Marilynne Robinson isn’t exactly a prolific author. Since 1981 she’s published four books: two novels, a book of nonfiction on the nuclear industry in the UK, and a collection of essays. However, her first novel, Housekeeping, is acknowledged as an “American classic.” (I’m not sure if that accolade is a guarantor of excellence–I’ve just finished […]

The extensive, some might say endless, coverage of the Pope’s passing has focused on the fortitude of the man facing pain and death. These discussions of the Pontiff’s suffering usually include reflections on how faith has provided solace, that the knowledge of an eternal afterlife makes the transient pain bearable. While there’s no gainsaying this […]

Way back in the mists of time (December 2004 actually), I was using this very space to bitch about the Department of Transport for failing to reply to a blustering e-mail I had sent two weeks previously.* At the time I thought it was a particularly futile demand, asking someone in authority to explain how […]

One of the more irritating aspects of Ian McEwan’s novel, Saturday (which I discussed last Saturday), was the rather overblown meditations of the protagonist, Henry Perowne, on the fragility of Western civilization in the face of fundamentalist terror. As he drives through the London streets, he can’t help but think that this affluent tranquility could […]

The long-awaited interview (well, long awaited by Andrew at ThreeMonkeysOnline) with David Mitchell is now available here. The issue has also achieved a bit of a coup in getting an interview with critics’ darlings, Mercury Rev. There’s plenty of more stuff, including an unusually insightful discussion with Nell McCafferty, that shows a different side from […]

Ian McEwan’s latest has been exhaustively reviewed in both Ireland and Britain since its release and it’s now getting fairly respectful notices in the U.S. I don’t have much too add, except two, related things that struck me when I read an interview with McEwan by Adam Begley, which appeared in the insiderish New York […]

For a while I’ve been mystified by the political cartoons of Steve Bell that regularly appear in The Guardian. Because I simply don’t get them, I was inclined to think that they operated on the level of a private joke with the more enlightened readership of that esteemed organ. Recently, however (mainly because I’m reluctant […]

Having spotted some samples on sale in Waterstones today, I recalled that there seems to be quite a cult of the Moleskine notebook on the Web. The company’s site boasts that mere mortals can avail of the same products “used by Van Gogh, Chatwin*, Hemingway, Matisse and C�line” (the writer, not to be confused with […]

It’s not the most original of behaviours for a visitor just returned from Italy to trill arias of enthusiasm for the lifestyle of the peninsula. However, what struck me, despite my friend (who actually lives there) confirming the stories that the economy is in the pits, was the seeming unshakeable prosperity of the place. Of […]