tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11112461763948541952023-11-17T02:58:58.510+11:00The Blurb on 94.7 the Pulse"The Blurb" is a radio show about books, reading and ideas which can be heard on Geelong's 94.7 the Pulse on Tuesdays from 3-4pm. Presented by Bernard Ryan, the show includes author interviews, book reviews and poetry, with a focus on local writers.Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16509004355538181576noreply@blogger.comBlogger67125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1111246176394854195.post-62357504001527472252011-06-21T17:47:00.001+10:002011-06-21T17:47:54.803+10:00June 14thWELCOME to Leo, panelling today.<br /><br />* NEXT WEEKEND in Torquay brings the “Froth’N’Bubble” Literary Festival, Saturday and Sunday at Torquay College. All FREE.<br /><br />* In our conversation last Tuesday, ROHAN WILSON spoke of his doctoral work on the relationship between historiography and fiction: that same day the marvellous621 am/Radio National’s “Bush Telegraph” featured a discussion of the novel-to-film process of “The Chant Of Jimmy Blacksmith” with author Tom Keneally, actor Tommy Lewis and director, Fred Schepsi. [You can download the podcast.] NOTE: in 2001,”The True Story OF Jimmy Governor” was published, Moore/Willaims. Very interesting.<br /><br />* The latest GRANTA from the UK looks at the “F” word…FEMINISM.<br /><br />* NEIL HUMPHRIES, an early guest on this program, has a new novel, “Premier Leech”, which looks at the ‘underbelly’ of English football.<br /><br />* The new “Quarterly Essay” by JUDITH BRETT, looks at the city-country divide. I will talk about it next week.<br /><br />* BLOOM’S DAY will be recognised Thursday 16th June at the Geelong Library by having local writers read from “Ulysses”.<br /><br />* “Phil the Greek” – aka the Duke of Edinburgh – turned 90 recently and “The Oz” Saturday listed 100 foot-in-mouth eruptions from the Royal Consort. I will read one each week for your AMUSEMENT. Eg: “If you stay here much longer, you will go home with slitty eyes”. [To a British student during a 1986 visit to China.]<br /><br />* Book-to-film Number 40: Hemingway’s “The Old Man And The Sea”, starring Spencer Tracey, was on TV Sunday.<br />The short story I recommended to Rohan last week was the<br />definitive “The Snows Of Kilaminjaro” [of which a film version came out, I think, with Ava Gardner and Stewart Granger?... maybe.]<br /><br />* Hesse Street, Queescliff, is BOOKS street. Now PETE [sic] has opened a rag-tag second-hand shop where you will find classics such as John Del Vecchio’s novel of the Vietnam war, “The Last Valley.”<br /><br />* Poet GEOFF GOODFELLOW will be visiting Geelong as part of the Melbourne Writers’ Festival. More on this later. Karen Mayo is the contact and she is also organising a photography exhibition – “Certificate Of Presence” by KAREN MAYO – in the ‘old’ Dimmey’s building in Malop Street. Dates, times and details… later.<br /><br />* GARRY DISHER’s new Peninsula [Mornington!] crime novel is out: “Whispering Death”. Stay tuned for my review soon and the follow-up interview.<br /><br />* I have just begun the second novel by ARAVIND ADIGA who won the Man-Booker with “The White Tiger”. So far it is hilarious and right up there with his first.<br /><br />* GALLIPOLI. Remember I spoke about the monumental new book by British historian PETER HART on April 26th? MICHAEL McKERNAN, formerly of the Australian War Memorial, prolific writer on Australian war history, has just published a very good SHORT history about the doomed 1915 campaign which is a great introduction. In a very concise manner, he raises all the issues – and provides some challenging answers.<br /><br />INTERVIEW with ADRIENNE FERREIRA, author of a brand-new vovel,”Watercolours” [ 4th Estate pb, rrp $40, pp 340.]Blurb Production Teamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13530191833029376377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1111246176394854195.post-10331026324572150802011-06-08T20:54:00.000+10:002011-06-08T20:55:16.107+10:00June 7thWELCOME to Emma and John […and thanks to BOB APPLETON whose mind came up with the name of this program over two years ago!]<br /><br /><h3> Book & Publishing News </h3><br /><br />* Remember my review of JC BURKE”s novel “The Pig Boy”? I have now read a second book – “The Story Of Tom Brennan” – which is currently on the NSW Yr 12 English syllabus. I am still trying to line Jan up for a chat.<br /><br />* Book-to-film Nos. 39 and 40. We watched a 1990s’ film version of the Raymond Chandler classic “The Big Sleep”. Don’t bother: why did the director [the competent Michael Winner] move the action to the UK? Robert Mitchum is just too cool as Marlowe.<br />I read Burdick/Lederer’s “The Ugly American” when I was in my late teens and it awakened in me my interest in foreign affairs, particularly re. the US and Australia in SE Asia. The film came out in 1963: it was fascinating to see it now, with Marlon Brando as the embattled US Ambassador in Sarakan [Vietnam?]<br /><br />* As the new month begins, all the news and books mags are coming out. You can purchase them at PATON’s in Newtown. Some highlights:<br />OVERLAND – BENJAMIN LAW on the Brisbane floods.<br />ALR [in “The Austrlian”]– an essay discussing who is the more selfish, the Babyboomers or Gen Y.<br />THE MONTHLY – a great article on the implications of China’s latest Five-Year Plan.<br />ABR – PATRICK ALLINGTON {“Figurehead”] has a long article on the criteria for the Miles Franklin Award.<br />QUADRANT – I enjoyed an article on GRAHAM GREENE’s “Catholic” novels.<br />SOUTHERLY – a special India edition…which reminds me that I must tell you soon about a great new novel set in SW India, ”Tiger Hills”.<br /><br />* Torquay is holding its “Froth’N’Bubble Festival” on June 18-19. Check out the website for all the FREE events.<br /><br />* BLOOMSDAY is June 16th and our Geelong library will host readings from That Book [”Ulysses”] by local writers.<br /><br />* Melbourne Writers’ Festival is coming to Geelong…more later.<br /><br />* BOOK DESIGN is a fad of mine. I love the look and feel of A&U’s “Good Living Street”, not to mention “The Roving Party”.<br /><br />* I may not have time to review these, but interesting reading at present: “Amexica”. a documentary on the border wars on the USA-Mexican border….”Tamil Tigress’ tells the story of young Sri Lankan woman caught up in that civil war; she now lives in Australia. I will review “Those Who Came After” by ELISABETH HOLDSWORTH which is VERY good so far.<br /><br /><h3> This Week’s Review: “The Precipice” by Virginia Duigan” </h3><br /><br /> In spite of “Moby Dick”, ”The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn” and “The Catcher In The Rye”, I am rather wary of novels presented from a first-person narrator’s perspective. I also look askance on novels about writing – ah - novels. Hence my alarm with “The Precipice” as Duigan’s Thea Farmer begins to tell us about her unfulfilled retirement to her “shack” in the Blue Mountains, relieved mainly by her regular excursions to the local town’s Creative Writing evenings.<br /><br />The nearby town could be Leura. It is never named, but Thea lives deep within that glorious terrain which is beautifully if ominously depicted in her reveries. She is a former principal of a girls’ secondary school. The circumstances of her finishing up in the profession are somewhat murky for most of the book. She had designed her dream retirement home, but had to sell up when the GFC hit. The purchasers are ‘tree changers’, Frank and Ellice, and his adoptive daughter, Vietnamese-Australian teenager, Kim. The only friends Thea has are Oscar, the man who ruins the Creative Writing course, and the local secondhand bookshop proprietor, Sandy. She dotes on her dog, Tim. Thea is intelligent, articulate, prickly, self-opinionated – and fascinating, for most of the book. I can’t say I liked her or even sympathised with her lonely plight. Increasingly I was reminded of those other memorable fictional teachers, Miss Jean Brodie from Muriel Spark’s terrific novel and Jack Keating [from the film, “The Dead Poets’ Society”.]<br /><br />Thea’s private life is slowly, and [mostly] cleverly revealed, my reservation arising from my confusion at times about what was the novel and what was for her Creative gradually Writing class. We discover the lingering cloud over her work relationship with a gifted young male teacher, Karl Rhode. Meanwhile she seems to be getting awkwardly close to Frank. The friendship with Kim seems mutually beneficial as she mentors the girl’s English skills and Kim acts as a surrogate daughter. Remember, however, that I had begun to see Brodie-Keating signals – and we know how THEIR patronage ended up! Does the author want the reader to read such signs? Maybe that’s a question I’ll ask Virginia when I speak with her.<br /><br />Kim is a regular “good kid” who laps up the attention and responds to Thea’s educative guidance. By halfway through the story, Frank’s specific artistic project comes in for attention while the overtly-loving relationship he displays for his wife begins to look just a little forced.<br />And Thea seems just a little too entranced by the brooding presence of her surroundings.<br /><br />The novel has many of the elements of a conventional adult-child relationship story, but increasingly moves in to the realm of mystery. It is quite readable and Thea is an intriguing enough subject for a novel: God knows, there are enough of us oddball retired teachers around for a whole fiction genre!<br />But…Remember my unease about the structure and point-of-view?<br />The mystery just isn’t sufficiently enigmatic. The final climax is a giveaway. I thought so, anyway. I worked my way through the novel too slowly; I like to be drawn into a book, either by the fascination I derive from the characters, or the setting, or the sheer brilliance of the language. And if the writer steers me towards MYSTERY, that should make me turn the pages quickly. “The Precipice” finally disappoints though it is worth a look, for the Blue Mountains location at alone.<br /><br /><strong> SCORE: **+<br />VIRGINIA DUIGAN: “The Precipice”, Vintage pb, pp 284, rrp $35. </strong><br /><br />Please feel free to respond to the material here, by writing to us or by phoning in between 3 and 4 pm on Tuesdays, during the show.<br /><br /><h3> Author Interview: with Rohan Wilson author of “The Roving Party” </h3><br /><br />Rohan Wilson was the winner of the 2011 Vogel Literary Prize, for “The Roving Party” and is based in Launceston.<br /><br /> You can read my review of Rohan’s book if you scroll back to mid-April.<br /><br /> We spoke of Rohan’s interest in Tasmanian history, the “darkness” of the literary output from the island state [“Tasmanian gothic”?], the seminal work of ROBERT DREWE [“The Savage Crows”] in looking at Indigenous-European issues in fiction. <br /><br />Rohan is working on his Ph D thesis, looking at the relationship between historiography and fiction, an area prominent in recent Australian writing [ cf “The Chant Of Jimmy Blacksmith”. ”Out Of Ireland”, ”That Deadman Dancing”, ”The Secret River”, ”Figurehead”.]<br />The novel almost juxtaposes the role of John Batman with Indigenous Vandiemonian [sic], Black Bill, in hunting down ‘marauding natives’. It is a graphic tale, full of the bleakness of the Tasmanian landscape– and the cruelty of the hunters’ minds and methods.<br /><br /><h3> Guest Interview: Leah Swann, author of short story collection “Bearings” </h3><br /><br />John spoke with LEAH SWANN, author of the short story collection, “Bearings”, one of the six excellent books in AFFIRM PRESS’s recent publishing initiative.<br /><br />CHARACTERS? People adrift with the title highlighting the experiences of people trying to find a place, an occupation; their resulting vulnerability.<br /><br />STRUCTURE? Leah’s short stories are not anecdotes. Some follow a sequential structure, some are more “layered”. The structure comes out of the process of telling as a pattern emerges out of developing images.<br /><br />CONCLUSIONS? They are often uncertain with the reader left to ‘conclude’.<br /><br />POINT OF VIEW? Occasionally SECOND person: notoriously difficult, but that is how “Street Sweeper” emerged for her.<br /><br />IMAGERY: the stories feature sensual detail – because that is what Leah herself enjoys in her reading: people love to experience the world from someone else’s awareness.<br />The “compressed energy” of the short story remains a most attractive feature for Leah though she is working on longer forms.<br /><br /><h3> Music </h3><br />This week you heard Mel Torme singing “Blue Moon”….the best popular singer of the 20th century [says I.]Blurb Production Teamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13530191833029376377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1111246176394854195.post-87881262915187024292011-06-08T20:12:00.002+10:002011-06-08T20:19:42.967+10:00May 31stWell,we are back again...but illness prevents my getting the FULL <br />story on-line for you this week. Be assured we will be back better <br />than ever from 3pm on June 1st<br /><br /><h3>Book & Publishing News</h3><br /><br />* Torquay Froth'N'Bubble Festival is FREE: June 18-19 at Torquay <br />Secondary College hall. Lots of writing,etc. workshops for all <br />ages.Check the website.<br /><br />* JC BURKE ["The Pig Boy",reviewed April 19th] was to speak with me <br />today;unavailable,but we will follow up.<br /><br /><h3> Next Week </h3> <br />The Blurb will be speaking with ROHAN WILSON, this years Vogel Prizewinner for, "The <br />Roving Party"] and short story writer LEAH SWANN.<br /><br />* Bernard will review "The Precipice", by VIRGINIA DUIGAN, who 'The Blurb' will be speaking with soon.<br /><br /><br /><h3> This Week's Review </h3><br /><br />This week's review was "Where Colts Ran" by ROGER McDONALD<br /><br /><strong> Score: **** </strong>Blurb Production Teamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13530191833029376377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1111246176394854195.post-3971285593761618642011-05-22T12:09:00.003+10:002011-05-22T12:15:38.391+10:00May 17th<h3> Book & Publishing News </h3><br /><br />* My apology for this print version of my review of the excellent “The Tiger Wife” being so brief…I lost some of it somewhere.<br /><br />* LIAO YIWU continues to be harassed by the culture police of the People’s Republic: his “The Corpse Walker” is about as harmless a piece of social documentary as one could imagine…in a true democracy.<br /><br />* JOSEPH HELLER’s unforgettable “Catch-22” is 50 years old. [I read pp 54-5 where Doc Daneeka defines Catch 22.]<br /><br />* There was an article on 2011 Booker winner HOWARD JACOBSON [“The Finkler Question”] in Sunday’s “Age” which tells his story well. Scroll back to my review last year.<br /><br />* I spoke at the recent meeting of the Bellarine Historical Society, Wednesday last on “What makes history?”, drawing on 20 or so history books we have discussed on this program over the last year. The excellent Drysdale museum is open the first Sunday of the month. Lots of local histories for sale.<br /><br />* The NSW Premier’s Literary Awards were announced this week: MALCOLM FRASER and MARGARET SIMONS for his memoirs and ALEX MILLER for “Love Song” were the main winners.<br /><br />* VICTOR FRANKL’s classic “Man’s Search For Meaning” has been re-published: a thorough review in last Saturday’s “Review” in “The Oz”.<br /><br />* The latest ABR has their winning 2011 essay by DEAN BIRON. Excellent. Another interview with GERALDINE BROOKS…I still haven’t read “Caleb’s Crossing”.<br /><br />* Local poet JUDE McCUDDEN will be Poet-In-Residence at Portarlington’s friendly “Blue Dolphin Café” whose hosts Kamil and Helen are generous supporters of the arts on the Peninsula…and make great coffee!<br /><br />* “THE MONTHLY” for May includes a long analysis of CHRIS LILLEY’s work…Novelist Nicholas Shakespeare on Tasmania… “the Oz”’s PETER van OLENSEN on the future of the Liberal P…And a review of MARK McKENNA on manning Clark; I have just begun this lengthy work. There was also another review of LINDSAY TANNER’s “Sideshow” [which I will review in a fortnight. An interview later, I hope.]...A review of MARK McKENNA’S large tome on Manning Clark which I am wrestling with at present…HELEN GARNER on “Mad Bastards” and “Snowtown”, two notable new films.<br />The best edition of this magazine for a while.<br />PATON BOOKS stocks all these magazines.<br /><br />* I felt for the forlorn workers in “Borders” as they packed lonely books into crates in That Shopping Centre this morning…No sympathy at all for the company though – who spruiked books at “bargain” prices which were effectively the same as the ‘rrp’. LONG LIVE Kathryn, Marylou, Jane and all the ‘little’ booksellers!!<br /><br /><br /><h3> This Weeks Review: “The Sparrows of Edward Street” by Elizabeth Stead </h3><br /><br />In 1948, Sydneysiders were shocked when Ruth Park’s “The Harp In The South” portrayed the ‘underbelly’ of their city in all its squalor, disease, crime and poverty. Not in our backyard, surely! Sly grog, illegal abortions, domestic violence…and SLUMS. Investigation by the press revealed that, yes, Surry Hills WAS that seedy and low-lived. <br />[The book, of course, deservedly won all sorts of awards, was made into a successful play, and later became one of our first memorable TV mini-series. Park’s trilogy is still popular, never having been out of print, I believe – as has her trilogy of memoirs.]<br /><br />I was reminded of “The harp..” as I read this novel from the great Christina Stead’s niece. The eponymous family – delicate apostate-Jewish mother, Hanora; our narrator, the feisty Aria; the vulnerable younger sister, Rosy – are consigned in the late 40s to a “public housing” camp in outer Sydney, having been evicted from a miserly city unit by a landlord who couldn’t find favour with Hanora. They are much put upon. It is a remote cluster of sheds really, full of the dispossessed, with some better-off migrants up the road – and Aborigines in a separate compound. The Sparrows quickly assert themselves, thanks to Aria pride and Hanora’s ingenuity. The place is peopled with some memorable characters – the rabbitoh, Mr. Sparkle; the local priest; a tragic war veteran – and the various women who gather at the laundry for mutual support and gossip. It is rather an anachronistic tale: why publish it now, I wondered? Park had done the job very well half a century ago. Perhaps we need to reminded that “working families” really had it tough not long ago? That there were strong women slogging away for recognition and dignity before the “women’s movement?” I would like to see some documentary work done in the area Stead had re-created. <br /><br />It is definitely an entertaining book, sometimes amusing, rarely dull. We suffer alongside the Sparrows and the denizens of the camp as they long for escape into the outer world. We marvel at Aria’s endurance, but it was all a bit déjà vu, I thought.<br /><br /><strong>SCORE: **+<br />ELIZABETH STEAD: The Sparrows Of Edward Street, UQP pb, pp 288, rrp $29-95.</strong><br /><br />I also gave a brief review of<br /><strong>RON RASH: One Foot In Eden, text pb, pp 197, rrp $30.<br />SCORE: **</strong><br /><br /><h3> Music </h3><br />You heard Sandy Denny singing “3.10 to Yuma”. The original film with Glenn Ford is on TV at 4pm today! As well as Robert Plant and Alison Krauss singing, “Killing the Blues” from RAISING SAND.<br /><br /><h4> REMEMBER THERE WILL BE NO PROGRAM ON MAY 24th </h4>Blurb Production Teamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13530191833029376377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1111246176394854195.post-79585761794918192952011-05-17T21:29:00.000+10:002011-05-17T21:30:43.796+10:00May 10th<h3> Book & Publishing News </h3><br /><br />* May “ALR” had a challenging article by Stephen Schwartz pleading for the restoration of humanities in our universities. Hear here!<br /><br />* The apers were generous to Rohan Wilson, winner of 2011 Vogel…You will have heard/read MY review. I cannot agree with most reviewers who saw it as an utter triumph.<br /><br />* The current “Monthly” is full of good things, including a long article on Chris Lilley and “Angry Boys” which I haven’t seen yet<br /><br />* …because I was speaking to the Bellarine Historical Society on a topic of MY choice: “What MAKES history? “ <br /><br />* We received the latest “Windmills” from Jo and friends at Deakin and the new booklet from Geelong Writers Inc with “our “ Jo and DR Alyson on the cover.<br /><br />* Today I will feature a winning poem from recent interviewee, Melbourne Poet Jane Carnegie.<br /><br />* Book-to-film Number 32: “Water For Elephants”…a NICE film generally, no aspirations to real sense for mine. Emma is going to read the novel and tell us about it.<br />Book-to TV SERIES…another “Moby Dick”. I won’t bother with the second part. Too CLEAN-looking and too much mumbling from Bill Hird [as Ahab.]<br /><br />* “100 Books Of Liberty” comes from the Institute Of Public Affairs, a neo-Con thinktank so one is not surprised by the selection or the selectors. Have a look though.<br /><br />* Chinese author Liao Yiwu thought he was going to be a guest at Sydney’s coming Writers’ Festival, but his government found his novel about the “Tienamen Square Massacre” and his current documentary “The Corpsewalkers” [which I am currently reading] dangerous…to someone, we can only guess. Will the People’s Republic go the way of the USSR, I wonder? <br /><br />* If you missed our Anzac special when I reviewed a swag of books about Australia and wars [ on April 26], don’t forget all reviews can be read on our website.<br /><br />* Clive James’ later poems are discussed in the new “ALR”: he has taken a more ‘spiritual’, late-in-life direction apparently.<br /><br />* Linsday Tanner’s book, “Sideshow” is selling well, apparently…but has had poor reviews. I am still hoping to interview him soon. [When will he actually write about the LABOR governments he served in, I wonder?]<br /><br />* June Alexander whose “A Girl Called Tim” I spoke about recently will be on Greg McHenry’s “Roads To Recovery” on June 8th.<br /><br /><h3> This Week’s Review: “The Roving Party” by Rohan Wilson </h3><br /><br /> A couple of preliminary remarks.<br /><br /> I read and reviewed this book BEFORE reading any other preview/review.<br /> Congratulations to Allen & Unwin for the excellent presentation of this new Australian novel! The cover design is fetching and appropriate, bespeaking quality immediately. This is – I think it is worth saying - a comparatively BRIEF novel, probably only 70,000 words or so. Furthermore I approached it not as a first novel: I judge each book as I find it. Now, TIM WINTON’s “The Open Swimmer” won the Vogel years ago, and I’d say it now rates as rather forgettable. Well, I’ve forgotten all about it - whereas I will never forget Tim’s “Cloudtreet”. I love to see any writing encouraged, especially those who launch into the huge challenge of creating a novel. Finally, for the moment, I did wonder whether the controversial nature of the Wilson story – John Batman, Victoria’s “founder”, plus an Aboriginal Vandemonian competing for brutality in hunting down SE Van Diemens Land “blacks” – did not distract the judges in their deliberations. Maybe we can ask one of them, Cate Kennedy, when we speak to her soon.<br /> <br />Now, to the book itself.<br /> [Cover blurb] “ John Batman, ruthless, single-minded; four convicts, the youngest still only stripling; Gould, a downtrodden farmhand; two free black trackers [from NSW]; and powerful, educated Black Bill, brought up from childhood as a white man. This is the roving party and their purpose is massacre…”<br />The narrative framework then is a long chase over several months covering the rock-strewn hilly plateaux and plains of south eastern Tasmania in the 1840s. One is immediately struck by Wilson’s spare and crisp writing style. This is very much the vogue at present. Listeners may be surprised that the doyen of the style – Cormac McCarthy – has been writing this way for over twenty years. I well remember the impact of “All The Little Horses” and the others in the trilogy. And the sometimes-great HEMINGWAY set the benchmark with his classic short story [among others] “The Snows of Kiliminjaro” [though I found “For Whom The Bell Tolls” very long-winded, actually.] Maybe these new young writers do what Gay Talese spoke of in a recent interview. He types drafts in CAPITALS and quadruple-spaced, pins them up around his writing office and chops away at them in large clusters for weeks…And then does it all over again. Well, our new word-processing obviates a lot of those needs, but I still wonder just how they achieve such a lean-cuisine sparseness. Having said all that, I am quick to applaud Wilson’s depiction of the Tasmanian countryside. Even today one has only to stray a kilometre from the [few] roads to become very conscious of a dark and brooding wilderness pretty well all over the island state. It carries a haunted feel [and well it should, not just because of the Black Wars.]<br />The compressed story-telling suits too the single-minded, driven quest Batman and his cohorts undertake – and even more so the ‘finishing’ tale of Black Bill’s hunt. The drama is somehow pre-historic, primeval, pre-literary – as Wilson reminds us with his constant allusions to nature: weather, topography, fauna and flora. None of the meagre props of even the primitive villages avail. The bounty-hunters barely survive by living off the land. <br /><br /><strong> ROHAN WILSON: The Roving Party, A&U pb, pp 280 [wide-spaced!], rrp $20 </strong>Blurb Production Teamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13530191833029376377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1111246176394854195.post-33448440410124794472011-05-16T10:11:00.002+10:002011-05-17T20:38:02.582+10:00May 3rdWelcome Leo, panelling for us today. Also welcome to work experience student, LIAM from Year 10 at St. Joseph’s. <br /><br /><h3> Book & Publishing News </h3><br /><br />* THE AUSTRALIAN/VOGEL Award this year goes to Rohan Wilson for his tale of “The Roving Party”, comprising a fictionalised John Batman and a Vandiemonian Aborigine, Black Bill, plus assorted convicts, after money and tickets-of-leave for bringing in the remaining ‘Blacks’ of south eastern Van Diemen’s Land<br />in the 1840s. I will review the novel next week and we will speak with the author early June.<br /><br />* The BBC has a 100 Books-One-Should-Have-Read list on its website…I was humbled to be able to claim only 59! <br /><br />* Book-to-film No. 30: Michael Lincoln’s “The Lincoln Lawyer” was pretty good, though the lead is a bit too smooth and handsome for Connelly’s character.<br /><br />* GRIFFITH REVIEW is always full of good reading: available from PATON’s.<br />Matthew Condon on post-Floods Brisbane, Veteran women’s rights advocate Wendy McCarthy on “Woman And Power” these days; Bronwyn Adcock: the sad tale of dispossessed Central Tilba Aborigines; Greg Lockart with a new look at how Australia was preparing for WWI.