in their own right and the good and great of the entertainment industry come to observe and be observed.

Reading this short novel with the dance contestants searching for the elusive pot of gold that is fame the reader will be reminded of X-Factor. The constestants Robert and Gloria pushing themselves to the limit of endurance in pursuit of their dream.

Unusual in the sense that in this short sharp crime novel, the reader knows from the very first page the identity of the murderer and their motivation. This tale is one which will easily captivate the imagination of the reader.

2009-11-24T15:13:00.000Z

Denver city in November. Jack McGuane works as a travel development specialist promoting the city and his wife Melissa have just adopted a nine month old baby girl. The legalities have been checked and all appears to be going well. The girl, Angelina, appears to have bonded well with her adoptive parents.

Then out of the blue Jack gets a call from the adoptive agency, requesting a meeting. Angelina’s father never signed away the parental custody papers. Apparently he wants the child back.

The child’s natural father is Garrett Moreland, 18 years old and son of Judge John Moreland. Eventually a meeting is arranged between Judge Moreland, Garrett and the McGuane’s. It soon becomes apparent that Garrett Moreland isn’t particularily interested one way or the other in the fate of Angelina his daughter. It is his father John Moreland who appears to be the driving force wishing to reunite Angelina with what he regards as her natural family.

When Jack and Melissa McGuane refuse his offer to help them find another child should they voluntarily give Angelina back to him, Judge Moreland informs them that they will be legally obliged to hand her over after three weeks. Thus the stage is set for what amounts to every parents nightmare, the thoughts that in a short while they will loose a child.

The McGuanes decide they will fight the judge and with the help of Cody Holt, a local disgraced police officer and Brian Eastman local entrepreneur, commence the fight to keep their daughter. What ensues is a story of corruption in high places, the breaking of an international paedophile ring and a look at the murky political machinations of Denver city.

In the ensuing investigation we learn of Garrett Morehead’s involvement with Sur-13, a Mexican mafia gang and his fathers attempts to cover up his sons many misdemeanours down through the years. We learn of the judges possibly murky past and the unanswered questions which continue to haunt him.

Jack McGuane represents the everyman in pursuit of justice for himself and his family in the face of seemingly overwhelming odds. Throughout the novel the reader will easily empathise with hardworking McGuane as he sets out to uncover the truth.

A thriller with a difference with no murder to solve and no fugitives’ from justice. One which will break your heart but leave you compelled to keep turning till the last page.

2009-09-25T16:55:00.001+01:00

If you happen to be in Dublin next Thursday check this out......

2009-09-24T13:44:00.000+01:00

A family get together in rural Ramelton, County Donegal. The Sweeney family members accompanied by their spouses and girlfriends are there for the occasion. All apparently is joyous and airy. A pleasant few days is anticipated. The impending celebrations are disrupted however when the family are told that the one member, Joe , who remained on the family farm, is found dead.

The news is broken to the family by mild mannered local detective Inspector Starrett. Starrett is an unusual fictional detective. He is single, well liked in his community, has no enemies, has no secrets and is in no way angst ridden. As well as being a sharp dresser, Inspector Starrett is known to partake of a pint of Guinness. In short he is a popular local policeman going about his business in rural Ireland.

As the investigation unfolds we are introduced to the family members, their rivalries, bitter disputes, the grudges they've born down the years against each other. We learn that the majority of the family want to sell the farm to developers. However the siblings are far from singing in one voice in regards to this. The head of the family Liam Sweeney was set to hand the farm over to his son Joe. The dispute over the future of the family farm and the enmity which ensues will appeal to the Irish psyche. Readers will recall The Bull McCabe of The Field.

Like any good crime novel as the crime is under investigation we are brought on a journey thought the investigator's life. We learn that Starrett once upon a time harboured ambitions to be a priest. In pursuit of this he ended a relationship with the women he loved. The woman now widowed had recently re-entered Starrett's life. The woman in question is less than enthusiastic; she has three children and memories of their relationship. Starrett himself is pursued by the local amorous hospital pathologist.

Initially Paul Charles goes into great detail describing family members, their appearances, shoes, shirts etc and some readers may find this off-putting. However they should plough through this early section of the book before the Inspector Starrett investigation goes into full swing.

Family Life by Paul Charles is the second in the Inspector Starrett detective series.

2009-08-21T22:10:00.001+01:00

“The Dark Place” by Sam Millar is the second in the series of Karl Kane novels. Like “Bloodstorm” the first novel in the series, “The Dark Place” takes place in a post conflict Belfast. The city is suffering under a sweltering heat wave when Karl Kane, private investigator, is visited by a young woman asking him to find her troubled younger sister who has run away from a hostel she was resident in.

The premises of the novel is that a serial killer is on the loose in Belfast city. He is wealthy, influential and charming. He preys on young girls, runaways who are both homeless and drug addicts. The police are not unduly concerned, and are initially dismissive of the case. It is only when Karl Kane’s daughter Katie, is abducted that they are forced to act. Kane’s brother in law is non other that Police Inspector Mark Wilson. To further complicate matters Kane is divorced from Wilson’s sister and the two men hold each other in complete and utter contempt. The scenes where Karl Kane an Inspector Wilson verbally joust are incredibly well written and you get the sense that here are two characters who really can’t abide the sight of each other.

Millar is very graphic, at times shockingly so, in his descriptions of the incarceration and tortures the young victims of the killer are forced to endure. Some readers will find themselves repulsed others will be drawn hypnotically into the dark subterranean world.

Throughout the dark shadows of the troubles are omnipresent, their cries echo throughout the novel. Millar however avoids the pitfalls of commenting on the past and coming down on one side or other in the conflict. His characters skate around the past and are content for the most part not to comment on their previous actions.

