An account of one of rock 'n' roll's legendary drummers doesn't go deep enough.
European scholars can only guess.
Novelist David Gates talks about his overeducated, self-tormenting characters, the genius of Dickens and the seductive pursuit of perfect taste. I wonder how I survived at all. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood. It has long been accepted that the Irish have cornered the market on misery. Having read McCourt's book and steeped myself in the rich tradition of 20th century Irish literature from John Millington Synge to James Joyce to Edna O'Brien and beyond, I was taken aback by the high life I saw in Dublin when I visited there last winter.