A good book in which Eagleton's attitudes towards Irish nationalism and British imperialism are expressed in some interesting chapters of fictional social description, interspersed by humorous episodes concerning the eccentricities of Ludwig Wittgenstein. The character of Leopold Bloom, who the backcover asserts is a major character, has little relevance to the novella, but in my opinion the focus on James Connolly is far more interesting. My most prominent criticism is that the author doesn't effectively deal with the problem of the book's deliberate break from factual accuracy: the emphasised pause before the bullets hitting Connolly at his execution in the horiffic opening chapter hints at some sort of magical realism, yet this pause has little significance to the story, and quite why Wittgenstein -- who was nowhere near either Cambridge or Ireland in 1916 -- is a prominent character receives no attention. ( )