Review: Tinker Tailor, Soldier Spy
"Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" is out now in the UK, December in the US 1973. The opening scene of “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” tastes like a can of ox-tail soup washed down with whiskey and 40 fags....
Category: Europe
Review: Jamrach’s Menagerie by Carol Birch
Jamrach's Menagerie, by Carol Birch, Doubleday 2011. Jaffy Brown has lived all of his short life among the streets and sewers of London. Everything changes one day when he encounters a tiger in the...
Review: Terry Eagleton – Why Marx Was Right
With riots and revolutions—wrought, some have argued, by the inequities of capitalism—dominating the headlines, Terry Eagleton’s Why Marx Was Right enters into the fray at the right time. In...
Review: The Politics of Down Syndrome by Kieron Smith
The Politics of Down Syndrome (Kieron Smith, Zer0, 2011) is an attempt at a primer on some of the social, ethical, and political issues that surround Down syndrome. With chapters on prenatal...
Inspector Lewis returns to Oxford (and PBS)
Inspector Lewis returns to PBS next week with a fourth season brought over from the United Kingdom’s ITV, a frequent PBS content partner, as fans of Downton Abbey may be aware. Lewis, adapted from...
How Doctor Who became Nurse Rory
RORY: Just point and think. AMY: But what do I think? — Doctor Who, “Let’s Kill Hitler.” It’s usually hard to pinpoint the exact moment when a beloved TV series goes off the rails. Fans...
Review: Esi Edugyan’s Half Blood Blues
Esi Edugyan’s Half Blood Blues (Serpent’s Tail, 2011) is one of the more outstanding entries on this year’s Booker Prize longlist. A lyrical, complex, layered narrative of friendship, betrayal,...
What Argentina’s economic crisis could teach the West
In 2001, Argentina was in the middle of a very serious social and economic turmoil. The population had seen their pensions taken away or reduced to amounts that could barely cover basic living...
Why riot and not revolt? Protest and the London Riots
Apparently the 80s are back in vogue, again. With a Tory government sitting in Parliament--or rather, holidaying in Tuscany as David Cameron was--rioting is again occurring on the streets of London....
Beyond Retro: The Artistry of Amy Winehouse
In the week since the death of English singer Amy Winehouse much newsprint, or the virtual equivalent, has been spent on her struggles with substance abuse. The analysis of her music, such as it is,...