John O'Kane

3 days ago | counterpunch.org | John O'Kane

This past March, I traveled to Rome to accept an award for my recently published novel, The Accidental Jesus. The event would cap this year’s international competition for literary fiction sponsored by the Pegasus Foundation. The book is set in San Pedro, California, and dramatizes how the protagonist—who resembles the historical Jesus and struggles with his Catholic faith—is taken for Jesus himself when he returns to his hometown for a high school reunion.

Jan 24, 2025 | counterpunch.org | John O'Kane

Garbage, apparently, isn’t what it used to be. Last week someone in a luxury van trolled my street, rifling the stretch of bins for items of value. He refused my refuse but found caches of worth in many of my neighbors’ receptacles, spending close to a half hour in his pillage. Who knows how much he culled from block after block. If he went at it for an eight-hour day, perhaps he could buy a house in our neighborhood or buy stock in the post-election economic ripple.

Dec 12, 2024 | counterpunch.org | John O'Kane

In the splurge of reactions to why Harris lost the election, her failure to distance herself from Biden was surely one of the most significant. She responded famously in one interview when questioned about what she would do different from her boss on the issues, that she couldn’t think of anything. As a result, she bore the brunt of Biden’s negative approval ratings, some of the worst in history.

Nov 7, 2024 | counterpunch.org | John O'Kane

In a recent op-ed, Lydia Polgreen said that if Kamala Harris is labeled as a DEI candidate, then J. D. Vance must be as well. She supports this with research from a Tufts University scholar who claims that elite schools, like Yale, where Mr. Vance graduated law school, give extra attention and resources to poor white students to help them succeed. In other words, Affirmative Action effectively applies to those suffering deficits in terms of class.

Sep 12, 2024 | counterpunch.org | John O'Kane

I received a review of Charles Bukowski’s Hollywood for AMASS Magazine (formerly Enclitic) as we were finalizing the current issue. We wanted to include it, but it was riddled with problems. I tried to salvage it, extracting a few of its good points, but it was hopeless. And the author had no interest in being associated with it, so I polished it off with a new moniker.