ANDY HEDGECOCK, MARIA DUARTE and ANGUS REID review Synthetic Sincerity, Our Hero, Balthazar, Heartstopper Forever, and A Year In London
Latest editorial
A timely warning from an ominous past
This is a pertinent reminder of what the government is capable of doing to those who popularise a vision that runs counter to a capitalist economy, its wars and its racism, writes ROB JACOBS
BITTER RIFT: Burl Ives (right) was castigated by Pete Seeger (left) for collaborating with Joseph McCarthy
[Library of Congress/Creative Commons]
KEITH RICHMOND relishes a superbly conceived modern version of Aeschylus’ drama of murderous family succession
MICHAL BONCZA recommends a minimalist installation that prompts intriguing connotations
FIONA O’CONNOR questions the achievement of this year’s Orwell prize winner for political fiction
LEO BOIX reviews two powerful Latin American novels in which myth and crime fiction expose the deadly consequences of patriarchy, clandestine abortion and state violence
New releases from Laura Veirs, The Waterboys, and Yard Act
Ron's rages are sincere and — according to his wife — healthily cathartic. But can these splenetic outbursts loosen the grip of capitalism at its most monstrous?
The Folk Singers and the Bureau: The FBI, the Folk Artists and the Suppression of the Communist Party USA, 1939-1956
by Aaron J Leonard (Repeater Books, £10.99)
MY dad played music a lot when I was a young child. He would come home from work and put an album on his record player, change out of his uniform and drink a beer while he listened.
Usually, his listening fare was show tunes or big band music. On occasion, he would play a Nat King Cole record or something from the Ink Spots. Sometimes, he would put on a record by the folk singer Burl Ives.
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RON JACOBS recommends a book that charts the disparate circumstances that defined the lives of two prominent black Afro-Americans — one a communist, the other an anti-communist
RON JACOBS is enthralled by an account of the surveillance and political repression on the left in the US
TONY BURKE revels in the publication of previously unreleased tracks by the great US folksinger
RON JACOBS welcomes a timely homage to one of the IWW and CPUSA’s most effective orators