Updike's claws out
As the Celtic tiger went from being a thing of iconic proportions to a monster whose legacy endangered us all, the beast was being berated on all sides, but who could have thought that even John Updike (below) was aware of him? He features, "crooked teeth" and all, in a poem by the American writer in the current issue of the New York Review of Books (Oct 23rd, Vol LV, No 16). Called A Wee Irish Suite, it's in three sections, all touching on Ireland, the last titled New Resort Hotel, Portmarnock:
"Too many plugs and switches in the room.
The reading lights are dim,however, and
the flat black plasma television screen
ignores the hand remotes, as does the safe
the combination I distrustfully
punch in. Too many outlets for the well-
connected businessman, too much Preferred
Lifestyle, here in formerly homely Eire."
It's a graphic poetic vision of how success's luxuries pair awkwardly with "golf's grim thrashing out upon the links, /the shabby, shaggy dunes where newborn rich /land helicopters, then can't find their balls". Coincidentally, this issue of the New York Review of Books also has an essay by Colm Tóibín comparing and contrasting the American writer James Baldwin with Barack Obama.
Essential reading
The £30,000 ($38,600) Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year went to a timely title this week: When Markets Collide - Investment Strategies for the Age of Global Economic Change by Mohamed
El-Erian (right). A win like this always prompts an upswing in sales but in this case, publishers McGraw-Hill can definitely expect a boost as nervous investors look for all the tips they can get. According to Goldman Sachs's chairman Lloyd C Blankfein, El-Erian's book provides invaluable context for the global financial crisis.
Gable gazing
The centenary of the publication of Anne of Green Gables by Canadian Lucy Maud Montgomery is being celebrated today at a conference in the Church of Ireland College of Education, Rathmines, Dublin. Among those taking part is Irene Gammel, an authority on Montgomery's novel and the author of The Intimate Life of LM Montgomery and Looking for Anne: How Lucy Maud Montgomery Dreamed Up a Literary Classic. Organised by the Irish branch of the International Board on Books for Young People, the conference is called Green Gables to Globalisation: Crossover Canada and Children's Books. Under the microscope is the question of how children's literature transcends boundaries of all kinds, focusing in particular on crossover fiction and a sense of belonging in books from Canada. www.ibbyireland.ie.
Imagine a laureate
Roger McGough, below, who is hailed as the patron saint of poetry by Carol Ann Duffy and seen as Liverpool's poet laureate, is among the writers coming to the Imagine arts festival in Waterford (Oct 24th to Nov 2nd.)
On October 31st, McGough will give a performance based on his autobiography Said and Done which ranges over his memories of growing up in Liverpool, playing in bombed-out houses as a child, the skiffle-crazed days of his adolescence, through to his time at university and on to his meetings with a cast of characters that includes Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Marlon Brando, Allen Ginsberg, Pete McCarthy and Salman Rushdie. On November 1st, he'll offer Slapstick, his show for children. Both events are in the Good Shepherd chapel, Waterford Institute of Technology. www.imagineartsfestival.com