Clarissa's Blog

Everybody here knows that I have written a book on Spain’s crisis literature, right? And that by “crisis” I mean the profound transformation in the nature of the nation-state that we’ve been discussing here on the blog?

OK, so I’ve been looking to see if anybody’s written any crisis literature in English and guess what? I finally found a crisis novel by an Irish writer.

Tana French is one of many female writers who are terrified of their talent and try to make it as small and unnoticeable as possible by hiding it in mystery, romance, fantasy, erotica, YA, or something of the kind. Like those female scholars who put enormous amounts of work into one collected volume after another because writing whole book in their own voice feels too daring.

French is gifted and scared of her giftedness, so she writes police procedurals. And one of them – called Broken Harbor – is a crisis novel. And it’s as harsh as the crisis. Forget the mystery elements, they are neither here nor there. But this author finally speaks about something that matters and does it in a very powerful way. If you do read it, remember not to take it literally but as a metaphor for what is going on.

Very good, very highly recommended.