AN ISLAND OF STORYTELLERS
And take it from Roddy Doyle: “Ireland is a small island, but there’s more than one way to tell an Irish story.”
Allen Barra writes about books and film for Truthdig, the Atlantic, The Daily Beast, the Guardian, Salon, and the New Republic. He was recently cited by the National Arts and Journalism Awards for literary and film criticism. He has written about sports for The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, the Guardian, and Sports Illustrated. HIs book Mickey and Willie: The Parallel Lives of the Golden Age of Baseball was nominated for a PEN/ESPN award for literary sportswriting.
THE BEST BRITON?
Erik Larson’s enthralling history of the British prime minister’s leadership during the darkest days of World War II is not likely to be surpassed.
GHOSTS
Because nothing says holiday cheer like tuberculosis and an awareness of our own mortality.
WHO HE?
All the chatter about who will replace Daniel Craig as 007 exposes the central question of who exactly this suave spy is. To answer that, you have to go back to the novels.
DEMYTHOLOGIZING
A new contrarian history sets the record straight: The battle of the Alamo was part of an uprising to extend slavery. And from a military point of view, it was just plain dumb.
ARMCHAIR TRAVELER
The celebrated English author G.K. Chesterton traveled around the U.S. on a lecture tour in 1921. The farther he traveled, the more he saw to like, despite Prohibition.
STAR CROSSED
Patrick Kavanagh wrote a poem about his unrequited love that became the popular song “On Raglan Road,” which in turn helped make Kavanagh perhaps Ireland’s most famous poet.
BETTER ANGEL
Biographer Sidney Blumenthal talks to The Daily Beast about a pre-Civil War America where Jefferson Davis demanded both Lincoln and Douglas be lynched.
BIG MEH
The literary and social critic’s magnum opus, ‘Sexual Personae,’ landed like a bombshell. Her latest collection lands with a thud.
BLOAT
He never goes out of print. He’s still taught in schools. But most of his novels look more ponderous and posturing (silly, even) with each passing year. Ah, but those stories.