“The Dark Places” is you’re a typical noir crime novel. A corrupt police force, a society gone wrong and a private investigator battling his own demons from the past. A hard man who sometimes successfully hides his past Karl Kane walks what can be safely described as the hardest streets in Europe.

It may help the reader to have read the first novel in the series for background into private investigator’s Karl Kane’s past, but it will not be wholly necessary. Millar introduces the history of Kane with excellence and rather than breaking the narrative such flashbacks only adds colour to the story.

Karl Kane is a character the reader cannot help but warm to. He’s fond of putting a few pound on the horses and inevitably looses more than he wins. He also harbors ambitions to be a writer and elicits our sympathy when he receives a letter from an old school mate, now a successful crime writer, rebuffing his attempts at writing. You get the feeling that such a rebuff may have happened Sam Millar. It cut’s too close to the bone.

With almost fifty chapters, the action in the novel rips along. With “The Dark Places” Sam Millar has confirmed himself as an exciting talent on the Irish Crime scene.

2009-07-27T18:03:00.002+01:00

With thanks to John Self at the asylum blog.

Colony by Hugo Wiclcken begins with Sabir, a former soldier, hero of the Great War, and petty criminal who is being transported to serve a sentence in French Guinea. A gruesome experience awaits him andSabir knows that even after serving his sentence, should he survive, he will never again be able to return to France. He is forever an exile. Cast off physically and metaphorically from French society.

The Colony and its administration is described as a living hell, both for guards and prisoners. Wilcken portrays the jungle is almost a hellish netherworld from which there is ultimately no escape. Besides Sabir is totally alone. His father disowned him and his fiancée was nowhere to be seen when his prison ship set sail for The Colony.

In the second part of the novel we are introduced to Manne, a deserter from the Great War who poses as an amateur botanist who, under the pretext of carrying out a survey of the area, ends up living in the camp commanders residence. He meets the commander’s wife, who asks him to help her escape from the camp. She feels she is as much a prisoner as the men serving their time.

However their escape plans do not turn out as planned and the whole escapade is seen as an exercise in stupidity. The reality is that no one in the colony can escape. Everyone, regardless of status, is trapped and facing a potential life sentence.

The third and final part of the novel can best be described as an hallucinating fantasy, a metaphor for the delusional grandeur of the colonial powers.

Idealism in the colony in the form of the new camp commander is slowly ground down and eroded throughout the novel. From grandiose plans to turn the colony into a mini France to the realisation that such actions are brimming with futility. The guards maintain a façade of discipline and at times are no better than the men they are guarding. The camp commander is trapped in various bottles of rum. His wife in her own psychosis.

The Colony can be said to be a damning incitement of France’s and Europe’s colonial past. Far from bettering the lot of the colonised peoples, the underlings of imperial governments were forced to face the fact that their fate and those of the people they ruled were intertwined.

Part Papillion, part One Hundred Years of Solitude, Colony will be enjoyed by those readers who wish themselves to be taken on quite a different intellectual pathway.

2009-05-29T19:38:00.007+01:00

In commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Raymond Chandler's death, Penguin Books have republished five of his novels in hard backed editions, with original covers; “The Big Sleep", "The Lady In The Lake", "The Little Sister", "The Long Goodbye” and "Farewell, My Lovely".

“Farewell, My Lovely” is set in Los Angeles in the late 1930’s .Philip Marlowe PI is working on a case in Central Avenue when he comes across a rather large well-dressed man standing outside a dine and dice emporium. The man, whom we later learn is named Moose Molloy, has spent the last eight years in prison. He is only just released and has returned to the emporium looking for his girlfriend who was employed as a singer there. Marlowe is literally dragged into the case and after Molloy’s initial enquiries which leave one man dead decides to investigate further.

Philip Marlowe though rises above all the grubbiness he sees about him. He is a former employee of the Los Angeles DA who was sacked for questioning his employers. He operates under his own moral code. He is an alcoholic, a loner who is bitter at the direction the good and the great have taken Los Angeles. When dealing with the police Marlowe treats them to a procession of contemptible wisecracks.

With ease he can see right through society’s facades. He has little time for falsehood and ineptitude and for Marlowe virtue itself should be its own reward. Marlowe is in no way a starry eyed idealist. He knows the manner in which the rancid system works.

However Marlowe is not some hard as nails superman. Twice toward the end of the novel he describes himself as being frightened and in one instance starts babbling. Finally piece by piece through a series of ingenious detective work and pure grit the case is solved, though for the philosophical Philip Marlowe the result is far from satisfactory.

Throughout the case Marlowe encounters a whole range of police officers. The inept that don't really care, those who want to change the system from within and other naturally good but who find themselves constantly written out of the picture.

By the standards of today parts of the novel can in now way said to be pc. For instance a black man is murdered and the official police response is noncommittal to say the least. Also several derogatory names, which would be unacceptable now are used when describing racial minorities, though this should in no way detract from the readers overall enjoyment and appreciation of the novel.

Chandler's writing will constantly amaze and beguile the reader. For instance here Marlowe describes one character in the case "He looked as nervous as a brick wall". Or his commentary on justice and its relationship to money in Los Angeles "Law is where you buy it in this town". Or finally when travelling by night through the mountains "Far off the sea flickered. Darkness prowled slowly on the hills".

Marlowe’s character and his force of personality drives the novel. His quest for justice and the travails he endures make us sympatric to his cause and the reader is left willing him toward a rewarding conclusion to the case. Detective Philip Marlowe is unique in the literary world and in him Chandler has created a template which others have imitated time and time again. With a fictional character as memorable as Philip Marlowe, combined with writing as sharp as the LA night, "Farewell, My Lovely" is guaranteed to retain it enduring popularity.