<br /><br />* Leslie Canold [“The Book Of Rachael”] has had to postpone our interview indefinitely.<br /><br />* My former colleague BRONWYN HODGE has a beautiful new daughter, Zoe. Congratulations, Rob, Anthony and big sister, Abigail.<br /><br />* Film from book No.31: we watched the B&W film of Steinbeck’s “East Of Eden” with Raymond Massey and James Dean [as the tortured Caleb – from whence we took Number 2 son’s name 33 years ago.]<br /><br /><br /><h3> This Weeks Reviews: </h3><br /><br /><h3> “The Moment” by Douglas Kennedt </h3><br /><br /> What is it about Berlin? The only pre-War images I can conjure belong to the unforgettable film, “Cabaret”, the stage show of which was drawn from the writings of Christopher Isherwood. We’ve probably all read some of Brecht, again set in the final stages of the Weimar Republic: seedy, unsettled and cynical. Then there were the countless “war” films, in B&W then Technicolour. Then “The Third Man” with Orson Welles and Joseph Cotton lurking in the sewer with the zither theme plunking away in the background. Novels by Gunther Grass and Kurt Vonnegut Jr….Topping such memories, of course, are vignettes from John Le Carre* novels [and films and TV series!], not least the lonely figure slowly crossing the bridge at the end of “The Spy Who Came In From The Cold” [still his best for me]. *I don’t think we have had too much else set in the DIVIDED Berlin?<br /><br /> * The “real “ Le Carre has at last nominated a biographer. ‘Can’t wait.<br /><br /> A couple of years ago, Australian Ann Funder wrote “Staziland” about the end of East Germany, a book which still sells well – and deservedly. Do you remember all those relics of The Wall that circulated in the aftermath of its destruction? Now we have a novel that somehow updates the LE CARRE existentialist zeitgeist. Douglas Kennedy is new to me, but he joins the ranks of such illustrious journalist/travel writers turned novelists as Paul Theroux and Jonathan Raban.<br /><br />We spend most of the book in Berlin, immediately before and right after The Wll came down. Finally, this is a love story, but delves far deeper into the human psyche than Mills’n’Boon ever reached. First of all, it is a LONG novel – at 200,000 words, but Kennedy needed this sort of volume to get his story across which he does admirably. As well as the suitably noir setting of Berlin – with its coffee bars and dim-lit streets – he provides some rippling dialogue, full of wit and irony [reminiscent of Arthur Philip’s “Prague” which I enjoyed last year]. Just as some of the characters discuss Graham Greene and other authors, so this novel echoes some of the angst so beloved of that great English novelist.** <br /><br /> ** I cannot remember EVER reading an American novel in which a character mentions Greene, much read a novel where the writer pays such tribute to Green’s thematic preoccupations the way I feel Kennedy does. Le Carre, of course, is in eternal debt to GG.<br /><br /> Kennedy is a patient writer who demands patience of his reader. We begin with the protagonist – successful travel writer, Thomas Nesbitt - just emerging from a tired marriage and about to embark on a work-oriented fact-finding trip to Berlin. We are in roughly the present.<br />“ [His] solitude [is] disrupted by the arrival one wintry morning of a post box marked Berlin. The return address on the box – Dussmann – unsettles him completely for it is the same woman with whom had had an intense love affair with 26 years ago in Berlin – at a time when the city was cleaved in two, and personal and political allegiances were haunted by the deep shadows pf the Cold War…” [Cover blurb] Nesbitt must confront the issue of how and why he ended the greatest love he had ever had. The reader is then taken back to a Berlin BEFORE the end of the Cold War. Thomas is a young writer in search of a breakthrough “travel book”. Getting a job with the American foreign services information NGO, he soon meets Petra Dussmann, to whom he loses his heart. We find that she is more than a refugee from police-state East Berlin; there is a deep sadness in her life which is only slowly revealed. As I said, in a sense this is a slow read – the final third of the book brings us back to the present - but it is totally absorbing. I already mentioned the wit of the dialogue, but it is also the intensity of the scenes between Thomas and Petra that raise this novel to a higher level. Meanwhile there is the Le Carre-like intelligence/ spy/ Cold War overlay with their threats of misinformation and betrayal, and the characters themselves – Thomas, Petra, Thomas’s Berlin housemate, the flamboyant, vulnerable, brilliant Expressionist painter, the Irish Fitzwilliams-Ross. There are other minor characters, so neatly composed, almost in the manner of an Altman film script.<br /> The book operates in two time zones, as it were: the present and the past, the time of Thomas and Petra’s fraught relationship, and it is all under the spell of The Wall. It haunts Thomas from the first moments of his arrival in the early 1980s. Inevitably he “makes” East Berlin the subject of the first column he will write in his day job. A pattern is set, the atmosphere established. Read the book as a love story, or a Cold War mystery thriller. It just works so well on many levels.<br /> I am on the lookout for some more of Douglas Kennedy.<br /><br /><strong> SCORE: ***+<br />DOUGLAS KENNEDT: The Moment, Hutchinson pb, pp 489, rrp $35.</strong><br /><br /><br /><h3> “The Tiger’s Wife” by Tea Obreht </h3> <br /><br />I thought of Tim Winton as I began this book because I had just been reminded that he won the VOGEL many years ago now with his all-but-forgotten “The Open Swimmer”[ Not his best book by a long shot. I will review this year’s winning novel NEXT week.] Apparently TEA OBREHT is already being touted as the Next Bright Young Thing in the States. At 25, this is her third published work and I think it is a novel remarkable for the maturity of its insight into the extraordinary complexity of values, emotions, politics and humanity that is “the Balkans”[if one can still use the term] which touches all of us as all good art should. It is never didactic, but rather tells an epic story – the grandfather’s - amid the tragic mess of the second half of the twentieth century in that region.<br /><br /> We begin in 1941. “As German bombs are falling, a tiger escapes from his zoo, padding through ruined streets and onwards, to ridge above the village of Gaina. His nocturnal visits hold the villagers in terrified thrall. But for one boy, the tiger is a thing of magic- ‘Shere Khan’ awoken from the pages of ‘The Jungle Book’. Natalia [our narrator] is the granddaughter of that boy. Now she is a doctor. It is the 1980s and she is visiting after another war that has devastated her region. On this journey she receives word that her beloved grandfather has died, far from their latest home, in circumstances shrouded in mystery.” [Cover blurb.] And so our story begins, weaving through history, family reminiscences and local folklore – somewhat in the manner of the Latin magic realists, but Tea is no imitator or parodist. We have here a distinctive and impressive new voice. <br /><br /><strong> Score: ****<br />TEA OBREHT: The Tiger’s Wife, Weidenfeld & Nicholson pb, pp 336, rrp $30</strong><br /><br /><h3> This Weeks Poem </h3><br />“The Poor Commissioners” by Cate Kennedy whom we will be speaking with, in a couple of weeks.<br /><br /><h3> Music </h3><br />This week you heard LINDA RONSTADT singing “A La Orilla…” from a 2010 CD of THE CHIEFTAINS and various Mexican bands/singers plus the ubiquitous RY COODER, “San Padricios”Blurb Production Teamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13530191833029376377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1111246176394854195.post-87655747027921388062011-05-02T13:28:00.001+10:002011-05-02T13:30:16.094+10:00April 26th<h3> Book & Publishing News: </h3><br /><br />* THREE finalists have been named for 2011 Miles Franklin Award: <br />KIM SCOTT for “Dead Man Dancing”, ROGER McDONALD, “When Colts Ran Free” and CHRIS WOMERSLEY, “Bereft”. Scott’s is my pick, but I suspect Womersley’s will win.<br /><br />* The Australian/Vogel Award [for best new novel] will be decoded from BOMY ASH, JADE MAITRE and ROHAN WILSON. See Saturday’s WEEKEND REVIEW for lots of detail plus a sample of their work.<br /><br />* Book-to-film No 29: I watched “War And Peace” for the first time [on DVD] recently: a very long film with great battle scenes, but very melodramatic. Audrey Hepburn steals the show utterly. I’m ashamed to say I’ve not read the book…yet.<br /><br />* NEXT WEEK I hope to speak with LESLIE CANNOLD about her novel.”The Book Of Rachael” which I reviewed last week.<br /><br />* I think it was good to see “The Age” continuing the discussion of what Anzac Day means “Commemorate” not “celebrate” was a theme as well as questioning whether we want it to be our “national day”. I wonder what the day means to those who do not attend services or go to the MCG on the day.<br /><br />* And to continue: should we remember Indigenous warriors who fought and died to defend their land…on Anzac day?<br /><br />‘THE BLURB’ welcomes comment: email me c/e Pulse or phone us during the program.<br /><br /><h3> This Week’s Interview: Gerard Windsor author of “All Day Long The Noise Of Battle </h3><br /><br />I was privileged today to speak for 20 minutes with GERARD WINDSOR – historian, novelist and memoirist – about his well-reviewed new book, “All Day Long The Noise Of Battle” which looks in exhaustive detail at the three-day battle fought by “C” Company of the 7th Battalion RAR in Phuoc Tuy in February 1968<br />[as part of the Allies’ preparation for the “Tet Offensive”.]<br /><br />Gerard spoke of the gestation of the book, an unlikely project for the novelist. He had come across after many years the fact the a schoolmate had not only served in Vietnam, but had earned the respect of his comrades to the extent that one had said the man [ Mark Moloney] should have been decorated for his role in the “Bunkers action”. <br /> We spoke of the anomaly of historians’ reliance on eye witness accounts where possible – when, in Gerard’s experience, even witnesses will vary in their memory of events, given the split-second dramas taking place. This becomes an issue, of course, when one looks at the official reports of battlefield action…and the awarding of decorations, for instance. <br /><br />Gerard ended up being able to talk to nearly 60 of the officers and ranks in preparing this marvellous story of events that had largely been lost in the ‘fog of war’. He spoke of being continually impressed by the raw courage the men showed, with little thought or rationalisation, really, about what they were involved in…And might not the enemy have retaken their positions within days of the Australians’ cleaning them out anyway!<br /><br /><strong> GERARD WINDSOR: All Day Long The Noise Of Battle. Pier 9 pb, pp 255, rrp $35. <br />SCORE: **** </strong><br /><br /><h3> This Week’s Reviews: </h3><br /><br />I will mention [only] the books on AUSTRALIANS AND WAR that I have received this past year and will review a couple in more detail.<br /><br />-TONY WRIGHT: Walking the Gallipoli Peninsula. Much more than a mere guide.<br /><br />-PATRICK LINDSAY: The Coast Watchers. Behind enemy lines with the men who “saved the Pacific”.<br /><br />-ROLAND PERRY: The Changi Brownlow. How these amazing POWs found Aussie Rules as a way to help them survive.<br /><br />-ROB MAYLOR/ROBERT MACKLIN: SAS Sniper. Maylor was in the Royal Marines and later served with Australian troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.<br /><br />-CRAIG STOCKINGS[ed]: Zombie Myths Of Australian Military History. <br />Demythologizing such myths as the one that says there was no Aboriginal resistance to the European invasion; and that “Breaker” Morant was a hero…<br /><br />-PAUL DALEY: Beersheba. The journalists travels far and wide to find out what happened with the ‘last great cavalry charge’.<br /><br />-ANDERSON?TREMBATH: Witnesses To War-the history of Australian conflict reporting. <br /><br />-SCOTT BENETT: Pozieres. An extraordinary story not told before in such detail.<br /><br />-ROBER MACKLIN: Bravest – Australia’s greatest war heroes and how they won their medals. Fifteen winners of Victoria and George Crosses.<br /><br />-LEON DAVIDSON: Zero Hour. An introduction to the Anzac action on the Western Front.<br /><br />-WILLIAM CULL/Pegram [ed]: Both Sides Of The Wire. The memoir of an Australian Officer captured during World War One.<br /><br />-DAISLEY: Traitor. A novel about a friendship between an Anzac and a Turk during the Gallipoli campaign.<br /><br />-PETER HART: Gallipoli. This may be THE book about the events of 1915. Written by an Oral Historian from the Imperial War Museum. I am still working through its 533 pages and will review it later.<br /><br /><h3> “The Men Who Came Out Of The Ground” by Paul Cleary </h3><br /><br />PAUL HAM has written the best book I have read yet on Australians in Vietnam. In reviewing Cleary’s book, he wrote: “[He] tells this story in an arresting narrative, unblemished by the lapse into histrionics that so often debases the history of war. Nor will he indulge in careless triumphalism. The men of the 2/2 demonstrated HUMAN [emphasis mine] not peculiarly Aussie qualities of courage and resilience”. This is a point GERARD WINDSOR made about the Australian Viet vets he interviewed in preparing his book and would be welcome in the talk that surfaces annually around this time of the year [though I suspect the jingoistic hysteria has faded significantly now that Howardism is fading…one hopes!] Many of the recent books about war – and they are legion – that I have seen of late seem to be re-evaluating what we mean by soldiering and its place in our particular national story. Cleary gives us the facts and largely refrains from judging, much less eulogising. Decisions about the situation in Timor early 1940s that were naïve, ill-informed and catastrophic and often poorly-planned.<br /><br />Obviously,…in retrospect. Civilians, for example, WERE executed. Soldiers deserted. As HAM said, this was human endeavour, undertaken amid extraordinary stress we in our comfort can hardly imagine.<br /><br />The setting is mostly “East Timor” [today’s Timor Leste], 1942. Immediately, it is amazing to remember that casualties were quite low amongst the 200 Australians as they tied up a Japanese force totalling 20,000, over two years or more... Sadly, many thousands of Timorese were killed during World War to, having no real say in the politics of it all, often spending years with the Aussies behind the lines, away from family and safety though some joined Japanese=sponsored militia.<br /><br /> “Sparrow Force” were trained quickly [at Wilsons Prom – a lively early section of this absorbing book], but selected for their athleticism. They were ferried in and virtually left until Macarthur [surprisingly?] heard of their valuable work in stalling the Japanese eastward march and ordered a better means, of supply and support. Cleary seems to imply that overall the Portuguese remnants were more active in helping the Allied effort than were the Dutch colonist, but I may be <br />mistaken; I’d have to look up the post-WWII history of Indonesia again. <br />Throughout their relentless ordeal, the Aussies were not just outnumbered, they were poorly led FROM AUSTRALIA, never being totally clear about he project’s overall objectives. Were they really meant to DEFEAT the Japanese? Surely not, but by endlessly ambushing, retreating, skirmishing and hiding out, they kept an enormous army occupied and actually inflicted considerable damage. <br /><br />The role of the locals, as I said, was significant – which makes our abandonment of the East Timorese during the militia campaigns of recent times even more shameful. [ Surely, Gough’s most shameful act!]<br /><br /><strong>SCORE ***+<br />PAUL CLEARY: The Men Who Came Out Of The Ground, hatchette pb, pp 382, rrp $35,2010</strong><br /><br /><h3> “My Dear I Wanted To Tell You” by Louisa Young </h3><br /><br />I’m sure I reminded listeners before of the opening phrase of Vergil’s epic, “The Aeneid” [“Arma virumque cano”= I sing of arms and the Man/men.] And isn’t it sad that WAR is the inspiration for so much great art – in literature, music, film, painting…And still novelists find new lodes of story from the “Great War”. The recent benchmark for me is PAT BARKER’s “Regeneration” trilogy where she imagines the war as it was affecting the poets Sassoon, Owen and Co. in their personal circumstances. Our ROGER McDONALD [“1915”] and DAVID MALOUF “Fly Away Peter” hold their own, of course, and so does this novel – beginning with its startling cover, just by the way.<br /><br /> The novel begins slowly. After all, the war was supposed to be over by Christmas 1914. It seemed “safe” for all those men to enlist. The enemy were boorish Teutons, surely no match for the stiff upper lip and public-school masterly leadership of the sons of an Empire on which the sun never set.<br />British grit would prevail and quickly….which made the drawn out abominations of the Western Front all the more horrific. <br /><br />And that is the story our book tells. Our main character, Roger Purefoy, is poorly-educated and working-class though from the start he seems to be blessed by opportunity, initially in being placed as the gofer for a low-ranked but rather toffy painter. This opens doors for him such that he is almost going up in the world. Young is very good on the drawing-room society of Roger’s all-but-adoptive new family – as she is in reminding us, via the person of Roger’s mother, of his humble origins,. This is Waugh without the satire because we empathise [in their later tragedy] with both “Upstairs” and “Downstairs”. This war was cruelly democratic in Young’s world.<br /><br />At home, Roger will probably never have the only girl he aspires to. In a fit of disappointment, he rushes to enlist. Meanwhile, out in the country, the aristocratic peter Locke accepts a commission and the pair are off to France, soon ending up together on the killing fields of 1915. Amid the needless slaughter, Roger shows exceptional leadership and is rapidly promoted from the ranks while Peter barely hangs on. The devastating casualties affect Roger physically and personally while Peter becomes a psychological wreck.<br /> <br />There are interesting minor characters in this deceptively epic story. The women at home struggle to find appropriate roles and to accept the awful realities of what is going on Over There.<br /><br />I thought this was a terrific novel. Some of the battle scenes are reminiscent in their compression and naturalistic imagery of Owen and Rosenberg. We are reminded once again of the chilling FUTILITY [cf Owen’s poem] of it all.<br /><br /><strong>SCORE: ****<br />LOUISA YOUNG: My Dear I Wanted To Tell You, Harper Collins pb, pp 330, rrp $35, 2011</strong><br /><br /><h3> This Week’s Poem: “The Company Of Lovers” by Judith Wright </h3><br /><br /> She was in her early 20s, attending Sydney Uni, fresh from country Armidale, and Sydney was full of soldiers – Aussies and Americans… From her first published anthology, “The Moving Image”. I am currently reading “Nine Lives” [Susan Sheridan], a beut little book about nine “Postwar women writers making their mark”. You must read it if you are at all interested in Australian literature. A sound introduction to Wright, Astley, Hewett, etc.<br /><br /><br /><h3> Music </h3><br /> Holtz “The Planets” – MARS.Blurb Production Teamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13530191833029376377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1111246176394854195.post-90579268765226393392011-05-02T13:01:00.001+10:002011-05-02T13:01:13.337+10:00April 19th<h3> Book & Publishing News: </h3><br /><br />* SHAKESPEARE: I will look briefly today at four new books involving the Great Man.<br /><br />* Book-to-film No. 27: I have just watched the DVD of the 1930 black and white film of “All Quiet On The Western Front” [from the Library, of course] which was only published in 1938. It starred LEW AYRES who I think became young Doctor Kildare in the late 30s films.<br />FILM-TO-MUSIC: I also watched a great concert of Bluegrass music, a DVD called “Down From The Mountain” [2000]:the artists were the people who featured on the soundtrack of 2001 Coen Brothers’ film, “O Brother….”, such people as the now-famous Diana Kraul.<br /><br />* …No. 28: I look forward to seeing the newest film version of GRAHAM GREENE’s “Brighton Rock”. <br /><br />* …And a MUSICAL from a great book: we saw “Dr Zhivago” Sunday. Excellent. Go to a matinee: convenient and much cheaper.<br /><br />* AIREY”S INLET has several book launches coming up in tandem with Bells Beach’s 50th. Check it out at <br />andiandjim@iprimus.com.au<br /><br />* JUNE ALEXANDER from Clifton Springs will be speaking about her very moving memoir “A Girl Called Tim” at Ocean Grove’s great little bookshop, Bookgrove, at 11am, Saturday, April 23rd. I will be speaking with June in a couple of weeks’ time.<br /><br />* Some new books I received this week:<br />CATE KENNEDY: The Taste Of River Water [New poems]<br />FRANCIS WEBB: Collected Poems [The authentic anthology by our most neglected poet.]<br />The latest GRIFFITH REVIEW.<br />TEA OREHT: The Tiger’s Wife.<br />PETER DOCKER: Someone Else’s Country<br />DOUGLAS KENNEDY: The Moment<br /><br /><h3> This Week’s Reviews: </h3><br /><br /><strong>“Brush Up Your Shakespeare!” by James Shapiro</strong><br />Contested Shakespeare. The latest attempt to solve the mystery that lingers – did Bill REALLY write all those plays and sonnets? A very well-written lively discussion. This is a scholarly but accessible examination: sound index and bibliography.<br /><br /><strong> “The Merchant Of Venice” by John Drakakis [ed.] [ARDEN SHAKESPEARE] </strong> <br />Arden is THE authoritative edition used in universities, etc. And this is a 2010 version with a very good new Introduction by the editor. Faber pb, pp 367, rrp $24-99.<br /><br /><strong> “Dictionary Of Shakespearean Quotations” [ARDEN] </strong> Beautifully presented, a must for everyone’s coffee table.<br />rrp $ 45<br /><br /><strong>“Reading Shakespeare’s Sonnets” by Don Paterson </strong> <br />This is a terrific book for anyone who has studied or just dipped into “The Sonnets” by an academic whom is in love with his subject. I am slowly working my way through at about eight pages a day. There is so much new and amusing material here. Each sonnet gets about 600 words so it is never laborious reading. Faber hb, pp 500, rrp $50.<br /><br /><br /><h3> “The Pig Boy” by J C Burke </h3><br /><br />One of the “New Realist” young writers discovered in the 70s and 80s was American PAUL ZINDEL who wrote a very good book, “The Pigman”, this book is nothing like the other! Back then the “YA”: readership was really taking off, and books dealing with the ‘generation’ gap, rites of passage, adolescent sexuality, authority, separation, death, etc. were at last getting on to the school English curriculum here as well as being read by millions of teenagers the world over. The standard of Australian output in this genre has been outstanding for years now. In fact, I find it rather specious to draw separating the YA genre because many of the books are well worth reading by all ages [from maybe fourteen on.] And JAN Burke’s book is the latest I’ve had sent to me. I loved it.<br /><br />This is a tough book. It is shocking at times, but never sensationalist in the mode of the TV “current affairs”, “reality” TV and the glossy magazines. Life is hard for Burke’s late-teen protagonist, Damon. He is overweight, a loner, good at English, but at odds with everything else at school, and the book opens with his expulsion just before his final secondary school exams. Mum, “the old girl”- is miserable, estranged from husband and lover. She consoles herself with takeaway meals and liberal infusions of Rum’n’Coke, financed by her recent win in Powerball. Damon too shares in this largesse which enables him to indulge in his hobby of on-line games [which, I confess, I still don’t understand.] He suffers from constant porcine name-calling everywhere he goes. There is something more, however, the details of which we learn only as the plot unfolds, but it has him terrified. The only person resembling a friend as the book opens is the son of the local shopkeeper, but this boy’s loyalty is soon challenged – on ethnic grounds, which he gets wrong any way.. He might have had a girlfriend, but he has destroyed that possibility by a clumsy act of over-protection on a recent school camp. There are mysterious objects secreted in his locked wardrobe….<br /> There is a subculture of violence in Strathen, this small country town, and another loner, “Miro”, apparently a refugee from the Balkan conflict whom most of the town thinks is weird if not dangerous. Miro is “the Pigman” who kills feral pigs for local butchers, but also makes regular excursions further west where he and his two dogs rid graziers of these feral pests. <br /><br /> Damon decides he must learn to shoot and Miro seems the most likely teacher. The reader is now alert: will this book end up in a Columbus-style massacre? Some of the locals suspect Damon is thinking such thoughts. Damon, however, not only goes shooting with Miro, but the two become friends. This is the most powerful theme in the book – not unusual, the mutual attraction of ‘outsiders’ – but I found the friendship very moving in the light of current global phobias and local jingoism. Secrets are shared between the veteran of the 1980s killing fields and the troubled Australian boy. Meanwhile, the pig-boy slander becomes a badge of honour almost as Damon passes the physical test out in the scrub. Some of these scenes reminded me of the film “Wake In Fright”. The hunting episodes are by no means exaggerated: quite a few boys in rural towns all over Australia train “pig dogs’ to savage feral pests.<br /> I will score this book AS A YA NOVEL going against what I’ve said above, yes.] <br /><br /><strong> SCORE:****<br />J C BURKE: The Pig Boy. Woolshed pb[from Random House],pp 325, rrp $25</strong><br /><br /><br /><h3> “The Book Of Racheal” by Leslie Canold </h3><br /><br /> Not by choice, I have found myself with a lot of time on my hands for the last couple of years – and this job, hosting “The Blurb”, shepherds my favourite pastime, READING, in a productive direction. I tend to have four or five books on the go at any given time: a ‘serious’ novel; a history; a memoir; a detective/crime novel; some poetry. A friend in Melbourne recently sent me “A Portrait Of Jesus” by well-known Australian Scripture scholar, GERALD O’COLLINS SJ. Note the title: “A” and “Portrait”. My slow and reflective reading of Gerald’s book coincided with the arrival of “The Book Of Rachael”, a novel about the fictional sister of “Joshua”/Jesus of Nazareth. We have no biography of Jesus, the Christ of Christian believers, of course. The four ‘Evangelists’ wrote in a genre which the author Mark called “gospel”, translated “good news”. Three of them used pretty well the same sources. Forty years later, the author of “John” drew somewhat from the three “synoptic” Gospels as well as some of his own, but shaped his book for a very different purpose. I digress, I know, but I wondered as I began how Leslie’s Joshua might look, speak, act. Last century saw lots of devotional writers penning “lives” [sic] of Jesus, designed to give would-be-believers the REAL picture of the Nazarene. They were not at all scholarly and indeed did a lot to ambush the developing rational approach – source criticism, etc.