In the Company of Angels: A Novel

reviewed by Liam Mac Sheoinin

Originally published on April 9, 2010

Thomas E. Kennedy’s In the Company of Angels : A Novel is an elegy to the human heart. It begins on the couch of a Copenhagen psychiatrist treating a Chilean torture victim, Bernardo Greene.

Ancestor Worship by Michael S. Begnal

reviewed by Liam Mac Sheoinin

Originally published on April 7, 2008

Begnal’s latest collection, Ancestor Worship, is a remarkable for its moody details. In “Beautiful People,” “Dead bird blown down the road / as light as its feathers,” is a dazzling, fitting inchoate for a poem that ends with the provocative line “the knife dripping with juice.” Like Ginsberg, Begnal realizes a poem must provoke.

The Law of Falling Bodies by Duff Brenna

reviewed by Liam Mac Sheoinin

Originally published on January 29, 2008

“The Law of Falling Bodies…is a brilliantly entertaining novel. Brenna’s plain but poetic prose is matched in modern writing, perhaps, only by the famous poet of the plain, Cormac McCarthy. I foresee Brenna gaining national recognition like McCarthy one day. So I suggest book collectors snatch the first edition of this remarkable novel.”

Cast Upon The Day

reviewed by Liam Mac Sheoinin

Originally published on November 13, 2007

“Thomas E. Kennedy, now in his sixties, shows no sign of a diminution of his extraordinary talent. He has followed the superb Copenhagen Quartet with the equally superb Cast Upon the Day.”