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Thomas E Kennedy

Review of Thomas E. Kennedy's Danish Fall
Volume IV of The Copenhagen Quartet appearing in Book View Ireland/ The Irish Emigrant selected as Book of the Week

Book of the Week
Danish Fall - Thomas E. Kennedy



The fourth of Thomas E. Kennedy's Copenhagen quartet again gives an intimate view of the city; just as it is possible to find one's way around Dublin through the pages of Joyce's "Ulysses", so it is possible for the stranger to negotiate the streets and squares of Copenhagen through the pages of Kennedy's works. But in addition to the character of Denmark's capital, the author has presented us with a range of international characters whose lives cross at various points of intersection.


The author introduces the reader gradually to the main players, to Harald Jaeger, Birgitte Sommer, Claus Clausen and Frederick Breathwaite, all of whom are manipulated by the "professional down-sizer", Martin Kampman. They are presented as individuals but are soon engaged in an inexorable dance of integration brought on by broken relationships, professional jealousy and ambition, and the search for love, fulfilment and a meaning in life. Their striving is mirrored in the lifestyles of the younger generation, of Frederick's son Jes and Martin's son Adam, both setting out on their own paths and both thus defying their fathers. To a lesser extent this father and son relationship is explored in the character of Jalil, the Afghan shopkeeper whose own son's desire to follow his own path has led to their estrangement.


While the struggle between fathers and sons, bosses and their subordinates dominates the narrative, the women in their lives have a profound effect. Always it is the mothers who keep open the lines of communication with their sons, it is the women who have the power to forgive or to punish and it is women who finally bring some kind of resolution to the lives of Jaegar and Breathwaite, and a more confrontational resolution in the life of the arch manipulator Kampman.


Kennedy writes of the lower points of life, of demotion and dismissal, of divorce and disappointment, but writes with a sardonic humour that relieves the mood and allows the reader to engage with the characters, both young and old. The final novel in the quartet maintains both the standards and the attractions of the three earlier novels on life in Copenhagen.



Thomas E. Kennedy
The Copenhagen Quartet

The Copenhagen Quartet


published by Wynkin deWorde, Galway, Ireland
2002-2005
Four independent novels about the souls and seasons, the light and jazz and serving houses of the Danish capital. Volume I Kerrigan's Copenhagnen . Volume II Bluett's Blue Hours Volume III Greene's Summer
Volume IV Danish Fall

Writes American critic David Applefield,
Kennedy's work "places Copenhagen on a level with Joyce's Dublin."

Each novel focuses on a different group of characters and various parts of the city, incorporating actual streets, cafes, and landmarks. Each is written in a different style - one is experimental, one noir, one has a social conscience, and one is unapologetically satirical. Each has its own musical score.




Our Writers

Pokkoli Writers Gallery
Featuring David Lynn of The Kenyon Review and a new anthology from Mutabilis Press, guest edited by Randall Watson
Cecilia Woloch
Poet, multigenre workshop teacher. Join Cecilia Woloch for her upcoming workshop in Autumn 2008
Peter Selgin
novelist, writing teacher, and painter, author of By Cunning and Craft, Ten Lessons for Fiction Writers Writers Digest Books 2007. Join Peter at Centro Pokkoli for his fiction writing workshop in June 2008
Chef Sergio
founder and director of Centro Pokkoli. Instructor for "Survival Italian," Italian culture and cuisine workshops. Discover his recipe memoirs here.
Linda Lappin
author of The Etruscan (Wynkin Deworde, 2004) and Katherine's Wish co-director of Centro Pokkoli Workshop leader for the "Spirit of Place" Creative Writing Workshops
Thomas E. Kennedy
author of The Copenhagen Quartet
Paulette Licitra
writer, chef, and founder of Alimentum: the Literature of Food Join Paulette and Alimentum for a wonderful food literature workshop in June 2007.
David Applefield
Novelist, Publisher, and Editor of Frank



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