- to the study of Scripture. Leslie comes to her task with a very open mind [unlike, say, PHILIP PULLMAN of recent times.] She comes from a Jewish background, but claims to be an atheist-humanist. She is a well-known and very respected ethicist whose earlier publications have included feminist studies and analyses of issues surrounding abortion. This is a story ABOUT a fictional 1st century Jewish Israelite girl called Rachel whose parents are Miriam/”Mary” and Josep/”Joseph”. She has several siblings, most notably as it turns out her older brother, Joshua. The social environment is captured vividly – the geography, the culture, the busy-ness of village life. Early on, Rachael is “the good little girl” her almost-shrewish mother expects her to be. Gradually, the onset of puberty and the rape of her older sister steer her towards another sort of life and a radical change of personality. As she secretly learns Hebrew and the Scriptures, she also acquires “secret women’s business” from a local shaman, the midwife, Bindy. So far, so good. I found, however, that once the scene had been set and the story begun, the novel stalled. Rachael falls in love with a local young political rebel called Judas. [Yes, the same.] Obviously we will have certain plot developments pushing for space hereon in. The final sections, interestingly, are among the best. I was left, however, wondering why Leslie chose this particular story for her first entry into novel-writing. OK, Rachael is a proto-feminist, but why THIS family and WHY this historical period which surely has been mined to death over centuries. Lots of people seem to be buying it, so my responses may be coloured by my personal academic background [which is Literature, History and Biblical Studies.*] I hope not because I commenced reading the book with an open mind.<br /><br /><strong> SCORE: **+<br />LESLIE CANOLD: The Book Of Rachael,Text pb, pp 325, rrp $32-95 </strong><br /><br />* I am not sure why Leslie cited just half a dozen sources from her research: if she wanted some sort of academic accountability, she would need to have read much more widely.<br /><br />I will be speaking with LESLIE CANOLD in a future program. Stay tuned. <br /><br />I also will be speaking with JC BURKE in a few weeks’ time.<br /><br /><h3>Music </h3><br />This week you heard excerpts from the soundtrack of the 2008 Australian film, “South Solitary”. <br /><br /><h3>Next Week: </h3><br />Coming up next week is a special ANZAC DAY program, including an interview with GERARD WINDSOR about his new book chronicling a five-day battle in Vietnam in 1068,”All Day Long The Noise Of Battle”.Blurb Production Teamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13530191833029376377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1111246176394854195.post-52355256064703448142011-05-02T12:31:00.000+10:002011-05-02T12:32:36.974+10:00April 12thA special welcome to Stephen, Michael, Leo and Doreen…and to Leo Renkin, filling in at the desk for Emma.<br /><br /><br /><h3> Book & Publishing News:</h3><br /><br />* “The Monthly” is a good read again, although I’m not sure what PETER VROBB was attempting with his piece on Marcia Langton. I usually love his work [eg “Street Fight In Naples”,2010.] Beautiful artwork from the talented SHAUN TAN. Succinct assessment of Tony Blair by one of the last great hopes the Labor Government had, LINDSAY TANNER.<br /><br />* “Overland’s” theme this edition is freedom so WENDY BACON reminds us of the censorship battles of the 60s and 70s. ALEXIS WRIGHT [“Carpentaria”] on the Intervention legacy. JUSTIN CLEMENS on the poetry of PORTERS,P. and D. and DOROTHY HEWETT.<br /><br />* ANZAC DAY I will look at some more books on Australians and war…and hopefully speak with GERARD WINDSOR about his new book on Vietnam, “All Day Long The Noise Of Battle”.<br /><br />* Advance notice of Torquay’s “Froth’N’Bubble” Literary Festival, JUNE 19-20.<br /><br />* I recently found a little treasure of a book, “Who Wrote The Ballads?” by J.S. Manifold,1964 whose “The Tomb Of Lt. John Learmonth” featured here for Anzac Day 2009. <br /><br />* The latest “Quadrant” has a long essay by an academic from the DFA in Duntroon on that most bloody of novels, “Blood Meridian” by Cormac McCarthy. I’ll try to find time to talk about the book and the article one day.<br />Did you know the American Civil War began 150 years ago this month? April 12th,1861. <br />There is a good article about the causes this month too.<br /><br />* NEW ARRIVALS:<br />Gaita [ed.]: Essays On Muslims And Multiculturalism<br />Birch: Jamrach’s Menagerie [Review coming up.]<br />Griffiths: A Love Letter From A Stray Moon […novel about Freda Kahlo.]<br />Kennedy: The Moment<br />CD set of R.S. THOMAS reading his poems. [I have featured the work of the late poet on the program.]<br /><br />* Local author, JUNE ALEXANDER, will be speaking about a new book “A Boy Called Tim” at Bookgrove in Ocean Grove,11 am, Saturday April 23rd.<br /><br />* The April ALR [in “The Australian”, first Wednesday of the month] maintains its rather lofty tone; as I do so often ask – who are the audience? An interesting article on the ‘difference’ of writers from WA. [I believe GEORDIE WILLIAMSON does a great job with the same paper’s Saturday “Review”.]<br /><br />* This month it will be 150 years since the American Civil War began.. There is a useful article on the causes in the latest “Quadrant” – which borrows very heavily from a book discussed on this program early last year: McPherson – “The Battle Cry Of Freedom”. The exceptional KEN BURNS’ documentary from years ago on the Civil War is available on DVD from Geelong Regional Library. <br /><br />* Wed April 6th’s “ALR” continued on its rather lofty way, though there was an interesting article on the ‘loneliness’ of Western Australian writers.<br /><br />* I’m looking forward to GERALDINE BROOKS’ latest, “Caleb’s Crossing”, another historical novel based on the life of the first Native American to graduate from Harvard.<br /><br />* Would-be-writers can take advantage of a CREATIVE WRITING GROUP which gathers at “Cloverdale” in Purnell Rd 9.30 am Wednesdays.<br /><br />*…And there is a BALLAD WRITING WORKSHOP held <br />at Belmont Library from 6-8 pm Wednesdays.<br /><br />* My pedantic pout for this week: when will someone teach our PM how to pronounce the consonant “t”?..And is her “HYPERBOWL” [hyperbole] held the same time as the USA’s Superbowl.<br /><br /><br /><h3> This Week’s Reviews : </h3><br /><br />John reviewed- “Five Bells” by Gail Jones<br /><br /><br />BERNARD REVIEWED:<br /><br /><h3> “The Many Worlds of RS Mathews- In Search Of An Australian Anthropologist” by Martin Thomas</h3><br /><br />Another beautifully designed tome from A&U, this has clearly been a labour of love for Thomas. His ‘search’ has ranged far and wide in place [all over Australia and to the British Isles] and in time [from the 1850s to the present.]<br />He also seems to be after an answer to the question: What is anthropology?...and ethnography?......and “ethnomania”, a term he coined for Mathews’ [hence, “RHM”] decades-long dedication to an emerging science. Both targets prove rather elusive, so the book takes on some of the elements of a detection story. RHM left almost tonnes of leaflets, booklets, articles, sketches and notes which our author has ruthlessly sort out and studied. The results provide a portrait of a most interesting man and, in the process, the reader learns a lot about perceptions of the first Australians to be gleaned from RHM’s unique research. Thomas uses the phenomenological approach RHM himself apparently used: trust only the ‘sensible’ evidence – what can be recorded or gathered. Lots of us studied this model, preached by the pioneering MIRCEA ELIADE. Hence, the author examines EVERYTHING he can find that remains of RHM. This leads to a long book, but I never found it boring.<br /><br />I must single out the “PROLOGUE” [sic] to this book: it is fine an essay as you will ever read. Our author writes beautifully as he tells us why and how he became captivated by this project. The remainder of the book didn’t let me down. The reader needs to be patient as Thomas trawls for information about RHM’s forbears and his childhood. We are rewarded through learning that the young Mathews was determined to be successful because of a shadow in his ancestry that rendered his father an unsuccessful farmer in the Goulburn region of New South Wales in the middle of the 19th century. It was here that RHM developed an acute love for The Land – and friendships with local Indigenous youth that inevitably led to the later passion. He had a first career – as a surveyor – which gave him financial wherewithal to indulge his ethnomania from early middle age. His empathy for Aborigines was probably fairly unusual for the times; it underpins his every observation though he doesn’t always have the language to express it. The book is replete with quotations and RHM’s sketches, as well as other useful illustrations.<br /> There is so much to talk about in this book, though I would assume only those with a keen interest in Australian history and anthropology would find it as absorbing as I did. It is at time a challenging read. Throughout, however, we are drawn to this man who almost single-handedly – because he was continually out of step with contemporary academics [usually from overseas! in this new field] – found evidence of cultural practices and beliefs unknown until then. <br /><br />Read this book and learn. There is so much more we must find out about Indigenous Australians.<br /><br /><strong> SCORE: *****<br />MARTIN THOMAS: The many Worlds Of RS Mathews – In Search Of An Australian Anthropologist, A&U hc, pp 462, rrp $45 </strong><br /><br /><h3> This Weeks Poem: </h3><br />The last two stanzas of “Five Bells” by KENNETH SLESSOR, read by our guest Michael Bartlett.<br /><br />Bernard would like to say FAREWELL to that encyclopaedia of jazz history, BARRY HART, who is returning to England to live. Thank you for the music and memories, Barry, and the friendship.Blurb Production Teamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13530191833029376377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1111246176394854195.post-10588228581434923592011-04-22T10:10:00.000+10:002011-04-22T10:11:15.127+10:00April 5th<h3> Author Interview: Cory Taylor author of “Me and Mr. Booker”</h3><br /> <br />My first guest was CORY TAYLOR, Brisbane-based author of “Me and Mr. Booker”, reviewed last week on “The Blurb”.<br /><br />Cory has written children’s books “Rate Tales” #1 and #2 and worked on film scripts. She spoke of the positive influence of an inspiring English teacher and the poet GEOFF PAGE. <br /><br />Cory is currently working on a novel, which takes up the character of Victor, Martha’s Mittyesque father.<br /><br /><br /><h3> Interview with Robyn Rowland</h3> <br /><br />ROBYN ROWLAND was in to talk about her current work, and to publicise the Geelong Regional Library’s next “Conversations With Poets” which will feature <strong> Catherine Bateson </strong> and <strong> Alex Skovron</strong>. Last month’s evening was sold out, so contact the library if you intend going. More details next week.<br />Meanwhile as we mentioned a few weeks back Robyn was recently awarded the Irish “Writing Spirit Award” for her recent writings. She read a recent poem about BILL HENSON’s photos and we talked about our concerns regarding the sexualisation of children – a natural follow on from my conversation with Cory Taylor.<br /><br /><br /><h3> This Week’s Review: “Angelica” by Arthur Phillips</h3><br /> <br /><br /> JOHN FOWLES hit the literary scene with a bang in the 1970s,with “The Magus” soon followed by “The Collector” and “The French Lieutenant’s Woman”. [The last two were made into very good films.] The last book apparently came out of Fowles’ teaching about the English novel at university. It was his attempt to write a “Victorian” novel. Think George Elliot, Thackeray, Hardy. Yes, the book’s language had a somewhat archaic and stilted period feel to it, but the novel worked very well without apology or explanation. I loved it back then and must find time to read it again. Today’s book reminded me very much of Fowles’ for the style and setting Phillips has adopted. A far cry from “Prague” which I reviewed last year [though apparently closer to his later “The Egyptologist” which I am yet to see.] “Prague”, you may remember was a very talky but enjoyable contemporary story about a group of English 30-somethings ‘on the make’ in Central Europe. A comedy of manners, really.<br /><br />Phillips is in a darker mood here. Inevitably the blurb mentions HENRY JAMES’ classic novella, “The Turn Of The Screw” [made into a brilliant black-and-white horror film in the 1960s, starring Deborah Kerr in one of her final roles. One of my favourite films.] The novel echoes the earlier book’s themes somewhat and the tone is decidedly gothic with evident sexual suppression and bottled hysteria [like James’ governess.]<br /><br />Constance, the wife, was a lowly, orphaned shopgirl until she was wooed by the handsome Barton [nee “Bartone”, Italian parentage…as in hot-blooded, of course.] He never quite made it through medical school and is a reasonably well-off research scientist, working in immunology and experimenting with live animals which the reader finds out well ahead of his wife. Constance has managed only one live birth, Angelica, from three pregnancies and has been warned that another will be fatal. Naturally then she dotes on her eccentric [at least] daughter. Barton is clever and arrogant. He enjoys an independent social life and is finding the near abstinence from sexual contact very difficult [being, as he is of Mediterranean lineage!]. Constance tries to play to his needs, but this only seems to encourage animosity and resentment from her husband.<br /><br />Meanwhile their daughter is having “episodes”: perhaps they are supernatural? Or is it hysterics? Now, at this stage, it is good to recall that our word “hysterics” comes from the same Greek word as “hysterectomy”,etc. In Victorian and earlier times, hysteria was the name for the female ‘complaint’ of sexual enjoyment. As Constance observes Angelica’s night time experiences, she comes to wonder whether they are somehow connected with or even caused by her husband. Coupled with the eerie atmospherics of the house and its history, there is a domestic who seems to know more than she should. If “Little People” [last week] belongs in the genre melodrama, what is this book? Constance reacts to her husband’s edict to sleep in their bed by sneaking down nightly to sit with her daughter…Are the nocturnal phenomena real? Surely an external, objective witness is called for. Enter, Anne Montague, a spiritualist who has her own interesting history and commanding presence.<br /><br />What is going on here? One critic called “Angelica” a ‘psychological detective story without a detective’ and so it is. The novelist lets the story be told by using four voices, as it were, none of which is entirely omniscient [I think], but rather - layer upon layer – the facts might finally emerge. Yes, the plot is somewhat convoluted, but it all comes together in the end. There are some wonderful elements: the night “dreams”; Constance’s visit to her husband’s laboratory; Barton’s relationship with his boss, Harry; the awful “women’s specialist”, Dr. Miles, which Constance is sent to. And all the Freudian connections are on show: daughter-father; fear of sex; sex and death; the latent power of childhood trauma to affect adult life. Phillips is a young writer who may already be at the top of his form. He is not afraid of long paragraphs with sentences containing lots of complex clauses, but he is always in charge. If the plot remains murky right to the end, I believe that is precisely what the author intended. Listen to the opening sentence:<br /><blockquote> “I suppose my prescribed busywork should begin as a ghost story, since that was surely Constance’s experience of these events….”</blockquote><br /><br />Shades of “The Catcher In The Rye’ or “Portnoy’s Complaint”…Who is speaking? To whom? We should have known we’d be kept guessing….<br /><br /><strong> SCORE: ****<br />ARTHUR PHILLIPS: “Angelica”, Scribe pb, PP 331, rrp $35</strong><br /><br />And speaking of OPENING SENNTENCES: in a few weeks’ time, I’d like to offer listeners what I think are come classic openings from some well-known/well-liked novels. You may like to contribute some. Send them in to me at PULSE.<br /><br /><h3>Music</h3> <br />This week you heard “Stormy Weather” by Steve Murphy. Steve can be heard every second Friday at “The Wrong Crowd” in Moorabool Street, Geelong.Blurb Production Teamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13530191833029376377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1111246176394854195.post-26365769178747576242011-04-22T10:03:00.001+10:002011-04-22T10:09:18.616+10:00March 29thThis is The Blurb…with Bernard, Emma…and our fortnightly guest, JOHN BARTLETT<br /><br /><br /><h3> Book & Publishing News:</h3><br /><br />* We found DAVID MALOUF’s “Quarterly Essay” fairly heavy-going as Malouf looks at the big philosophical question: What is happiness? Some very good Letters in response to the last Essay [“Trivial Pursuit”.]<br /><br />* VICTOR FRANKL was a Holocaust survivor who became a leading psychiatrist, founder of the school of Transactional Analysis. His excellent book, “Man’s [sic] Search for Meaning” was widely read in the 60s – and has now been re-issued.<br /><br />* I have recommended “Eureka Street” before; yes, it is published by the Jesuits, but is in no sense proselytising. It features some of our best commentators on issues of the day. Available free on-line.<br /><br />* Local writer ROSALIE HAM [ “The Dressmaker”] has a new book coming out soon: look out for “There Should Be More Dancing”.<br /><br />* When I spoke about MICHAEL DUFFY’s “The Tower”. I didn’t realise that the second Troy novel, “The Simple Death”, was already out…and I think it is even better than the first. I believe Duffy has just raised the bar in Australian crime fiction. I will speak with him in a couple of weeks time.<br /><br />* What is it about Autumn? Isn’t it just the best season? JOHN KEATS thought so; not many of our Australian poets do the Seasons, although many talk of Summer in passing. Today John will read the beautiful opening stanza of Keats’ “To Autumn”.<br /><br />* Last week I spoke with MEG MUNDELL about “Black Glass” – reviewed in “The Age” at the weekend…And there was an article yesterday about SCOTT BENNETT’s “Pozieres” which I spoke about a few weeks back: just reminding you how current we are here at “The Blurb”….And I had written my review of “Little People” last week – before it was covered in the weekend papers…<br /><br />* PAUL CLEARY”s “The Men Who Came Out Of The Ground” [“The Blurb”, October, 2010] has been nominated for a Walkley Award this year.<br /><br />* JAMES LEE BURKE’s daughter, Alafair, has ventured into the crime fiction field, not very successfully, I’d say. The son of ELMORE LEONARD, Peter Leonard, however, has written a ripper of a pulp-fiction book called “All He Saw Was The Girl” which is fast-paced, funny, dark, global – all that a contemporary thriller should be. <br /><br />* The book on which the current film, “The Way Back” is based – “The Long Road” – has been re-issued in paperback. <br /><br />* Next week, ROBYN ROWLAND will be in again and I hope to talk to CORY TAYLOR [“Me and Mr. Booker”] in Brisbane.<br /><br />* I spoke yesterday with KATHRYN from that her great little bookshop in Barwon-end Pako, PATON BOOKS: she or someone from the shop will be in regularly to tell us what is happening there. [I reckon the WEST end of Pako needs a bookshop too…The food down there is getting better by the day!]<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><h3> This Week’s Author Interview: Benjamin Law </h3><br /><br />John spoke with BENJAMIN LAW, the popular author of the proclaimed and best-selling memoir, “The Family Law”.<br />[In the not-too-distant future, “The Blurb” will be available for you to podcast and listen to via iPod.]<br /><br /><br /><h3> This Week’s Reviews:<br /><br />‘Little People’ by Jane Sullivan </h3> <br /><br />This is a very clever book. Jane has discovered some larger-than-life historical characters – especially Charles “General Tom Thumb” Stratton – and re-created the world of late 19th century SE Australia for a rollicking story of showbiz, love and adventure the likes of which we don’t see often [though again I was reminded a little of E.L. Doctorow’s work.] <br /><br /> ‘The General’ did in fact visit our shores at the time the novel is set, but Sullivan creates her own tale, via her invention of the interesting Mary Ann, an impoverished pregnant governess through whom we see most of the events…though the author is not content with a straight-forward third person narrative, as I’ll show later. The “little people” reveal all the human traits of love, intrigue, rivalry and adventure-seeking lest you scoff at the public’s adulation of such “freak” shows, I remember the Fat Lady and the “pygmies from Africa” at the Melbourne Show in the early 60s! Anyway the real genius of the show business phenomenon was the legendary P T Barnum who had discovered the child who became ‘The General’ when the latter was a young child whom we meet as an ageing star, and this onward march of age will be his greatest threat – as well as a fellow member of the troupe.<br /> <br /><br />* Our “little people” – Sullivan tells us in a useful Afterword – probably had Pituitary Dwarfism, caused by a deficiency in growth hormones. Their heads, body and limbs were in perfect proportion, they may have been born to parents of normal height – and any offspring might have been of average size. <br /><br /> As to the book’s style and form, Sullivan uses the conventional chapters for a chronological account, but inserts ‘sideshow’ vignettes <br />[termed “Acts”] from the various minor characters which works very well in letting the reader into the whole picture, complete with authentic period photographs. [This is another beautifully-designed paperback from “text” publishing.] The tour begins in Melbourne with ‘The General’ apparently rescuing Mary Ann from drowning in he Yarra. Then it’s Tasmania, Adelaide, back to Melbourne, thence towards Sydney via Seymour where there is a brilliantly-depicted flood emergency. There are some wonderful characters in this novel: ‘The General’ and his beautiful wife; her sister, the desperate-for-love, Minnie; various underlings who keep the show on the road, including ‘The General’s’ rival, Rondia. Then there are “villains” of the almost hiss-able type. Mary Ann’s plight is realistically portrayed: this was the era long before any social welfare; being single and pregnant was doom-laden; her situation is desperate and yet she acquits herself admirably. Yes, it is a bit That Sort Of Book, though at no stage does it become mawkish or predictable. We await the birth of the child with Mary Ann and her unusually supportive employers.<br /> <br />The historical novel has always been in vogue, I suppose, but I seem to be coming across them more than ever, and they are of consistent quality. Sullivan [literary editor of “The Age”] is an intelligent and hard-working writer. The research she did for this novel shows in the realism of the settings – and the lives we encounter in this very entertaining novel. In the meantime, however, I came to sense as I read that she was consciously entertaining her reader, that is – in McLuhan’s famous phrase – the medium here IS the message…The book is “show time” in print! If this makes it “melodrama” [as one critic put it], all well and good. Read Dickens again. Watch the films of Stephen Spielberg and Tarantino, etc. Melodrama is KING! And, as for “genre-driven”; what is flavour-of-the-decade CORMAC McCARTHY but a writer of WESTERNS, albeit a very good one?<br />I really enjoyed everything about this book.<br /><br /><strong> SCORE: ****<br />Jane Sullivan: “Little People”, Scribe pb, pp 342, rrp $34-99</strong><br /><br /><br /><br /><h3> “Me And Mr. Booker” by Cory Taylor</h3><br /><br />Another FIRST novel. <strong> Cory Taylor</strong> is an experienced writer, however, with a background in children’s books and writing for film. <br /><br />I found this a challenging book, not because it was hard to read: Taylor writes fluently, has a keen ear for dialogue and the subject is certainly arresting. I was surprised by my personal response to the novel’s central fact: a sixteen-year-old school girl having an affair over a year or so with a married university lecturer in his late thirties. Call me old-fashioned, uptight, repressed, whatever, but I had difficulty finding the author’s point of view in this book. It wasn’t so much the hot sex scenes, but the age difference, first of all, plus the fact that the affair is given at least tacit approval by the cuckolded wife as well as the girl’s mother who meanwhile is about the only likable character in the cast. What also annoyed me – on a different level – was the girl, Martha’s, utter stupidity in falling for and maintaining a relationship with an utterly-unattractive male. The eponymous Mr. Booker [Martha’s term of address throughout the story] is a heavy drinker who is hopeless at his job, socially inept with his peers; he speaks in clichés and cracks age-old jokes…I am waiting for some women to tell me their reaction to this book. Okay: ever since “Lolita” and probably long before, exaggerated “May-September” sex has been a seller in fiction, but this is the 21st century. Surely the mores of male-female culture have been re-written? I assume Cory Taylor is serious with this book. Next Tuesday I will be speaking with her so I am sure we will find out more.<br /><br /> As I said initially, this is a crisply-written and contemporary novel and certainly has elements of raw social comedy and satire. Taylor’s suburban Brisbane middle-class families are deftly sketched. I loved the estranged dad eventually taking up residence in a caravan in his family’s driveway. Martha’s mother is almost a tragic figure, shades perhaps of “Muriel’s” mother in the classic PJ Hogan Australian film, “Muriel’s Wedding”. I say “almost” because there is for me no reason why SHE should have fallen for the Bookers just because her teenage daughter does. Finally I think Taylor is a cruel observer, but maybe this is a valid perspective on what is a very dysfunctional set of relationships.