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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
politically correct?, 4 Mar 2002
By A Customer
I was disappointed by this book, which I came to with little knowledge of the author's other writings, but which I bought freely and at full price in a non-virtual bookshop. It is not that the writing is at fault; rather that there is a terrible worthiness about the sentiments expressed, at least where history is concerned (the more personal and autobiographical poems are better, and are often genuinely moving). Themes such as country house burning and the First World War are tiptoed up to, and it is all very sad, and we all bear the wounds, etc. etc. If anything, it all seems rather comfortable, safe for reading in schools, and so on. If there is an English equivalent, it is in the way people like to think about the Second World War. Wasn't it sad? And wasn't it awful? Too much of this stuff soon becomes an excuse for
averting the eyes from the present day. It reminded this reviewer (London based, Ulster Catholic ancestry) of the most striking thing about the population of Dublin when seen by an outsider - namely, how many of them were non-white. Are their children taught in school about how the Irish language has been taken from them, that the wound remains, etc. etc.? Or has the world and its woundings moved on? Of course I don't want to flatten poetry into a mere silhouette of politics, but it was the poet's decision to be political...
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by J P Harrington
by Sarah Kane
by Conor McPherson
by Samuel Beckett
