A literary roundup
Huston and Greer add to Summer’s Wreath
The actor and director Anjelica Huston (pictured), the feminist and academic Germaine Greer and the singer and composer Gavin Friday are among the contributors to the annual celebration of William Butler Yeats that runs all next month at the National Library of Ireland, in Dublin. Summer's Wreath offers free readings, lectures and performances, plus, this year, many female contributors, to echo the poet's complex relationships with women throughout his life. It starts next Wednesday at 7.30pm when Huston, in conversation with the broadcaster John Kelly, will talk about her love of Yeats's poetry. Greer, author of one of the most influential texts of the feminist movement, The Female Eunuch,will deliver a lecture, Yeats and Women: Desire and Dread, on Wednesday, June 23rd, also at 7.30pm. Other participants include the singer Nóirín Ní Riain , the author Abbot Mark Patrick Hederman, the actor David Kelly, the writers Polly Devlin and Brian Keenan, the politician Mary O'Rourke and the critic Brian Fallon. Though free, some events must be booked in advance. Call 01-6030277 or visit nli.ie for bookings or a brochure.
McEwan’s ‘Solar’ scoops Wodehouse prize
Ian McEwan, who's in Dublin on Tuesday to speak at Dublin Writers Festival, this week won the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction with his new novel, Solar. McEwan was picked from a shortlist that included the Irish novelist Paul Murray for Skippy Dies. Previous winners include Paul Torday and Marina Lewycka. The award celebrates the novel felt to best capture the comic spirit of PG Wodehouse. The prize includes lots of Bollinger and, in a quirky tradition, a pig that gets named after the winning novel. At least this year's pig gets a decent name. It must have been harder for those christened after A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainianand Salmon Fishing in the Yemen.
‘Second Readings’: talk by Eileen Battersby
Did fate ever treat an individual more cruelly than it battered Ethan Frome? Do we as readers engage more closely with grief, nostalgia, pain, violence, alienation, loneliness and regret than with happiness? These are the kinds of issues that engage this paper's Literary Correspondent, Eileen Battersby – issues she elaborates on in her recent book of literary criticism, Second Readings – 52: From Beckett to Black Beauty(Liberties Press). Readers can hear her talk about reading in general, rereading classic titles, and the selection of books in her book at the Royal Irish Academy, on Dawson Street in Dublin, next Tuesday at 6pm. For a free ticket e-mail RIA@LibertiesPress.com.
Bestseller clinches spot on non-fiction shortlist
It's a sign of the times that one of the shortlisted titles for the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction announced this week is a bestselling book on the global financial crisis. Too Big to Fail: Inside the Battle to Save Wall Streetis the first book by 32-year-old Andrew Ross Sorkin, the chief mergers- and-acquisitions reporter for the New York Times. The other contenders are Alex's Adventures in Numberland, by Alex Bellos; Nothing to Envy,by Barbara Demick ; Blood Knots, by Luke Jennings; A Gambling Man, by Jenny Uglow; and Catching Fire,by Richard Wrangham. The result will be announced on July 1st, with the winner receiving £20,000 (€24,000) and each of the other five shortlisted authors £1,000 (€1,200).