<br /> Please read this book and tell us what YOU think.<br /><br /><strong> SCORE:**+<br />Cory Taylor: “Me And Mr. Booker”, text pb, pp 208, rrp $32-95</strong>Blurb Production Teamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13530191833029376377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1111246176394854195.post-87311880810390015922011-04-03T12:28:00.000+10:002011-04-03T12:29:15.313+10:00March 22nd<h3> Book & Publishing News: </h3><br /><br />* Today’s poem is from the veteran BRUCE DAWE, commenting on the events in Libya [ to be read by my guest, John Regan.]<br /><br />* Last Night my fortnightly colleague JOHN BARTLETT compered a very successful evening at the Geelong Art Gallery where nine poets from the region, who featured in last year’s Best Poems…<br /><br />* I have mentioned before this year the centenary celebrations at ST. PAT’S SCHOOL in West Geelong. If you have suitable memorabilia, their archivist Glen Turnbull is working solidly on the history. Contact the school.<br /><br />* I am just starting to get into yet another book entitled, “Gallipoli”, but this one is from the person in charge of Oral History at London’s Imperial War Museum, Peter Hart. It is like no other book I have come across so far on that awful campaign in that there seems to be equal sourcing from the Allied and the Turk [and GERMAN] sides. I will talk about it closer to April 25th. <br /><br />* Last week I referred to the recent publication of an anthology of mystery stories by the venerable and prolific Joyce Carol Oates, one of my favourite writers, now in her Seventies. Blow me down if she hasn’t another new release, a memoir, based on her 46 years’ marriage, “A Widow’s Story”. I am really looking forward to reading it. Great reviews so far. <br /><br />* JANE SULLIVAN will be well-known to readers of the Saturday “Age Review” for her weekly newsy column about books and writing. I have just begun her new novel, “Little People”, based on the life of a late 19th century world-wide show business phenomenon, the diminutive “General Tom Thumb”. Very amusing and even engrossing so far. <br /><br />* Next week, I will talk about “Little People” [from Scribe,pb] and an arresting first novel, “Me and Mr. Booker” by Brisbane-based screenwriter, Cory Taylor [whom I will be interviewing the week after.]<br /><br /><br /><h3> This Week’s Reviews: </h3><br /><br /><h3> ‘The Tower’, by Michael Duffy </h3><br /><br /><br />This man is a jack-of-all trades. A publisher in his youth, he is now both a print [ Sydney’s “Sun-Herald] and radio [ Radio National’s “Counterpoint”] journalist. He is a recent newcomer to the ranks of our already-formidable crime writing fraternity, with “The Tower”, and this month’s “Simple death”.<br /> Knowing a little of Duffy’s background, I wasn’t surprised by elements of his work which separate him from the current Australian crop who operate in this popular genre. Firstly, this is a longer book than we usually get from the likes of Corris or Maloney certainly. Secondly, his main character, Troy, resembles Conelly’s Los Angeles-based Bosch or Rankin’s Edinburgh-loving Rebus than his Australian compatriots. Troy is eternally reflective. He is married to Anna, an Indian-born nurse who is suffering prolonged post-natal depression – or at least their marriage is in a sexual no-go phase which is causing Troy considerable pain. His angst seems also spiritual. Orphaned while still a child, he became a street-kid, rescued from a pointless life by the intervention of Fr. Luke, a Bob-Maguire-type suburban priest who helped him develop a sensitive conscience – and a love of the Scriptures, to which the policeman turns in times of stress. Another characteristic is the mild sophistication of some of the other characters. Shannon, is the Irish engineer-cum-security operator, coke-sniffing and randy, who can quote WB Yeats on cue. We get to know Shannon very well and his role in the novel is central.<br /> <br />The location is contemporary Sydney. Skyscrapers continue their upward thrust; Chinese money is pouring in; building unions are highly-politicised, as is the police force…Strangely though, I feel the newcomer [from a few weeks back], Katherine Howell:”Violent Exposure”, caught the feel – smells, sounds, emotions – of the harbour City with more intensity than Duffy, in a far less-ambitious novel. There is lots of CBD busy-ness, but none of the excitement even I was able to sense on my recent visit of a few days.<br /><br />Troy is a member of the Murder Squad at “Sydney Central”, called in to investigate the suspicious circumstances of a woman from the upper level of a new building site, “The Tower”, set to become Australia’s highest skyscraper. From the first day of his involvement, Troy is in the headline-boasting spotlight. Almost overnight, the squad is investigating three killings. In-house competition and politics are bubbling away and Troy just doesn’t know whom to trust. Becoming his uncertain sidekick is “Mac” McIvor – who reminded me of “The Bill’s” sexily-balding Burnside of years ago: a little bit dodgy, maybe, but reliable finally in a scrap. Troy’s superiors seem unsure of our hero’s capabilities and he is being shuffled about, meanwhile finding out key information on his own…and seemingly with the unselfish help of afore-mentioned Shannon. Shannon is a vital link to the powerful, assured and very smooth Chinese businessman, Mr. Wu, the force behind the new building. If this sounds complex, it is, somewhat; Duffy weaves a mean plot with just enough red herrings to keep the reader alert. I had difficulty sorting the relevance of one or two characters, and the goings-on “below stairs” were a little incredible. By and large, however, the story is pretty well anchored in current events in our big cities [and, remember, Duffy’s day job is as a crime reporter, so he knows!]<br /> <br />The crime investigation/procedural dimension is handled very well, but it is the characterisation of Troy that gives this book its edge. He is a genuine feeling…and therefore troubled 21st century male. This is not just a crime novel, then. He is trying to make his way in a job he loves and thinks is important, while balancing the usual personal responsibilities. I found him thoroughly credible.<br /><br />MICHAEL DUFFY is a most welcome new novelist [to me] on the scene.<br /><br /><strong> SCORE: ***+<br />MICHAEL DUFFY: The Tower,[ A&U pb, 2010,pp 465, rrp $22-99.] </strong><br /><br /><h3> ‘The Colony’ by Grace Karskens </h3><br /><br /> The latest history of the early years of our nation is called simply “The Colony – A History of Early Sydney” – when it deserves to be called fresh and revisionary. Karskens lectures in Australian History at the University of New South Wales and she is an excellent teacher who maintains just the right balance between thorough and far-reaching information and the sort of human interest that derives from fluent story-telling. You may wonder what is there that has not been said before. This time last year <strong> Tom Keneally </strong> enthralled me all over again that this period was largely all about individual people [as did AN WILSON in last week’s “The Victorians”.]<br /><br /> Isn’t it ironic that the further we get from, say, our colonial history, the more information seems to be becoming available, thanks to our ICT records-keeping and research capabilities. Karskens’ early “Sydney Cove’ is, of course, a very harsh place, but – unlike Robert Hughes’ unrelenting “Fatal Shore” – Karsken’s is a place of hope and enterprise [ not just in business.] In spite of the repeated instructions from ‘Home’ to maintain a punishment regime, almost from the beginning there were realistic opportunities for reform and the pursuit of a way of life that the transported – and, indeed, the free settlers could only have dreamed of in Britain. Our writer cites carefully four elements of colonial Sydney which more or less guaranteed not just survival but not-too-distant prosperity. Firstly, Sydney was a MARITIME settlement, [many of us still rush to make our sea changes!] The discipline was of a naval/military bent which was inevitably and continually scaled down in the practice if not the letter of their law[s]. Secondly, for the first 40 years, there was no central monetary system. This meant the officer class, paid in sterling, quickly achieved a monopoly in trade, with lots of illegal side effects, sure. Though illegal, it meant a thriving little economy in practice, in rum, sealing products, etc. Further, the geography of the little colony – on a harbour, locked in North, South and West by the Hawkesbury Estuary, the Blue Mountains and the Wollongong escarpment respectively – was inevitably drawn into the commercial life of the “East Indies” and India. Finally, the convicts actually brought with them a thriving consumerism: they wanted “things”. They were mostly urban people and, though money-poor, quickly developed bartering systems for all manner of goods.<br /><br />This is a very brief look at this excellent book. I would like to talk more about the section on “The Macquaries” [sic]: the author points out the influence in policy-making – especially regarding infra-structure – which Elizabeth Macquarie wielded.<br />Many of “her” gardens around the Harbour survive to the present. Lachlan himself –“the father of Australia?” – is given a bit of a going over by Karskens though finally he is seen not quite as progenitor of the nation we became, but much more than the over-sensitive squanderer of public [i.e. British] monies Commissioner Bigge would have him to be, the lay visitor to Sydney can hardly miss such Macquarie “relics’ as the “Rum Hospital” [now part of the NSW parliamentary precinct],The Hyde Park Barracks, St. James Church [as well as St. John’s at Parramatta],the South Head Lighthouse, etc.<br /> <br /><br />This book is a marvellous new contribution to our treasury of knowledge about the “Foundation Years”. I liked the latter parts where Karkens revisits the conflicts out on the Cumberland plains – now the source of political battles, at State and Federal levels, interestingly. Indeed, the book continually goes “beyond the fringes”, as does the author, to push our assumptions about where we came from as a “Commonwealth”. A terrific book.<br /><br /><strong> SCORE: ****+<br />GRACE KARSKENS: The Colony, A&U pb, pp 670, rrp $49-95 </strong><br /><br /><h3> This Week’s Poem: </h3> <br />“Libya 2011” by Bruce Dawe [courtesy of “The Australian”, March 20th]<br /><br /><h3> Music </h3><br />This week we were celebrating the visit of two rock’n’roll veterans and you heard,<br /><br />- “Ridin’ With The King” by BB King [and Eric Clapton]<br />-“Heartbreak Hotel” by Leon Russell [and Willy Nelson]Blurb Production Teamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13530191833029376377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1111246176394854195.post-83063064726050594862011-04-03T11:55:00.001+10:002011-04-03T11:55:44.294+10:00March 8th<h3> Book & Publishing News:</h3><br /><br />* Happy International Women’s Day…not that I am practising affirmative action here…except to welcome EMMA to assist me in production…And she’ll be doing some reviewing later too, we hope.<br /><br />* February’s ALR was less ‘academic’ this time…More reviews [ including one by the author of “The Colony” which I spoke about a fortnight ago, I think] and essays that might reach readers of “The Oz” at their level.<br /><br />* The March edition of “The Monthly” includes a long essay by the redoubtable Robert Manne on Julian Assange, BEFORE the recent releases. Young Julian is definitely politically – New Age anarchist? - motivated and has been since his youth.<br />There is also a review by aspiring political leader MALCOLM TURNBULL…<br /><br />* One of today’s books, “That Deadman Dance”, has just been named Best Novel 2010 by the PACIFIC Region Commonwealth Writers’ Board.<br /><br />* “The Bush Orphanage” by last week’s guest JOHN HAWKINS is available at all our regional small bookshops, and in the Library, of course<br /><br />* I use the library’s excellent DVD collection for my films and we finally saw “Patriot Game” last week. an action film closely based on TOM CLANCY’s bestseller of 20 years ago. The setting is the final days of the fracturing of the IRA and the rise of Sinn Fein as a valid political entity…Quite interesting. The title surely comes from writer Brendan Behan’s folk song from the late 60s: Behan was notorious for his “Borstal Boy” which could only be published in our fair and just isle in about 1970 by converting the numerous F*** bombs to “fugh” and its variants. Nowadays even the ‘midday movies’ are full of four-letter expletives. Are we a better society for that? <br /><br />* Book-Into-Film No. 27 or so. As a young fella, I hadn’t read a serious novel until “The Power and the Glory” [GRAHAM GREENE] and “The Return of the Native” [THOMAS HARDY] – which were set texts for Matric [sic] English [sic] Literature. Inspired perhaps, I also read SLAVOMIR RAWICZ’s “The Long Walk”<br />and “ Seven Years In Tibet” by HEINRICH HARRER. In spite of my being a good little right winger, I had never read anything about Stalinism till then. Soon after, came ARTHUR KOESTLER’s “Darkness At Noon” and the SOLZHENITYN oevre….Anyway this is all by way of saying I saw “The Way Back” last week, PETER WEIR’s epic based on the Ramicz book. Was “The Long Walk” authentic? The journey and the hardships stretched belief, but human endurance saw men survive the Burma railway, of which the definitive account for me is IAN DENYS PEEK”s 2003 book, “One Fourteenth Part Of An Elephant”. <br /><br />* UPCOMING EVENTS<br /> - The next Poetry and Conversation- APRIL 10th<br />- An Afternoon with Henry Lawson- March 19th at Woodbin Theatre <br /><br />* Queescliff’s Mystery Bookshop in Hesse Street has a new proprietor in JOAN CANTY. We wish her well in her endeavour. A great little shop.<br /><br /><br /><h3> This Weeks Reviews: </h3><br /><br /><h3> “That Deadman Dance”, by Kim Scott </h3><br /><br /> Listeners will know that I recently looked through some little history books about the Meredith district. My attention was caught by the merest mention in one of them, that the existing oval had been the favoured gathering place of a local clan of the Wauthorung nation. The site which is still a sort of central location for the town’s events was especially blessed because it was covered by native forest! The mention was from the early 1840s…then came sporadic European settlement, followed by the gold “rushes’ [as Geoffrey Blainey insists on calling the events of the 1850s,quite correctly, I feel.] Local Indigenous people disappeared very swiftly. “THEIR ghosts may be heard” too, perhaps, if we listen really carefully….<br /><br /> Anyway, today’s author is a NOONGAR, an Indigenous man from the South West corner of Western Australia. He acknowledges having read <strong> Tiffany Shellam’s </strong> wonderful “Shaking Hands On The Fringe” in preparing his novel, so it is no surprise for his story to be, by and large, a positive one. Central to it is a character known as Booby Wabalanginy who survives the first white arrivals, and remains a local identity throughout the 19th century. It is really Bobby’s story. The first encounters between local and the invaders were apparently not only non-violent but downright peaceful and laced with a spirit of co-operation and mutual support.<br />Because Bobby sees everything from the very first moments the sailing ships arrive, we too become privy to an ‘ordinary observer’s point of view, while being introduced to a lively cast of minor characters. He is no naïve bystander: he quickly becomes a fluent English speaker and a friend of the children of the leading member of the settler group, a relationship which has a tragic finale because this was no paradise after all.<br /> <br />I thought of some of the earlier classic works, which have attempted to imagine the encounters between the First Australians and the Europeans. Not in any order: <strong> Xavier Herbert’s </strong> “Capricornia” and “Poor Fella My Country”, <strong>KS Pritchard’s</strong> “Coonardoo”, <strong>Randolph Stow’s </strong> “To The Islands”,<strong> Nene Gare’s </strong> “The Fringe Dwellers” and more recently, <strong> Alexis Wright’s</strong> highly original “Carpentaria.” To the usual elements of colonial encounter – convictism, ham-fisted would-be-humanitarian British administrators, “settlers”, pastoralists, warriors, sheep – add Indigenous leaders and whalers, such an important part of the early European adventure in the “Swan colony”.<br /> Perhaps the plot arrangement somehow resembles the ‘songlines’ of Aboriginal mythology [which is what Wright seems to be up to with her novel about the North]<br />Woven amongst the various episode from Bobby’s life are references to the dichotomy between the littoral colony and what was going on “beyond the fringe”; asides about animal and plant husbandry; whaling experiences – all told with Scott’s inimitably exquisite language, poetic yet earthy. Bobby himself behaves as some sort of ambassador, at least in the better early days when the Europeans want to learn from the locals – before the redundant whalers are forced to become land-lubbers and bring cruelty and exploitation with them. Bobby must also go through initiation and once a man of his people, pressures to hold the rapid expansion of the whites onto Aboriginal hunting land increase. He must make choices. <br /><br /> There are other interesting characters. This is a novel on a grand scale – though it never becomes sprawling due to Scott’s economical use of language. The escaped convict, Jak Tar, loves the new land for the freedom it offers, and for a time the security of his love relationship with a Noongar woman, Binyan. His immersion in the land and a new culture are beautifully depicted. There is, of course, pain, brutality, betrayal, misunderstanding, but they are represented realistically, and with surprising objectivity. One of the sharpest-drawn characters is the entrepreneurial Chane who dares all, but suffers great loss. He is a true humanist, engaging with the Noongar on their terms while trying to remain an Englishman of culture. This is – as Alex Miller has commented – both a “beautiful and a heart-rending book”. It succeeds because the novelist has empathy for both sides in the restless encounters. By the end, the days of whaling are over; there are the beginnings of a thriving agricultural and pastoral industry built on sheep. Small communities are becoming towns from which cities such as Perth will emerge.<br /> This is an excellent addition to an existing collection of fine writing about the early days of European “settlement”, in a region which will be fairly new to most readers. It can only help us to look again at the realistic plight of the peoples who were displaced.<br /><strong>SCORE: ****+<br />KIM SCOTT: “That Deadman Dance”, Picador pb, 2010, pp 398,rrp $32-99.</strong><br /><br /><br /><h3> “The Victorians” by A N WILSON</h3><br /><br /> Does anyone remember and care about the “culture wars” of the 90s? One of its saddest side effects was demonising of that great Australian historian Geoffrey Blainey who somehow was claimed for the Neo-Con corner by people like the rascally Keith Windshuttle. Here in Australia it became a tug of war over Indigenous fatality statistics in colonial times and since. Meanwhile the controversy did nothing to harm the political rise of Hanson and her all-but apologist, Howard. What can be a more interesting debate might come from asking: what really are OUR myths?....traditions?...certainties from our brief past? It’s good to see some of our military historians re-examining Gallipoli and other WWI events. [I will look at a new book “Pozieres”, in coming weeks as well as one on Gallipoli specifically, this time by a British academic from the Imperial War Museum.] I discussed briefly a few weeks back the lively “Zombie Myths Of Australian Military History”, a best-selling paperback out at the moment. There is nothing like thorough revision in history.<br /> …And that is what <strong> A N Wilson</strong> [famous for excellent earlier books, “Jesus” “Paul”, “The Jews”] has done with a recent book looking at the second half of the 19th century. There are some “Great Figures of History” in this book, but Wilson challenges the status of many of them and questions there effectives and/or influence for good which is what made it an enthralling read for me. I managed to read it during a very distracting week beach-side at Manly a fortnight ago. <br /> Perhaps some would call Wilson a Left-wing historian; he certainly tends to approach events from a Marxian analytical perspective [yes, especially when he’s discussing religion, in the earlier books mentioned.] That is his framework, not his political philosophy.<br /> One is not far into his book until one realises [again] just how much of who we [still?] are derived not just from Britain, but from Victorian times specifically. So it is no surprise to recall that until ANU’s was established in, I think, about 1970 that there was no chair of Australian History in any of our universities. Remember your secondary school history courses? In my student days, there was a section on the British History Matric exam which looked at Australia [ well, on the Wars, the Depression…] So it was with joy that I saw Wilson challenging so many of the assumptions we all entertain about those Victorian times. Queen Victoria suffers at his hands: she is revealed as a peevish little haradan whose only good ideas came from her short-lived husband. She was certainly no absolute monarch. Probably not her fault, but many of the “reforms” of the era don’t stand up to scrutiny [eg Poor Law, Factory, etc.] To mention one in particular, though the 1830s produced Wilberforce and “the end of the slave trade”, the actual business still underpinned the business interests of many British MPs through to the 1890s [when the generation of slaves in the West Indies, died out.] There was no emancipation as such.<br /> Our education system still really follows the model that emerged out of the British “public schools”, immortalised in “Tom Brown’s Schooldays” – and wonderfully satirised by Dickens in his “Nicholas Nickleby”. Wilson argues that British schooling was always intended to maintain a rigid class system [ and until the current mess surrounding funding currently fermenting is properly sorted, some of these elements surely remain here in Godzone.]<br /><br /> With his judicious mix of events and people, Wilson never becomes boring throughout 800 pages [with good photos, bibliography and index.] Readers are forced to look again, for example, at Ireland’s “Great Famine” of the 1840s which sent many of our ancestors to the colonies that became Australia. The often cavalier attitudes and overt racism that was behind so much Imperial policy towards Ireland still rankles in some of us! And the second half of the 19th century saw the height of the British Raj in India, “the jewel in the crown”. Wilson talks about what has been called: The Indian Mutiny” [ cf Andrew Ward’s “Our Bones Are Scattered” for a full treatment of India 1857. ] They were awful events, none more than the retribution the British visited on any suspects. Wilson suggests there was no mere “mutiny”, but a mismanaged revolution – which would be another century in the making.<br /> Earlier, of course, there was that tragic farce, the Crimean War: thousands of British soldiers died of cholera before a shot was fired. Tennyson’s celebrated “Charge Of The Light Brigade” was a disaster overseen by incompetent fools. It would take, however, a ”Great War” before the British Army finally reformed itself<br />from its nepotism and gerontocracy.<br /> <br />The title of this worthy book is telling for it is finally a story of PEOPLE. From Tennyson to Disraeli, the Prince Consort to the Rosettis, Wilson reminds us that the Victiorian Age was the first time permanent records of any great scope became available to the historical researcher: there are so many documents of every size and from every source. There are newspapers, magazines, diaries, court records, government minutes…<br /> This is history for the lay person: fluent, accessible, amusing, concise – for all its length. I found it a leisurely read which cannot be said, alas, for a lot of histories – though I would suggest we are getting better at it [even if we don’t have a lot of Macaulays around these days.] In closing, let me note a reference by Wilson to someone who claimed that there in those days a “favoured 10,000”. “Within this group, all the decision-makers could be found: the Royal Family and a vast aristocracy, church leaders, key academics, famous writers and artists, soldiers, politicians, military officers – very many of whom were connected by blood and/or marriage, of course.”<br /><br /><strong> SCORE: ****<br />A N WILSON: “The Victorians”, Arrow Books pb,2006 [?],pp 738 </strong><br /><br /><h3> This Week’s Poem: </h3><br />‘Sonnet 29’ - by William Shakespeare<br /><br /><h3> Music: </h3><br />‘Something’s Coming’ by Oscar PetersonBlurb Production Teamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13530191833029376377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1111246176394854195.post-14328475681184731062011-03-10T19:52:00.001+11:002011-03-10T19:53:40.681+11:00March 1st<h3> Book & Publishing News:</h3><br /><br />* Did you survive a week without “The Blurb”? I welcome Leo who will panel for us today.<br /><br />* I find it comforting to find reviews of books we’ve already looked at coming out in the big newspapers and the literary mags: “The Hundred Foot Journey”, “The Cypress House”, ”Notorious”…and today’s book. If you go to PULSE’s website and find the page for “The Blurb”, you will have about 100 book reviews for your perusal, TWO years’ work from our past shows.<br /><br />* Still no takers to tell me what “shibboleth” or “widdershins” mean…I’ll tell you next week.<br /><br />* Academy Awards are boring, baseless. OK – “The King’s Speech” was good, but THE best from the last twelve months? Haven’t they seen “The Fighter”?<br /><br />* “An Afternoon With HENRY LAWSON” is coming up on March 19th. More details later. To whet your appetites, meanwhile, we will feature today our Bob Knowles’ sensitive reading of “Past Carin’” as poem of the week.<br /><br />* Couldn’t Natalie Hooker have come up with a less ironic title for the biography of LJ, her father, than “Nobody Does It Better”?<br /><br />* John’s guest a few weeks back, poet ROBYN ROWLAND, has just been awarded an international poetry prize in Ireland. She will be back with us in a few weeks to talk some more.