J. Courtney Sullivan is, just like each of her engaging and multifaceted characters in Commencement, far from two-dimensional. In our conversation, she tells me stories about sending copies of works by feminist activist and scholar Catharine MacKinnon anonymously to boys after a terrible first date, and refers to her expression of newfound political views in her younger years … [Read more...] about J. Courtney Sullivan: Graduating from Chick Lit
October November 2009 Issue
Review of Books
Recommended Leo Tolstoy famously said that all great literature is one of two stories: a man goes on a journey, or a stranger comes to town. William Trevor’s latest novel is thus great literature two times over. The Cork-born Irish master, author of fourteen novels and twelve short story collections, came forth this September with Love and Summer, which focuses on the small … [Read more...] about Review of Books
Sláinte: Rest in Peace Ted Kennedy
As my sophomore year of high school began in 1960, the country was buzzing with the coming election. An Irish American was running for president! My Irish relatives rallied to the call and even my Italian family members supported the candidate. He might be Irish but he was Catholic too! When John F. Kennedy’s campaign came to Philadelphia, my father was one of the official … [Read more...] about Sláinte: Rest in Peace Ted Kennedy
The Last Word: What Ted Kennedy & John Sweeney Built On
The death of Ted Kennedy precedes by three weeks the end of John Sweeney’s 14-year tenure as president of the AFL-CIO. Together, these events signal the end of an epoch in American political history: that of Irish American leadership of the nation’s liberal institutions and Democratic organizations. Time was, of course, when the Democratic Party was largely big-city machines … [Read more...] about The Last Word: What Ted Kennedy & John Sweeney Built On