What We Talk about When We Talk About Love, by Raymond Carver (Harvill, £7.99 in UK)This is a reissue of Carver's second collection of stories, first published in 1981. "I've seen some thingsSat Jan 04 1997 - 00:00
In the Hold, by Vladimir Arsenijevic (Harvill, £8.99 in UK)Are first novels supposed to be as good as this? Set in Belgrade during the last months of 1991, it is the story of a young couple…Sat Jan 04 1997 - 00:00
The books that flower in spring...AS ever, reading the publishers catalogues one must wade through superlatives and definitive claims - can every new book really…Sat Dec 28 1996 - 00:00
Desperate days in old KristianiaTHE narrator of Knut Hamsun's strange first novel, Hunger (1890), is burdened neither by dreams of heroic deeds nor a social …Sat Dec 21 1996 - 00:00
Romantic AdventureROCK singer Hazel O'Connor seems to have enjoyed fame, although she regretted losing the freedom to sit and observe the world…Thu Dec 19 1996 - 00:00
Telling it like it mightSHOULD cultural significance be allowed to take precedence over art? Which is more valuable, story, or the wider political truths…Sat Dec 14 1996 - 00:00
"Ah go on, go on, go on"AN uncharacteristic look of regret almost one of deep longing passes across the face of actress, Pauline McLynn: "It's a shame…Thu Dec 12 1996 - 00:00
A Woolf biography with teethON Friday, March 28th 1941 Virginia Woolf, having written another detailed farewell letter to her husband walked out of her garden…Thu Dec 12 1996 - 00:00
A poet who was more than oneABRUPT, confident, apparently perpetually exasperated by the stupidity of the rest of the world, Russian poet and 1987 Nobel …Sat Dec 07 1996 - 00:00
A HAPPY MANFRANK Patterson, singer and obsessive golfer, is a happy man so happy he can lure his listener into his almost oppressively contented…Thu Dec 05 1996 - 00:00
Villains are more funFEW contemporary writers write as well as Jonathan Raban, and his Bad Land - an American Romance (Picado,) which chronicles the…Sat Nov 30 1996 - 00:00
MASTER OF THE SMALL SHIFT"I WOULD be a liar if I said I regretted having been in VietnamThu Nov 21 1996 - 00:00
Irish writers figure large as contenders for prestigious Whitbread prize are shortlistedIRISH writers have made their presence felt as the contenders for this year's Whitbread prize are announced in London today.Tue Nov 19 1996 - 00:00
Scenes from the lives of womenA woman, usually middle aged and in possession of a complicated personal past and a lengthy family history, is the typical narrator…Sat Nov 16 1996 - 00:00
Nothing but doubtsFEW people hate quite as viciously or as inconsistently as the IrishThu Nov 14 1996 - 00:00
WORLD CLASS ECCENTRICNEAR the close of his funny, if death obsessed, new book Congo Journey, batural scientist, ornithologist, explorer and world …Thu Nov 07 1996 - 00:00
Home, home on the rangeAT about the time the late Bruce Chatwin was revitalising the travel book, a literary movement of sorts began to merge travel…Sat Nov 02 1996 - 00:00
Wildlife, by Richard Ford (Harvill, £5,99 in UK)A man moves with his wife and son to Great Falls, Montana, inspired by the promise of a better life courtesy of an oil boomSat Nov 02 1996 - 00:00
THE GREAT ANGERFEW school teachers have followed a more unlikely path to the classroomThu Oct 31 1996 - 00:00
Booker judges get it right as Graham Swift's `Last Orders' takes the prizeO YE of little faith. For the second year in a row, the Booker judges got it rightWed Oct 30 1996 - 00:00
Back in the world of the storyAT about the same time as European readers were beginning to hail the late Raymond Carver (1939-88) as an American master, Richard…Sat Oct 26 1996 - 01:00
