Art Kavanagh
@www.artkavanagh.ie
I write about books and literature: Andrew Marvell, Salman Rushdie, Tana French, that sort of thing. My newsletter, Talk about books, goes out every 2 weeks https://letter.talkaboutbooks.net/tabarchive
Against self-slaughter: Three short novels by Muriel Spark: https://letter.talkaboutbooks.net/2025/11/30/against-selfslaughter-three-short-novels.html
A discussion of The Driver’s Seat, Loitering with Intent and A Far Cry from Kensington.
A discussion of The Driver’s Seat, Loitering with Intent and A Far Cry from Kensington.
November 30, 2025 at 4:14 PM
Against self-slaughter: Three short novels by Muriel Spark: https://letter.talkaboutbooks.net/2025/11/30/against-selfslaughter-three-short-novels.html
A discussion of The Driver’s Seat, Loitering with Intent and A Far Cry from Kensington.
A discussion of The Driver’s Seat, Loitering with Intent and A Far Cry from Kensington.
GHT1CD 💿
(Small things come in big boxes)
(Small things come in big boxes)
November 29, 2025 at 11:04 AM
GHT1CD 💿
(Small things come in big boxes)
(Small things come in big boxes)
I’ve had the cd of Herbie Hancock’s The Piano, an improvised solo piano album recorded “direct to disc” in the early 80s, for more than 20 years now and I think I’m just beginning to appreciate it 🎶 🎹
November 27, 2025 at 9:03 PM
I’ve had the cd of Herbie Hancock’s The Piano, an improvised solo piano album recorded “direct to disc” in the early 80s, for more than 20 years now and I think I’m just beginning to appreciate it 🎶 🎹
Pleased and a little surprised to see Law & Order’s Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston) included in The Guardian’s list of characters whose late arrival lifted tv shows. His is the first name I thought of when I saw the headline 📺
November 19, 2025 at 12:52 PM
Pleased and a little surprised to see Law & Order’s Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston) included in The Guardian’s list of characters whose late arrival lifted tv shows. His is the first name I thought of when I saw the headline 📺
Once again getting great enjoyment from reading Sarah Ditum’s writing about music I’m not familiar with (though in this case have at least heard of): Neil Hannon is one of the true greats of songwriting 🎶
November 17, 2025 at 1:06 PM
Once again getting great enjoyment from reading Sarah Ditum’s writing about music I’m not familiar with (though in this case have at least heard of): Neil Hannon is one of the true greats of songwriting 🎶
Popular though they were as a live act, I have to say that I think Esbjörn Svensson Trio were better in the studio. I’ve been listening a lot to Live in London recently but I just played “Eighty-eight Days in My Veins” from Viaticum and it’s very nearly perfect 🎶 🎹
November 16, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Popular though they were as a live act, I have to say that I think Esbjörn Svensson Trio were better in the studio. I’ve been listening a lot to Live in London recently but I just played “Eighty-eight Days in My Veins” from Viaticum and it’s very nearly perfect 🎶 🎹
Yesterday’s newsletter post, mainly about Ian McEwan’s The Child in Time (1987), took me nearly all day to write, so I ended up having lunch at 8:15 pm and my “afternoon” coffee at 9:45 pm. Luckily, late coffee doesn’t seem to interfere with my sleep 📖 ☕️
November 16, 2025 at 11:30 AM
Yesterday’s newsletter post, mainly about Ian McEwan’s The Child in Time (1987), took me nearly all day to write, so I ended up having lunch at 8:15 pm and my “afternoon” coffee at 9:45 pm. Luckily, late coffee doesn’t seem to interfere with my sleep 📖 ☕️
Some other time: Ian McEwan, The Child in Time and Atonement: https://letter.talkaboutbooks.net/2025/11/15/some-other-time-ian-mcewan.html
Time, childhood and irreversibility in two novels by Ian McEwan
Time, childhood and irreversibility in two novels by Ian McEwan
November 15, 2025 at 8:36 PM
Some other time: Ian McEwan, The Child in Time and Atonement: https://letter.talkaboutbooks.net/2025/11/15/some-other-time-ian-mcewan.html
Time, childhood and irreversibility in two novels by Ian McEwan
Time, childhood and irreversibility in two novels by Ian McEwan
November 13, 2025 at 10:44 AM
I never saw that BBC Panorama programme and I still somehow managed to get the impression that Trump had urged his supporters to overthrow the 2020 election result. How did that happen? It can’t have been all the BBC’s fault.
