Marx Returns

978-1-78535-660-5

Marx Returns is the debut novel by the British writer and filmmaker Jason Barker. It tells the story of the German philosopher Karl Marx and his struggle to complete his magnum opus Capital.^[1]^[2]

Reception

Reviewing Marx Returns in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Nina Power described it as "an imaginative, uplifting, and sometimes disturbing alternative history".^[3] Writing for The Australian, Peter Beilharz declared that "The story that Barker tells is incredibly witty, clever, and creative. It is amusing and entertaining as well as instructive."^[4]

Barker discussed his novel at the British Library’s Karl Marx bicentennial event on 5 May 2018. Other invited speakers were Clive Coleman and Richard Bean, writers of the 2017 West End play Young Marx, along with "the team behind Raoul Peck’s film The Young Karl Marx".^[5] The event was moderated by Eleanor Marx biographer Rachel Holmes.

In an interview with Marx200, a German commemorative website set up by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, Barker observes that "Marx Returns is not a philosophical novel" and is "an adventure story."^[6]

References

^ "Marx Returns || Zero Books || Book Info". zero-books.net. Retrieved 24 March 2018.
^ Quinn, Ben (3 February 2018). "Marx bicentenary to be marked by exhibitions, books – and pub crawls | Books". The Observer. Retrieved 24 March 2018.
^ Power, Nina (16 March 2018). "Time and Freedom in Jason Barker's 'Marx Returns'". Los Angeles Review of Books. Retrieved 24 March 2018.
^ Beilharz, Peter (19 January 2019). "Humour and pathos on bumpy road to Das Kapital". The Australian. Retrieved 26 March 2019.
^ "Karl Marx Imagined, and The Young Karl Marx screening". British Library Events. Retrieved 24 March 2018.
^ Engster, Frank (8 February 2018). "From Marx Reloaded to Marx Returns". Marx200.org. Retrieved 24 March 2018.