2009-05-15T21:11:00.001+01:00

Like Swallowing A Stone, Surviving the Past In Bosnia by Polish journalist Wojciech Tochman chronicles the plight of survivors of the 1992-95 Bosnian war as they struggle to come to terms with the peace which followed. In particular it focus’s in on the search by family members often women for the remains of their loved ones.

Tochman introduces the reader to Dr. Ewa Klonowski a Polish born member of the American Academy of Forensic Science. Dr. Klonowski is working in Bosnia helping to discover, disinter and reunite the remains of the victims of war with their loved ones. One of Dr Klonowski’s assistants is Bosnian woman Mejra Dautovic, a former resident of Prijedor, who herself searching for the remains of her children murdered during the conflict.

The author openly takes no sides. He travels to camps which are home to Serbians who when Bosnian was partitioned after the war, choose to live in the Bosnian Serb Repeublic. We learn that Serbian men, for the most part, are reluctant to be photographed and that they claim to have been cooks in the army for the duration of the conflict.

The lives of Bosnian women many of whom lost husbands, brothers and sons but who have chosen to return to their former homes is laid bare for observation. In a few sentences Tochman takes us to the heart of a group of women who have come together work their farmsteads, so as to salvage their future from their bleak and desolate past.

By the end of the account there is no ambiguity as to where the sympathies of the author lie. His non involvement allows the victims to tell their story. Tochman is reduced to being an unobtrusive recorder of women who are attempting to come to terms with their shattered lives.

Although less than 200 pages “Like Eating A Stone”, is an horrific account of people who have survived their terror of war with humanity and dignity. It will both captivate and haunt the reader.

2009-05-05T23:18:00.001+01:00

“American Skin” opens with the scene of a chilling car chase followed by a gruesome murder of a young family. A character is introduced as dark and as gruesome as any that has stalked the pages of a crime novel.

The plot of the novel involves a bank heist has gone terribly wrong. One bank robber is dead, another, the hero Stephen Burke, has fled the country while a third, Stapleton an unstable IRA man, has gone into hiding. Later he will emerge hell bent on retrieving his share of the spoils.

With relative ease the novel moves back and forth both in place and time. Flashbacks drive the story on rather than hinder it. The author at first leads us on a merry dance as the novel is not told in strict chronological order. Layer by layer is striped away until all is revealed for the reader to gaze at in wide eyed horror.

Aficionados will recognise the integral ingredients of a Bruen novel, music and literature. Musical references are scattered throughout, Tammy Wynett, Tom Waits, The Pogues and Grechen Peters. Writers also make an appearance with mention of fellow crime protagonists James Lee Burke and Andrew Vachss, not to mention literary giants Kate O’Brien and Charles Bukowski.

In the past Ken Bruen, has set sections of previous novels in America, but in “American Skin” you get the feeling that here, at last, is his long awaited homage to all that is wonderful about the country. At times it is almost as if the country itself is a protagonist in the tale. The title “American Skin” comes courtesy of Bruce Springsteen. You can’t get any more American than that.

Bruen is at his best when he portrays the psychotic American drifter Dade. From the beginning of the novel Dade portrays a real sense of menace and the reader get the feeling that this is one particular character they would not like to meet under any circumstances.

Dade though is just one of a number of psychotic American characters who operate on the wrong side of the law. Juan, a New York gangster and drug user and Shelly his unstable wife are two individuals well written, dangerous and intriguing.

However when describing Stephen Burke, Bruen tends to overdose on the sentimentality. In particular when Burke recalls the decline and eventual demise, of his unstable friend Tommy. But then again this is noir and that sentimentality may very well be the point.

“American Skin” is written in the classic noir tradition and is a must read for those readers who like their fiction pitch black.

2009-04-24T21:19:00.006+01:00

More From Our Own Correspondent is a collection of radio transcripts originally broadcast on the BBC World Service programme From Our Own Correspondent (FOOC). For those unfamiliar with the format of FOOC it is, according to the introduction, “a simple collection of radio essays written by correspondents eager to tell you about events unfolding in their part of the world”.

In More FOOC the correspondents look beyond the good and the great and for a few minuets tell us how the events making the headlines effect the ordinary everyday people. For a few moments the doctor, the nurse, the farmer, the clerk replace the president and the ministers and tell their story on the main stage.

Many of correspondents will already be household names including among them are Fergal Keane,Mark Tully and Jim Muir. The reader will move from report to report, from one corner of the globe to the other. With the correspondent the reader will attend a Maoist Wedding in Nepal, accompany honey hunters in Bangladesh, visit Iraqi refugee camps in Syria or visit high security prisoners with evangelical Christians in Mississippi.

There are however moments of poignancy and bravery. Alan Johnston recounts his 114 days spent in captivity in Gaza. While Natalia Antelava reports on the murder of an outspoken journalist in Osh, Kyrgyzstan.

Some of the reports from correspondents will come from counties caught in seemingly intractable conflicts. In a Kabul Hospital, Emma Jane Kirby accompanies a doctor returning from exile. The two discover a dilapidated hospital which is short on medical supplies and in a state of infectious decay. As she leaves a pharmacist plaintively enquires of her “I wonder if you could tell me: is anyone coming to help us?”.

In conclusion the last transcript could well be a paean to all those forgotten by the scribes of history, the very people FOOC reports on. Monica Whitlock, the correspondent in question, is reporting from Kampyr-tepe in Uzbekistan. Founded by Alexander the Great Kampye-tepe was at its height an important military base. Long since abandoned and forgotten, the city had only been recently been discovered and partially excavated by archaeologists. Outside of Kampyr-tepe at the site of an underground Buddhist monastery, far from all the glamour and gore of armies and empires, papers belonging to the monks are discovered in sealed jars.