<br /><br /><h3> This Weeks Review: “Bright and Distant Shores” by Dominic Smith</h3><br /><br />Here on “The Blurb”, I am not above referring verbatim to – um – BLURBS, on occasion. So here I go again: the cover notes on this particular new and exciting novel suggests similarities to the works of “Melville, Doctorow and Carey”. Pretty good company. As an Australian-born academic based in Texas, Smith would have read “Moby Dick” at least, surely one of the Great Books, not just of American literature. For me, the jury is still out on Peter Carey. He wrote very good short stories back in the 70s [“The Fat Man In History” anthology.] I have yet to read a masterpiece; in fact, I have found several of his books impossible to finish. Yes, he has won all the awards, and he has written historical fiction. When it comes to American contemporary writer, E L Doctorow, however, I can see the similarities, and consider Smith in good company if the comparison is accurate, and I think it is. The lively and engaging characters, his overall lightness of touch, the ironic humour, but above all the authentic flavour of the historical situations reminded me of Doctorow at his best. [“Ragtime”, “Billy Bathgate”, “Waterworks”.]<br /> <br />As happens to me with fortunate regularity, I was forced to read this novel, straight through, so absorbing was it. The pace of the turn-of-18th-century action and the seductiveness of the subject quite held me in thrall. “Pacifica”: this novel is about one [fictional] man’s search for exotica from the Pacific region, objects – and people! – to form the centrepieces of a new Chicago museum atop a skyscraper, no less. <br /> My enthusiasm perhaps brings up the question immediately: what constitutes “Good Literature”? [And then is this book “literary”?] I’ll avoid an answer by citing some practices the better writers do not indulge in:<br />- CLICHÉ – in plot, character…phrases.<br />STREAMS OF ADVERBS, ADJECTIVES in place of crisp, compressed description.<br />- NUMEROUS SHORT SEQUENCES OF INDIVIDUAL SENTENCES in place of paragraphs.<br />- PAGES WITH WIDE SPACING in an attempt to make it look like a long book.<br /><br />Oh, I could write a book about it.<br /><br />Smith has chosen historical fiction – a very popular genre always for his first major publication and he takes it to new level. Admittedly a book like last year’s “Wolf Hall” set the bar very high, but in its own way this is just as appealing and certainly more entertaining. Smith has obviously done the research because his characters are engaged in very credible if exotic pursuits. His hero, Owen, collects “Pacifica” – anthropological objects - and people – from the South Pacific. Owen is Indiana Jones without the histrionics or special effects, but is no less romantic. His father was the “Whelan-the-Wrecker” of 1890s Chicago, a good gig when you consider the amount of pulling down and building that went on in the Windy City in those days. Dad has been killed in a work accident, and one of his clients commissions Owen to furnish the exhibits for a roof-top museum that will be the crowning glory of the client’s latest skyscraper. So begins a wonderfully adventurous cruise and our meeting a most interesting cast of characters. The millionaire behind the scheme, Hale, cannot accept the threat of a new building being higher than his…He must send his son, Jethro, on the expedition [because he cannot find anything useful for him at home] and so sets in chain a handy sub-plot for later. Owen’s fiancée Adelaide, is the daughter of a Boston Brahmin family, but will stay true for him while he’s away through her engaging letters. The ship’s captain, the rambunctious and lustful Terrapin, is colourful, to say the least. Part of Owen’s commission is to bring back “several” Islanders which brings us to the inventive Anglo-phile, Argus Nui, and the sister whom he from a worse fate and brings her along….There are storms at sea, bloodthirsty ‘natives’, lovably roguish shipmates…And all the exotica of the “new” Melanesia. As I have perhaps hinted, there is a fair bit of vintage Speilberg in this excellent novel. In a class of its own, really. It is epic in scale and a most competent piece of storytelling.<br /><br /><strong>SCORE: ****<br />DOMINIC SMITH: “Bright And Distant Shores”,A&U, pp 500, rrp $30 pb.</strong><br /><br /><br /> <h3>Author Interview: John Hawkins author of “The Bush Orphanage”</h3><br /><br /> We were fortunate to have <strong> John Hawkins</strong> visiting our town last week and he came in to talk with us about an arresting and very interesting book “The Bush Orphanage”, concerning the dreadful “importing” of young British children to our shores through the connivance of some religious organizations, the British government and our Federal government. John was one of these “Forgotten Children” and he has chronicled some of his life experiences in the book. Perhaps more importantly, his work reveals the depths of cynicism around the “scheme” which was a way of getting ‘migrant’ labour for our growing economy on the 50s. John found himself, having already been handed over by his birth parents for adoption at six months, on a boat bound for Perth when he was seven. He would spend the next fifteen years at an “orphanage” four hundred kilometres out in the Western Australian, receiving some schooling and earning his keep by working the farm that went along with the institution: clearing the bush, shifting rocks…hard physical work for a growing youth. Remarkably, John is able to reflect rather positively on these years. It is rather the ugly fact of his removal from loved ones by a callous bureaucracy and the years of denial that followed [by the governments] that riles him still. Particularly since his retirement, he has been able to bring to light clear documentary proof of years of collusion and cover-up. His story deserves wide reading!<br />[A film based on events such as John spoke about is coming out<br />soon, starring David Wenham and Hugo Weaving – “Oranges and Sunshine”.]<br />John’s book is available at all the local independent bookshops.<br /><br /><h3> Music</h3><br />This week you heard the track:<br />- “Aqua e Vino”, guitar and recorder, from Doug de Vries and Rod Waterman.Blurb Production Teamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13530191833029376377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1111246176394854195.post-20768482461177571842011-02-23T22:02:00.001+11:002011-02-23T22:02:53.745+11:00February 15thSadly, I farewell my panellist and assistant, ZANE, who is off to the Big Smoke to further his acting career. THANK YOU, Zane, for your patient and professional approach. It has been a pleasure working with you. “Break a leg!”<br /><br />Today’s program is all about HISTORY…Yes, my favourite topic [ not that you would have noticed.]<br /><br /><h3> Book & Publishing News: </h3><br /><br />* Wasn’t FELICITY MARSHALL a great guest last week? I hope you’ve gone out and bought “The Star”.<br /><br />* Speaking of illustrator’s of children’s books, I am reading the memoir by veteran artist <strong>Ron Brooks, </strong> “Dawn from the Heart”. More later, but you may know his superb “The Bunyip of Berkeley’s Creek’ and “The Fox’, two of his best among many. Wonderful reproductions of drafts of a lot of his work.<br /><br />* The latest ALR from “The Australian” was rather ‘heavy’, I found. Who are the target audience? Rather academic, though a typically good article from <strong> Inga Clendinnen.</strong><br /><br />* The current “Australian Book Review” includes a very positive review by Deakin’s Maria Toklander of recent guest, <strong> Robyn Rowland’s</strong> latest, “Seasons of Doubt and Burning” which I thoroughly enjoyed. A poet for all of us.<br /><br />* It could be my becoming jaded, but “The Monthly” looks a bit tired too: who really cares about the Windsors anymore? And Margaret Simons promise to show the approaching end of the Fairfax empire was an absolute fizzer [thankfully?]<br /><br />* Did you read where huge volumes of <strong> Mark Twain’s</strong> diaries are being published? “The Oz” reviewer, Geordie Williamson, remarked that it is just as well Sam Clement’s didn’t rely on said journals to earn a dollar. A very boring read, said GW.<br /><br />* Are you as underwhelmed by SBS’s “History of America” as I am? Don’t let an amazing story get in the road of very over-worked CGI these days. Where are you, Ken Burns [of “The Civil War” series and book fame]?<br /><br />* A few months back I spoke enthusiastically of a book, “Chains”, by <strong> Laurie Halse Anderson.</strong> The second book of a trilogy set during the American Revolution/War of Independence is “Forge”, now in the shops. Not quite as powerful, told this time by the young African-American boy, Curzon. Still a good read, and a new window into that extraordinary period in the history of the USA<br /><br /><h3>This Week’s Review: Books about History</h3><br /><br />SUSAN WEST: Bushranging NSW, 1860-1880.<br />ALAN FROST: Botany Bay – the Real Story.<br />DAVID UNAIPON: Legendary Tales of the Australian Aborigines.<br />ROD MOSS: The Hard Light of Day.<br />ROBERT KENNY: The Lamb Enters the Dreaming.<br />ALISON ALEXANDERE: Tasmania’s Convicts.<br />BILL BUNBURY: Timber for Gold.<br /><br />West’s book on bushranging is, <br />1] limited to just the 20 years and<br />2] New South Wales,<br />But her approach lays the foundation for any study of this particular group of lawbreakers. Her approach is quite scholarly, which means she argues a careful case at each stage. There are useful footnotes and a good index. This is not so much for the casual lay reader though a look at the chapter headings will tell you whether you want to go further. It is very useful in outlining what some of the challenges were for the ‘mother colony’ as it learned to live as a self-governing state, where free men and women were building a nation. The chapter headings are informative: The bushrangers’ Self-image and motivation; Supporters and Class; the Cultural Milieu of the so-called Bushranger Class; Policing; Punishment. She draws from many examples, primary and secondary, official and ‘informal’. As I’ve mentioned before, a new history book should offer some revision and West does well to de-mythologise the outbreak of ‘social banditry’.<br /><br />Fremantle Press have a justifiable reputation for uncovering interesting tales from our past; look at “A Fortunate Life” and “My Country”, pivotal publications for the re-birth of interest in the lives of “ordinary” Australians. Such personal histories have begun to change the ways we view ourselves. “Timber for Gold’ is a slim volume, companion to an ABC Radio talks program by the author/broadcaster. He tells us about the lives of the mostly-migrant men who cleared the timber for the mines of Coolgardie and districts. It is “socia” history: there are no “Great Men” or “Big Events” here, just people surviving in a desolate environment, doing backbreaking work. It is also then, in a sense, environmental history: only now is that semi-arid, lonely space growing back to what it was.<br /><br /> I spoke about <strong>Rod Moss’s</strong> book last year, but have only managed to read it of late. As I said then, it is a beautiful production from the Uni of Queensland Press, the memories of a white Australian painter’s life in a community of Aborigines who live on the Todd River, near Alice Springs [complete with excellent prints of some of Moss’s art work.] The sub-title is “an artist’s story of friendships in Arennte country” and so it is. A very sad lot of stories often because many of Rod’s male friends pass away during the time the book covers. [ You might look at this book alongside “”King Brown Country” and “Once Upon A Time In Papunya”, referred to earlier on “The Blurb”, and in the light of continuing discussion about “The Intervention” in NT and WA.]<br /><br />Obviously Moss loves the country and its people, the desert and the Arernte I guess nowadays many Australians visit Aboriginal communities, but how many choose to reside amongst them? This book is full of compassion. Moss is not interested in making judgements, in spite of the “neglect, brutality and chaos’ of the lives of the people of Whitegate.<br /><br />“Tasmania’s Convicts” is the newest book on that state’s convict era. Believe it or not, it has never been chronicled and/or analysed in a ‘popular’ style anything like the mainlands. Not least interesting is the author’s attempt throughout to show how the presence of so large a convict population has affected the emergence of a modern Tasmania. Perhaps “Port Arthur” – the Bryant Murders – has coloured our imagining of the island state, but wasn’t Port Arthur always a ‘spooky’ place to visit?..Standing there, looking out to Puer Island where hundreds of boy-convicts lived their lonely sentences, safe from the adult population, one could always feel it. And have you been to Sarah Island, near Macquarie Harbiourin the west? Say no more. “The “hated stain” affects more then the native Taswegian…And we haven’t even mentioned the colonial “removal” of most of the local Aborigines.<br /><br />How Tasmania emerged out of “Van Diemen’s Land”, with its 72,000 convicts, into a free state by the late 1890s is a remarkable story which our author only touches on. Many of the transported ended up in Victoria; some became diggers, others government employees on the Ballarat goldfields…this is the best book I’ve read on convictism so far, probably because the author is saying something very new.<br /><br /><strong>Penny Russel’s</strong> “ Manners in Colonial Australia” is something very different, certainly much lighter in tone. In its own way, it too addresses the question of whether there has developed an “Australian character” though the author’s thesis is not that singular. As she aptly describes for us, “The clash of class, sex or culture was intensely felt in the small encounters of everyday life” and so emerged patterns of behaviour for dealing with the various social situations. If “New South Wales” was to be a new country, what would be required of its citizenry if it were to remain “civil”?<br />Manners would have to matter: but what would they be? Russell’s methodology draws on the theories of a German sociologist, Norbert Elias, so she analyses a series of case studies drawn from various sectors in order to arrive at some “rules of civility”. Not surprisingly – because the “working” and lower classes are not so well represented in contemporary letters, newspaper articles, etc. – she tends to cite the upper echelons of society – the officials, the “free-born”, this leaves a rather large gap, it seems to me, a gap which Russell Ward way back in the 50s was able to mine through studying folk songs and such. However, an interesting book nonetheless.<br /><br />Miegunyaph Press is a specialist ‘house’ within MUP, supported by the Grimwade Bequest, enabling the publication of important but less ‘popular’ historical studies. Two Melbourne academics have ‘rediscovered’ the work of <strong>David Unaipon </strong>and given it its due place in Aboriginal historiography. “Thiuslittle Gem” is worth reading for the Introduction alone: then you can seek out suitable “myths and legends” from the rest of the book to read to your grandchildren. The Introduction traces the remarkable story of how Unaipon collected stories from Victoria and NSW in the 20s, but they were effectively “stolen”, and only now have they been “repatriated’ to Unaipon’s authorship.<br /><br />“The Lamb Enters the Dreaming” has been around for a while, having won for <strong>Robert Kenny</strong> the 2008 Prime Minister’s Prize for Australian History. Here we have the story of a Victorian Aboriginal man, Nathaniel Pepper from the Wimmera, and his “ruptured world” – his encounters with European [Christian] ways and their effects on him. Kenny’s work is quite profound, but he brings a ‘lightness of touch’ to the study which opens it up for all. I haven’t yet come across any other work which about one of “our’ Indigenous men that goes into so much depth so fluently. It should be on school/university reading lists!<br /><br />Now all that has been rather cursory, but I struggle to keep up with the reading. All of these books are easily available and are worthy of any well-read Australian’s home library.<br /><br /><h3>Guest Interview: Margret Cooper </h3><br /><br />Everyone in Australia under the age of 40 knows Meredith as the venue for two of the country’s most popular music festivals, but the town and district have been alive and kicking for over 150 years. It is much more than a stopover en route to Ballarat, Meredith goes along very nicely on its own, thank you, and is becoming – along with Lethbridge, Bannockburn, Inverleigh - virtually dormitories for Geelong workers. Lest the lovely hamlet’s past be forgotten, our guest and a lot of local helpers has been putting together a series of publications which over the last decade have acknowledged the place, its buildings and – above all – its people. [A list of the publications will follow this piece.]<br /><br />Originally from Ballan, Marg moved into the district when she and Geoff Cooper married. They live on Coopers’ Road, Bamgannie, on a mixed farming property which fronts the Leigh River, a few kms south-west of the Meredith Music Festival site.<br /><br />It was the district’s sesquicentenary commemoration that alerted locals to the imminent demise of so many of the Old-timers from around the town. Marg and friends developed a series of calendars with superb photos of local identities. Sales were good and Marg herself began working on what eventually became two books, focussing on notable men and woman of Meredith. This must have been a painstaking job as the local records were a bit thin on the ground. Access was made to old newspapers from Stieiglitz and Meredith, as well as the oral history from the people themselves, family members and friends. Marg says one of the joys of this work has been meeting and talking with so many: There are hundreds of people around Geelong and Ballarat, who claim a connection with the region. <br /><br />While various government arms have helped with the financing, it has been the hours of phone conversations and many daytrips that have enabled Marg to put the various books together. The photos are the cement that hold the text together: what did all these people and places mean to the little town as it battled droughts and bushfires, economic downturns, the effects of its young going off to wars? The books are a sobering as well as enjoyable read.<br /> You can purchase the books directly from Marg, though we are hoping to organise some wider distribution: anyone any ideas?<br /><br />It was great to have along someone so passionate about her community. Look out for NEXT year’s calendar, the working title of which is “The Loos of Meredith”…<br />Heritage Walk Booklet $ 10<br />Woodburn Revisited $ 25<br />Significant Women of Meredith $ 20<br />Memorable Men of Meredith $ 25<br />Alison Erwin: Poems $ 10<br />The Story of Meredith $ 25<br />Cemetery Guide $ 15 <br /><br /><strong>AVAILABLE FROM : Marg Cooper, Coopers Lane, Meredith 3333</strong><br /><br /><h3> This Weeks Poem: ‘Easter 1916’ by WB Yeats</h3><br /><br /> Two weeks ago, Robyn Rowland mentioned her close affinity with Ireland, and her love of the poetry of WB YEATS. Today I read “Easter 1916”, his elegy on the events surrounding those awful days in Dublin.<br /><br /><h3> Music</h3><br />Bernard played the Clancy Brothers singing “Foggy Dew”, the haunting ballad about the Rising [of which the best version Bernard heard is Sinead O’Connor’s.]<br /><br /><h3> Next Week:</h3><br />“The Blurb” will not be on air, but we will be back in March.Blurb Production Teamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13530191833029376377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1111246176394854195.post-21716988716776732352011-02-22T22:29:00.000+11:002011-02-22T22:31:12.950+11:00February 8th<h3>This Week’s Review: ‘The Diviner’s Tale’ by Bradford Morrow</h3><br /><br /> I was somewhat surprised when The Oz’s Geordie Williamson highlighted this book last week, making it subject of his weekly review. I’d read it a month ago, scribbled my responses, and then forgot bout it…Maybe it needed another look?, methought. Geordie was all very serious, beginning with a discussion of ‘gothic’ literature at some length. <br /><br /> Anyway, I noted that my excitement metre started to tick about 40 pages into this book which had arrived unsolicited just after Christmas. I’d never heard of the author. My interest was whetted when I was somehow reminded of Annie Proulx’s stories and “The Shipping News” and then of David Guterson’s “Snow Falling On Cedars”, both ‘regional America’ tomes. Unfamiliar territory was opening up as I read on. I love it when a writer captures local ‘atmosphere’ [whatever that term means, really.]<br /> Our first-person narrator is an interesting single mother [this, by a MALE writer], Cassie [as in Cassandra: NB!] who is a water diviner or ‘dowser’. Remember them from your childhood? Every country town boasted one, I think; I remember my dad telling me about Elaine’s. Cassie’s father confides that she is the first authentic diviner in a long line, but that is probably not true. The mystery around the gift is just one of this intriguing story’s driving threads. She has “The Gift”, but also – it seems – another type of ‘seeing’: “foresight”, seeing events before they happen, sadly including the death of her beloved brother years before.<br /><br />She has grown up “ …in the boondocks of Corinth County”, the surviving child of a staunchly Christian mother and equally fervid rationalist father….leading a rustically bohemian existence on the edge of the small town where she grew up.. Her work as a part-time classics teacher is supplemented by reluctant field trips to divine for local farmers…..She is widely believed to be a witch….” [from G. Williamson, “The Australian”, Feb 5-6th,p.24f.] She is forever battling to keep her “foresight” skills under control, when as an adult she happens on the body of a young girl, hanging from a tree. Unfortunately for Cassie’s credibility, the body is nowhere to be seen when the police arrive. The mystery elements of the plot kick in from here on: another girl of the same age as her ‘vision’ is found hiding near the site. In the meantime, her childhood friendship/romance with the kindly local cop re-ignites – to help or to hinder? Amid this ‘gothic’ scenario, normal reality persists; there are no TV- or movie-style histrionics. Cassie is a fairly typical mum most of the time, balancing work, the care of her lovely boys – and walking with her father who is showing the symptoms of early Alzheimer’s.<br /><br />The voice Morrow creates for Cassie is at times stilted, anachronistic even, which helps maintain the off-beat style of his novel. [I was reminded of William Styron’s “The Confessions of Nat Turner”, full and biblical allusions, of archaisms.]<br />In his review, Williamson usefully quotes the author, Morrow: “…Emerson was right when he said that every word was once a poem. Each word is so completely evolved, evolving, used, overused, that for a writer to assemble them in a way that is somehow innovative, audacious, fulfilling, suggestive, represents an enormously dynamic event.” What a great observation!<br /><br /> A very interesting book. Now, I do not as a rule read ‘fantasy’-genre books: I protest that I don’t have time…Perhaps somehow ”The Diviner’s Tale” is a tribute to Victorian gothic: remember John Fowles’ “The French Lieutenant’s Woman”? That sort of book. Read it to find out.<br /><br /><strong> SCORE: ***+<br />Bradford Morrow: The Diviner’s Tale, Corvus, pb, pp 311, rrp $ 39-95</strong><br /><br /><h3>Author Interview: Felicity Marshall author of “The Star” </h3><br /><br />This week Bernard spoke with acclaimed children’s author and illustrator <strong>FELICITY MARSHALL</strong>, published by our good friends at FORD STREET publishing.<br /><br />Felicity’s latest book is “The Star”, a brilliantly illustrated ‘cautionary tale’ about Marion who falls for ‘fame’ which then ends up biting her. We agreed the book would suit 9/10-year-olds…though I think it would be quite at home on anyone’s book shelf because of the universality of its themes; the artwork alone makes it a worthwhile purchase.<br /><br />We spoke briefly about Felicity’s childhood, growing up in rural Western Australia. The family included lots of journalists, Dad, and Aunt, etc – so it was perhaps inevitable that she would end up as some sort of storyteller; and the art of yarn-spinning is what links so much of country life, isn’t it?<br /><br />Tertiary study in Fine Arts honed her drawing and painting skills. Felicity worked for a while in film, but soon found herself putting together pictures and stories which ended up as the substantial body of books she already has to her name. [ Google her name and you will find a feast of info, including an animated ‘taster’ of “The Star” made by her son, Leo, an up-and-coming film-maker.]<br /><br />We spoke about some influences on her artistic development. Felicity constantly read lots of the traditional children’s books. Her taste in art is eclectic as is obvious from the variety of styles displayed in “The Star”: pencil drawing, gouache, oils. Of late she really appreciates the work of Portuguese painter, Paola Rega. Old favourites include classic American illustrator Norman Rockwell, and one of the more recent greats, Andrew Wyeth. It is in the detail, carefully worked over and refined, that Felicity sees the triumph of these artists.<br /><br />I was intrigued by the processes of getting her pictures onto the page of the final book, and impressed to hear that one of my favourite pages of “The Star” began as a black-lead pencil drawing. Listeners may be interested to learn that the originals of much of Felicity’s work can be purchased. [Check the website.]<br /><br />We chatted about the contemporary obsession with ‘reality’ TV shows, plastic fame, and the instant celebrity a la Big Brother, Hilton, Warne, etc. and agreed that it is all a bit alarming…especially when children can be heard to say that “To be famous’ is an aspiration.” Hence, Felicity’s timely book, for the forlorn Marion at the end of ”The Star”. what remains? Friends, hopefully.<br /><br /> Time prevented my hearing about Felicity’s newest project, but we will definitely have her back later in the year to hear about it.<br /><br /><strong> Felicity Marshall’s: “The Star,” Ford Street , hb , rrp $26-95 [ Available direct from www.fordstreetpublishing.com or your local book seller.]</strong><br /><br /><h3> Competition:</h3><br />-WORDS: I couldn’t help but ask you, listeners, whether you know the word ‘SHIBBOLETH?’ I will give a book to a listener who answers correctly before Feb 15th. Ditto if you know what ‘WIDDERSHINS’ means. Lovely word.<br />-And have you noticed that the term “Aborigines’ has been replaced in the press, etc. by “Indigenous”? Is this a positive step? Who decided?Blurb Production Teamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13530191833029376377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1111246176394854195.post-83744991879901066112011-02-22T22:06:00.000+11:002011-02-22T22:09:20.460+11:00February 1st<h3> Book & Publishing News: </h3><br /><br />* Mention of the FILM “True Grit” last week – and <strong>Charles Portis’</strong> excellent little book [1967] of that name – reminded me of a couple of other contemporary American writers in the “Western” vein: <strong>Larry McMurtry </strong>[“Lonesome Dove” and Duane series, the latter beginning with “The Last Picture Show”, Bogdonavich’s film of which featured Jeff Bridges in a minor role!]