Feis ProduceAT the time the Gaelic Revival was restoring confidence in a national culture which had been tragically undermined, another organisation…Thu Oct 24 1996 - 01:00
Unpublished, debut novel wins prizeLITERARY prizes, however contentiously decided, often vindicate novels which have fared poorly in reviews and/or salesTue Oct 22 1996 - 01:00
A cast of thousands come to AmericaA cast of thousands, and the various misadventures of a two row button accordion, feature in multi prize winning author ESat Oct 19 1996 - 01:00
The passionate psychologistRACING between her offices at the Law Reform Commission and Government Buildings while also lecturing at Trinity College, writing…Thu Oct 17 1996 - 01:00
All hands on deckA novel based on the sinking of the Titanic might not seem the most original of ideasSat Oct 12 1996 - 01:00
Festival FringeARTIE (director Will O'Connell), a zookeeper, writes crummy songs, and dreams of fameFri Oct 11 1996 - 01:00
Major work through the miniaturist's eyeWHEN a young girl's pregnancy is discovered, her family set about solving the problem, with predictable pragmatismSat Oct 05 1996 - 01:00
DRAWN TO THE PLOUGHAPPROACHING the neoclassical style arch entrance to Oak park Research Centre outside Carlow town it is easy to imagine life in…Thu Oct 03 1996 - 01:00
Six for the BookerANOTHER Olympics has come and gone another All-Ireland final has been decidedWed Oct 02 1996 - 01:00
NO SCORES TO SETTLEMORAN, the embittered, patriarchal father in John McGahern's sombre masterpiece Amongst Women (1990), considers the past as he…Thu Sept 26 1996 - 01:00
Images of disease and dis-easeA vicious tennis machine firing balls across empty tennis courts becomes the central image in J.GSat Sept 21 1996 - 01:00
The Village, by David Mamet (Faber, £6.99 in UK)Mamet has written several of the most explosively powerful plays staged during the past 20 yearsSat Sept 21 1996 - 01:00
MOVING ONLOCATING musician and central influence of the ongoing renaissance in traditional Irish musicThu Sept 19 1996 - 01:00
Making the edge the centreLITERARY prizes, however welcome, do carry many of the hazards associated with a magician's trick bouquetWed Sept 18 1996 - 01:00
In the state of GraceSIXTEEN years after she has been imprisoned for life following her alleged involvement in a gruesome doublekilling, the notorious…Sat Sept 14 1996 - 01:00
Mr Charm SchoolIT IS many years since Bunny Carr was the first most famous face on Irish television; nowadays he is known through his involvement…Thu Sept 12 1996 - 01:00
AN IRISHMAN'S DIARYWHILE attempting to pull my car back from the edge of a small cliff in Connemara, the hidden dangers of landscape photography…Tue Sept 10 1996 - 01:00
Last words in the hours before dawnTWO men spend the night talking, but there is nothing casual or planned about their dialogueSat Sept 07 1996 - 01:00
Suspended above The PitA novel set in an unspecified provincial landscape somewhere in Russia, where a crazy group of misfits are busily if haphazardly…Sat Aug 31 1996 - 01:00
O'Flaherty's birth date marked as he would have wishedVERY few tourists exploring Inis Mor, the largest of the Aran Islands yesterday were aware of the celebrations honouring the …Thu Aug 29 1996 - 01:00
Conflicting cultures and two languages shaped O'Flaherty as man and artistA HUNDRED years after his birth, critical opinion about the literary standing of Liam O'Flaherty remains warily respectfulWed Aug 28 1996 - 01:00
Laughter in the darkSOMEONE once attempted to define Russian humour by suggesting that while in Russia the sight of a person falling on a banana …Sat Aug 24 1996 - 01:00
Asylum for the damnedTHE story of Stella Raphael is "one of the saddest I know", announces the narrator at the outset of Patrick McGrath's Asylum (…Sat Aug 17 1996 - 01:00
