Posts
AMERICAN PRESIDENTS ET AL
Many people on our side of the Atlantic feel that they know
all about Donald Trump. But don’t get too carried away until you have
read Trump Rant by Belfast based author and man of many parts
Chris Agee. He is not an outsider looking in when writing about the
Donald. The author was born in San Francisco on a US Navy hospital ship
and grew up in Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island. And he points
out, “ . . . the book is surely informed by the strange fruit of four
decades of experience in Belfast, with all the concurrent lessons about
the dangers of violence and rabble-rousing. . . “
Why did he write this book? “Apart from a really
visceral hatred of the man himself, one thing is certain, we’re not
dealing here with hard politics, the stuff of journalists, politicians,
policy-wonks of the sort we hear every morning on the BBC- it’s much
more of a psycho-social, cultural portrait of Trumpists and Trumpistan
(including their media) as well as, of course, a picture of this strange
man’s highly complex temperament and life-psychology . . . “.
Poet Chris Preddle describes this work “Of this Poetry or Prose :take your pick,” (the authors own words) as
“ . . . a profusion of of insults and vituperation, what a cornucopia
of abuse, reproach, contempt, disgust and political and psychological
analysis. What an abundance of inventiveness and unfailing imagination
and versatility. I am reminded of the copious imaginative and colourful
execration one finds in Shakespeare.” High praise indeed, and well
deserved. No matter who you want to see making it to 1600 Pennsylvania
Avenue this is the book for you.
|
|
www.irishpages.org
* * * * *
And staying on the same side of the Atlantic there is another treat in store for you. Ask Not,
published by Mudlark and written by investigative journalist Maureen
Callaghan will prove to be a shock to many people in Ireland. In the
nineteen sixties a picture of JFK was on the wall of nearly every house
in Ireland beside that of the pope.
The opening paragraph alone is informative to say the least.
“This book is not ideological or partisan. It is about thirteen women
and a piece of American history hiding in plain sight. Kennedy men have
been valorised and lionised for nearly a century, but the women they’ve
broken, tormented, raped, murdered, or left for dead have never really
been part of their legacy.”
With concise chapter heading like, Mary Jo Kopechne, Marilyn Monroe and Ted’s Blondies you know that this instant bestseller, which has been described as a Horror story is a revelation.
As one reader put it, “I literally could not put this book down!
I knew the Kennedy men were players but I had no idea to what depth! There's definitely a character flaw in that family.
The book also inspired me to do some further
investigation into historical events that have occurred and were
discussed in the book.
Great read.”
|
|
* * * * *
Listowel 06th Storytelling Festival drew to a close on Sunday
September 22nd. It was a fabulous success with storytellers like Sonny
Egan.
|
|
And , The Patrick Kavanagh Society in association with the
Patrick Kavanagh Centre are delighted to announce this year’s recipient
of the Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award is Simon Costello. He is from
Tullamore, Co. Offaly and is currently a Government of Ireland
Postgraduate Scholar at University College Dublin. His pamphlet Saturn
Devouring was published by The Lifeboat Press in 2024.
|
|
* * * * *
West Wicklow man James Doyle got a job selling life
insurance. Sales were bad for his first week. Then, on Monday the next
week he was tipped off that fifty new Irish Army recruits were being
passed out that day.
He made his way to the Curragh, got permission to address the
squaddies while they were assembled in the induction centre where he
gave his sales pitch.
- He explained the basics of life insurance Insurance to the
new recruits and 100% of them took out life insurance. Perhaps that it
was his closing line that did the trick, "If you have Life insurance
and go into battle and are killed, the Irish government has to pay
€25,000 to your beneficiaries. If you don't have life insurance, and you
go into battle and get killed, the government has to pay only a maximum
of €1,000. Now," he concluded, "Which group do you think they are going to send into battle first?"
* * * * *
See you in November/December's Holiday issue December 1, 2024.
Click on the author's byline for bio and list of other works published by Pencil Stubs Online.
This issue appears in the ezine at www.pencilstubs.com and also in the
blog www.pencilstubs.net with the capability of adding comments at the
latter.
No comments:
Post a Comment