SOURCE: Donoghue, Denis. “The Gunman.” London Review of Books 19, no. 23 (27 November 1997): 24.

In the following review, Donoghue asserts that the best parts of Carson's The Star Factory are those that look nostalgically at the past.

I made my first visit to Belfast when I was almost 11, late in 1939. The war had just started, and Italy had joined Germany in aggression. My father was the sergeant-in-charge of the Royal Ulster Constabulary in Warrenpoint, Co. Down and he was instructed to arrest all enemy aliens in the town and convey them for internment to Crumlin Road Jail in Belfast. The only alien we had was an Italian who ran the fish and chip shop in the Square. He had anglicised his name to Tony Malocca. My father hired a car and a driver for the great occasion, and brought me along for the ride, letting me sit up front while he...