“What did they say” Monica Whitlock asks her guide.
“Oh, they said that we too lived here”.

More From Our Own Correspondent is edited by Tony Grant.

2009-04-12T16:13:00.001+01:00

Guy Fawkes night in Primrose Hill, Camden Town, London. From within a blazing bonfire screaming is heard. Literally thousands of witnesses look on in shocked silence unable to assist in any way. When the forensic department of the local police department examine the charred remains they discover that the victim is non other than retired Police Superintendent David Peters.

Thus begins “The Beautiful Sound of Silence” ninth in the Detective Inspector Christy Kennedy series of crime novels. For those unfamiliar with DI Christy Kennedy you will be introduced to an amicable tea drinking police officer and team leader from Northern Ireland. A man who is given to introspection both on his duty as an officer of the law and his romance with local news reporter ann rae.

Aficionados of the Christy Kennedy series will be well aware of the supporting cast of fellow police officers which include DI James Irvine, DS Derek Allaway and Superintendent Thomas Castle. The author also supplies us with titbits of information on the lives of these background characters such as old romances and former cases they worked on with Kennedy.

Throughout the novel we observe Kennedy and his fellow officers in their methodical approach to the murder investigation. We soon learn that not is all as it seems. For example the deceased Superintendent Peters was not above abusing his power as a police office in order to feather his nest.

As the investigation gathers pace an army of suspects is paraded before us, a local builder and former gangster, the merry widow, the grieving mistress and various criminal elements that the murdered Superintendent associated with.

But there comes a point in the novel when Kennedy switches gear. The questioning is over. He knows who the murderer is, only the method is in question. DI James Irvine points this out for us with the following,

“When Kennedy starts to concentrate on the method of murder, it usually means he’s quite convinced that he knows who thee murderer is”.

It is immediately obvious that the author Paul Charles clearly has a great love of Camden Town. The sights, sounds, smells and colours in short a warts and all display of this particular quarter of the city in all is glory as a setting for the novel is presented before us.

As the novel concludes the reader is left longing to find out more about the characters. Their inner dynamics, their dreams, trials and tribulations. In particular those of Detective Inspector Christy Kennedy. Hopefully it will not be too long before we see this police officer out on the streets of Camden Town again.

2009-03-15T09:20:00.001Z

2009-01-19T19:44:00.002Z

Edgar Alan Poe born January 19th 1809

2009-01-05T19:50:00.003Z

London in the swinging sixties. Ronnie and Reggie Kray are criminal kingpins of the capital’s East End. Born in 1933 the twins rose to spectacular heights in the 1960’s London criminal fraternity, mixing when it was required with peers of the realm and lads from the docks. In the end they died with her majesty pleasure under lock and key.

James Morton charts this rise and fall of the Kray twins, who at their height were regarded both by themselves and others as untouchable. However this book does not lionise the twins and their criminal lifestyle but rather paints warts and all pen pictures of one of the East Ends most notorious criminal gangs.

Step by step Morton reveals the inner workings of the twins gang The Firm. How the twins ruled the members of the gang with a rod of iron and how through a mixture of fear and respect they maintained discipline in their organisation.

We are introduced to a host of East End gangsters John Dickson, Ronnie Hart and Billy Exley to name a few. Their functions in the gang, the parts they played in the trial of the twins and their eventual fates are laid bare for us to examine.

The author touches upon the shifting allegiances which existed in the criminal world. How members from the various gangs could be sharing the spoils of a criminal deal one day, then taking pot shots at each other the next.

We are also provided with brief but incisive descriptions of the events which lead to the murders of George Cornell, Frank Mitchell and Jack McVitie. Murders which were to bring about the trial and eventual imprisonment of the Krays. Here Morton shows his true worth and avoids sensationalising events, describing them just as they happened.

The chapter dealing with the trial Ronnie and Reggie Kray is an excellent example of how a writer can keep the interest of a reader. Morton resists the obvious temptation to delve deeply into the subtle nuances of the legal arguments. Instead the narrative is driven along with asides showing the faults and failing of the twins defence team.

As a plus the book is supplemented with photos of the transcripts of the trial and personalities, both criminal and legal, from the world of the Krays. With access to papers on the Kray Twins in the The National Archives coupled with his own previously published research into the subject, James Morton has created a book which will serve as an excellent introduction to the life and times of Ronnie and Reggie Kray.

2008-08-08T22:34:00.005+01:00

China 1991, two years after the Tiananmen Square massacre and Detective Wang Anzhuang ,of the Beijing police force, is called into investigate the murder of a young triad member, a blue lantern. Wang apparently solves the case but his next assignment is not so easy. Wang is then reassigned to an ongoing investigation into the robbery of ancient artifacts from an archeological dig. However Wang uncovers more than he bargained for. Corruption in high places. Corruption in the police force. Collusion with the triad gangs. Wang also has to endure a struggle session where he is denounced as being soft during the events surrounding Tiananmen Square. All in all a classic piece of detective fiction.

Imagine, if you can, a swarm of demented haiku and you have the ingredients of Novels in Three Lines by Felix Feneon. Written by Feneon in 1906 when he was writing for the Le Matin newspaper, Novels in Three Lines tell of new worthy incidents from Paris, provincial France and the French Colonies. As the title suggests a news article would be condensed into a sentence or two. Strikes, births, marriages, murders would all fall under Feneon’s perceptive gaze.

