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The New Republic by Lionel Shriver (view source)
Revision as of 12:41, 11 June 2012
, 12:41, 11 June 2012no edit summary
|summary=Written in 1998, before her critically acclaimed [[We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver|We Need To Talk About Kevin]], this takes a light approach to terrorism and press behaviour. Some interesting ideas but weak, stereotypical characterisation fails to lift this to the heights of Shriver's best works.
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Lionel Shriver adds a beard-shaped appendage to Southern Portugal in ''The New Republic'' and immediately has it fighting for independence, taking a wry look at terrorism as well as the ethics of the international press corps. After a series of international terrorism acts, the ''Os Soldados Ousados De Barba'', or the SOB for short, have gone quiet at the same time as charismatic journalist Barrington Sadler has vanished without a trace. In steps insecure Insecure former lawyer Edgar Kellogg to steps into Barrington's post. : Kellogg on the hunt for serial killers, as it were.
Set in pre-9/11 times, the Portuguese are still using the Escudo, setting it at some indistinct time in the past, although economic cynics may suggest that the currency may equally suggest a time in the future. Shriver adds a refreshingly candid author's note to the book, noting that it was written before her critically lauded [[We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver|We Need To Talk About Kevin]]. She acknowledges that pre-''Kevin'', her sales record was 'poisonous' and the book was rejected by several publishers. Then with the 9/11 events, a book that treats terrorism lightly was perhaps in questionable taste. But if 9/11 temporarily hindered the book's potential, in a form of literary karma, the book's other target, the disreputable behaviour of the press, makes this even more salient to British readers in light of the ongoing Leveson enquiry into press standards.