DOUGLAS FIELD relishes the hard-boiled language, satire and humour of the third and last of the Harlem trilogy
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Ireland’s finest female renegade
FIONA O’CONNOR treasures the work of Edna O’Brien for the depth of evocation of psychologies, desires and losses among ordinary lives
AGAINST BRAINWASHING: (L) Magdalen Laundry in Ireland, early 20th century; (R) Edna O’Brien in 2015
[Public Domain; Alessio Jacon/CC]
STEPHANIE BROWN draws attention to the hidden labour of the female embroiderers, and how a 19th century replica made no such error
MIK SABIERS revels in a band that ploughs an idiosyncratic furrow of expletive laden, guitar-driven alt rock
ANDY HEDGECOCK, MARIA DUARTE and ANGUS REID review Synthetic Sincerity, Our Hero, Balthazar, Heartstopper Forever, and A Year In London
The bard invites readers to a gig, raps for Clacton, and lays out the Burnham-Hurzeler conundrum
RON JACOBS recommends an important book that enhances the oppositional theories put forth by Fanon and, in doing so, remakes psychology itself
THE magnificent Edna O’Brien died last week. She was one of Ireland’s most talented writers — perhaps the most gifted female writer to be hounded out of Ireland in the 20th century. The role that London played in her career was integral, as sanctuary and the stimulus for her creative development, although this is rarely mentioned.
Edna O’Brien’s 1962 debut novel, The Country Girls, forever associated her with her country, its natural beauty and sexual repression. She related how it was written in a feverish three weeks on her arrival in London, as a farewell to Ireland.
She described her first impressions: “I had never been outside Ireland and it was November when I arrived in England. I found everything so different, so alien. Waterloo Station was full of people who were nameless, faceless. There were wreaths on the Cenotaph for Remembrance Sunday, and I felt bewildered and lost — an outsider.”
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