A Jewish Patriot
An Irish-Jewish Politician, Joyce’s Dublin, and Ulysses: The Life and Times of Albert L. Altman, by Neil R Davison, University Press of Florida, 173 pp, $85, ISBN: 978-0813069555 Albert Altman (1853-1903) was born in what he called ‘Prussian Poland’ (probably the Duchy of Posen, which had a large Jewish population) and came to Ireland most […]
Rule by Kindness
When the idea of reviewing Tom Dunne’s memoir was put to me, I hesitated. Years ago, I had resolved not to review books written by friends or close acquaintances. On the whole, despite, some regrets, it made life simpler and the expression of opinion less fraught. Where or how, in any case, did Tom […]
Reality Bites
Emily Nussbaum is a Pulitzer-prize-winning writer at The New Yorker magazine who has specialised in TV criticism. Her current book, Cue the Sun, recounts and analyses the invention and growth of ‘Reality’ TV, and the far-reaching implications of that development –– both on and off our TV screens. Her book’s enigmatic title comes from […]
A Vertical Letter
Mondrian: His Life, His Art, His Quest for the Absolute, by Nicholas Fox Weber, Alfred A Knopf, 639 pp, £33, ISBN: 978-0307961594 ‘Van Gogh and Gauguin were having an argument about whether physical pain was worse than spiritual pain,’ explained Mondrian. ‘Van Gogh said physical pain was nothing. And to prove it, then and there, […]
Spurning the Dust
Hotel Lux: An Intimate History of Communism’s Forgotten Radicals, by Maurice J Casey, Footnote Press, 404 pp, £22, ISBN: 978-804440995 Travellers of the World Revolution: A Global History of the Communist International, by Brigitte Studer, Verso Books, 496 pp, £30, ISBN: 978-1839768019 American Girls in Red Russia: Chasing the Soviet Dream, by Julia L […]
A Failure to Return
John Montague: A Poet’s Life, by Adrian Frazier, Lilliput Press, 500 pp, €24.95, ISBN: 978-1843519102 A serious biography, properly considered, is a very curious kind of book. It takes a certain nerve on the part of the author to venture on what the reader must hope will be a fair, accurate and considered account of […]
Uncanny Valley
One of the strangest things about our current moment is the seemingly abrupt right turn of the tech industry in support of the Trump administration’s authoritarian project. This is especially unsettling for Irish people, long used to being the affable middleman between a welcoming America and a more alien Europe. Those of us who see […]
The Mysterious Alice Munro
In July 2024, three months after Alice Munro died, her daughter, Andrea Munro Skinner, published an essay in the Toronto Star, revealing that her mother’s husband and her own stepfather, Gerald Fremlin, had sexually abused her when she was a child. Sixteen years after the abuse occurred Alice Munro was told of it. She decided […]