…<strong>Jim Harrison</strong> [“Legends of the Fall”, etc.], <strong>Cormac McCarthy </strong> [ “All The Pretty Horses},etc.]. Then there are the ‘travel’ writers such as <strong>Jonathan Raban </strong>[ “Old Glory”, a beautiful book about his journey on The Old Man River] and <strong> William Least Heat Moon </strong> [ “Blue Highways”, etc.]<br /><br />* <strong> Les A. Murray </strong>,superlative poet, will be in town next week Tuesday evening at Geelong Regional Library, and Thursday lunchtime at Queenscliff Uniting Church.<br /> <br /><br />* University of Western Sydney’s mag “HEAT” is out this week, and will sadly be the last for a while. Such magazines have fostered numerous Australian writers of essays, poetry and fiction over many years, but are really under threat at present,: as the e-revolution takes hold?<br /><br />* Melburnians are being spoiled by the offerings at The Wheeler Centre and Abbotsford Convent in the coming months. Lots of FREE events. Find details on the web [or in “The Age”.]<br /><br />* A <strong>Brendan Ryan </strong> poem was published in “The Age” again recently. I want to talk to him soon about his Hibernian sojourn last year.<br /><br />* Poet <strong> Robyn Rowlan </strong> is John’s guest today. Her newest publication is “Seasons Of Doubt And Burning” [ Five Islands Press] is available from Payton Books, our sponsor,.<br /><br />* I met with <strong> Marg Cooper,</strong> Meredith historian, today and will be speaking with her in a fortnight about that lively community’s efforts to record the district’s past.<br /><br /><br /><h3> This Weeks Poem:</h3><br />* Today’s poem will be <strong> FRANCIS THOMPSON’s</strong> 1893 classic “The Hound Of Heaven” which I referred to when reviewing “Notorious” last week. Thompson may now be regarded as a one-hit wonder, but his “Metaphysical” religious epic had considerable influence on a whole generation of British writers, not least <strong> Graham Greene.</strong><br /><br /><h3> This Weeks Review: “The Deeds Of My Father” by Paul David Pope </h3><br /><br /><br />Do you recall your excitement when you read “The Godfather” back about 1963? We had never seen anything like it. Copies were passed around, even interstate [ in my case as my Geelong mate sent it to me in Western NSW!] Since then, we’ve been deluged by tales – true and apocryphal – about The Mob in all its computations, from “The Valachi Papers” to TV’s sundry “Underbelly” efforts […or HALF-efforts?] Today’s book is a stand-out, amidst the recent crop anyway – though the recent “Mafia Son” was darn’ good, too.<br /><br /> Listen to what JOE PISTONE [the real ‘Donny Brasco’] wrote: “The Popes became arguably the most successful Italian-American family ever to arrive on [America’s] shores….Generoso, amassing power in New York only few years after arriving in new land; and Gene, like Michael Corleone, the youngest son, the favoured one, finding an audience of millions [for “The National Enquirer”] in the grocery checkout aisle….an American saga.” The story itself is amazing. Sicilian peasant, Generoso, times his arrival in the Big Apple with the mushroom growth of that city – and ‘falls into’ the sand-and-concreting business. The author is his grandson, and he is an excellent reporter. Obviously they had to extemporize at times, particularly in regards to his grandfather’s Sicilian life. Throughout this excellent slice of American history, Pope continually sets events firmly in the historical and political context of 20th century, USA. And, of course, his ancestors were conscientious in developing suitable relationships with the relevant characters moving through that history. Never quite illegal, their machinations enabled them to stay just ahead of whatever financial or moral examen that might be in the offing.<br /><br /> The author never shrinks from the darker side of his grandfather’s [in particular because Gene is his main target] life, Gene was favoured well ahead of his older siblings which brought him rewards but also the lifelong wrath of his grandmother.<br />Meanwhile the financial cooperation of Gene’s actual godfather, gangster Frank Costello, was vital in his securing the struggling “Weekly Enquirer” [as it was then]. The family were fiercely anti-union, probably because this was an Italian response to the Irish/Catholic control of ‘industrial relations’ in New York through the operations of Tammany Hall. Late in the book, Paul provides a neat but devastating psycho-analysis of Gene who comes across as the classic passive-aggressive control freak, particularly after the birth of his Down Syndrome daughter. The grandfather had toyed with loyalty to Mussolini – as no doubt many Italian-Americans did, just as he cultivated politicians from either side, at local, state and federal levels. He was a shrewd operator.<br /><br /> Actually the whole second half of this very interesting book is about Gene and “The National Enquire”, America’s most successful tabloid, reaching its highest circulation with the edition which published…[wait for it!] a photo of Elvis in his coffin.<br /> What is it about famous rich families – our Lowy’s, Murdoch’s, Packer’s? It’s all Greek tragedy up-dated, isn’t it?<br /><br /><strong><br />SCORE: ****<br /><br />Paul David Pope: The Deeds Of My Father, Scribe pb, 393 pp, rrp $39-95 </strong>Blurb Production Teamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13530191833029376377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1111246176394854195.post-29961090880317623842011-01-30T21:17:00.001+11:002011-01-30T21:18:57.583+11:00January 25th<h3> Book & Publishing News:</h3><br /><br />*“Women on the Road” will be on at Airey’s Inlet, Feb 19-20,featuring a host of well-known Victorian writers. Check out www.greatescapebooks.com.au for more information.<br /><br />* POETRY AT THE [Geelong] LIBRARY will be on Feb 6th at 3pm. More information on next week’s program.<br /><br />* Australia’s premier living poet, <strong>Les A. Murry,</strong> will be speaking at Queenscliff Uniting Church at 11.30 am, Thursday Feb 10th,sponsored by The Bookstore in Hesse Street. Talk plus lunch- $30.<br /><br />* “Our” <strong> James Murphy</strong> – James was the brilliant, regular commentator on world affairs on Denis’ morning program while at Deakin – featured in the recent “Age” editorial praising the innovative scheme begun last year to get outstanding graduates into schools. James teaches in Horsham and not only loves his job, but was also nominated for an Australian Teaching Award.<br /><br />*Winner of “The Blurb’s” first competition, in 2010,was Maria Frend. There will be a <strong> MONTHLY</strong> competition again in 2011. $75 worth of book on offer! So keep tunning in!<br /><br />* “His last Duchess” is a new novel based on <strong>Robert Browning’s </strong> dramatic monologue “MY last Duchess”. It had better be good. I’ll read the poem for you soon.<br /><br />* Next week I will review another “Mafia” genre book – “The Deeds Of My Fathers”. Intriguing.<br /><br />* Did you read the winning entry in “The Age’s” Short Story Competition over the Christmas period? Sure, all writers take poetic licence, but I wondered whether <strong> Murray Middleton</strong> was a tad lazy in calling “Bundaburra” a town……when it is, in fact, a creek [barely] near Forbes? I liked his mention of Parkes Leagues Club: your host was refused entry to the dining-room there in 1969 for having hair over “collar-length” and wearing a Nehru jacket, not the prescribed collar-and-tie.<br /><br />* The latest edition of “HEAT”, the literary magazine from the Uni. of Western Sydney, will probably be the last. They have published some excellent work over 16 years.<br /><br />* “The Blurb” welcomes contact from local history groups. I look forward to speaking with Marg Coper and the Meredith group soon about some recent work in print.<br /><br />* Simply nostalgia; nothing to do with books…Did you enjoy Sunday night’s documentary on ABC2 about the ever-beautiful and -committed Joan Baez?<br /><br /><br /><h3> This Week’s Review: ‘Notorious’ by Roberta Lowing</h3><br /><br /><br />I seem to have had to work harder on this review than of any other for a while [ and, in retrospect, I don’t think I did KATHERINE’s book justice last week] “Notorious’ is so much more than the sum of its parts, yet those parts are themselves often brilliant: the locations, the poetic language, the seven intriguing main characters, the timeless relevance of the themes [loss of belief, international politics, aesthetic questions, neo-imperialism.]<br />I am not sure, however, whether the author finally pulled it off. Or whether I “got it” – who IS who, and WHERE and WHEN…For one thing, I am not very familiar with neo-IRomantic French poet, <strong> Arthur Rimbaud</strong>, which means I may have missed a whole thread of literary allusions. In the meantime, I was often reminded of <strong>TS Eliot’s</strong> “The Waste Land” which burst on the literary world not long after Rimbaud’s sojourn in his [the novel’s] desert. I was reminded too of <strong> Francis Thompson’s</strong> 1896 poem “The Hound Of Heaven” which the novelist almost paraphrases at times…In the 1990s.English novelist <strong> Jim Crace</strong> wrote “Quarantine”, an intriguing short novel about Jesus’ in the wilderness [from Luke’s Gospel.] On top of all this, someone reminded me that our author was for many years the chief film and TV writer for Fairfax.<br />What, then, is “Notorious” about? I look to Ockham and quote liberally from <strong> Jane Gleeson-White</strong> in a recent “Overland” [Issue 201,p 38-9.]<br />“…a fractured narrative told in several voices that reaches from Rimbaud’s desert wanderings in the 1890s to the Iraq war of the 21st century. In an asylum near Abu N’Af near Casablanca- an asylum in which the poet once sort refuge – a woman lies dying. She has walked out of the desert, her impossible survival without water or maps a mystery for those who care for her: the poetry-loving Frenchman Rene lafirche and the enigmatic Sister Antony. Into this sanctuary comes a jaded Australian embassy official, John Devlin, who has been sent to interrogate the woman… [ – apparently by the CIA!] …Lowing constructs a gripping, labyrinthine thriller that unfolds against brutal and beautiful landscapes – the desert, the mountains of Sicily, the jungle of Borneo, the streets of Casablanca. Clearly we have here a very ambitious novel. I remember being similarly astonished by the scope of “Cloudstreet” all those years ago; don’t be surprised if this novel receives similar attention. I could quote numerous passages of luminous yet compressed description – of buildings and seascapes, for example – that I went back and read again.<br />It is somewhat a LOVE story, but also has the elements of a “Le Carre” thriller. As with so many recent Australian novels of quality, there is a fascination with the novel as history, as Gleeson-White remarks in her discussion. While I would still be severely challenged to provide a linear summary of the plot of “Notorious”, it is an outstanding novel. I await <br />your reading of it, listeners, and I look forward to discussing it with some of you, my friends.<br /><br /><strong>SCORE: ****+ <br />‘Notorious’ by Roberta Lowing ,A&W pb,pp 496,rrp $45</strong><br /><br /><br /><h3>This Week’s Poem:</h3><br /><br />We ran out of time this week, to present a poem on air, but I had wanted to read from the <strong> Francis Thompson</strong> 1896 poem “ The Hound of Heaven”. Next week, hopefully….<br /><br /><br /><h3> Interview: Max Cooke- Veteran Piano Maestro</h3><br /><br />I felt very humbled speaking to<strong> Max Cooke,</strong> one of our Great Australian’s, surely. Here he was, discussing his memoir: “ A Pedagogue On The Platform – Max Cook’s Life In Music”, on our little program, the day before a grand performance by 100 pianists at “Rippon Lea” as a fund-raiser for the National Trust, and Max is in his 90s…Still teaching and still vitally interested in the pedagogy of music.<br /> Some of our listeners will remember Max’s piano-playing from the days of ABC Concerts at the old Plaza and GAMA theatre. He actually finished his secondary schooling at Geelong College where he was taught by the wonderful George Logie Smith. Several notable locally-born musicians [Roger Heagney, for example] studied under Max at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music where he was Dean in the 1950s – and the work of which has been almost a lifelong passion.<br />It was evident from our brief conversation that Max is one of those rare RENAISSANCE persons, the lifelong learner: he reflected that he was almost 40 years into teaching music before he began fully to realize what the psychology of music and the learning thereof was about. The ‘science’ of learning, and knowledge about the piano as an instrument, led him in new directions. Max has been long involved in exceptional work on the relationship between general personal well-being and music. Indeed he wonders whether we all should not take pause and contemplate the impact music therapy/appreciation might have on the world’s ills; we already know that children who ‘learn’ music therapy thereby enhance their ability to learn across the board. He cited Finland where music therapy is part of all schools’ core curriculum. <br /> Currently Max is tutoring two outstanding students, one from Indonesia, the other from China. He noted the abilities of Asian students in piano, drawn from an inherent awareness of cultural values – and a fierce work ethic.<br />Max’s very interesting and well-presented memoir is available from READINGS [in Carlton and Hawthorn] or from him directly, [Phone 03 9822 2959.]Blurb Production Teamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13530191833029376377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1111246176394854195.post-60127155779218202612011-01-25T22:09:00.002+11:002011-01-25T22:10:12.902+11:00January 18th<h3> Book & Publishing News:</h3><br /><br />* Australian history students, awaken: <strong> Alan Frost</strong> is having another word on the “Why Botany Bay?” debate in his new book “Botany Bay: The real story”. I’ll talk about it later in the year.<br /><br />* <strong>REVIEWERS:</strong> “The Blurb’ would welcome some new reviewers. Send us your review of anything you’ve read lately, about 2000 words, and we will likely present it [and/or you] on an upcoming program.<br /><br />* “Can the book survive?” was put to four well-known book people [including publisher Richard Walsh] by “The Age” Weekend magazine, as they were asked to assess four of the latest e-book offerings. Have you some thoughts on this? Ring in and tell us, or email.<br /><br />* “WOMEN ON THE ROAD” is an exciting initiative from Aireys Writers Group. Coming up mid-Feb. More later.<br /><br />* WHO WON THE BOOKER PRIZE FOR FICTION ION 2010? His book was reviewed on this program late last year. Be the first to tell us and you can pick up $75 worth of books from “The <br />Blurb”. Phone The Pulse Reception or email.<br /><br />* “BOOK-TO-FILM” Number 4+: I started to watch Francis Ford Coppola’s “Bram Stoker’s’ Dracula’” last week…Bram would have been turning over in his grave [boom! boom!]…The 1970s’ film by Stanley Kramer of the 1968 minor classic “Bless the Beasts and the Children” was on one of the new digital channels recently: A fine film of a very good novel by a Glendon Swarthout; probably hard to find these days…And I am waiting with baited breathing for the new “True Grit” film, screening Feb 27th. I loved the understated novel [which was an early English text for this teacher in NSW around 1970]; the first film version was great with fat, overweight John Wayne as fat, overweight “Rooster Cogburn” - who doesn’t quite prove to be of “true grit”.<br /><br />* The “What Is Poetry?” discussion continued in the pages of “The Age” last week, thanks to a nice little piece by traditionalist David Campbell who was mourning the passing of knowledge of the “classics’ of “The Banjo” and Lawson…Well, a bit of the verse each wrote might be “classy” poetry, but not much according to most reasonable criteria. The point needs to be made, however, that too few English teachers READ poetry much less feel like they can or want to TEACH it.<br />The next day’s “Age” printed a good letter from a Melbourne primary teacher who maintained her school did all sorts of things poetic from Prep to grade Six…My remarks refer to secondary schools I taught in for 40 years in two states….What do you think? Does it matter?<br /><br /><br /><br /><h3>This Week’s Poem:</h3><br />This week’s poem is <strong> “Gardeners” by Bruce Dawe</strong>, a hymn of praise to his wife.<br /><br />I see you as a gardener<br />who plants in other’s hearts<br />those seeds and precious seedlings<br />from which each flower starts<br />- your seeds are all those kindnesses<br />and seedling deeds that grow<br />and flourish in your presence<br />wherever it is you go.<br />I’ve seen your goodness also<br />beneficent as rain<br />to arid soils of suffering Bring hope and life again.<br />One spring you brought me happiness<br />and even now you feed<br />me with your love and beauty<br />who otherwise were weed…<br /><br />In prayers, in thoughts, in words as well,<br />In all you seek to do<br />- I see Jesus walking,<br />conversing there with you,<br />as gardener to gardener,<br />considering each way<br />to make a sad world brighter,<br />day by gospel day.[2010,”Madoona” magazine.]<br /><br /><h3> Author Interview: Katherine Howell author of “Violent Exposure”</h3><br /><br />Bernard had the pleasure of talking with Gold Coast-based Katherine on “The Blurb” last week.<br /><br />Here is a summary of what she had to say:<br /><br />Sydney-born Katherine now lives on the Gold Coast and is completing a PH.D [on female detectives in contemporary fiction] while continuing to write her crime procedural novels about the work in Sydney of one Ella Marconi.<br />Katherine’s professional background provides a rich perspective to her writing as she worked for 14 years as an ‘ambo’ paramedic. We spoke about the immediacy of the human crises paramedics encounter every day – and how [ I would say very successfully] Katherine incorporates this in the four books published so far.<br />We talked about establishing authenticity in crime fiction [without resorting to the near-porn of some TV series?] and Katherine mentioned Michael Connelly and early Patricia Cornwell as some examples. She feels it is very important to get the ‘factual feel’ right.<br />Bernard was delighted when she cited <strong> JAMES LEE BURKE</strong> as her favourite detective writer with our <strong>PETER TEMPLE </strong> as another worthy mentor. She tries to keep to a discipline of at least 1500 words a day though not necessarily on a continuous project.<br />In the meantime she is working on a Ph D thesis [on female protagonists in crime fiction.]<br /><br /><h3> This Week’s Review: ‘Violent Exposure” by Katherine Howell </h3><br /><br />I have always derived great relaxation from reading crime fiction, especially in recent years when there was so much other “heavy stuff” to get through. As a kid, it was John Buchan, Ellery Queen and Edgar Wallace. Agatha Christie I found boring. Of late, as listeners to this program would know, we have had available to us heaps of very good novelists in this genre, both overseas and here in Oz. Katherine was new to me, so I read not just her latest, but the previous “Cold Justice”. She now has four books featuring her murder investigation policewoman, Ella Marconi. <br /><br />What sets Katherine’s books apart from her Australian colleagues is not only the freshness of her main character – she is so ‘natural’ – but more so the ‘naturalism’ of the crime scenes the reader encounters. No, I don’t mean “Silent Witness”, etc–style gore. You see, Katherine brings to her writing what every writer does, I suppose – her own previous life. It’s just that pre-professional writing, Katherine was an “ambo” paramedic, for 14 years. Not only, then, do we get factual realism; she also brings us right into the personal experiences of these modern-day heroes. Indeed, though her paramedics are, on one level, supporting actors, their presence in each of the novels I’ve read are what holds the books together. And I mean that in the most positive sense. Think about it. Murder scene… there are going to be paramedics around, aren’t there – before the ubiquitous [on out TVs] CSI types get there. Ambo’s have long been sort of heroes of mine – and the SES people: they are there at all those horrible “accident” sites, night after night. What about their trauma? Katherine indirectly asks and answers this question.<br /> Anyway I am sold on Katherine’s writing, especially on the newest book: I could see real development, particularly in the subtlety of the plotting here. The reader is led for a bit, up a cosy garden path: woman bashed, husband missing, as is a young female employee of the pair. Ah, domestic violence, we crow. Another procedural...Boring. Well, Katherine is too good for that. As we cruise the streets of Sydney, either in the ambulance or with Ella, we recognise that there is more to urban crime than gangsters.<br />Meanwhile, Ella’s romance is not so romantic and we get to know her Mum and Dad as Dad encounters illness – which happens with the parents of early-middle age cops!<br />Katherine’s Sydney is not so far as interesting as Peter Corris’ – or Garry Disher’s or Shane Moloney’s Melbourne for that matter [much less Rankin’s Edinburgh or Burke’s “bayou country”…I wonder why she didn’t try BRISBANE, a bit overlooked by our crime writers [though brilliantly depicted on the screen in that hilarious David Wenham Film…the name of which name escapes me.] The great <strong>David Malouf</strong> did some wonderful work with Brisbane…<br />Anyway the crime fiction of Katherine Howell is well worth a look.<br /><br /><strong>SCORE: ***+<br />Katherine Howell: “Violent Exposure”.Macmillan pb, pp 312, rrp $ 32-99.</strong><br /><br /><br /><h3> Next Week:</h3><br /><br />Next week I will be speaking on air with Geelong-educated veteran piano maestro <strong> Max Cooke</strong> as we discuss his recent memoir, “A Pedagogue on the Platform”.Blurb Production Teamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13530191833029376377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1111246176394854195.post-72557244312655842262011-01-18T11:30:00.003+11:002011-01-25T21:34:28.491+11:00January 11th* Welcome to another year with booklovers the world over on “The Blurb”. Yes, we are a bit late starting this third year of the program, but here we are today– Zane and I – with news about books and writing, an interview with a promising young Australian novelist , Katherine Howell, some beaut music…and the usual lots of useless chat from me, probably.<br />Our beloved Rhia is unable to be with us this year due to a change in her uni timetable; but she will be keeping everyone up-to-date via the blog, accessible through THE PULSE website: most of what you hear from 3pm each Tuesday will be available in print by the following Friday, especially all-important publishing details of the books we talk about. And please WRITE to us, or PHONE in. We dearly want to know what you think about our show, about what you are reading and so on.<br /><br /><h3> Book & Publishing News</h3><br /><br />* Have you been reading the diet “Age” over the last few weeks? Brigid Delaney [ whom I interviewed this time last year about her book, “This Restless Life”] has been writing a weekly column. Dare I say, I am quite intolerant of the rubbish that passes for “journalism” in so may of the “soft” columns our papers foist on us these days. Thank heavens, we don’t have to put up with Catherine D or Marieke any more. [Save the trees!] A couple of weeks ago [28/12/1o],Brigid wrote “Bogan benefits lost on smug intellectuals”, her very best column to date, I feel. Humour, insight, political savoir – all the stuff of good magazine writing. The girl has real talent. I emailed her and told her to write a novel; “in the pipeline”, she assured me [from Thailand!]<br /><br />* There won’t be too many changes to “The Blurb” this year…More listeners: tell your friends. A monthly competition with good book prizes; listen in next week. We have regular interviews; I thought we might give interviewees more of the run of the show – a la M Throsby [ABC FM], lets them choose the music. PATON BOOKS [show sponsors] will have a spot monthly to talk about their stocks, maybe do reviews; I look forward to hearing from Kathryn soon.<br /><br />* Geelong Regional Library will speak with us each month too. So many great things happening there…I recently viewed a fair bit of “SHOAH”, an outstanding documentary from 30 years ago; interviews with survivors of the nazi concentration camps. A library DVD.<br /><br />* “Greatescape books” are sponsoring “WOMEN ON HE ROAD” at Airey’s in a few week time. More detail as the date approaches.<br /><br />* I read “QUADRANT” regularly [because it’s always good to know what The Other Side are up to] and this month’s has a strident [well, that’s a surprise] article “The Decline of Reading In An Age Of Ignorance” by a Rob Nugent who claims that tertiary students “come in knowing next to nothing, and go out in a similar state of empty-hededness, but with a shiny new vocabulary of ideologically correct jargon to suit all occasions.” If I still had a spleen, I’d love to be able to vent it like that.<br /><br />* Hart Crane was an American poet of the 20s-30s whose star shone briefly, brightly and who has really only been noticed fairly recently, via a “Complete Poems…” in 1968. There is a film coming out later this year entitled “The Broken Tower”, his last [1932] published poem – and our poem for today.<br /><br />* John Bartlett will be in fortnightly again this year with reviews/interviews and words of wisdom.<br /><br /><h3>This Weeks Review: Bernard Reviewed Three Books About Culture-“The Ninth…”,“The Romantic Revolution”,“Greek Pilgrimage”</h3><br /><br />In my recent down time I have been reading a few new books about culture. Perhaps they belong in the ‘higher’ end of cultural reflection, but each is quite inclusive and so well written that they are worth the mere couple of hours each takes to read, especially if you are interested in the wonderful world of art, music and literature. <br /><br />In less than 200 pages, <strong>Harvey Sachs</strong> tells his reader the story of the development and first performance of Beethoven’s magnificent and quite radical Ninth Symphony in 1824. This is the sort of broad history that I love, where the author tells what else was going on, as well as the finer details of the event or the person under consideration. Of course, it takes some sort of polymath to achieve this. Sachs is such a person: he continually reminds us of the tumultuous era that was the late 18th and early 19th centuries and, not least, of the influence of Ludwig van’s forerunners – Mozart, Haydyn, Bach – without whom his genius might never have reached the height’s it did. We are in the world where, although the American Revolution had delivered such a worthy model of statehood for other nations, France’s experiments with democracy had brought an age of terror and subsequent military despotism that destroyed virtually a generation of English, French and German youth.