Demob Happy

Apocalypse redux!
8.5/10
Following on from my post about John Updike’s seminal ‘Rabbit, Run‘, ‘Rabbit Redux‘ is the second in Updike’s quartet of novels chronicling the life and times of America as seen through the eyes of everyman Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom. Written - as with the other three - at the tale end of one decade (here, [...]

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Smoke and mirrors
9/10
Todd Haynes’ 2002 film ‘Far From Heaven‘ was a masterpiece of subtle subversion that paid homage to the richly coloured 1950s film style (and specifically the ‘women’s pictures’ of Douglas Sirk and his contemporaries). What could have been hollow pastiche is in fact a thoughtful and moving examination of US social [...]

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In the grips of drug addiction
7/10
Half Nelson tells the story of an idealistic young teacher Dan, unable to break his cycle of cocaine and crack abuse. Labouring under the delusion that he will finish an illustrated children’s book on ‘dialectics’, he teaches history at a run-down innercity school. Bringing left-wing theory into his lessons [...]

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On race and ‘invisibility’
8/10
Ralph Ellison’s debut novel is a startling and unforgettable vision of racial tension and inequality in 1950s America. In a sprawling and unpredictable narrative, Invisible Man veers between surreal, near-farcical episodes and shocking realism. As much as Ellion’s nameless protagonist seems to slip in and out of visibility, so does the novel [...]

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