Perusing the papers
Nice round up by David Maybury!
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Review of The Big O by Declan Burke
Declan is great!
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Bloomsday has kicked off!
Indeed it did/will!
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Review: The Dead Republic by Roddy Doyle
WAS there ever such a man as Henry Smart? It is a question that has nagged at the hero of Roddy Doyle’s trilogy, which is completed with this book, from the moment he first appeared, a decade ago, in A Star Called Henry.
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Does IMPAC have an impact?
Nice article by Sinead Gleeson on the IPMAC awards and not just because Irish Publishing News gets a mention!
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Nobody Move, This Is A Review: Brooklyn’s Finest (18s)
Three Brooklyn cops have very different careers: Eddie (Richard Gere), about to retire, no longer cares about doing the right thing; undercover drug agent Sal (Ethan Hawke) is bending the rules until they break; while Tango (Don Cheadle) is so far undercover that he’s beginning to forget who the good guys are.
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A writer at a ‘slight angle to the trend’
THE FALL, by Anthony Cronin:MEMOIRIST, BIOGRAPHER, critic, journalist, novelist (whose comic masterpiece The Life Of Reillyis being re-issued later this year), tireless agitator for the arts in the public and political spheres, inspirational figure to generations of Irish writers – Anthony Cronin is all of these things. But the publication of this, his 12th volume of poetry, is a timely reminder of the fact that poetry has always been his core business.
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Riding the Tiger
We’ve been waiting for some time for a novel about the Celtic Tiger. Our best writers — Banville, Toibin, O’Connor, Colum McCann — have all been stuck in the past. But here at last is a novel that exposes what the boom did to us, the way we completely lost the run of ourselves as the property bubble made us (briefly) rich. It’s all here, the corrupt nexus of politicians, developers and bankers, the greed, the vulgarity, the 4x4s and trophy homes, the drink, the drugs, the sex.
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Review: Capital Sins by Peter Cunningham
We’ve been waiting for some time for a novel about the Celtic Tiger. Our best writers — Banville, Toibin, O’Connor, Colum McCann — have all been stuck in the past. But here at last is a novel that exposes what the boom did to us, the way we completely lost the run of ourselves as the property bubble made us (briefly) rich. It’s all here, the corrupt nexus of politicians, developers and bankers, the greed, the vulgarity, the 4x4s and trophy homes, the drink, the drugs, the sex.
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Review: Falling Slowly by Robert Fannin
The first few pages of Robert Fannin’s second novel are slow and ponderous as he sets the scene — Trollope-style — in Bristol. Then the pace suddenly quickens and tension rises as protagonist Desmond Doyle finds his girlfriend, Daphne, dead in the bath, having cut her wrists. There are inconsistencies in her wounds and the devastated Doyle is arrested on suspicion of murder.
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Review: Rules for a Perfect Life by Niamh Greene
Niamh Greene’s playful sense of fun has already made her a bestseller with her earlier books like Secret Diary of a Demented Housewife and Letters to a Love Rat. The demented diaries was a huge hit with stressed out Yummy Mummies both here and in the UK and sold over 80,000 copies.
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