The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Sebastian, Four Mothers, Restless, and The Most Precious of Cargoes
Latest editorial
Error message
Warning: Trying to access array offset on null in node_article() (line 12 of themes/custom/morningstar/preprocess/nodes/article.php).
node_article() (Line: 106) morningstar_preprocess_node() call_user_func_array() (Line: 261) Drupal\Core\Theme\ThemeManager->render() (Line: 446) Drupal\Core\Render\Renderer->doRender() (Line: 203) Drupal\Core\Render\Renderer->render() (Line: 238) Drupal\Core\Render\MainContent\HtmlRenderer->Drupal\Core\Render\MainContent\{closure}() (Line: 593) Drupal\Core\Render\Renderer->executeInRenderContext() (Line: 231) Drupal\Core\Render\MainContent\HtmlRenderer->prepare() (Line: 128) Drupal\Core\Render\MainContent\HtmlRenderer->renderResponse() (Line: 90) Drupal\Core\EventSubscriber\MainContentViewSubscriber->onViewRenderArray() (Line: 246) Symfony\Component\EventDispatcher\EventDispatcher::Symfony\Component\EventDispatcher\{closure}() (Line: 206) Symfony\Component\EventDispatcher\EventDispatcher->callListeners() (Line: 56) Symfony\Component\EventDispatcher\EventDispatcher->dispatch() (Line: 188) Symfony\Component\HttpKernel\HttpKernel->handleRaw() (Line: 76) Symfony\Component\HttpKernel\HttpKernel->handle() (Line: 53) Drupal\Core\StackMiddleware\Session->handle() (Line: 48) Drupal\Core\StackMiddleware\KernelPreHandle->handle() (Line: 28) Drupal\Core\StackMiddleware\ContentLength->handle() (Line: 201) Drupal\page_cache\StackMiddleware\PageCache->fetch() (Line: 138) Drupal\page_cache\StackMiddleware\PageCache->lookup() (Line: 87) Drupal\page_cache\StackMiddleware\PageCache->handle() (Line: 48) Drupal\Core\StackMiddleware\ReverseProxyMiddleware->handle() (Line: 51) Drupal\Core\StackMiddleware\NegotiationMiddleware->handle() (Line: 36) Drupal\Core\StackMiddleware\AjaxPageState->handle() (Line: 51) Drupal\Core\StackMiddleware\StackedHttpKernel->handle() (Line: 709) Drupal\Core\DrupalKernel->handle() (Line: 19)Warning: Trying to access array offset on null in node_article() (line 13 of themes/custom/morningstar/preprocess/nodes/article.php).
node_article() (Line: 106) morningstar_preprocess_node() call_user_func_array() (Line: 261) Drupal\Core\Theme\ThemeManager->render() (Line: 446) Drupal\Core\Render\Renderer->doRender() (Line: 203) Drupal\Core\Render\Renderer->render() (Line: 238) Drupal\Core\Render\MainContent\HtmlRenderer->Drupal\Core\Render\MainContent\{closure}() (Line: 593) Drupal\Core\Render\Renderer->executeInRenderContext() (Line: 231) Drupal\Core\Render\MainContent\HtmlRenderer->prepare() (Line: 128) Drupal\Core\Render\MainContent\HtmlRenderer->renderResponse() (Line: 90) Drupal\Core\EventSubscriber\MainContentViewSubscriber->onViewRenderArray() (Line: 246) Symfony\Component\EventDispatcher\EventDispatcher::Symfony\Component\EventDispatcher\{closure}() (Line: 206) Symfony\Component\EventDispatcher\EventDispatcher->callListeners() (Line: 56) Symfony\Component\EventDispatcher\EventDispatcher->dispatch() (Line: 188) Symfony\Component\HttpKernel\HttpKernel->handleRaw() (Line: 76) Symfony\Component\HttpKernel\HttpKernel->handle() (Line: 53) Drupal\Core\StackMiddleware\Session->handle() (Line: 48) Drupal\Core\StackMiddleware\KernelPreHandle->handle() (Line: 28) Drupal\Core\StackMiddleware\ContentLength->handle() (Line: 201) Drupal\page_cache\StackMiddleware\PageCache->fetch() (Line: 138) Drupal\page_cache\StackMiddleware\PageCache->lookup() (Line: 87) Drupal\page_cache\StackMiddleware\PageCache->handle() (Line: 48) Drupal\Core\StackMiddleware\ReverseProxyMiddleware->handle() (Line: 51) Drupal\Core\StackMiddleware\NegotiationMiddleware->handle() (Line: 36) Drupal\Core\StackMiddleware\AjaxPageState->handle() (Line: 51) Drupal\Core\StackMiddleware\StackedHttpKernel->handle() (Line: 709) Drupal\Core\DrupalKernel->handle() (Line: 19)Warning: Trying to access array offset on null in node_article() (line 14 of themes/custom/morningstar/preprocess/nodes/article.php).
