The latest releases reviewed
Preventing the Future by Tom Garvin Gill & Macmillan, €12.99
Why independent Ireland was so poor for so long is the question this book seeks to answer. Why did it take nearly 70 years to breed the Celtic Tiger? The obstacle to progress, according to Garvin, was a "blocking coalition" consisting of the Catholic Church, small farmers and the Irish-language lobby. An ageing political leadership didn't help. The crucial disaster was this coalition's opposition to the modernisation of education, particularly the introduction of scientific and technological education, with what were sparse resources anyway being wasted on Irish. Education was the key to Ireland's transition to economic success, the book argues. It also looks at the debate, among the developmentally minded, between those who favoured the role of the State and free marketeers. Garvin's scholarship is never less than stimulating and this book is no exception. Brian Maye
VS Pritchett: A Working Life by Jeremy Treglown Pimlico, £12.99
Jeremy Treglown's biography of one of the finest short story writers in English is superb. Though Pritchett agonised over the initial pages of his own memoirs, Treglown has no such trouble, moving swiftly to Pritchett's first job at the Christian Science Monitor's St Stephen's Green office in 1923. Pritchett did work steadily the world over as a journalist, essayist and author, and never apologised for earning from his gift. He would bemoan never having crossed paths with the likes of Joyce and Tsara when they all lived in Paris, but one suspects that the bohemian life would never have suited him; he was appalled by the grotty New York apartment of friend WH Auden, and got a thrill from living the high life with a succession of women. This account of his rise to literary success is honest and captivating. Pritchett deserves no less. Nora Mahony
Chancing It by Matthew Yorke Waywiser Press, £6.99
His family home is under threat, he is involved with the wrong girlfriend, his brother is in trouble - the cards are not falling teenager Steve Marsden's way, but as the odds stack up against him, at least he seems to have the gift of picking a winner at the bookie's. As in Yorke's first novel, The March Fence, which won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, a soulless northern English city is the backdrop to a struggle between unrewarding responsibilities and dreams of lucky escape; this time, though, the old industries and work habits have disappeared, and a deregulated and hugely popular gambling sector offers hope in the form of online casinos, lottery tickets, scratch cards, and whatever kind of bet you're having yourself. Yorke is both an astute, sometimes lyrical, observer of this environment and a deft storyteller, inexorably raising the stakes for his harassed but likeable characters until the last spin of the wheel. Giles Newington
Supreme Sacrifice: The Story of Éamonn Ceannt, 1881-1916 by William Henry Mercier Press, €16.95
This handsome, if uncritical, book captures something of the chaos and the courage of 1916. It has a thoughtful foreword by Éamon Ó Cuív. Otherwise, it covers well-trodden ground. There is not enough on the life of Éamonn Ceannt, the seventh signatory of the Proclamation, who remains an elusive figure. He was born in Co Galway, where his father was in the RIC. He joined the Gaelic League and became caught up in the war-mad spirit of the age. He was a member of the IRB military council that planned the Rising and would have liked to have been minister for war in a revolutionary government. On the eve of his execution Ceannt wrote in Kilmainham Jail that he thanked God soldiering for Ireland had opened his heart "and made me see poor humanity where I expected to see only scorn and reproach" - among the British troops against whom he had fought. Brendan Ó Cathaoir
Buster Keaton: Tempest in a Flat Hat by Edward McPherson Faber and Faber, £9.99
To his most ardent fans, and MacPherson is one, Keaton was the star of the silent era, towering above Chaplin whose work is seen as sentimental and shallow by comparison. MacPherson intersperses the story of Keaton's life with detailed critiques of the work. Unfortunately this disjointed approach precludes any real insight into Keaton's personality as MacPherson constantly breaks off for lengthy discussions of various films. By far the strongest section of the book is the beginning. The young Keaton's precocity was astonishing: in one incident, when he was nine months old, his vaudevillian parents had to literally tie the baby to a pole to stop him crawling on stage during their performance. It is a tribute to the subject that despite the book's limitations, his dynamism and immense talent shine through. Ken Walshe
Silvio Berlusconi: Television, Power and Patrimony by Paul Ginsborg Verso, £8.99
Silvio Berlusconi is Italy's prime minister, and its richest man, worth in the region of $12 billion. According to Ginsborg, he can be compared to Louis XIV, Mussolini, or "a modern signore, the despot of a Renaissance city state", presiding over a court of cronies, with the addition of modern methods, from branding to plastic surgery, to forward his interests. His political party is after all called Forza Italia, "Go Italy"; its colour, blue, matches the Italian football strip. But the owner of AC Milan football club has done much to prevent a level playing field in politics, Ginsborg argues. With elections due next year the 69-year-old may depart the political stage, but, says Ginsborg, in a postscript to this edition, Berlusconi's blurring of business, media and political interests is a warning for all democracies in the West. Ralph Benson