My Book Reviews

                                            Some months back, I reviewed James Joyce ’s Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man ,  and in this post, I wish to review Roddy Doyle ’s Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha . The reason I am comparing these two novels is that I believe that despite the latter’s criticism of Joyce’s being vastly overrated, Doyle himself has been influenced by the master in no less a technique than that of stream of consciousness which he uses in such a skilled way as to bring us into the thoughts, feelings and observations of a young boy.   Paddy Clarke, our protagonist, is a boy who just turns ten years of age during this short novel.   He is not just telling us his story; he is the story.   Narrator and text are wonderfully intertwined here. In other books like Portofino (1992) by Frank Schaeffer ,  Here , Catcher in the Rye (1951) by J.D...

  "Homo homini lupus", an ancient Latin quotation, which translates to "Man is a wolf to man," gained recognition through Thomas Hobbes , who used it in his political philosophy to describe the brutal nature of humanity in a state of nature (the exact opposite belief to that of Jean Jacques Rousseau ), before the establishment of society and government.   This quotation in English also appears in Randall Jarrell 's poem " Eighth Air Force ". Jarrell uses this phrase to convey the idea that people can be predatory and cruel to one another, especially in the context of war and violence. My copy of this excellent read While the allusion to the ancient Roman author is not mentioned at all in the short novel Return of the Brute by Liam O'Flaherty , the cruelty of humankind to its fellow beings during war is very much to the foreground of this gripping and existential read: for “wolf” read “brute.” O’Flaherty had fought in the trenches during the Firs...

The Element: Finding Your Passion Changes Everything , written by Dr Ken Robinson with the assistance of Lou Aronica , (Penguin, London, 2009). In my thirties and forties, I was deeply invested in self-help books.   Understandable indeed, given that at that age I was somewhere between entering and enduring what is commonly termed the “ midlife crisis .”   I was then well aware of Carl Jung 's concept of the two halves of life, which suggested a distinct shift in focus as individuals progress through life. The first half, according to this analytical psychologist, is primarily concerned with building a strong ego and adapting to societal norms, while the second half involves turning inward, letting go of the ego, and seeking deeper meaning and purpose.   I have many self-help books on my shelves which I am in the process of weeding out, offering them to others, bringing them to the various incarnations of charity shops or simply dumping them in the recycle bin.   How...

My last two reviews in these pages were by two women writers, whom I, as a reader, have described as existentialist in their approach by providing a genuine insight into what it means to be a human being in the ordinary cut and thrust of everyday living, as well as providing us with interesting stories. Existentialism is, then, a comprehensive approach that emphasises the actual experiences of living as reflected upon by those who belong to this school of thinking.  It emphasises individuality, freedom and responsibility.  We do not receive our individuality or selfhood complete or fully shaped.  Rather, the existential call is to make, form, shape or create our essential "self."  This is the burden of freedom, according to Jean-Paul Sartre .  In this regard, he underlined one central tenet of existentialism, that is, that "existence precedes essence," that we simply don't have a predetermined purpose or essence.  We are condemned, as Sartre put it, to exe...

The novel Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively makes for a suitable companion novel to  The Gathering . As it happens, Ms Lively won the Man Booker Prize with this novel. I mention this because the last book I reviewed in these pages, The Gathering by Anne Enright , also won the exact same prize. While the latter won in 2007, the former received her award in 1987, precisely 20 years before.  "Moon Tiger" is, in fact, a mosquito repellent and the name refers to a specific type of mosquito coil that was used in Egypt during World War 1 and for some time afterwards. The name was also popularised by Penelope Lively's novel, in which the coil is described as a green, glowing, slow-burning repellent.  We can conclude that the title of the book is a metaphor for the persistence of certain memories and how they, too, are on a slow burn as our flame of life is slowly extinguished.   Both novels have a lot in common. They are written by fiercely intelligent and intense women. B...

I remember a commentator once remarking that Beckett’s Waiting For Godot was a play where “nothing happens…twice.” Anne Enright ’s novel is similar because the plot is not overly complicated, and, in fact, not much happens in this novel. Let me explain by first offering a prosaic summary. After some pages, the narrator introduces herself to us as Veronica Hegarty . She is the one who is responsible for gathering all the clan together - there are some twelve siblings in her family - for the funeral and wake of her brother Liam . She has been the closest in age and sympathy to Liam, and his death has really shaken her up badly. The novel recounts how she sets about contacting her siblings and breaking the news to her mother.  It also relates her coming to terms with her own ageing and mortality, as well as detailing the state of her relationship with her husband and how she copes with being a mother. All the while, she is flitting back and forth through three generations of her fami...