Monty Brogan is a small time crook who has just been convicted of selling drugs. 25th Hour is the story of his last day of freedom before serving a seven year prison sentence. The novel is full of suspense and intrigue. Will Monty go to prison or will he go on the run. The novel also examines the effect Monty imprisonment will have on those around him, the women he loves, his friends, his father. All told in chilling details. I cannot recommend this novel highly enough.

2008-07-13T21:11:00.003+01:00

Just finished "The Music of Chance" by Paul Auster. To be honest I was just a tad bit dissappointed. I saw the film adoptation when it hit the cinema and was mightly impressed. Still the concept is good. Do we have any option with the hand life deals us? No. A warped faery tale then, still well worth the time and trouble.

2008-06-27T09:56:00.001+01:00

If you get the chance get along to Death And The Maiden

2008-06-24T16:08:00.002+01:00

Much as I wanted to I really didn’t get the gist of this novel. Written in the 1950’s I thought that it had dated. The premises of the novel is excellent, a corrupt psychotic policeman goes on a killing spree. "The Killer Inside Me" is unique in that the story is told from the killers point of view and contains an interesting twist at the end. Despite this however the novel has not aged well. Then again perhaps its just me.

2008-06-16T14:24:00.002+01:00

Just finished Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell. Had it lying around the place for months. Well worth the read. We journey with the main character Ree Dolly through the Ozark mourntains as she searches for her father who has just broken his bond. Nothing I can write here can do justice to Woodrell prose. I have only one problem.... where can I get more Woodrell.
Excellent

2008-06-07T19:42:00.006+01:00

Woundlicker by Jason Johnson takes place in Belfast as the peace process is in full swing. Loner Fletcher Fee goes on the rampage bring his own version of justice to all sides in the recent conflict.

The Blue Fox by Sjon is an excellent introduction to the world of Icelandic magical realism. The Blue Fox is a tale of inhumanity, cruelty, indifference, revenge and justice.

Sanctuary by Ken Bruen is the seventh in the Jack Taylor series. Again we encounter to Galway gumshoe battle against his own inner demons and beat the bad guys. Bruen at his best.

2008-04-08T20:14:00.005+01:00

What I Saw, Reports From Berlin 1920-33 by Joseph Roth is a collection of articles chronicling the life and times of Berlin and its people during the years of the Weimar Republic.

Born into a Jewish family in Galicia, a province of the former Austrian-Hungarian empire, Roth served in the Austrian army during World War One. After the war he worked as a reporter in Vienna before leaving for Berlin in 1920.

The first article in the collection “Going for a Walk” written in 1921 acts as a template for Roth future work. His focus on the minute rather than the magnificent, as the following quote illustrates.

“Confronted with the truly microscopic, all loftiness is hopeless, completely meaningless”

and

“Whatever is heralded or touted can only be of little weight or consequence”.

In the article entitled “Nights In Dives” the reader accompanies Roth as he visits nocturnal Berlins underbelly. We visit The Café Dalles, Reese’s Corner, Albert’s Cellar and The Cigar Box amongst others. We meet the inhabitants of the divers. We observe their traits. We learn of their occupations both nocturnal and official.

But Roth is also a political animal despite his insistence otherwise. His article “A Visit to the Rathenau Museum” which, as the title states, describes his visit to a museum dedicated to the memory of the murdered German Foreign Minister Rathenau. Rathenau a German Jew was murdered by right wing militants. Roth leads us through Rathenau’s quarters and we are presented with a picture of a cultured man who lived quietly and with great dignity. Roth’s sense of loss at the murder of the Foreign Minister is unstated, but is all the more powerful for that. He finishes the article with the following….

“I walk pass the place where he met his end. It is not true that a murder is just a murder. This one was a thousand fold murder, not to be forgotten or avenged”.

The final piece in the collection entitled “The Auto-da-Fé of the Mind” and was written by Roth in 1933. Here Roth presents for the reader the contribution which the Jewish people have made to German cultural life. First though he admits that life for the Jewish people as they knew it in Germany is over he states simply “Let us concede our defeat”.

Roth lists for the reader Jewish writers and their achievements Bruno Frank a playwright, George Hermann a “plain and truthful novelist”, Paul Heyse the first German Nobel laureate and Alfed Kerr “A theatre reviewer of abundant imagination”. The list goes on. Roth later apologizes to any German Jewish writers he has omitted from his list.

He contrasts the German Jewish writer, who wrote about the city, with the folk literature, with its emphasis on region and landscape which touted by the nazis. He says that the Jewish writer “revealed the whole diversity of urban civilization”.

Roth ends “The Auto-da-Fé of the Mind” with the following quote.

“Many of us served in the war, many died. We have written for Germany, we have died for Germany. We have spilled our blood for Germany in two ways: the blood that runs in our veins, and the blood with which we write. We have sung Germany, the real Germany! And that is why today we are being burned by Germany”.

With the coming to power in Germany of the nazi party Roth fled to exile in Paris where he died destitute in March 1939.

2008-03-12T14:55:00.000Z

"There Are Little Kingdoms" by Kevin Barry is a collection of slightly surreal short stories set for the most part in small town rural Ireland. But it is small town Ireland on the cusp of change. The Celtic Tiger in some cases is just about to roar.

For example in "Ideal Homes" we encounter two twins running amuck in a small town. In the distance they can see the city encroaching on their home.

"There was a view south to the city: it was ever spreading, quickly approaching. It was ten miles wide of sodium light, a sea of promise laid out beneath them. They drank it in and tasted faster nights to come."

In the story "Breakfast Wine" we also bear witness to Kevin Barry's unique turn of phrase.

"But the crossword was left aside, for there was to be a disturbance this day in The North Star. The door opened up and glamour stepped in. Glamour carried itself with great elegance and ease. It was jewelled at the fingers and jewelled at the throat."

