New releases from The Orb, Meredith Monk, and Marconi Union
Gang warfare and class struggle
GAVIN O’TOOLE welcomes a masterful study of gang behaviour in the favelas of Sao Paulo
PILED UP DESPAIR: Poverty and unemployment define Rio de Janeiro favelas
[Chris Jones/flickr/CC]
RITA DI SANTO draws attention to a new film that features Ken Loach and Jeremy Corbyn, and their personal experience of media misrepresentation
JULIA TOPPIN recommends Patti Smith’s eloquent memoir that wrestles with the beauty and sorrow of a lifetime
MARJORIE MAYO welcomes an account of family life after Oscar Wilde, a cathartic exercise, written by his grandson
KEN COCKBURN guides us through a survey of Chekov’s early short fiction, and the groundwork it laid for his later masterpieces
ANDY HEDGECOCK revels in a hugely enjoyable but deadly serious examination of the 1930s, that is an indictment of our own era
The bard distills our hellish times into fiery words
Inside Criminalized Governance: How and Why Gangs Rule the Streets of Rio de Janeiro
Nicholas Barnes, Cambridge University Press £26.99
THE recent extradition by Mexico to the US of 29 drug cartel leaders reminds us of the scale of organised crime in the Americas. Up to 100 million people in the most marginalised communities of Latin America may be subject to the control of criminal gangs.
Crime in all its permutations visits fear, bloodshed and mayhem on vast swathes of the region, particularly its cities, as rival groups compete for territory and illicit spoils.
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