I saw a photo of Suze Rotolo and I looked her up, and, as I thought, she was Bob Dylan’s girlfriend back in the 1960s, famously appearing at his side on the album cover for The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. In the photos, the famous couple looked cute and happy, and I wondered what had happened. … Continue reading Ballad in Plain D – A Song of Anger and Regret
Category: blog
Why Did Brownlee Leave? – A Look at Paul Muldoon’s Rural Mystery
I was reading Paul Muldoon’s poetry recently, specifically Why Brownlee Left, and I was taken aback by how much sense they seemed to make to me. Like most poetry – or like any kind of art – it can be hit or miss, depending on the reader since it’s all subjective. But there was something … Continue reading Why Did Brownlee Leave? – A Look at Paul Muldoon’s Rural Mystery
Albert Camus: The French Kafka
I was first introduced to Albert Camus in 2009 when a work colleague lent me The Myth of Sisyphus, when we both had a common interest in books and writing. I’d not heard of him, and such was my French at the time, I couldn’t even pronounce the name properly (Albɛʁ Kæˈmu / or Alber … Continue reading Albert Camus: The French Kafka
Men Without Women: My Thoughts on Haruki Murakami
I recently read Murakami’s latest short story collection, Men Without Women. Like all of Murakami’s books, Men Without Women appeared in Japanese first. This one in 2014 and was released in English in 2017. They read in the same mesmerising, I-Novel style, traditional to Japanese writers, which is pretty much the first-person narrative. Exposing the … Continue reading Men Without Women: My Thoughts on Haruki Murakami