Marx family
Engels as dickhead? Great novel, bad history
Mrs Engels
By Gavin McCrea
Melbourne: Scribe, 2015,
352 pages, A$29.99
Read more on the Marx household
Review by Barry Healy
August 13, 2015 – Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- For those hankering to know what Friedrich Engels’ erect penis looked like, page 37 of this novel is for you. “In its vigours, it points up and a bit to the side”, says Lizzie Burns, the first-person narrator of the entire story.She goes on: “Its cover goes all the way over the bell and bunches at the end like a pastry twist. Before he does anything he spits on his hand and peels this back.” Engels is quite enamoured of his member, it seems.
Gavin McCrea’s Lizzie Burns is a brilliant narrative voice and his writing sparkles. Lizzie’s rich brogue and her incisive humour are wonderful.
Jonathan Sperber's new bio seeks to bury Karl Marx, not praise him
Karl Marx, A Nineteenth Century Life
By Jonathan Sperber,
Liveright Publishing, 2013
The 'Marx party' -- Karl Marx's revolutionary household
New books reveal Friedrich Engels’ revolutionary life
Engels: A Revolutionary Life, by John Green, Artery
Friedrich Engels: the Che Guevara of his day
Review by Alex Miller
