Monthly Archives: November 2022

I happened to go see The Banshees of Inisherin two days after I finished reading The Bell, and was struck by the thought that it succeeded in doing all the things that Murdoch had tried, but failed, to do in the novel. Both are works that combine an interest in realism, especially in character psychologyContinueContinue reading “The Banshees of Inisherin and The Bell, by Iris Murdoch”

I am told that there are quite a few novels that portray the pandemic, and the experience of lockdown, but I hadn’t read one yet (aside from the fleeting references in Ali Smith’s seasonal quartet), so it was a new experience for me. Way back in 2008, I was enthralled at how the movie CloverfieldContinueContinue reading “The Sentence, Louise Erdrich”