SOURCE: A review of The Porcupine, in Review of Contemporary Fiction, Vol. 13, No. 2, Summer, 1993, p. 252-53.

In the following review, Byrne praises Barnes's mixing of politics and fiction in The Porcupine.

The jury is still out, one might think, on the subject of whether a good defense is the best offense or whether a good offense is the best defense. I suppose it depends on whether we're talking about porcupines, football, boxing, or possibly show trials before and after the meltdown of the Iron Curtain. The Porcupine is about the fictitious show trial of a former Balkan dictator of many years, a trial which takes place just after the recent break-up of the Soviet Union. Stoyo Petkanov is the old porcupine, the longtime leader who fought his way up through the party ranks to the top; Peter Solinsky is the young prosecutor, the law professor who wishes to...