November 12, 2025 at 12:50 PM
I never saw that BBC Panorama programme and I still somehow managed to get the impression that Trump had urged his supporters to overthrow the 2020 election result. How did that happen? It can’t have been all the BBC’s fault.
The Overspill’s Charles Arthur can’t remember how he learned to read but knows it can’t have been the “three cues” method. I’m sure I was taught using phonics. I’m lucky the school didn’t use the “whole word” approach, as I can’t, and couldn’t then, mentally store visual images of words.
November 12, 2025 at 11:17 AM
The Overspill’s Charles Arthur can’t remember how he learned to read but knows it can’t have been the “three cues” method. I’m sure I was taught using phonics. I’m lucky the school didn’t use the “whole word” approach, as I can’t, and couldn’t then, mentally store visual images of words.
Further down that same post from Adam Mastroianni’s Experimental History: Cognitive dissonance tests fail to replicate!
November 12, 2025 at 8:46 AM
Further down that same post from Adam Mastroianni’s Experimental History: Cognitive dissonance tests fail to replicate!
"According to the Doomsday Scoreboard, there have been over 200 failed apocalypse predictions and, uh, zero successful ones."
So far. From Adam Mastroianni’s Experimental History
So far. From Adam Mastroianni’s Experimental History
November 12, 2025 at 8:42 AM
"According to the Doomsday Scoreboard, there have been over 200 failed apocalypse predictions and, uh, zero successful ones."
So far. From Adam Mastroianni’s Experimental History
So far. From Adam Mastroianni’s Experimental History
Does anybody’s?
And mine does not distinguish between cenotaph and otolith.
November 11, 2025 at 10:28 AM
Does anybody’s?
Squeaky shoes are so “embarrassing” that wearers have filed a lawsuit (FT so probably paywalled.) My mother used to say that if shoes squeaked it meant you hadn’t paid for them yet.
November 4, 2025 at 11:49 AM
Squeaky shoes are so “embarrassing” that wearers have filed a lawsuit (FT so probably paywalled.) My mother used to say that if shoes squeaked it meant you hadn’t paid for them yet.
War games: Stefan Zweig, Chess; Bohumil Hrabal, Closely Watched Trains: https://letter.talkaboutbooks.net/2025/11/01/war-games-stefan-zweig-chess.html
Two translated novellas from the recent Penguin Archive series, set at the beginning and end respectively of the Second World War.
Two translated novellas from the recent Penguin Archive series, set at the beginning and end respectively of the Second World War.
November 1, 2025 at 7:25 PM
War games: Stefan Zweig, Chess; Bohumil Hrabal, Closely Watched Trains: https://letter.talkaboutbooks.net/2025/11/01/war-games-stefan-zweig-chess.html
Two translated novellas from the recent Penguin Archive series, set at the beginning and end respectively of the Second World War.
Two translated novellas from the recent Penguin Archive series, set at the beginning and end respectively of the Second World War.
I’ve been buying pitta bread in Aldi rather than Lidl because the Aldi ones are labelled “Wholemeal” while the Lidl ones are just “Brown”. I read the ingredients list now and they’re basically the same: Aldi ones have a mixture of wholemeal and other flour. So, back to the more convenient Lidl.
November 1, 2025 at 4:19 PM
I’ve been buying pitta bread in Aldi rather than Lidl because the Aldi ones are labelled “Wholemeal” while the Lidl ones are just “Brown”. I read the ingredients list now and they’re basically the same: Aldi ones have a mixture of wholemeal and other flour. So, back to the more convenient Lidl.