While the story "Burn The Bad Lamp" introduces to a jaded world weary genie.

"But then the smoke clears and the genie separates from legend. There are no tapered slippers nor flowing silks. He wears no turban, nor fathomless expression. He wears a pair of troubled chinos, an overcoat with fag burns on its lapels a pair of scuffed Nikes and a leery, self-satisfied smirk."

All in all this is an excellent first collection and should put Kevin Barry up with the best on the Irish literary Map.

2008-03-01T14:16:00.002Z

When a lone drifter lands one afternoon in the Twin Oaks Tavern owned by Nick and Cora Papadaks the scene is set for a classic noir thriller. In his debut novel “The Postman Always Rings Twice” James M. Cain charts the trials, tribulations and eventual fall of the main protagonist, drifter Frank Chambers.

This novel, which consists of a mere 116 pages, moves along at a fantastic pace and contains all the ingredients necessary for noir: life, death, lust, love murder and retribution.

Although published in 1934 and reflective of the social and racial mores of its time “The Postman Always Rings Twice”, is nevertheless a cracking electric novel. You couldn’t ask for a better introduction to the work of James M. Cain.

2008-02-27T13:01:00.000Z

Just finished "Sitting Up With The Dead" by Pamela Petro. The book recounts a series of journeys undertaken by the author to the Southern United States during the summer of 1999. Through the medium of stories, the great oral tradition of the south, Petro wishes to discover what it is that makes the south so different. What makes it tick. Along the way Petro meets storytellers from various ethnic backgrounds who make the south their home. Creole, African American, Cajun, white. The author travels to from the Appalachian Mountains to the gulf coast and from the Bayous of Louisiana to the mundane interior in her pursuit of stories and their tellers. Petro encounters Brer Rabbit, The Grey Man and a menagerie of other characters on her southern odyssey.

While the stories themselves are fascinating, entertaining colourful and absorbing the only weak link is in Petro's relating of her journey. The whole thing doesn't quite fit together easily.

2008-02-18T15:01:00.002Z

I watched the film, then read the book. To be honest I found the films ending very disappointing. The book of course has much more to offer. Cormac McCarthy easily captures the timbre of southern vocabulary. Perhaps you should really read the book before seeing the film.

2008-02-13T10:44:00.002Z

John Fante is a genius, Five Stars for this novel which tells of the early years of the young Arturo Bandini growing up amid poverty in Colorado. We encounter Bandini's family, brothers father and mother all of whom shaped the fictional character who would later venture to Los Angeles in search of literary fame.

2008-01-24T16:51:00.000Z

2007-12-18T11:27:00.000Z

2007-11-28T10:39:00.000Z

Please if you do get the chance see this film 5 stars

2007-11-23T14:10:00.000Z

2007-11-06T14:19:00.000Z

Just finished reading........

2007-09-18T08:37:00.000+01:00

2007-09-14T15:46:00.000+01:00

2007-08-23T20:36:00.000+01:00

2007-08-19T20:28:00.000+01:00

'On The Road' by Jack Kerouac. Published 50 years ago this month. Is it still relevant today?Personally yes I think that it is. Just re-read it recently and was captured once more by the zest and vitality of the writing.

2007-08-17T09:06:00.000+01:00

2007-08-10T09:25:00.001+01:00

Keep an eye and an ear out for the latest single from The Wavemen entitled “Juice of the Orange”. And if you’re in Prague tonight you can catch The Wavemen live on Czech TV. Watch out also for their debut album which will be hitting the shelves soon.

2007-08-08T09:01:00.000+01:00

2007-07-31T16:16:00.000+01:00

The Wavemen and friends

2007-05-23T13:17:00.000+01:00

Currently Reading..............

2007-05-18T09:12:00.000+01:00

Greens bookshop in Clare Street is all set to shut it doors next Friday. And so another part of Dublin's literary heritage comes to an ignominious end.

On first appearances the place seemed to lack order. The filing system seemed hap hazard, and nothing was where you expected it to be. A friend of mine used to say that in her opinion someone would stand on the opposite side of Clare Street and fire the novels in.

What I most admired about Greens though was it commitment to small independent publishers outside of Dublin. You'd wander in and be able to brose through a selection of publication unavailable anywhere else in the city. Just the antidote to the cold commercialism of their nearby rivals.

Still I've always had mixed feelings about Greens as every time I wandered around I was reminded of the panic of buying schoolbooks every September. Still the shop has a place is Dublin and Irelands literary scene.

And so, Greens which first opened its doors to customers in 1843, is set to follow Anthology Books in Meeting House Square and Kenny's Bookshop in Galway and take its leave of the street to conduct its business over the internet. More headaches for the small independent bookshop owners.

2007-05-17T09:24:00.000+01:00

Dublin

After our affair
I swore that I'd leave Dublin
And in that line I'd left behind
The years, the tears, the memories and you

In Dublin

At the quays friends come and say farewell
We'd laugh and joke and smoke
And later on the boat
I'd cry over you

In Dublin

How can I leave the town that brings me down
That has no jobs
Is blessed by God
And makes me cry

Dublin

And at sea with flowing hair
I'd think of Dublin
Of Grafton Street and Derby Square
And those for whom I really care and you

In Dublin

2007-05-11T09:16:00.000+01:00

Currently Listening to

2007-04-26T08:34:00.001+01:00

For anyone in Dublin tonight make your way to the Sugar Cube for the launch of Freak Show Book 3 by the good and the great from Sub City Dublin. Live music, beer and eats will be provided and you'll have the opportunity to meet the artists and writers involved in Freak Show. The doors open at 8 o'clock and the fun costs €10.

