Review: Counterparts edited by Danielle McLaughlin
Well I never thought I’d say lawyers did anything useful but this little anthology of writing by Irish lawyers astounded me. Mostly short stories, a smattering of poetry intersperses the book and generally goes right over my head as poetry invariably does.
The stories are well written and reveal their authors as very humanistic people, not a quality I noticed in twenty years of dealing with corporate lawyers. The book pairs texts with a brief extract from a true court case (many of them recognisable from the newspaper) and finishes with a short note by the author on why he or she paired that case with his text, perhaps influence or resonance with the theme.
All of life is there: middle-class murderers, old-peoples homes, euthanasia, state torture. Hat’s off to Danielle McLaughlin for a great idea, well executed. The title is good too but I prefer mine!
Asynchronists 