I’ve just noticed that En Attendant, the 2021 album by Marcin Wasilewski Trio, was recorded in the same place (France), same month (Aug 2019) and by the same team as the Joe Lovano/Wasilewski Trio Arctic Riff (2020). So I’m guessing they recorded the trio album while waiting for JL to turn up 🎶
October 30, 2025 at 2:35 PM
I’ve just noticed that En Attendant, the 2021 album by Marcin Wasilewski Trio, was recorded in the same place (France), same month (Aug 2019) and by the same team as the Joe Lovano/Wasilewski Trio Arctic Riff (2020). So I’m guessing they recorded the trio album while waiting for JL to turn up 🎶
I was on my way into Westport for Nils Kavanagh’s album launch but turned back after 2½ Km. It’s been 10 years since I rode a bike at night. I bought new lights yesterday (€40) but the front one is meant to make me visible to others, not to illuminate the path. Too many unlit obstacles. Tant pis.
October 29, 2025 at 7:11 PM
I was on my way into Westport for Nils Kavanagh’s album launch but turned back after 2½ Km. It’s been 10 years since I rode a bike at night. I bought new lights yesterday (€40) but the front one is meant to make me visible to others, not to illuminate the path. Too many unlit obstacles. Tant pis.
"Zoë lacks [Jackson] Lamb’s physical repulsiveness, however, and she has an active sex life — though, unfortunately, not with her husband."
Unfortunately for whom, I wonder? Laura Miller, who of course has read the Zoë Boehm books, on Apple tv’s Down Cemetery Road 📺
Unfortunately for whom, I wonder? Laura Miller, who of course has read the Zoë Boehm books, on Apple tv’s Down Cemetery Road 📺
October 29, 2025 at 1:03 PM
"Zoë lacks [Jackson] Lamb’s physical repulsiveness, however, and she has an active sex life — though, unfortunately, not with her husband."
Unfortunately for whom, I wonder? Laura Miller, who of course has read the Zoë Boehm books, on Apple tv’s Down Cemetery Road 📺
Unfortunately for whom, I wonder? Laura Miller, who of course has read the Zoë Boehm books, on Apple tv’s Down Cemetery Road 📺
Adam Mastroianni (Experimental History) on the decline of deviance. Why people are less weird than they (we) used to be, and why that isn’t always a good thing.
October 28, 2025 at 6:09 PM
Adam Mastroianni (Experimental History) on the decline of deviance. Why people are less weird than they (we) used to be, and why that isn’t always a good thing.
Why dating feels so uniquely hard in your forties it says here. Uniquely hard? I can’t say I’ve noticed it getting appreciably easier in the almost 20 years since I left my 40s behind.
October 26, 2025 at 4:18 PM
Why dating feels so uniquely hard in your forties it says here. Uniquely hard? I can’t say I’ve noticed it getting appreciably easier in the almost 20 years since I left my 40s behind.
I finished Eimer McBride’s The Lesser Bohemians last night, having been immersed in it for 6 or 7 days. Still wholly undecided as to whether I liked it, but very relieved to be free of it at last 📚
October 26, 2025 at 9:53 AM
I finished Eimer McBride’s The Lesser Bohemians last night, having been immersed in it for 6 or 7 days. Still wholly undecided as to whether I liked it, but very relieved to be free of it at last 📚
Last night I had one of those tedious, repetitive dreams in which I was attempting to read the new Thomas Pynchon and getting nowhere. In waking life, I’ve been slogging away at Eimear McBride’s The Lesser Bohemians, and after several days have managed to reach page 42. What to make of that?
October 22, 2025 at 9:52 AM
Last night I had one of those tedious, repetitive dreams in which I was attempting to read the new Thomas Pynchon and getting nowhere. In waking life, I’ve been slogging away at Eimear McBride’s The Lesser Bohemians, and after several days have managed to reach page 42. What to make of that?
Paraphrased from Margaret Atwood: “men are afraid women will laugh at them, women are afraid men will kill them.” True, but not the whole story. Men are afraid that women will laugh at them or other men will kill them; women are afraid that men will kill them or other women will laugh at them.
October 21, 2025 at 3:32 PM
Paraphrased from Margaret Atwood: “men are afraid women will laugh at them, women are afraid men will kill them.” True, but not the whole story. Men are afraid that women will laugh at them or other men will kill them; women are afraid that men will kill them or other women will laugh at them.