The author of “Pure excess: Capitalism and the commodity” does not go in for abstruseness. As with his earlier “Embracing alienation”, Todd McGowan unpacks and develops ideas from heavyweight thinkers, and explains them with a lightness of touch without sacrificing their depth.   Sean Sheehan   The commodity, something bought […]

The opening paragraph of “Searching for memory: Aluízio Palmar and the shadow of dictatorship in Brazil” brings the startling news that in 2019 Aluízio Palmar was sued by the retired army officer who had once tortured him.   Sean Sheehan   Aluízio was an armed militant opposed to Brazil’s dictatorship […]

“The boys” is about a small number of characters who live around northwest London and who, on the face of it, are not unduly troubled by the fractures and complexities of their world.   Sean Sheehan   There is little sense of crisis or despair and the novel itself reads […]

“The brothers Karamazov” is extraordinary. Mini-narratives, encounters and conversations between the characters proliferate like vegetation in a botanist’s rainforest fantasy. They spawn new stories by way of background to another story which is itself an offshoot of what looks to be the main story.   Sean Sheehan   The reader […]