2007-04-17T14:19:00.000+01:00

The following poem is entitled "Ricochet" and is by Bosnian poet Fahrudin Zilkic. It comes from the collection "Scar on the Stone, Conteporary Poetry from Bosnia".

Ricochet

It's when you define the world's sides,
when you run across a section of road
between two bushes.

It's when you hear the shot,
and while you're lying flat on your
face you're splattered with gravel.

Riocochet-
it's when a year later
you recognise the scar on the stone
where your life went on again.

2007-04-03T15:34:00.000+01:00

2007-03-30T12:09:00.000+01:00

Lady Windermere's Fan, by Oscar Wilde

Now here’s something for you all to ponder and consider if you’re at a loose end and wish to see some artistic endeavour. Tonight is the final night in the run of the Ranelagh Player production of Lady Windermere’s Fan by Oscar Wilde. Star of the show without doubt is the unflappable Liam McGonagle whose performance as Lord Darlington is well worth the entry fee. The venue is the Church of Ireland College of Education in Rathmines, the entry cost is €12 (€6 OAPs and students) and the curtain rises at 8 o’clock.

2007-03-29T09:18:00.000+01:00

2007-03-06T16:08:00.000Z

2007-03-02T08:56:00.000Z

Lebanon, Lebanon edited by Anna Wilson

2007-03-01T08:56:00.000Z

Any sign?

2007-02-27T14:06:00.000Z

2007-02-26T10:37:00.000Z

2007-01-19T12:47:00.000Z

Further to my post dated January 7th. Today’s edition of the Irish Times has an article concerning the plight of Independent Bookshops in Ireland. The general consensus is that things are going form bad to worse for the small retailer. To paraphrase the article small retailers are just one bad rent review away from going out of business.

In the main the focus is on Anthology Books in Meeting House Square which is soon to close it’s doors. As I’ve stated in a previous post it’s sad and disappointing that Anthology Books is soon to close, but it will continue operating an internet sales business.

What of the other small retailers in Dublin. Well Chapters have recently moved from Middle Abbey Street to a new and improved store in Parnell Street. The Winding Stair Bookshop on Ormond Quay has recently re-opened, both new and improved.

You also have The Secret Bookshop in Wicklow Street in which to wander through. Not to mention the sadly under rated Book Worms on Middle Abbey Street.

Greens always disappoints and as a friend of mine said once up a time, looks as if someone stood on the far side of the road and fired the books in.

Of the bigger shops you have Waterstones and Hodges and Fidges. And at the bottom of the pile you’ll find Easons. Once upon a time Easons used to be a bookshop now it’s a rather large storeroom which sells magazines.

Outside of Dublin are things any different? To tell the truth probably not. For instance Kennys bookshop in Galway recently closed its doors for the last time, deciding instead to concentrate on the online sales business. Meanwhile in the City of the Tribes both Charlie Byrnes Bookshop and Bell, Book and Candle in the Small Crane appear to be going strong.

The outlook is mixed and many more small independent booksellers may go to the wall. But perhaps not everything is necessarily all doom and gloom.

2007-01-16T12:51:00.000Z

Last year, just before Christmas, I was privileged to hear Irish poet Louis de Paor recite this poem in Christchurch Cathedral. Here it is for yiz all.

The Singer

These two here in front of me
think he’s singing to only them

when he plays a loving lament,
their fingers ache to be home

where they can play on each
other till morning. The lonely

and old flames are amazed
a man they’ve never met

has the broken tunes of their dreams
off by heart on the tip of his tongue.

When he touches the strings
that tied them together the first time

ever, the married couple in the corner
move closer in spite of themselves.

When the sleeve of the man’s shirt
brushes his wife’s shoulder, a young fella

at the other end of the room
takes off his summer jumper and asks the barman

to turn the heat down for God Almighty’s sake.
The girl made lovely by sorrow prays

he’ll never rest until he finds her.
Outside, a fleet of sirens storms the night,

squadcars, ambulances and fire-brigades
running from the fire that can’t be put out

in the smoldering hearts of the men inside
who are late again for the neverending funeral.

Beside the bridge, the morse code
of loneliness broadcast on flurries

of air is clear as day to the man
who has just jumped. The water is smooth

as a sheet and he is deaf to the world
as the music fills his mouth,

washing away a world of worries.
The singer keeps on strumming

the strings that stretch from the heart
to the mouth of his guitar.

His cry is soft as the river, a blanket of water
drawn up over all our sleepy heads.

2007-01-07T15:14:00.000Z

Another black day in artistic terms for Dublin City as Anthology Books in Meeting House Square recently announced that it is to close down. Although only open for a short while Anthology Books, with its novel writing classes, workshops and zine retrospective, made a big impact in the cultural life of Dublin. Unfortunately this did not guarantee financial success and so the shop is set to close it doors soon. However life will continue in the form of an online ordering business that will focus on Irish authors. Anthology Books is currently holding a closing down sale so feel free to root among the bones for some bargains.

On a more positive note, though possibly related, the newly re-opened The Winding Stair Bookshop and Café seems to be finding its feet and going from strength. For instance you can pick up issue 3 of The Paris Bitter Hearts Pit therein. See ya there.

2007-01-02T16:47:00.000Z

Come on now admit it. Who if anyone listened to New Years Day by U2 yesterday? Happy New Year to everyone.

2006-12-28T10:25:00.000Z

Donagh from Dublin Opinion sent around an email wanting Irish bloggers to write about the best books they’ve read this year. Below is my contribution. Hope you all enjoy………….