…though one wonders [with one news columnist today] whether the Constitutional Amendment defending the “bearing of arms’ was not a tragic aberration.<br /><br /><br />The actual premiere performance of the eponymous work was rather a humble affair compared with any version we would see today in our concert halls. It was poorly rehearsed by quite a small orchestra in a rather tiny venue – and was almost certainly a loss financially – all this while the composer was very hard of hearing. Very few contemporaries realised the enormity that would be Beethoven’s reputation and influence in our day. He was one of many composers, albeit one of the more respected, earning his living by composing. All of this adds up to a reason to put on five CDs with all the symphonies, turning up the volume and having a Beethoven week at my place.<br /><br /><strong>Harvey Sachs: “The Ninth…”, Faber hb, pp 225, rrp $45</strong><br /><br /><strong> Tim Blanning’s </strong> book on Romanticism raises the bar even higher. It is of roughly the same size, but of its nature is rather more demanding for the reason, I suspect, that the author has first to wrestle with the over-use and incorrect usage of the term itself. It is a more scholarly work, but rest assured he is writing for the lap reader. [I have no qualification or skill in music, though I am known to warble on occasion, sometimes even in tune.] Blanning deftly explains for us [once he’s dealt rather well with the semantic aspect] how, from about the mid-1700s there was emerging a new vision of the world – largely in reaction to the perceived sterile intellectualism of the late Renaissance and the Enlightenment.[Actually there is a rich area for debate around this question: I believe it lies at the heart of what the “New Atheists” are on about – or should be on about. I believe they are ignorant or naïve about the richness of pre-Enlightenment Christianity which led them to all sorts of invalid because poorly-founded conclusions.] <br />The way Blanning arranged and delivered his vast-ranging material reminded me of how rare a great uni lecturer. My best ever was Dr, Ian Breward, formerly of the United Faculty of Theology, Melbourne College of Divinity…The student could “hear” Ian’s topic sentence and know when the end of a paragraph was coming. In the space of two semesters, three hours a week, he taught a “History of the Christian Church” course, the last of which I was privileged to hear. Blanning’s delivery is that sort of concise and informed.<br />What then did I learn about Romanticism from this mini treasure trove? Chronologically, first of all, he pins down roughly 1750-1850. Geographically, the seeds of an almost spontaneous movement came from Germany, then to England and Europe in general. Features? An introspectiveness after the stringent objectivity of the previous three centuries. There was now recognition in full of the notion of the creative genius – with a cult of personality to boot. [Beethoven, Pagnini, Lizt, Goethe.] After the comparative intellectual dryness of the Enlightenment, there was blossoming of emotional and spiritual expression alongside a wider conversation about public morality. Night and dreams became subject matter for all sorts of artistic expression [e.g. “nocturnes”, etc.] Inevitably the new “arts centres”, the academies, bred an elitism [ which we still have?] This was accompanied by the reaction of a philistine bourgeoisie – which spawned its own ‘soft’ aesthetic.<br />Now, I am not suggesting this is an infallible thesis, but it gave me lots of information and food for thought.<br /><br /><strong>SCORE: *****<br />Tim Blanning: “The Romantic Revolution”, W&N hb, pp 248, rrp $45</strong><br /><br />Back in October, I think I mentioned “Greek Pilgrimage’ by La Trobe academic <strong>John Carroll</strong>. This is not just a journey of the mind for Carroll provides several ‘tourist’ options for the traveller who has time for a couple of weeks in Greece. As I read this compact book – again just 200 pages – I realised the author as an unashamed hellenophile, to the extent that he seems to believe that all that is good and worthy began in that motley Mediterranean archipelago we now call Greece. This makes for lively reading, but I quibble with his scholarship when he calls the Gospel according to Mark a “Life of Christ”. Scripture scholarship left such a notion behind a century ago. As with Blanning’s book, there is a wealth of important information brought together here in a way the lay reader will find only rarely. One of the joys of senior English teaching in my life was introducing students to the eternal relevance of the Greek tragedies, albeit fleetingly, as we studied “Medea” and “Antigone”.<br /><br /><strong>SCORE: ***<br />John Carroll: “Greek Pilgrimage”, Scribe pb, pp 215, $29-95</strong><br /><br /><h3>Music</h3><br /><br />With a brand new year at The Blurb comes new theme music, which will be a jazz version of Lennon-McCartney’s “And I Love Her”.<br /><br />Today we also played local jazz man STEPHEN MURPHY”s mellow, haunting reading of the standard “Stormy Weather”. <br /><br />As well as his work tutoring Geelong’s legendary ‘Sweethearts of Swing’ at Matthew Flinders, Steve plays in various groups, one of which has a regular gig at our newest nightspot, “The Wrong Crowd” in upper Moorabool Street.Blurb Production Teamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13530191833029376377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1111246176394854195.post-60803260368660417982010-12-21T12:50:00.002+11:002010-12-31T09:15:28.400+11:00December 7th<h3> Book & Publishing News </h3><br /><br />* <strong> OUR CHRISTMAS COMPETTION:</strong><br />Tell us in 25 words or less about the book you enjoyed most during 2010. It doesn’t have to be a new publication. Send your entries to<br /><strong> THE PULSE 16-18 Lt Ryrie St.,Geelong </strong><br />OR<br />Email: <strong> theblurb947@gmail.com</strong><br />OR <br />Phone: HONOR at the station during working hrs at <strong> 03 52225947</strong>.<br /><br />We will judge the best entry during TUESDAY 21st’s program. The winner can collect a gift of books to the value of $75 from the station [$100 for subscribers.]<br /><br />*Peter Corris has been designated “godfather of our crime writers”. With 30 years writing about crime in inner Sydney – mostly dealing with the life of that great survivor, Cliff Hardy – I think he has earned his stripes. In January his latest Hardy book, “Follow the Money”, will be out. I am hoping to speak with Peter about his writing life in the New Year. Before resorting to crime fiction, he lectured in English at the University of Sydney, and is married to novelist, Jean Bedford whose novel about Kate Kelly, “My Sister Kate”, is a jolly good read.<br /><br />* Our poem today comes from Clifton Springs Diane Fahey. “Air” was published in Saturday’s Review in “The Australian”, quite an achievement. Those of us who live on the Bellarine will really love this poem about regrets, etc. Another of Diane’s poems appeared in today’s “Eureka Street” [ the excellent free on-line news magazine, published by the Jesuits.] She will be a guest on our show in January too.<br /><br />*Late Christmas present ideas…<br />1. SALLY DINGO: “Unsung Ordinary Men”. Stories of WWII POWS, including her grandfather.<br />2. ANDY MULLIGAN: “Trash”. Remember the novel, “Towards The Beautiful North” – about three girls from a poor Mexican village who head “North” in search of some “magnificent” men to save their homes from drug dealers? I reviewed it early this year. [ You can find all our reviews under the Blog Archive on the right hand side panel]. This exceptional novel has something of that tone, but is much more serious. Three boys who ‘live’ on the garbage dumps outside Manila find a ‘treasure’ which leads them into an adventure which may take them to freedom…”Slumdog Millionaires” territory, sort of.<br /><br />* Speaking of films. I use our Regional Library’s vast collection of DVDs for my film viewing – including last week Peter Brook’s 1963 B&W classic take on William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies”. What a film!, What a book!<br /><br />*And “Jindabyne” was on recently as part of SBS’s latest classic films offering. We will feature the [Paul Kelly] soundtrack today. We all know the film’s pedigree? Raymond Carver wrote a chilling story “So Much Water So Close To Home” which Kelly drew on for his song, “Everything’s Turning To White”…which was then picked up for the screenplay of “Jindabyne”.<br /><br />* LISTEN IN to my other program “BLOOD’S COUNTRY” every Monday at 3pm.<br /><br /><br /><h3>BERNARD’S TOP TEN BOOKS FOR 2010.</h3><br /><br />Not in any order;<br /><br />- Morais: “The 100 Foot Journey”<br />- Levy: “Small Island” OR “The Long Song”<br />- Markell: “Wolf Hall”<br />- Roth: “Nemesis”<br />- Slawenski: “JD Salinger”<br />- Keneally: “Australia”<br />- RS Thomas: “Collected Poems” Vols I and II<br />- Doshi: “The Pleasure Seekers”<br />- Miller: “LoveSong”<br />- Malantes: “Matterhorn”<br /><br />And ‘ELEVETH MAN’/Interchange:<br />- Allington: “Figurehead”<br /><br />HONOURABLE MENTION:<br />- Capp: “My Blood’s Country”<br />- Cunningham: “By Nightfall”<br />- Kelly: “March of the Patriots”<br /><br />I think all these were published this year so should be available. And you know where to find reviews!<br /><br /><h3> This Week’s Review: “By Nightfall” by Michael Cunningham</h3><br /><br />Who has been to New York? Do you know someone else who has? [Oh, ZANE has….when he was two years old!] Anyone I know who has been there has been quite overwhelmed by the experience: the vibrancy, the variety…the little specialty shops, the café life, the bars…Central Park…The music, the food, the theatres, the galleries. The COLOUR of the place.<br /><br />When I think of New York these days, it is hard for me to shake those dreadfully images from 11 pm the night [our time] of their attacks on the Twin Towers. [By the time I was watching, the coverage had gone to Washington where two reporters struggled to describe what was happening as we saw the Pentagon being attacked as we watched.] <br /> In quieter moments I will think of:<br />“The Great Gatsby”, stil the most perfectly crafted novel I have read…CHAIM POTOK’s novels about the Orthodox Jews of Williamsburg, NY, especially my favourite, “My Name Is Asher Lev”…Hart Crane’s epic poem, “Brooklyn Bridge”…The Mafia, and Coppola’s “Godfather” trilogy, maybe the zenith of American film achievement…Woody Allen films..The music: of OLD [Gershwin, Cole, Porter, Rogers and Hart] and the once-new: Dylan, Paul Simon, Billy Joel.<br />Believe it or not, a lot of this was running around in my head as I read Michael Cunningham’s new novel. He made his name with the book about Virginia Wool’s – “The Hours” – the very good film of which starred ‘our’ Nicole [in perhaps her last real acting role?] As well as telling a very good story about a modern marriage, Cunningham has done a good job of celebrating the Big Apple of the 21st century, or at least one upper middle-class slice of it. The great city almost features as a character. <br /><br />I think this is a brilliant novel – though it may not be to everyone’s taste. It is by no means slow-paced, but it is a psychological or social novel. So there are no shoot-outs or overly dramatic turns. It tells of the latest phase in the twenty-year-old marriage of Peter Harris, a successful art gallery entrepreneur, late of Milwaukee. His wife, Rebecca, is “one of the Richmond, Virginia, Taylor sisters”. She also works in the art industry, and I suspect New York is still the world’s art capital? The time is now, so the big bucks once made by agents from the latest fashion in painting, sculpture, ‘installations’, ICT/multi-media creations are drying up. Pleasing his valued, wealthy customers and discovering [ and ‘booking’] the latest art hero are just two of Peter’s current challenges. They are both worrying about their uni drop-out daughter, when the unusual nephew, Ethan [aka “Mizzy”] decides to come and stay a while. Peter is in search of beauty, in the art he studies, evaluates and exhibits as well as in his daily existence. Mizzy’s presence challenges him in ways he thought he would never dream of.<br /><br /> Peter’s is [as Billy J sang] very much “a New York state of mind”. Some of the novel’s best moments are when he walks the neighbourhood late at night, or discusses the latest hangings with his assistant, or visits a wealthy client in her out-of-town mansion. I found him a sympathetic character. The vents are seen very much from his point of view, but he is not given a whitewash by any means. Twenty years ago this sort of novel would have been considered daring, but we are used now to the honesty with which the serious artists treat “Ordinary People” [that very good film!] I felt for Peter not because of his advanced aestheticism [if, in fact, he possesses it] but for his willingness to face his issues. So – am I contradicting myself? – The book is also a bit old-fashioned in its prose style. There are no gimmicks here – and it is not too long.<br /><br />When Cunningham takes two pages to describe, for example, a room, you can bet the effect will be memorable, and relevant to the novel’s overall meaning.<br /><br /><strong> Rating: ****</strong><br /><br /><strong>Michael Cunningham: By Nightfall, 4th Estate, 2010, pp 238, rrp $34-99 pb.</strong>Blurb Production Teamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13530191833029376377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1111246176394854195.post-37219198607689057092010-12-21T12:25:00.001+11:002010-12-31T09:18:08.759+11:00December 7th<h3>Book & Publishing News</h3><br /><br />*It’s nearly Christmas, so let’s forever CORRECT something…If you are involved in it, it is “Kris Kindle”…and NEVER “Kris Kringle”. The latter is, I think, a character in an old movie entitled “Miracle on 34th Street.<br /><br />*The latest ALR was bit disappointing. No surprise The Oz gave space to NSW Right-Wing powerbroker Michael Costa to add his surgical swipes to the state of federal Labor, though what it has to do with our current LITERARY scene as such, I am not sure.<br /><br />* …Speaking of which: very contrasting reviews of the Howard book from Robert Manne [in the latest “The Monthly”] and David Martin Jones [in “Quadrant”]. I honestly tried to read “Lazarus Rising”, but resorted to cherry-picking, using the index. No wonder The Oz is giving it away to new subscribers to that newspaper. There is some great summer reading in this issue of “The Monthly”.<br /><br />* I’ve not time to review it, but “Chains” by Laurie Hals Anderson was a very good recent read. Set amid the turmoil of the British attack on Washington and his patriots in 1776.the book reminds us of the pain of that particular Revolution.<br /><br />* ..IF YOU WANT $75 worth of new books, tell us what your favourite read was this year. Email /phone/ write in, 25 words or less. We will judge the most PERSUASIVE piece and the winner can collect the prize from our reception. [$100 if you are a subscriber to THE PULSE.]<br /><br />*Dec-Jan edition of Australian Book Review announces the winner of its Short Story Comp for 2010– Deakin Geelong’s Maria Toklander. There is lots of good reading, including Maria’s rather unusual story and an essay on ‘Em Forster’ by editor, Peter Rose. Of special interest will be the favourite books for this year from prominent writers, including many we have reviewed on this program.<br /><br />*I will list my favourite TEN books for 2010 during our last program before Christmas.<br /><br />*My MONDAY program – “BLOOD’S COUNTRY” – goes to air at 3 pm. Lots of readings from all sorts of people telling us about our land and its People. Good Australian classical music too.<br /><br /><br /><h3> This Weeks Review: “the mary smokes boys” by Patrick Holland </h3><br /><br /><br />This novel reminded me of all those wonderful writers who over the years have told us what it is like to be a Queenslander. Xavier Herbert’s “Capricornia” must surely be one of the great Australian novels. More recently, the late Thea Astley’s numerous books managed to cover just about every aspect - historical, geographical and social - in the Sunshine State’s experience. Of late, we have the likes of Matthew Condon. Perhaps the greatest of them all is David Malouf, master poet, novelist and short-story writer.<br /> Well, <strong>Patrick Holland</strong> has a way to go yet, but his second outing is a very perceptive look into the lives of a handful of contemporary Queenslanders about whom we don’t usually hear much. They live just over the Great Divide from Brisbane, in fairly poor circumstances and are generally left to their own devices by family and the wider community. They are the denizens of ‘Mary Smokes’. Nothing much happens there because it is on the way to nowhere much. Our hero is Grey. He and his troubled but rather wise younger sister, Irene, lost their mother years before, and Dad is a rather ne’er-do-well, through no fault of his own, really. He’s just one of those sad people for whom life has dealt the lower cards. He has a new wife, but life has no promises left for him.<br /><br /> Grey is pretty much his own man, though he is continually lured into the escapades of his young Indigenous neighbour, “Ook”, and the other “Boys”. There is an element of illegality in much of what they get up to. They do love the places where they live: the Mary Smokes River and its surrounding bush which is playground and hideout. This is by no means an unlikely scenario in small towns where there is not much to do.<br /><br />Having lived and taught most of my adult life in such places, I would say that the situation of youth –especially the older adolescents, with little education, just out of school – is somewhat precarious. There are the possibilities for a meaningful relationship between Grey and a local girl, but she will always be better off – attractive, better-educated, from a better side of town. Ultimately Grey has to make some choices about loyalties – between his vulnerable sister and the Boys.<br /> It is quite a simple tale but one told with sincerity and an authenticity born of the author’s own earlier immersion in the life of rural Queensland. Holland respects his characters, though the reader is left in little doubt of their fallibility and [probably] hopelessness.<br /><br /><Strong> Rating: ***</Strong><br /><br /><strong>Patrick Holland: “the mary smokes boys”, Transit Lounge, 2010, rrp $29-95, pp 237, pb.</strong><br /><br /><h3>Author Interview: Jane Carnegie-Poet (Bernard’s Interview)</h3><br />On The Blurb’s never-ending quest to unravel poetry for our listeners, we spoke to poet Jane Carnegie about her poetry. She also gave you a taste of her work by reading some of her poems [in a much better fashion than my weekly attempts at it]. This week the show was jam packed with poets as poet Cameron Lowe joined us in the studio to talk about his recently published work.<br /><br />Jane on “Why” Poetry?<br /><blockquote> One takes on the creative endeavour one by one. The poems just began. When I first began writing, I could write 3 poems a day, now it’s more 3 poems a month. It was very exciting in the beginning. </blockquote><br /><br />Jane on the accessibility of her poems to the reader and what makes poetry different from prose-<br /><blockquote>What I’m trying to do when I write a poem on something is to distil its essence.</blockquote><br /><br /><h3>Author Interview: Cameron Lowe author of poetry collection “Porch Music” (John’s Interview)</h3><br />Today we were joined in the studio by Cameron Lowe, Geelong-born poet whose first full-length collection of poetry <strong>Porch Music </strong> was launched by Whitmore Press in Geelong last Sunday. (Whitmore Press is a locally-based publisher, headed by local writer and editor, Anthony Lynch).<br /><br />Cameron has served as editor of the Ardent Sun and co-editor of the Geelong-based poetry magazine Core. He has published frequently in Southerly, The Age, Island, Meanjin, & now The Best Australian Poems 2010. “Throwing Stones at the Sun”, a chapbook of his poems was published by Whitmore Press in 2005. He is currently undertaking postgraduate study at The University of Melbourne.<br /><br />It is worth making a special note of the fact that Cameron is one of eight poets in the Geelong region whose work appears in this year’s “The Best Australian Poem” (published by Black Inc).<br /><br />I know poets (and many writers) are loath to discuss the nuts and bolts of their writing but Cameron was happy to explore some of the directions in which his work is taking him. My personal belief is that poets have a particular view of the world and of life and I think there’s a particular sort of observation that Cameron brings to this collection. Most of us in our busy lives are content to look at something and then look away at something else but poets like Cameron look and then keep on looking until they get to the essence of what they see and find the words to express this. <br /><br />It’s the small, concise intimacies that Porch Music brings to our attention. For example in ‘Easy’:<br />‘You wake with her hand / on your back; her hand, / warm beneath sheets, / on the small of your back. / …a thing, a small easy thing’ <br />or in Solitude where: <br />‘…the late sun falls sharp / and clear / into that bare white room, warming / her back…’<br /><br />These are the sorts of observations that David McCooey, in launching Porch Music, described as ‘mundane yet remarkable’. Perhaps poets don’t so much look at life differently but they do keep looking and noticing the things the rest of us miss in our haste. Cameron Lowe in this collection makes us notice the small details and they are always details suffused with meaning and significance. Cameron admitted that he is much influenced by the poet William Carlos Williams in his focus on the small and seemingly insignificant.<br /><br />He said also in his interview that he does attempt to de-Romanticise the idea of poetry and his focus is often on the ordinary or everyday:<br /><br />In Morning light ‘Over the road, the new neighbour / polishing his ute, three magpies / exploring the median strip. / On the fence rail, by the gate, / a green can of VB its own mystery.’<br />Yet these ordinary objects seem to glow with an inner mystery or meaning.<br />However, Porch Music does not take itself too seriously. There is always humour lurking behind the lyrical.<br /><br />In Summer: <br />‘…As the day’s / heat softens into evening there’s that / sausage again, adrift on the hot breeze, / whispering: it’s summer, it’s summer.’<br /><br />While the first part of this collection contain poems which are often personal and intimate, the second section, “Corrosive Littoral”, responds to the paintings of the Australian Surrealist artist James Gleeson. Many of these poems take more time to digest and their meanings are not immediately apparent. Titles are taken from Gleeson paintings and often discard the poetic structure as if it is inadequate to contain the responses generated by the paintings.<br />Overall in this collection there is a balance between poems which are intensely private and personal and others which roam into wider, more universal territory. The title of this collection “Porch Music” then feels entirely appropriate, where the porch is the space which is situated between and connects the personal and the public and it is this ‘littoral’ territory that these poems inhabit<br /><br />This is a beautifully presented collection from a local poet of whom we should be proud and of whom we will no doubt hear more in the future. <br /><br /><strong> “Porch Music” published by Whitmore Press is available at Paton Books, Pakington St. Geelong. RRP: $24.95</strong><br /><br />For more on poetry and to check out some of John’s Very on work check out: www.heartsongcreative.com<br /><br /><br /><h3>Music</h3><br />This week you heard the following tracks:<br />-“We Won’t Run” by Sarah Blasko<br />-“Let Go” by Frou FrouBlurb Production Teamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13530191833029376377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1111246176394854195.post-61765020306869128062010-12-21T11:32:00.004+11:002010-12-31T09:16:55.739+11:00Catch Up on The BlurbHere at The Blurb we try and post as many reviews and other bits and pieces from our show onto our blog. Unfortunately some things get lost in translation! Here are some things that have finally found their way to our blog from past shows…ENJOY<br /><br /><h3> Bernard’s ‘History Book Reviews’ from November 9th</h3><br />Regular listeners to this program will know that I am pretty interested in history books. More specifically, I find ‘HISTORIOGRAPHY’ - the study of how history is recorded – totally intriguing. But why is history, usually recorded by ‘white’ males, from the material left by dead ‘white’ males? Well, maybe things are changing, have a look at the bookshelves in your library… Anyway, that is a topic for another time. In the meantime, as we approach the gifting season, I thought I should tell you about some books available which talk about some contemporary history, some recent publications as well as a few famous events, a favourite subject for writers of history books.<br /><br />I have mentioned before my admiration for the work of some-time television broadcaster, Simon Schama. You may have to dig around for his books, but he has written beautifully about the French Revolution [in “Citizens"], the American slave trade [“The Middle Passage”] as well as a general history of the United States [“The American Future”.] His newest publication, "Scribble, Scribble , Scribble…” awaits me, with its promise of “Writings on Icecream, Obama, Churchill and My Mother”.<br /><strong> Tony Wright </strong> is a respected journalist with “The Age” [who can be heard weekly on Denis Scanlon’s “Front Page” on this station]. Ten years ago he visited the Gallipoli Peninsula on assignment and has returned several times. Allen & Unwin have just published his excellent book “Walking the Gallipoli Peninsula” which is much more a walker’s guide. Tony has done his homework and provides a rich background to events of those dreadful months in 1915 that add fresh insights, especially for the intending traveller. [I have grave personal uncertainties about just what we as a nation are doing with our wartime mythology – led by less-scrupulous politicians? - which is not to take anything away from the pain suffered by those “diggers” and their families.]