Hi Reader,
Literature is life. This is
because it is a representation of real-life incidents and events: verisimilitude,
and arguably, it does more than other academic discipline. Perhaps, this may explain why it is so
encompassing; appropriating astronomy, psychology, philosophy and other academic discipline with ease.
Therefore, it is no happenstance that we have included in
this Special Christmas edition a scintillating memoir:
The Will To Believe
. Perhaps the reader may agree with us
that Dan Schneider's investigation into the mystery of existence foregrounds not only
the realms of the real and the surreal, but also the literary.
* * *
Tony Coleman, one of the most prolific
playwrights and actors from Ireland, has performed on the biggest theatre stages all over the
world. Recently, he took Ireland by storm with an existential comedy: I'm A Dad? Get Me Out Of
Here! Our interview with him is a critical insight into Coleman, the man and Coleman, the
great perfomer. You must read it to know why we captioned it
The Big Interview.
* * *
Our four short stories are compact and intended to confound.
Edward Mc Whinney tells the story of love and life.
A Saturday Afternoon is a
complex web, weaved around man's quest for meaning and fulfilment. This is an amazing story
that we are sure the reader would want to read over and over again.
Our second story,
The Power, illuminates the terrifying spectacle of man's dark
brooding against fate and the hostile universe. However, a sensitive reader will discover that
Donnie Cox is not intent on man's humiliation and/or degradation, but a stirring up
a cathartic process, towards both internal and eternal relief for self-affirmation.
This story is classified: 18!
Our next story explores a young boy's relationship with his mouse.
Laden with gallows humour, Snots
is an allegory and a parodox. Allegorically, because Colm Fogarty, his mouse and the
Principal are representatives of different qualities inherent in man. Parodoxically, because,
re-assessed against the grim state of existence today, what emerges is a
varying picture of man, the destroyer and man, the big brother.
In our final and fourth story, Jason O'Toole
sees the world as a mental home where everyone is a patient.
The Second Coming is explicated against the backdrop of a
fifteen year old boy whose state of mind is complicated by the vagaries of an insane world
and his fantasy of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
* * *
Our Poetry section is an aesthetic
silence! silences! Silence! silences! Silence! Silence! Silence! Silence! silence! Silence!
Owen Roberts silence! silences!
Silence! Uche Peter Umez silence! silences!
Silence! silences! Silence! Silence! Silence! Silence! silence!
John Sweet. silence! silences! Silence! silences! Silence! Silence! Silence!
Silence! Silence! Silence!
"Out of the suffocating silence, however, there still rises
the head, the voice crying in the wilderness, man's indomitable need to seek out his fellow men
right to the end, speak to his peers and find in companionship his solace"--you lend me words,
Karl Ragnar Gierow.
* * *
Our
Book Reviews page transverses all genres. The highlight is
Purple Hibiscus by
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a 27-year-old Nigerian based in the US. The novel made
the shortlist for the 2004 Orange Prize For Fiction and on the longlist for the 2004 Booker Prize.
There are also two poetry collections: I Hit
Like A Girl by Debbie Kirk, an emerging voice in the US literary
scene and The New Irish Poets,
an Anthology edited by Selina Guinness. The fourth of our book review is
The Captain's Tiger
, a play by Athol Fugard, South African most successful playwright.
* * *
In our September edition we promised you a
specially packaged Christmas edition to lighten your Christmas mood, remember? I hope
this meets all the hype... Aha, the Dublin Quarterly mailing list! Our readers
are growing by the day and the rigours of cutting and pasting (the old fashion way!) in order
to personalise our monthly email newsletter is taking a great toll on us. So we encourage you
to join our
mailing list today and be a part of this great family. Merry Christmas and may God grant you
all your heart desires in the new year!
Enjoy yourself!
