How our book reviewers saw it
Bayley is a good, at times a great, critic, and we should be grateful for this collection
John Banville on The Power of Delight - A Lifetime in Literature: Essays 1962-2002, by John Bayley (Duckworth). May 7th
Can Bill Cullen's book change the lives of those who read it? For my money, the answer is yes. I found it a charming, down-to-earth guide to getting on in life
Feargal Quinn on Golden Apples: Six Simple Steps to Success, by Bill Cullen (above) (Hodder & Stoughton). May 7th
Richly inventive and forcefully ironic, Notes from a Coma establishes McCormack as one of the most original and important voices in contemporary Irish fiction
Liam Harte on Notes from a Coma, by Mike McCormack (Jonathan Cape). May 14th
Read and reread and reach for your superlatives: in all senses Watermark is a sheer physical experience
John Kenny on Watermark, by Seán O'Reilly (The Stinging Fly Press). May 21st
He is challenging on 1798, Wolfe Tone and the fictions of history. And he is most powerful of all in evoking the spirit of dead friends
Declan Kiberd on There You Are: Writings on Irish and American Literature and History, by Thomas Flanagan, edited by Christopher Cahill (New York Review Books). May 21st
No writer does wistful like Banville
John Kenny on The Sea, by John Banville (Picador). May 28th
Burke's narrative is timely. Published by the Currach Press, it is an extraordinary document
Damien Kiberd on Press Delete: The Decline and Fall of the Irish Press, by Ray Burke (Currach Press). June 4th
The "stern memory" which Lynch insists upon is what makes Pity for the Wicked such a deeply troubling work, both as self-doubting poem and as politically charged document; not so much a wake-up call as a shattering alarm in the middle of the night
Gerald Dawe on Brian Lynch's poetry volume, Pity for the Wicked (The Duras Press). June 4th
Wild Swans is still banned in China and this book will suffer the same fate
Miriam Donohoe on Mao: The Unknown Story, by Jung Chang (above) and Jon Halliday (Cape). June 11th
The book is also, incident- ally, as it were a vividly dispiriting account of Ireland in the war years
John Banville on A Game With Sharpened Knives, by Neil Belton (above) (Weidenfeld & Nicolson). June 11th
A songman whose pen is indeed mightier than anyone else's sword
Siobhán Long on The Songman: A Journey in Irish Music, by Tommy Sands (Lilliput Press). June 18th
An enjoyable, readable account of five 20th-century Irish spats, mercifully excluding the riots over the opening night of Synge's Playboy
Terry Eagleton on The Irish Art of Controversy, by Lucy McDiarmid (Lilliput Press). June 25th
By the end of her account, I was almost convinced the tiger is Nature's supreme creation, much nicer than you and I
Patrick Skene Catling on Tigers in Red Weather, by Ruth Padel (above) (Little,Brown). July 2nd
Thriller writers beware: there's a new kid on the block in the person of Irish author Alex Barclay, young, beautiful - and boy can she write
Vincent Banville on Darkhouse, by Alex Barclay (HarperCollins). July 9th
A reading of Ciaran Carson's Cúirt reinforces my sense of how serious a poem this is
Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin on Ciaran Carson's rendering of Merriman's Cúirt an Mheán Oíche (Gallery Press). July 30th
Like O'Toole, Johnson was a man of immense talent and boundless energy
Patrick Griffin on White Savage: William Johnson and the Invention of America, by Fintan O'Toole (Faber). August 6th
This is an indispensable book for anyone with an interest in 20th-century Irish writing
Louis de Paor on Trén bhFearann Breac: An Díláithriú Cultúir agus Nualitríocht na Gaeilge, by Máirín Nic Eoin (Cois Life). August 6th
There is fresh information here
Eavan Boland on Anna of All the Russias: The Life of Anna Akhmatova, by Elaine Feinstein (Weidenfeld & Nicolson). August 20th
The facts of Lynch's retrieved family history achieve at times the inspiration of legend
James Liddy on Booking Passage: We Irish and Americans, by Thomas Lynch (Cape). Sept 10th
Series continues next week