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From The Socialist newspaper, 6 June 2018
Fiction: The Spinning Heart
Rich, raw tale of financial crisis's impact on rural Ireland
(Click to enlarge)
Ian Hunter, Derby Socialist Party
I have only recently caught up with Donal Ryan's wonderful, inventive 2012 debut novel about the brutal and shattering effects on a rural Irish community following the financial meltdown of 2007-08.
When a local building firm collapses the effects on the local community and its inhabitants are traumatic and far-reaching.
Each of the short 21 chapters tells the story, in monologue form, of individuals caught up in a bewildering and unprecedented - for this generation - economic crash. The 21 individual accounts starkly document how each person is affected as they search for meanings, truths and explanations.
They are a community and generation that expected better. They find themselves let down by establishment politicians, EU bureaucrats, and financiers as the 'Celtic Tiger' is vanquished.
The free market system and the ideology of economic liberalism, with its promise of prosperity and a land rich in milk and honey, has ended in inevitable failure. The dream - or rather the illusion - is dead, and the sting in the tail will be the years of harsh austerity to follow for people who had no hand in this financial disaster.
The narrative is rich, often raw, and sometimes humorous. Not surprisingly the style and form have drawn comparisons with Dylan Thomas's 'Under Milk Wood'. Ryan's novel is larger than fiction; it's a tale of the times.
- 'The Spinning Heart' by Donal Ryan, published by Doubleday Ireland, £7.99
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In The Socialist 6 June 2018:
Labour and the unions
RMT rejects Labour affiliation - now step up the fight for workers' political representation
RMT special conference debates political strategy
Socialist Party news and analysis
#NorthernFail: 250 rail services cancelled
Socialists defend Lush ad campaign against spy cops
International socialist news and analysis
Italy's political crisis is reverberating through Europe
Jordan: Workers and youth remove prime minister and demand end to austerity
Workplace news
Congress shut down by staff walkouts
PCS union launches strike ballot on pay
West Midlands firefighters vote to strike in massive numbers
East London housing workers fight privatisation of pay
'Made in Dagenham' strike 50 years on
'Made in Dagenham' Ford machinists pay strike 50 years on
Socialist Party reports and campaigns
Liverpool meeting remembers 47 councillors who fought and defeated Thatcher in 1980s
Yorkshire 1,000 for issue 1000
People's Assembly event lacks understanding of task facing Corbyn
200 years since the birth of Karl Marx - come and walk in his footsteps!
Opinion
Alt-right gains exposure - but tedious clichés betray lack of ideas
Rich, raw tale of financial crisis's impact on rural Ireland
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