node_article() (Line: 106) morningstar_preprocess_node() call_user_func_array() (Line: 261) Drupal\Core\Theme\ThemeManager->render() (Line: 446) Drupal\Core\Render\Renderer->doRender() (Line: 203) Drupal\Core\Render\Renderer->render() (Line: 238) Drupal\Core\Render\MainContent\HtmlRenderer->Drupal\Core\Render\MainContent\{closure}() (Line: 593) Drupal\Core\Render\Renderer->executeInRenderContext() (Line: 231) Drupal\Core\Render\MainContent\HtmlRenderer->prepare() (Line: 128) Drupal\Core\Render\MainContent\HtmlRenderer->renderResponse() (Line: 90) Drupal\Core\EventSubscriber\MainContentViewSubscriber->onViewRenderArray() (Line: 246) Symfony\Component\EventDispatcher\EventDispatcher::Symfony\Component\EventDispatcher\{closure}() (Line: 206) Symfony\Component\EventDispatcher\EventDispatcher->callListeners() (Line: 56) Symfony\Component\EventDispatcher\EventDispatcher->dispatch() (Line: 188) Symfony\Component\HttpKernel\HttpKernel->handleRaw() (Line: 76) Symfony\Component\HttpKernel\HttpKernel->handle() (Line: 53) Drupal\Core\StackMiddleware\Session->handle() (Line: 48) Drupal\Core\StackMiddleware\KernelPreHandle->handle() (Line: 28) Drupal\Core\StackMiddleware\ContentLength->handle() (Line: 201) Drupal\page_cache\StackMiddleware\PageCache->fetch() (Line: 138) Drupal\page_cache\StackMiddleware\PageCache->lookup() (Line: 87) Drupal\page_cache\StackMiddleware\PageCache->handle() (Line: 48) Drupal\Core\StackMiddleware\ReverseProxyMiddleware->handle() (Line: 51) Drupal\Core\StackMiddleware\NegotiationMiddleware->handle() (Line: 36) Drupal\Core\StackMiddleware\AjaxPageState->handle() (Line: 51) Drupal\Core\StackMiddleware\StackedHttpKernel->handle() (Line: 709) Drupal\Core\DrupalKernel->handle() (Line: 19)
Fiction Review: Optic Nerve by Maria Ginza
Maria Ginza's novel is an outstanding exploration of the nature of perception
JOHN GREEN explores the argument that psychiatry needs to move away from the idea of just seeing and treating the individual
SYLVIA HIKINS applauds a polemic against “cleanfluencers” and considers radical alternatives to current inequalities of housework
RUTH AYLETT admires the blunt honesty with which a woman’s experience is recorded, but detects the unexamined privilege that underlies it
IAN SINCLAIR draws attention to the powerful role that literature plays in foreseeing the way humanity will deal with climate crisis
High quality pulp, rollicking online murders, Abnorman Britain, and high skates drama: reviews of The Get Off, Everyone In The Group Chat Dies, Pagans and First To Fall
DENNIS BROE notes what happens to content when the streaming giants incorporate AI and deregulation into their economic models
Optic Nerve
by Maria Gainza
(Vintage Publishing, £14.99)
THIS exquisite novel of a woman in her twenties searching for meaning through the paintings she loves is a stunning debut from Maria Gainza.
[[{"fid":"11624","view_mode":"inlineright","fields":{"format":"inlineright","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false},"link_text":null,"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"inlineright","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false}},"attributes":{"class":"media-element file-inlineright","data-delta":"1"}}]]Part autobiographical fiction, part art criticism, it’s set in her native Buenos Aires and comes across as a subtle chronicle of a city, family life and a culture deeply rooted in the “southern cone” of Latin America.
The narrator, like Gainza an art critic living in the Argentine capital, defines herself as the “black sheep” of one of the most aristocratic families in the country. She effortlessly intersperses personal stories of friendship, marriage, love, fear of flying and family grudges with the life and work of famous painters — from Gustave Courbet to Tsugaru Foujita — whose work hangs in the galleries of Buenos Aires.
More from this author
A pamphlet by British Latinx poet Patrick Romero McCafferty, poetry by Anglo-Argentinian Miguel Cullen, and a book of conjuring poems by Mexican Pedro Serrano
LEO BOIX selects the best books of fiction, poetry, and non-fiction written by Latinx and Latin American authors published this year
Mexican Yuri Herrera’s novel about Benito Juarez in New Orleans, and poetry by Mexican Fabio Morabito and Argentine Sergio Chejfec
Femicide and the search for justice in Mexico: a book by Cristina Rivera Garza; and a travel book through Latin America by Welsh poet Richard Gwyn