My life in books: I haven’t yet read a defining novel about those terrible years in Ireland
Kevin Rafter is full professor of political communication at Dublin City University
Kevin Rafter is an academic and writer.
There are two very high piles of books on the bedside table. All fiction. I’m currently enjoying Katie Kitamura’s . It was rightly on the Booker shortlist last year.
Anne Tyler and Elizabeth Strout both tell wonderful stories about ordinary people and without any pretension in their respective writing styles.
Tyler’s recent slim novel is a joy.
I have yet to read from beginning to end.
I’ve read different chapters at different times but always with the assistance of a reader’s guide. So I don’t consider it finished.
John Waters’ is a short book about Ireland in the 1980s, Fianna Fáil, and a father-son relationship.
It bowled me over when it was first published in 1991. I re-read the book recently and it stands up very well.
I cheered aloud at the end of over the decision made by Edith, the main character.
I won’t give the story away but I love Anita Brookner’s novel set on the shores of Lake Geneva.
Katy Tur’s is her campaign memoir of covering Donald Trump’s election in 2016. Tur is a NBC political journalist and news anchor.
I have my DCU students read this book to help them understand American politics today.
Helen Garner’s , like Truman Capote’s , is the work of a novelist writing as a skilled journalist.
The book follows the trial in Garner’s native Australia of a father accused of killing his three children.
Garner sticks closer to the facts than Capote but determining what actually happened changes more than once in this brilliant book.
Sara Baume’s new book is about her friendship with the artist, Molly Douhit.
Largely based in West Cork, Baume writes tenderly and honestly as she reminds us about what is valuable in life.
It’s almost 20 years since the financial crisis.
Journalists and academics have written many fine books about the economic crash but I haven’t yet read a defining novel about those terrible years in Ireland.
Anything written by Annie Proulx. Her first two novels, and , would come with me to a desert island.
I saw Neil Jordan’s movie before reading the source novel by Graeme Greene.
With wonderful performances by Julianne Moore and Ralph Fiennes, Jordan rightly received a Bafta for best adapted screenplay.
I’m a big fan of two Dublin bookshops, Books Upstairs and The Company of Books.
My politics and media books are in my office in DCU, which is long overdue a tidying.
Fiction is at home, sorted by what I’ve read recently and then by author. There’s a logic that I understand.
Bliss is a glass of red wine and a novel.
Brian is the main character in a novel of the same name by Jeremy Cooper, a writer I recently read for the first time.
Brian is a social outsider who lives a quiet life and adheres to strict routines. His world is transformed when he discovers the British Film Institute.
The book is a meditation on being human and the wonder of cinema.
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