‘Greek Lessons is a puzzle... I’m unable to decide whether some truth about language has been excavated in the book—but also whether that was ever the point.’
Criticism 8th June 2023
‘Janet Malcolm wasn’t so much a critic as a journalist, an actual journalist—by which I mean, an investigative reporter—who rang people up or met them in person, composed and asked questions, took notes, owned one Dictaphone at least.’
Criticism 5th April 2023
‘It is hard to think, that’s Kelman’s point, but you have to. Your freedom depends on it. The problem is that when you start to think, which is usually when the bad stuff starts to happen, when you fuck up or you get fucked, and who can say which comes first, you realise that the words you use to think are not your own, they have been shoved down your throat. You have to learn to think for yourself. In your own terms.’
Criticism 23rd February 2023
In this fine set of essays, Colm Tóibín's ebullience and intelligence is consistently apparent.
Criticism 8th February 2023
‘One requires only a few moments in the Cohenverse to grasp that here is perhaps the only person in the world with the discipline, intelligence, and voracity to render even the most exacting of inner critics speechless.’
Criticism 25th January 2023
Contributors: Dizz Tate, Olivia Fitzsimons, Danielle McLaughlin, Jill Crawford, Neil Hegarty, Angelique Tran Van Sang, Anna Walsh, Mia Gallagher, Thomas Morris, Kevin Power, Niamh Campbell, Ian Maleney, John Patrick McHugh, Mary Morrissy, Tadhg Hoey, Susannah Dickey, Sean O'Reilly
‘Negative Space is a memoir of sorts, a record of a time of life and its catastrophes, but its main concern is contemporary art. Or, rather, the embodying of those spirits and effluents given off by art.’
Criticism 8th December 2022
‘What to write about a new work that does not entirely excite or thrill, from one of the most exciting and thrilling writers of the last ten, twenty years?’
Criticism 8th June 2022
Louise Kennedy's mordant debut novel is visceral, powerful, and full of compassion.
Criticism 20th April 2022
Saba Sams's vibrant collection explores the narratives we construct for ourselves—and the narratives others construct for us.
Criticism 16th March 2022
Sean O'Reilly on the reissue of Thomas Kinsella's ‘Butcher's Dozen’ to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday: “a timely reminder that the past has to be fought for and poetry is not beyond lending a hand.”
Fran Lock's latest collection is a multivocal hybrid affected by grief, longing, rage, abjection.
Criticism 1st December 2021
"We love Ross O'Carroll-Kelly! Should we?" — Kevin Power considers the evolving fates and functions of the Ross O'Caroll Kelly novels, which to date have sold over a million copies.
Criticism 30th October 2021
Bebe Ashley's debut poetry collection "is an ambitious meditation on music, fandom, projection, and yes, Harry Styles".
Criticism 30th September 2021
Lisa McInerney finds many wonders in Tice Cin's transgressive debut novel which "dodges the usual rules of storytelling".
Criticism 16th September 2021
As an "informal experiment", Kevin Power examines Megan Nolan's debut novel – and its reviews – and reflects on the purpose and meaning of literary criticism.
Criticism 23rd June 2021
In Neil Jordan's new novel, the author invents the psyche of an enslaved Black person, "a task as ambitious as it is awkward for a white man to do".
Criticism 12th May 2021
To sit through Adam Curtis's latest offering is to experience a work of art that is alternately lush, oneiric, austere, startling, thrilling, amusing, persuasive, shocking, glib, beautiful.
Criticism 15th April 2021
Conor O'Callaghan's "propulsive" novel is about the process of coming to see—coming to understand—the recent past.
Criticism 31st March 2021
If a Kevin Barry character declares themselves a romantic, they’re generally headed for trouble.
Criticism 10th March 2021
To watch Hilary Mantel go to work on the world is one of contemporary literature’s unalloyed pleasures.
Criticism 10th February 2021
Derek Mahon's collection is the culmination of a life dedicated to language, the final word from an extraordinary talent.
Criticism 21st January 2021
Doireann Ní Ghríofa's 'exhilarating' prose debut investigates the inherited script of motherhood and the occluded history of Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonnaill.
Criticism 25th November 2020
In her latest exploration of racial imaginaries in the US, Claudia Rankine stresses the importance of difficult conversations in the face of racist state violence.
Criticism 10th November 2020
Caitlín Doherty follows some mystical threads through recent occult-inspired poetry and publishing.
Criticism 30th October 2020
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