‘Malibu Rising’: A Steady Cocktail of Booze, Surfing, and Family Tragedy

By Shaila Kumaradas Slip off your shoes and dip your toes in the water. Can you feel the faint ocean breeze and the droplets splashing against your cheeks as the sound of four surfboards hitting the water echoes in the distance? If you can, you’ve found the home of the Riva siblings. I hope youContinue reading “‘Malibu Rising’: A Steady Cocktail of Booze, Surfing, and Family Tragedy”

Dylan Thomas’ Classic ‘Play for Voices’ has a New Sheen: ‘Under Milk Wood’ Review

By Acacia Caven The National Theatre’s most recent adaptation of Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood blends old with new in an emotional navigation through the town of Llareggub (try it backwards) and its inhabitants. Repackaged by Siân Owen, Thomas’ (arguably over-adapted) 1954 text is given new life through the addition of a framing story thatContinue reading “Dylan Thomas’ Classic ‘Play for Voices’ has a New Sheen: ‘Under Milk Wood’ Review”

Clashes and Connections of the City: A Review of Fiona Mozley’s ‘Hot Stew’

By Sara van der Woude Fiona Mozley’s second novel, Hot Stew (2021), opens with a snail escaping its unlucky fate as escargot-to-be, subsequently tracing an almost mythical origin story of Soho, London. We hear the trampling of the deer that used to be hunted on the former moor, the stapling of bricks as the terrainContinue reading “Clashes and Connections of the City: A Review of Fiona Mozley’s ‘Hot Stew’”

Food for Thought, Identity, and Culture: A feature on Michelle Zauner’s ‘Crying in H Mart’

By Naomi Tidball In the last few years, there has been a surge of musicians sharing their personal stories, framed, of course, as heroic journeys in the documentary form. For instance, the new Britney Spears documentary was released, or rock documentaries like, It Might Get Loud (Guggenheim, 2008). But musicians setting their stories to paper are fewer and far between, so it came asContinue reading “Food for Thought, Identity, and Culture: A feature on Michelle Zauner’s ‘Crying in H Mart’”

Fake Friends in ‘Klara and the Sun’: How Kazuo Ishiguro’s lifeless robots can give us a new perspective on life

By Isabel Cramer Welcome to a future, perhaps even parallel, Earth. Highly sophisticated artificial intelligence is a part of everyday life in Kazuo Ishiguro’s compelling Klara and the Sun. Ishiguro asks all the big questions in his latest novel: What does it mean to be human? Can science transcend death? Is parenthood truly selfless? TheContinue reading “Fake Friends in ‘Klara and the Sun’: How Kazuo Ishiguro’s lifeless robots can give us a new perspective on life”

‘Shadow and Bone’: Recapping Netflix’s Next Fantasy Hit

By Ilse Barkmeijer Netflix’s Original series based on the popular YA novels by Leigh Bardugo blends sweeping romances, elaborate new worlds, mysterious magic, and more into a bingeworthy escapist show. The show is currently developing a second season. With season two of Netflix’s hit Shadow and Bone currently in the making it’s not unfavourable toContinue reading “‘Shadow and Bone’: Recapping Netflix’s Next Fantasy Hit”

How to Perfect the Art of Exile: A Critical Review of Alienation in Antanas Škėma’s ‘White Shroud’

By Elžbieta Janušauskaitė In Perfection of Exile, renowned literary critic Rimvydas Šilbajoris defined the attempt to comprehend the meaning of exile as the struggle to articulate what humanity had lost in the Second World War (92). Tracing the evolution of Lithuanian literary tradition, he concluded that the events of the early 20th century produced aContinue reading “How to Perfect the Art of Exile: A Critical Review of Alienation in Antanas Škėma’s ‘White Shroud’”