Heroic Failure
Fintan O’Toole
Head of Zeus, £11.99
In his columns for the Irish Times, Fintan O’Toole has been one of the most astute commentators on Brexit, and here he offers up his analysis of the forces in the English psyche which brought it about. Nor does he pull any punches, diagnosing a national epidemic of self-pity which settled in after the Second World War: a sense that it would have been better to have been invaded by Hitler than to stand by and watch far more battle-scarred economies faring so much better in peacetime. “In the imperial imagination, there are only two states: dominant and submissive, colonizer and colonized,” he writes, suggesting that Brexiteers have projected the role of coloniser on to the EU so that they can bask in “the exuberant victimhood of anti-colonial resistance”, a glow fanned by the peculiarly English cult of heroic failure. He writes animatedly and to devastating effect, his framing of Brexit as a “weird psychodrama” raising some uncomfortable questions.
A Maigret Christmas and other stories
Georges Simenon
Penguin, £7.99
Inspector Maigret’s melancholy Christmas morning mood is interrupted by news from across the street of a young girl being visited in the night by Santa Claus, who gave her a doll and prised up some floorboards. Unusually, this is an investigation he can conduct from home, which he seems to find quite a satisfying way to spend Christmas. There are three seasonal stories in this 1951 collection, but only the first features Maigret himself. In the second, a police telephonist is pushed out of his usual auxiliary role into the thick of the action. In the last, a man shockingly shoots himself in the head in a restaurant. Two witnesses, Martine and Jeanne, are interviewed by police, leading to a more traditionally uplifting festive conclusion. Simenon is masterfully economical, telling us volumes about Maigret’s home life with the most minimal strokes, and, even though the Inspector barely leaves his apartment, the author manages to convey the flavour of Paris on Christmas Day.
Jewish comedy: A Serious History
Jeremy Dauber
W.W. Norton, £11.99
Drawing on the 15 years he’s spent lecturing on the subject, Jeremy Dauber delves into the rich, complex and continually fascinating history of Jewish comedy, tracing the evolution of various strands of humour, including irony, vulgarity, bookish wit, folksiness and joking as a response to persecution. His exploration of how a distinctive voice developed within a closed, largely self-regulated community reaches back as far as the plot-twists of the Book of Esther, the earthiness of the Book of Judges and centuries of Talmudic debates, taking in satirical rabbinic poetry from the Middle Ages and the cultural fusion of 11th Century Spain, all the way up to The Daily Show and Curb Your Enthusiasm. In a work of substantial, scholarly research that nevertheless has room for some excellent jokes, Dauber provides much insight into how Jewish people have regarded themselves and each other down the centuries, and how Jewish comedians, having come to define American comedy, are still at the cutting edge.
ALASTAIR MABBOTT
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here