“Stick Your Tongue Out” by Ma Jian is a collection of five short stories based on the author’s journey through Tibet. Be warned, if your vision of Tibetan people is of a peace loving pastoral people then this book is not for you. These tales show Tibet warts and all. Initially Ma Jian was a misty eyed outsider wanting to discover Shangri-La or Nirvana. By the end of the book he is a travel hardened individual who is more than slightly cynical of Tibet and its people. And so we are offered a Tibet, which while still reeling from the Chinese invasion shows itself to be a place of cruel historical inequalities.

Ancient legends of failed initiates, a vivid description of a sky burial are just some of the sights Ma Jian conjures up for us. Despite this Ma Jian shows an innate sympathy for the plight the Tibetan people find themselves in. The Chinese occupation, which is central to any understanding of modern Tibet, is implied rather than directly expressed and all the more powerful for this.

"Stick Out Your Tongue" was first published in China in February 1987. It was initially greated with great acclaim but later fell foul of the Chinese authorities and for a while, Ma Jian was forced to leave the country.

Also notable this year were

The Damned United - David Peace
Dublin Noir - Edited by Ken Bruen
Priest - Ken Bruen
Incidences - Daniel Kharms
These Are Our Lives - Ed. Declan Meade
Remainder - Tom McCarthy

You can read more at the following link http://www.technorati.com/search/Irishblogsandbooks .

2006-12-19T12:57:00.000Z

Madrid

All packed ipod ready. Hall it up to the airport. Wait in line to check in. Security check. Buzz buzz. Empty pockets. A nod of approval. Wait in departure lounge. Told to board. Fall asleep on plane. Wake in Madrid. Queue to get off. Collect luggage off carousel.

D to meet me at the arrivals. “Welcome to Madrid”. Walk through the terminal. Down escalator, stand on the right. Buy ticket for metro take line to Nuevos Ministerios. Change at Colombia. Get out at Cruz del Rayo.

Walk through Madrid evening to D’s apartment. “Drink?”
“Why not!”

“Dos” and two more. Feeling tired.

“Apartment next door”. Open front door. First floor, second floor, third floor, clunk. Click. “Mi casa”. Spare bed, lie down. “Food?” “Sure”. Eat and talk. Sleep and change.“Where?” “Here”.

Open door, out and into the Madrid city night.

2006-12-05T16:21:00.000Z

I’m officially in mourning due to the fact that last Sunday my beloved Saint Pats we’re beaten 4-3 by Derry City in the final of the FAI Cup. Three times the Saints lead the match and three times they were pulled back and finally over hauled in the second half of extra time.

Oh well. Whats another year?

2006-11-30T12:55:00.000Z

It seems that the Poetry Slam in Westmoreland Street has come to an end. The venue (pub) where the slam formally took place has been bought over or else is under new management. Now the Poetry Slam has been replaced by a students night. Cheap beer is victorious over verse.

2006-11-22T15:37:00.000Z

One thousand year dawn (Marcel) by John Gerrard. Currently on display in the Royal Hibernian Academy. This interactive exhibition runs from 17 November to 7 January 2007.

2006-11-17T09:29:00.000Z

Number 1: Life is wonderful, travelling into work every morning listening to The Clash and The Undertones on Phantom FM.

Number 2: I've added a new link. It's entitled Phil Pankov's Dublin Photos. The photos consist of various black and white views of our Fair City and beyond. We highly recommend you view. Spectular.

2006-11-13T12:53:00.000Z

Late Sunday night. A bar in Dublin’s Liberties. A guy at the counter wears a poppy. He’s been at the memorial service in Patrick’s Cathedral. Behind the bar there’s a photograph from 1967 of Glasgow Celtic FC. The Lisbon Lions. There’s a tv in the corner showing a football match, Barcelona against Real Zaragoza. A Polish couple sitting beside us quietly enjoy the last drink of the weekend. They’re looking at the football match, looking at each other.

My friend Des is up at the bar ordering the drinks. I glace at the wall and see an advertisement for the 1949 All Ireland Football Final between Cavan and Kerry. The match took place in the Polo Grounds in New York.

Des comes back from and we resume our conversation. Once upon a time this pub was strictly an aul lads haunt. Show your pension book and you’d be guaranteed a pint. A real Dublin local. That was before the days of the Celtic Tiger. Our economic success. Those were the days when the Irish decamped themselves throughout the world. The whole world comes to the Emerald Isle now.

Suddenly all eyes are glued to the t.v. In the space of a minuet the referee has sent off two players. One from each side. Barcelona are awarded a free kick. Ronaldhino stands over the ball. He takes the free. Lets rip. The ball flies at a seemingly impossible angle into the Zaragoza net.

Rohaldinho runs to the touchline to celebrate with his team mates. In Dublin the pub explodes. An eruption of clapping. The man with the poppy is gesturing to his friends “See that” he says “See that”. They nod in agreement. No point in arguing. A local in the corner mouths “Incredible”. The Polish guy mutters something and looks like he can’t believe his eyes. I sit there smiling, for one night at least, my faith in football renewed. Even Des who doesn’t know the first thing about football, but who enjoys the spectacle, appreciates Ronaldhino’s efforts.

Ten minuets later from another free Rohaldinho almost repeats the same trick. On this occasion he hits the crossbar but one of his team mates scores from the rebound. The final whistle blows and in Dublin’s Liberties clapping erupts once more.

Poppies and Glasgow Celtic. The Polo Grounds in New York and Ronaldinho. A couple from Poland and a local there from time immemorial. A pub in Dublin on a Sunday night.

2006-11-06T14:29:00.000Z

Absurdist Writing no. 564A

First man: What time is it?
Second man: One red Toyota van

2006-11-03T08:51:00.000Z

The Librarian by Arcimboldo