Sean Burke
Autor von Authorship
Über den Autor
Bildnachweis: Courtesy of Serpent's Tail Press
Werke von Sean Burke
The Death and Return of the Author: Criticism and Subjectivity in Barthes, Foucault and Derrida (1992) 45 Exemplare
The Ethics of Writing: Authorship and Responsibility in Plato, Nietzsche, Levinas (and Derrida) (2008) 9 Exemplare
Gender, Sexuality and the Bible Volume I 1 Exemplar
Gender, Sexuality and the Bible Volume II 1 Exemplar
Meet the professor: Essays in philosophy 1 Exemplar
Seances 1 Exemplar
Getagged
Wissenswertes
- Geburtstag
- 1961
- Geschlecht
- male
- Nationalität
- Wales (birth)
UK - Wohnorte
- Cardiff, Wales
Durham, England - Berufe
- professor (English, University of Durham)
Mitglieder
Rezensionen
Statistikseite
- Werke
- 12
- Mitglieder
- 114
- Beliebtheit
- #171,985
- Bewertung
- 3.1
- Rezensionen
- 2
- ISBNs
- 18
- Sprachen
- 1
While Deadwater is a novel of crime fiction, it's also an examination of loss. As a child Jack lived in and fully experienced the community and its "spectacular noise, of cockatoos, penny-slot pianos, of hurdie-gurdies, irrepressible Breton onion sellers, West Indian newspaper touts and stentorian fish hawkers." He also remembered the 1960s, when ethnic groups were relocated in an attempt to clear out the area slums because authorities feared
the sight of a creole community evolving its own way of being, its own ethics of spontaneity, respect and cheerfulness -- without need of statute, politician or book..
And now, with redevelopment of the area a main priority, the very identity of the Butetown/Tiger Bay community, everything Jack had ever known and cared about, was at stake, as
The promise of redevelopment seemed less an attempt to rejuvenate than to raze a community with its own, self-regulating and irregular forms of justice and peacekeeping.
Mirroring the community's decline and any hope of salvation in its future is the spiraling decline of Jack's friendship with Jess, as it leads him down a path that will ultimately end in betrayal and worse.
Deadwater is not a feel-good kind of novel at all, and stays that way right up until the last word. It is bleak and despairing, dark and gloomy. In tone it reminded me a little bit of Ken Bruen's Jack Taylor novels, in which the reader feels like he or she is watching a train wreck about to happen but is somehow glued to the spot and can't look away. Sean Burke is a wonderful writer whose prose seems a bit out of place in a crime fiction novel because it is so descriptively lyrical (Yes, I know that "lyrical" for prose is one of those words that is way overdone, but it actually fits here). He's established such a forceful sense of place that it is not difficult to imagine the loud pubs, the dark streets, and the docks while you read. There is nothing to distract from the plotlines, and Jack's character is well defined to the point where he becomes real for the duration.
This is one of those novels that are not for the casual mystery reader - it is filled with tragedy and is definitely not for the faint at heart or people who think there is some measure of redemption in any situation. At the same time, I couldn't help but be blown away by Burke's writing which captured my attention from the outset and never let me down. I would recommend it, definitely, but beware the darkness.… (mehr)