Good morning and merry Christmas to those who celebrate (currently me, eating an exquisite mince pie baked by my colleague Kate).
Whether that’s you or not, it’s as good a time of year as any to sit back and think about what matters to you. If someone is close to your heart, tell them. If you’re on a break, enjoy. If not, grant yourself half an hour somewhere to sit down with a mince pie and something interesting to read.
Below, in our penultimate edition of this newsletter for 2023, are a few places to start.
1. Heartbreak every day: Isabella Hammad and Sally Rooney on the Israel-Palestine conflict
Around the middle of November, and into December, these two novelists wrote back and forth as the crisis in Gaza continued. Their 10,000-word exchange – unpacking both their personal responses and the role of art more generally in times of catastrophe – is condensed here.
Also covered: the changing place of international law, Irish solidarity with Palestinians, and what happens after you see the unseeable.
From Isabella Hammad: “I wonder if the question [about art’s role] is partly a way of expressing horror not only at the sheer tremendousness of this violence, which is being enacted on an industrial scale … but also at the way violence can make art-making seem quite futile and feeble, something easily crushed. Basically, it’s easy to feel useless, and from there it’s a short leap to despair. But I don’t believe we can afford to despair, nor do I think despair is ethical.”
From Sally Rooney: “One of my instincts … is to acknowledge my own position as an ‘outsider’ to all of this. There’s a part of me that wants to say I should stay silent and leave these conversations to people who know better. But in another way, as a European, I am very much implicated in what’s happening.”
How long will it take to read: about eight minutes
Further reading: You can find our full coverage of the Israel-Gaza war here, including news, analysis and a range of perspectives.
2. OnlyEnemies (or: if you’re an author, don’t look at Goodreads)
December’s literary scandal was brought to you by Cait Corrain, a debut author who used fake accounts to “review bomb” her perceived rivals on Goodreads, getting her own book deal cancelled in the process. (She posted an apology on Instagram, attributing her actions in part to struggles with mental health and substance abuse.)
This week, David Smith asks if the book review site, which claims to be the world’s biggest for readers and recommendations, has at last become too unpleasant.
Why does Goodreads have so much industry clout? As Smith explains, it allows reviews of unpublished titles. As well as scouring the platform to get a feel for tastes and trends, publishers frequently send out advance copies to users, hoping to generate buzz with online reviews. What on earth could go wrong?
How long will it take to read: about four minutes
3. Love after death: remembering Shane MacGowan
Tim Jonze’s interview with Victoria Mary Clarke, done just a couple of weeks after the death of her husband Shane MacGowan, is really nice. The journalist and author hands over a vivid tumble of memories from 40 years with the frontman of iconoclastic Celtic punk band the Pogues (whom she first remembers encountering as the group’s “capable one”).
Jonze writes: “Clarke had grown up in West Cork where traditional Irish music was treated with reverence and respect. Here it was being soaked in whiskey and doused with flames. ‘Young guys who looked cool just didn’t play this kind of music,’ she recalls. ‘It would be like seeing a bunch of young guys in hoodies playing opera.’”
***
“We’re all going to lose people at some point. I’m just hopeful that people can take away the idea that you don’t have to fall apart – that it’s still possible to maintain your connection with them, even after they’ve gone.” – Victoria Mary Clarke
How long will it take to read: about six minutes
Further reading: Nick Cave also shared his memories of MacGowan, part of a series of farewells to the greats who passed on this year. See also: Charlotte Rampling on Jane Birkin, John Banville on Martin Amis, Martyn Ware on Tina Turner, Florence Noiville on Milan Kundera, Gavin Friday on Sinéad O’Connor and many others. RIP, everyone.
4. Liz Truss to Elon Musk: a rogue’s gallery for 2023
John Crace’s Westminster political sketches make for reliably entertaining reading, even if you don’t live in (or care much about) the UK. Our readers in Australia love them. Crace’s annual villains roll-call may be quite Brit-centric, but it’s definitely also quite funny.
Come for the unhinged memories, stay for the movie casting: Suella Braverman as Harry Potter’s Dolores Umbridge, “with less charm and worse blazers”; Vladimir Putin as “a Bond villain, but he’s a total prick”.
How long will it take to read: six minutes
5. Year ahead: 40 elections that will shape global politics in 2024
A record-breaking 40-plus countries are due to hold national elections next year – Simon Tisdall’s calling it the democracy Super Bowl. Some may lead to “genuine turning points”; others are predicted to be a sham. But as Tisdall puts it: “The outcomes, taken separately and together, will help determine who controls and directs the 21st-century world.”
More ominously, he reckons a Donald Trump victory in the US presidential election “and the ensuing chaotic Jacobean-style revenge tragedy it will inevitably trigger, could permanently upend the international order”.
Who’s involved? “Some of the most powerful and wealthiest states (the US, India, the UK), some of the weakest (South Sudan), the most despotic (Russia, Iran) and the most stressed (Taiwan, Ukraine).” Also: South Africa, Pakistan, Mexico, Bangladesh, the European parliament … and many more. No election is currently scheduled for Israel, but Tisdall suggests that “war or no war, grassroots pressure to hold one is likely to grow”.
How long will it take to read: under four minutes
Send us a festive message, go on: australia.newsletters@theguardian.com. And have a lovely weekend.
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