Reviews on The Review

This anthology of contemporary Lithuanian poetry is a must-read for anyone interested in East European literature. The collection introduces six contemporary Lithuanian poets who mostly made their debuts after 1991 in the years of independence. It opens with Eugenijus Alisanka’s informed introduction on the development of Lithuanian literature from nineteenth century onwards. Here the editor [...]

Rock ‘n’ Roll
by Tom Stoppard
dir. Chris Honer
Manchester Library Theatre
13th Feb 2009 – 14th Mar 2009
 
Max is an old-school Marxist intellectual. Jan is his rock-loving PhD student, returning to his native Prague in ’68 just as the Soviet invasion rolls in. Rather than protest or consent to sign his mates’ petitions, Jan puts his whole faith [...]

With Revolutionary Road, director Sam Mendes returns to the territory in which he made his name in film: the polished surfaces and angst-ridden interiors of picket-fenced suburbia.  Unlike 1999’s American Beauty though, this film depicts the dark side of the American dream when it was ostensibly at its shiny newest, with protagonists Frank and April [...]

Ross Raisin’s debut novel takes its title from the not always ironic way that Yorkshiremen of a certain age refer to their own county. Set in the wilderness of the North Yorks Moors and narrated by Sam Marsden, a nineteen-year-old whose reliability we are never entirely certain of, it combines elements of comedy, suspense and [...]