Fiction

Don Quixote is the best book out there on political theory, followed by Hamlet and Macbeth. There is no better way to understand the tragedy and the comedy of the Mexican political system than Hamlet, Macbeth and Don Quixote. They're much better than any column of political analysis.

Subcomandante Marcos

Tuesday, 15 September 2020 09:04

All Quiet on the Western Front

Written by Jenny Farrell

in Fiction

Jenny Farrell introduces the famous anti-war book, as we near the 50th anniversary of Erich Maria Remarque's death. Image by Photofest World War I was termed the war that would end all wars, so great was the horror of this new, diabolical stage of industrial annihilation. We know now that…

Saturday, 22 August 2020 19:26

'History Lite': Hilary Mantel's Cromwell trilogy

Written by John Green

in Fiction

John Green reviews Hilary Mantel’s trilogy of historical novels. The above image is Hans Holbein's 1530s portrait of Thomas Cromwell Hilary Mantel’s trilogy on the life of Henry VIII’s secretary, Thomas Cromwell (1485 –1540), has been widely praised, and the first two volumes each won the Booker Prize for fiction.…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Sunday, 16 August 2020 07:41

A lesser evil

in Fiction

Written by Chris Norris

13th October 2040 Dear Richard, I know it must be weird and more than slightly disturbing to receive a ‘letter from beyond the grave’, but I trust you won’t be seriously spooked by it, not after all those years as a hospital doctor like me and some of the strange,…

Covid19 Boris Johnson

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Tuesday, 04 August 2020 09:23

Giovanni Boccaccio, writing at a time of plague

in Fiction

Written by Jenny Farrell

Jenny Farrell gives the historical background to Boccaccio's work The Black Plague was the most devastating pandemic ever recorded, resulting in the deaths of between 75-125 million people. It peaked in Europe between 1347 and 1351, having come on Italian merchant ships from Asia via the Silk Road. In fact,…

Venice Black Death Covid19 Chaucer

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Sunday, 02 August 2020 09:09

Hollywood corruption in the McCarthy period: Left of Eden

in Fiction

Written by Paul Simon

Paul Simon reviews Dennis Broe's new novel Author Dennis Broe is an international expert on film noir and an acclaimed socialist writer, as his dialectical and highly readable contributions to this website and his reviews for the Morning Star evidence. In his first novel Left of Eden, his expansive knowledge…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Monday, 06 July 2020 07:19

The Gadfly: An Irishwoman’s novel about revolutionaries

in Fiction

Written by Jenny Farrell

Jenny Farrell remembers Ethel Voynich, who died 60 years ago this month, and who wrote The Gadfly – An Irishwoman’s novel about revolutionaries Liam Mellows read this novel of revolution while awaiting his execution, along with the other condemned and his comrades. He had been imprisoned by the Irish Free…

Wednesday, 24 June 2020 07:54

Land of Change: call out for Welsh anthology of radical writing

Written by Gemma June Howell

in Fiction

Gemma June Howell issues a call out for a new collection of radical writing from Wales. The above painting is The Rising by Gustavius Payne We are in an era of pestilence and protest, exacerbated by the social and economic inequalities laid bare by the coronavirus. As statues and other…

Tuesday, 19 May 2020 07:55

The Gael becomes Irish: the long-term consequences of colonisation

Written by Jenny Farrell

in Fiction

Jenny Farrell reviews Tomás Mac Síomóin's The Gael Becomes Irish: An Unfinished Odyssey, Nuascéalta, 2020. “The Gael Becomes Irish”is Tomás Mac Síomóin’s latest publication, and it continues his epic effort to detail the almost unfathomable effect that colonisation has had on the Irish psyche and culture. By doing so, he…

Thursday, 14 May 2020 10:51

Melissa Diem: what it means to be human

Written by Fran Lock

in Fiction

Fran Lock continues her series of interviews with under-represented feminist writers and artists, with an interview with the writer, artist, film-maker and photographer Melissa Diem Melissa Diem was born in New York and has lived in Ireland since she was twelve. She has a degree in psychology and an MPhil…

Monday, 11 May 2020 09:09

Charles Dickens and working-class literature

Written by Jenny Farrell

in Fiction

Jenny Farrell discusses Charles Dickens, the first English novelist to put ordinary people at the heart of the story This month marks the 150th anniversary of the death of Charles Dickens, who was born in 1812, during the Napoleonic Wars. Although his authorial perspective was always rooted in the petty-bourgeois…