Kafka on the Shore

Finished Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami. And I am left scratching my head and asking myself what was it all about. It wasn’t so much the talking cats that I had a problem with or that the eponymous 15-year-old character had sex with his mother and sister...

Women – Bukowski

Finished Women by Charles Bukowski, a hilarious romp about women, sex, drugs and alcohol, written in the first person by Bukowski’s semi-autobiographical character, Henry Chinaski. On ego & ‘greatness’ Chinaski reflects: “There is a problem with writers. If...

Treasure Island

Finished Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson and I was transported back to Glen Road CBS in the mid-sixties, innocence, reading, and being off in other worlds. The film of the book I always associate with Robert Newton in the role of Long John Silver. And, of...

‘Where there’s singing…’

Finished Child of All Nations by Irmgard Keun (pic, left), which was first published in Germany in 1938 before being banned, and which is told from eight-year-old Kully’s point of view, the daughter of exiled/wandering emigré parents whose father is a writer, a...

Féile 25 Programme launched

Faithless [pic] playing this August at Féile 25. The programme was launched last Monday. Speakers included Caral Ni Chuilin [Minister for Arts and Culture], Mairtin O Muilleoir [Mayor of Belfast] and festival founder Gerry Adams TD. Good crowd at Conway Mill and great...

Mike Philpott on Rudi

Mike Philpott, the writer, commentator and presenter, has written a review of Rudi – In The Shadow of Knulp which has been published on Eamonn Mallie’s popular website and can be seen here. This is the text of Mike’s review: Sentences in novels don’t come more...