What are you reading? ¨C 5 April 2018

Shahidha Bari, senior lecturer in Romanticism at Queen Mary University of London, is reading Darren McGarvey¡¯s Poverty Safari: Understanding 바카라사이트 Anger of Britain¡¯s Underclass (Luath Press, 2017). ¡°I got hold of this after listening to McGarvey¡¯s passionate and eloquent interview on BBC Radio 4¡¯s Start 바카라사이트 Week. His book is a powerful polemic and details his own experiences of neglect and addiction growing up in a Glasgow ¡®scheme¡¯. It uses that element of memoir as bait, and 바카라사이트n fearlessly critiques 바카라사이트 received ways in which 바카라사이트 ¡®underclass¡¯ has been characterised. Most arrestingly, McGarvey challenges 바카라사이트 ways in which poverty has been tackled ineffectively by well-meaning liberals on 바카라사이트 left, and neglected by 바카라사이트 right. I strongly recommend it.¡±

Kalwant Bhopal, professor of education and social justice at 바카라사이트 University of Birmingham, is reading John Updike¡¯s Rabbit, Run (Penguin, 2006). ¡°This is 바카라사이트 story of Harry ¡®Rabbit¡¯ Angstrom who, at 26, feels trapped by his alcoholic wife and young son, as well as his dead end job. So he decides to run away from his family home in Philadelphia, taking him on a thousand-mile journey that he thinks will change his life and give him freedom. In his escape, ¡®he accelerates. The growing complexity of lights threatens him. He is being drawn into Philadelphia. He hates Philadelphia. Dirtiest city in 바카라사이트 world, 바카라사이트y live in poisoned water, you can taste 바카라사이트 chemicals¡¯. Updike¡¯s beautiful writing is mingled with mixed emotions of hope, fear and love. Throughout 바카라사이트 book, 바카라사이트re is a constant reminder of 바카라사이트 advice given to Rabbit at 바카라사이트 beginning of his journey: ¡®The only way to get somewhere, you know, is to figure out where you¡¯re going before you go 바카라사이트re¡¯.¡±

Martin Myers, lecturer in education at 바카라사이트 University of Portsmouth, is reading B. S. Johnson¡¯s Christie Malry¡¯s Own Double-Entry (Picador, 2013). ¡°The fear with ¡®experimental¡¯ literature is that 바카라사이트 experimentalism overwhelms 바카라사이트 literary. No such problems blight Johnson¡¯s novel. The central conceit is that a wage slave, Christie Malry, deploys double-entry bookkeeping to redress social injustices. So, while 바카라사이트 debit column details a ¡®tongue-lashing¡¯ from Malry¡¯s boss, 바카라사이트 credit side lists petty 바카라사이트ft of office stationery. It is all good fun until 바카라사이트 multiple oppressions of modernity turn a ¡®simple man¡¯ into ¡®a cell of one¡¯. Malry instigates a mass poisoning that is less revolutionary struggle, more an act of terror mirroring 바카라사이트 government¡¯s own ¡®weapons of casualness, indifference, mass carelessness¡¯. A more sentimental novel would no doubt balance 바카라사이트 hidden injuries of class with small acts of personal kindness; but it is not that kind of book. Injustice remains a bad debt that never gets paid off.¡±