<br /><br />In this election year there has been an unusually large number of ‘post mortem’-type books published; have there ever been so many before? [“Montes parturiuntur/Et nascitur ridiculus mus” indeed! I laughed as I browsed “Best Political Cartoons of 2010”, out already, reminded of the unique place filled by our cartoonists in the work of the Fourth Estate. The often-hilarious, always-perceptive comments of Leunig, Tanberg, Petty, Nicholson, Leak, etc. are all there for you to smile over. Barry Cassidy is well-known for his work on ABC TV, particularly his addictive “Insiders” on Sunday mornings. He has called his record of the past three years in Australian federal politics “The Party Thieves”, a title which hints at the revelatory contents. It is for the lay reader rather than the serious student, but a good read nonetheless.<br /><br />And that brings me to <strong>Bruce Guthrie’s</strong> “Man Bites Murdoch”, probably one for the media tragic's. You may remember Guthrie as a leading Melbourne newspaperman over many years who took on and beat Murdoch Snr in a recent wrongful dismissal case. His book reminds us just how capricious life can be at the upper end of the media circus.<br /><br />We leave the public life of the nation now for more local histories. Victory Books are clearly cashing in on the popularity of the recent film “Animal Kingdom” by re-releasing former tabloid journalist Tom Noble's “Walsh Street", though I would say this story deserves to be recalled continually as our police go about their dangerous calling. The cold-blooded murder of two young officers is still a 'powerful and emotional’ one as Noble says in his introduction. The crime remains unsolved.<br /><br />World-famous novelist [Sir?] Salman Rushdie was being as provocative as usual when he wrote in 1984 that “Adelaide is the perfect place for a horror story….because sleepy, conservative towns are where these things happen. Adelaide is an Amityville, or Salem, amid things go bump in the night.” Well, we always allow Rushdie a bit of poetic licence, but journalist <strong>Sean Fewster</strong> goes all the way back to Edward Gibbon Wakefield to explain why he thinks the “City of Churches” has been the site of so much bizarre crime. Adelaide was to be a 'planned' community of free men, avoiding the “hated stain” of convictism of the other colonies. Fewster reveals that Wakefield himself had his own skeletons clanking away in his English cupboard. Anyway, was it not inevitable that Adelaide’s obsession with propriety and secrecy would build a pressure-cooker society that must periodically burst into infamy, this is a racy read, tabloid in style but well-researched and rather compelling.<br /><strong>David Hill</strong> is something of a local Renaissance man, arriving as a British WWII orphan he has since taken on many prominent roles in the service of his adopted country. After being head of the ABC and running the national Soccer Federation, he has turned to writing history books. His “Gold: The fever that changed Australia” was certainly an ambitious project. The hallmarks of sound history writing are there: the footnotes, bibliography and index are sound. I feel his enterprise may have been rather over-reaching as he attempted to cover the search for the precious metal from the Palmer River to Ophir to Central Australia[Lassetters Reef] over 150 years. People like Geoff Blainey Geoffrey Serle and [Deakin’s own] Weston Bate have made it hard for later writers of the history of gold discovery in Australia. Find “The Rush That Never Ended” or “Lucky City” for the very best. That being said, Hill provides a pretty extraordinary introduction to this vast topic. He even gives the associated bushrangers a run. [Pun intended!]<br />To a completely different scenario. British academic <strong>Jeremy Black</strong> has written a comprehensive yet concise history called “The Battle of Waterloo". I found it dovetailed neatly with my finishing “Citizens”. Clearly the vast majority of unfortunate participants in that bloody conflict were illiterate so as usual the history is drawn from 'official' records. The work of the American, Ken Burns [with "The Civil War", notably] and our own Bill Gammage [“The Broken Years”] have been able to acknowledge the role of the ‘ordinary’ soldiers in war. People such as Black rely on the politicians and military leaders for what are usually secondary sources anyway. The people in the field are normally silent. However, this is a good all-round introduction to this area. I get annoyed with the absence of maps in such books….Not many of us know these places, for heaven’s sake. What I found most interesting was Black’s discussion of the impact of Napoleon’s campaigns, and the end of same, on the events of 19th century Europe. <br />It is these sorts of connections that are the real stuff of history, methinks.<br /> <br /><strong>PUBLICATION DETAILS:</strong><br />Tony Wright: "Walking the Gallipoli Peninsula", A&U, 2010, 287pp, rrp $ 32-99 pb.<br />Jeremy Black: "The Battle of Waterloo", Icon Books, 2010, 236pp, rrp $35 hb.<br />David Hill: "Gold…", Heinemann, 2010, 497pp, rrp $34-95, pb.<br />Sean Fewster: "City Of Evil", Hatchette, 2010, 322pp, rrp $35, pb.<br />Bruce Guthrie: "Man Bites Murdoch", MUP, 2010, 353pp, rrp $45, hb.<br /><br /><h3> Bernard’s Crime Book Reviews</h3><br /><br />Here are two very good new crime novels, one by Martin Cruz Smith, the well-known creator of Russian cop/investigator ‘Arkady Renko’, the second by a newcomer the aptly-named Attica Locke. As well as being more or less investigation genre novels, each novels presents a city that is almost character in the drama – a not unusual facet of modern crime writing [ cf Rankin and Edinburgh, JL Burke’s “New Orleans”.]<br /> Ever since his wonderful “Gorky Park”, Smith has made modern Moscow almost as well known to readers as New York has become to TV viewers. The capital of the new Russia is depicted as a little boy grown too big for his pants: its infrastructure is groaning, its streets full of drunks pimps and petty crooks of all kinds while at the top new sorts of mafia control every aspect of business. Locke’s setting is a city new to me – Houston, in the 1980s, oil capital of the USA. Her version of this sprawling city on the Gulf coast is far from glamorous; there is little of Burk’s exotic bayous and juke joints here. Smith’s latest has Renko caught up in contemporary crime on a small scale as he stumbles onto the murder of a young apparent prostitute and, as is usual for Renko he cannot leave the initial plausible investigation alone. Meanwhile another young female vagrant from the provinces arrives in Moscow to have her new-born baby stole. The two threads inevitably come together while Renko fights to retain his status as a policeman. This is not Smith at his best. The scale is reduced from his more world-shaking plots. He writes as if in cruise control. It is worth reading, but a bit on the lazy side.<br /><br /><strong>SCORE: **+</strong> <br /><br /><strong>Martin Cruz Smith, “Three Stations”, Pan Macmillan, 2010, pp 241,rrp $32-99,pb </strong><br /><br /> Locke’s novel shows us 1980s Houston, wrestling with its resources boom and in the throes of ‘labor’ troubles concerned with the oil trade. It opens, however, with a couple celebrating a wedding anniversary who accidentally become involved in a late-night criminal incident. He is an African-American lawyer, a bit down-art-heel, a veteran of the glory days of the civil rights movement of the 60s-70s. The story takes a while to get going, but builds into a searching investigation of just how permanent the social advances wrought by ML King Jr and the his great movement for change in race relations were. Locke’s Porter had been a prominent small player in local race politics in his younger days, but has more or less moved into the settled middle-class life of American suburbia when his father-in-law summons him to stand up again on a justice issue, labour rights this time. Meanwhile, the possible murder, from the book’s opening pages, emerges as a threat to his new-found attempts to lead the better life.<br /><br /> Jay’s character is multi-layered. It seems every book nowadays carries its “Acknowledgements”, etc. addendum. Locke’s is worth reading because she explains how the genesis for her novel was an incident involving her father very like the occurrence of the assault that opens this novel. Jay has to take new risks; faces up to aspects of his past that he had hoped were left behind – while looking after his wife as she prepares for the birth of their first child. Not surprisingly, the ripples spread until we discover the lurking influence of Big Oil in the mix. If this sounds soap-operatic, fear not. Locke handles a complex plot with the skill of a veteran. This is by far the best book in this genre I have read this year. It combines the intricacies of crime-and-investigation with a frank look at an aspect of US history - the advancement of “coloured people” – that resonates today as we consider the situation of the embattles President!<br /><br /><strong> SCORE: **** </strong><br /><strong> Attica Locke, “Black Water Rising”, Harper Collins, 2009, pp 430, rrp $ 24-99, pb </strong><br /><br /><h3> Bernard’s Review of “Nemesis” by Phillip Roth</h3><br /><br /> <br /><br />Now, listeners, a question for you. What do the following people have in common? A wartime American President; a famous Australian soprano; two of my childhood neighbours ;one of my cousins ;the younger brother of one of my lifelong friends? Give up? All of these people, unfortunately, suffered the lifelong effects of a cruel disease that is happily no longer with us – poliomyelitis. If I call it by its earlier name, ”Infantile paralysis”, you will remember that ‘Polio’s” cruel legacy was at least the withering of one limb; the worst cases at the time led to the patient’s quick death from an epidemic that swept the Western world, including Australia in the 1940s. I think it was about 1953 when we were all immunised with a vaccine developed by the American Jonas Salk. It has been so easy for the rest of us to forget the life-changing trauma Polio visited on so many of our contemporaries, many of whom of course still live with its effects.<br /><br />This is all by way of introducing this week’s book review. Eminent American writer <strong> Phillip Roth</strong> may be best known for his forgettable yet briefly notorious 1960s novel “Portnoy’s Complaint”. [I won’t embarrass anyone, myself included, by reminding you what young Portnoy’s actual “complaint’ was.] And there was another mildly successful novel, “Goodbye Columbus”, made into a reasonable film with Richard Benjamin and [the new] Ali McGraw which many of us saw in the late 60s. Fortunately Roth’s prowess as an observer of middle-class American life – I hasten to add from a Jewish point of view because his ethnicity is at the heart of his perspective - has improved with age. I venture to suggest he is now, in his 70s,at the height of his powers. I refer you to his two Zuckerman novels and “American Pastoral” of recent times – and now “Nemesis”, the last of a quartet completed in the past couple of years. Though Roth is much lauded in his own country, I could never see why until I read these later novels.<br /><br />Our central character is “Bucky” Cantor whom we meet as a 23-year-old PE teacher who has been seconded to a new sports program for inner-city boys in inner Newark, New Jersey, in the early 1940s. He has been left at home by his peers because of his poor eyesight; they are off in the Pacific, fighting the Japanese. By the sheer generosity of his nature, he becomes a charismatic figure to the twenty-or-so adolescents whom he daily teaches softball and swimming. It is the dreadful summer of 1944. Not only is America on a full war footing: an epidemic of a new and fearful virus – Poliomyelitis – is afoot. The war, meanwhile, is turning; remember the awful effect the recapture of Europe had on the young JD Salinger? Bucky believes his sad childhood background has made him self-reliant, resourceful, empathetic. Nothing, however, has prepared him for the deaths of some of his charges and the awful choices that suddenly confront him as a result. His lover, Marcia, has “escaped’ the epidemic for the apparent safety of the mountains of Philadelphia where she is counsellor at a school camp attended by her younger twin sisters. Bucky not only yearns for Marcia: he is beginning to grapple with the problem of the ‘death of innocents’ up against his Jewish religion’s teaching about the mercy of God.<br /><br />That covers the first half of this beautifully-written story. You will have to read it yourself to see how it unfolds. Roth’s command of prose is masterful. Unlike a lot of [dare I say] younger contemporary writers, Roth is not afraid of complex sentences, of the longer paragraph or of exploring human emotion or of establishing the particularity of a setting in place and time. Yet he never lapses into verbosity much less sentimentality. This is a gem of a novel. Now a senior in the writing academy, he has obviously learned his craft by endless practice. The prose is polished, his eye always discerning and accurate – and his heart is unerringly sensitive to the ebbs and flows of humans in history.<br />This is up there with “Matterhorn” and “Love Story” as my best reading so far this year.<br /><strong>Rating: **** </strong><br /><br /><strong> Philip Roth: “Nemesis”,Jonathan Cape,2010,pp 28o,rrp $35 HB.</strong><br /><br /><h3> News for October 19th </h3><br />* The latest ABR [from “The Australian”] was a bit esoteric…academic…for me.<br /><br />* The ever-active TOM KENEALLY recently turned 75, in time for his latest history venture “Three Famines’.<br /><br />* A recent column in the Fairfax ‘big paper” from The Emerald City bemoaned the scarcity of female writers in the winners’ lists of international fiction awards. Cited was JODI PICOULT’s opinion. Now I have to challenge her claim to be a “serious” novelist.<br /><br />* Australian Poet GWEN HARWOOD – whose work you we heard again today – is studied for the HSC English course in NSW.<br /><br />* October is Cancer Awareness Month. Two books around the topic:<br />Janet Elder:”Huck” and [Australian] Susanne Gervay:”Always Jack”.<br /><br />* The October edition of independent news magazine “The Monthly” includes JOHN [“After America”, recently reviewed] BIRMINGHAM on the ‘Wikileak’ phenomenon.<br /><br />* National Geographic continues to be about the best value read around. For about $50 pa, it provides wonderful ‘wildlife’ photography as always, but also amazing articles about world history and environmental issues. This month it tackles the huge story of the Mexico Gulf oil fiasco.<br /><br />* The Age”’s JANE SULLIVAN wrote recently of her experiences as a judge on one of our leading fiction awards, speaking of the dominance of ‘the big four’ novelists: can you guess who?<br /><br />* When I calm down sufficiently, I will deliver my review of the 2010 Booker Prize winner, Howard Jacobson’s “The Finkler Question”. Yes, I was appalled – especially when Andrea Levi’s beautiful book was in the mix.<br /><br />* Did you read the interview in “The Age” recently with playwright EDWARD ALBEE? He will be in Melbourne soon for a lecture. A superbly succinct writer. <br /><br />* The latest quarterly essay includes several letters commenting on the previous edition’s now-famous David Marr’s discussion of Kevin Rudd [before his removal.] They are relevant to John Bartlett’s recent comments on our program on “the essay” as a genre. <br /><br /><h3> Bernard’s Review of “Private Life” by Jane Smiley and “The Finkler Question” by Howard Jacobson</h3><br /><br />They are both well-known in their own countries – Smiley won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for Literature in the US in 2000 for the splendid “One Thousand Acres” [which was spoiled by a mediocre film version.] Jacobson’s new book was awarded this year’s Man Booker Prize [for best novel published in the British Commonwealth in 2010.]<br /><br />While Smiley’s works are firmly located in various parts of the USA, Jacobson in fact wrote a couple of early novels while he was teaching at Sydney Uni ,in the early 70s. Smiley’s works have a firm but gently-observing tone, whereas Jacobson’s have a more robust and satirical bent. For the last decade or more, his target has been upper middle-class life in urban England.<br /><br />Smiley is looking at the life of a middle-class American woman, Margaret, from the 1880s through until the middle of World war II. She is more a Jane Austen than a Joyce Carol Oates, concentrating on the ‘small’ lives of ordinary Americans, but she does it with an unerring gaze which she uses to uncover frustrations and yearnings that are very painful, for all their banality.<br /><br />On the surface, Margaret is a boring character. No, her sad life is boring. Raised the least attractive of three Mid-West daughters, she gladly allows herself to become hitched to the wonderfully-named Andrew Jefferson early. Fortunately for the reader, most of the story is filtered through Margaret’s eyes for she is a tireless observer, able to wring every possible sensory observation form the quotidian routines of hers and her family’s lives. <br /><br />Her husband is a pedant. Not only does he [apparently] know everything about most things, in the areas of science - especially astronomy and cosmology – he is forever pushing into what he claims is new territory. The methods he uses in this lifelong pursuit are found to be a little dodgy, just one of the sources of the novel’s little tragedies.<br /><br />Through a rather loveless courtship and marriage, Margaret makes her way into tedious middle-age. Two miscarriages and the early death of her only child leave a dark scar on her psyche, but at least they also give her a new privacy which she learns to enjoy and exploit.<br /><br />The historical and political backgrounds are etched in beautifully. It is the time of America’s great industrial awakening and then its emergence as a world power. Amid all this, Margaret lives modestly but with a subtle style of feminine [not quite feminist] independence of heroic dimensions, I think it is her continuing empathy and compassion for those around her; she is never cruel, even to her awful husband. On the contrary, she reaches out to people, quietly, unobtrusively…effectively.<br /><br />I really liked this novel. Smiley has created an unlikely heroine in Margaret. The scale of the book is quite vast – epic almost. The background events are more momentous than those of Austen’s books, yet they are just there, intruding but so subtly. She is a beautiful stylist. As I recommend repeatedly, read a paragraph aloud and enjoy the flow, the resonance, the language.<br /><br /><strong> Rating: A strong ***</strong><br /><br />Jacobson writes social comedy. in the style of, say, the American Lisa Adler [What ever happened to her? Great stuff 15 years ago…] In the UK, Martin Amis, David Lodge, Tom Sharpe write similar satire. It is a change for the Booker judges to reward this genre. [Privately, I have not agreed with their judgement since they followed the great “Midnight’s Children” with a lesser Roddy Doyle.]<br /><br />As a young academic, Jacobson spent a few years lecturing in English at our oldest university. His lectures were apparently both hugely entertaining and very scholarly, a fairly rare combination. “Coming From Behind” and “Redback” and “In The Land Of Oz” come from this period and sold well at the time.<br /><br />Jacobson is in good form in “The Finkler Question”. It is a witty treatise on his favourite theme of recent times – ‘Getting Older’ – and, of course, there are Jewish men involved. I feel this is a bit anachronistic for our times. Hasn’t Woody Allen done this to death for us, albeit in a different medium?<br /><br />To quote the cover blurb: “Julian Treslove, a former BBC worker, and Sam Finkler, A Jewish philosopher, writer and television personality, are old school friends. Despite different lives, they’ve never lost touch with each other – or with their former teacher, Libor Sevcik, a Czech more concerned with the wider world than exam results…’ [Those familiar with the novelists mentioned above will already see the relevance of my reference.] Sure, the novel is “Funny, unflinching and furious…” as claimed. I couldn’t agree, however, that as “a story of exclusion and belonging, justice and love, ageing, wisdom and humanity”, it has succeeded, if that is what the author was attempting. Jacobson has definitely become kinder in his later middle years, but his characters just did not engage this reader.<br /><br />I wonder whether the novel would have worked better as a play; Jacobson is very good at conversations. A lot of people will buy this book on the strength of its Booker win. Maybe I missed something.<br /><br /><strong> Rating: **</strong>Blurb Production Teamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13530191833029376377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1111246176394854195.post-60850721358025584232010-12-12T22:31:00.001+11:002010-12-12T22:36:49.266+11:00November 23rd<h3>Book & Publishing News</h3><br /><br />- Arrived recently: two great Christmas buys for the ageing Rockers….Brian Cadd’s “From This Side of the Fence”, lots of gossip and memoir’s from this legendary singer/songwriter, rrp $35. Also out now is “The 100 Best Australian Albums” a beautifully-presented coffee-table style souvenir, rrp $60.<br /><br />- What did you think of the TV adaptation of Andrea Levi’s “The Small Island”? Our regular reviewer, John, found it all too rushed<br /><br />- The latest “Quarterly Essay” is by “The Australian’s” George Megalogenis, [who also appears on “True Believers”.] Of the 2010 poll, George says wisely “…Gillard and Abbott, and behind them their poll-obsessed teams, were so terrified of offending the disengaged that they forgot to inspire the voters who were paying attention.” Excellent reading, as always. Available from Paton Books and your library, rrp $19-95.<br /><br />* Geelong Library representatives will be on “The Blurb” monthly in 2011.<br /><br />-What better Christmas gift than a new book? Support our station sponsors – PATON BOOKS and Angus and Robertson!<br /><br />- Commencing this <strong> Monday , November 29th at 3 pm </strong>, I will be hosting a new hour-long program – “MY BLOOD”S COUNTRY”- which will present how writers, of all kinds have viewed Australia over the years. Be prepared for short stories, poems, diary extracts, interviews, etc from 1788 till now.<br /><br />* Keep listening to “The Blurb” for my TOP TEN BOOKS of 2010!<br /><br /><br /><h3>This Weeks Review: A collection of Reviews from recently released books about Aussies and War</h3><br /><br /> Did you watch “Sisters at War” on ABC1 the other Sunday? An excellent film about the trials of two remarkable Australian’s. It seems we still like to read about and watch the stories of our fellow countrymen/women in the throes of conflict. We want to applaud, perhaps, or maybe it just does us good to be humbled in the face of such blatant heroism. The bookstores keep a regular stock of new titles and this year has been no exception. I have already reviewed a number of ‘weightier’ <br />books on various wars [which you might like to scroll back and find], I will make these comments briefer as there are so many books to talk about.<br /><br />The quality of the story-telling in these books varies significantly, but would-readers will probably select according to their innate interest. I felt “On Radji Beach” was the standout of the current crop along with “The Changi Brownlow”. Ian Shaw tells again the truly heroic story of the survival of a group of Australian nurses in the aftermath of that most unforgivable of blunders, the “Fall of Singapore”. Having nearly escaped capture once, the original group- numbering in the hundreds – were sunk in their escape vessel, captured by the Japanese and subjected to three and a half years of humiliation…and, mostly, murdered. It is a heart-wrenching read, but superbly written.<br /><strong> "On Radji Beach",Macmillan,pb,rrp $35,pp 358</strong><br /><br />Though “Beersheba” came out last year, I’m not sure I gave it suitable mention at the time. This is the story of “the last great cavalry charge’, but it is more than that. Daley takes us to the site and has managed to source a lot of new material about the events. He effectively challenges some of the prevailing myths that surround our involvement in World War One, particularly the Middle East campaigns. As with the previous book, sound index and footnotes.<br /><strong>"Beersheba", MUP 2009,rrp 35, pb, pp 337</strong><br /><br /> Roland Perry takes us into the lives of others who were in Singapore at the time of the infamous surrender – the men who suffered through imprisonment in Changi and the slaver labour camps on the Thai-Burma railway, have we forgotten that 23000 Australian and other Allied POWs died in that awful time? Gain it is a story of survival – and tenacious good humour, a product of basic humanitarianism by these amazing ‘blokes”, to this day in our district, only a handful of these soldiers still survive.<br />What does a group of Aussie men do when there’s nothing else to do? They grab a footy, and have a kick! Bizarre as it seems, this is what happened among the Australians in Changi – they organised an Aussie Rules comp. A very lively and uplifting tale.<br /> <strong>“The Changi Brownlow”, Hatchette, pb, rrp $35,pb pp 376</strong><br /><br /> Patrick Lindsay’s book “The Coast Watchers” brings us closer to home – to the islands of our north where, it was felt at the time, the very survival of Australia was in the balance as the Japanese war machine relentlessly thundered south. As have several of these authors, Lindsay has worked in journalism so the story moves swiftly and authoritatively. Not unlike the heroes of the next book, the Coast Watchers were ‘left behind’ to keep an eye out for the Japanese advancing across the Pacific after Pearl Harbour. When all hope of defending their particular space had been abandoned. Again, the persistence and practicality of these men and women is beyond belief to most of us today. More than thirty were captured and executed, in fact. <br /><strong>“The Coast Watchers” Random House, pb, rrp $34-95,pp 416 </strong><br /><br /> “The Men Who Came Out Of The Ground” were ‘Sparrow Force’, a Special Forces Unit set up to fight behind enemy lines on the island of Timor [sic]. It was a guerrilla war, relying on the support of the locals ,of whom many thousands died during the Japanese invasion, “avoiding pitched battles, instead picking the right time to strike…..They tied down thousands of the enemy, not just matching them, but beating them”.<br /><strong> “The Men Who Came Out Of The Ground”, Hatchette, pb, rrp $35,pp 382</strong><br /><br /> Moving closer to our times, “Bomber” tells the story of a remarkable man, Tony Bower-Miles, who served his hour in Vietnam as a sapper and who since 2001 has devoted much of his time to the daunting job of removing landmines in Cambodia.<br />We’re still only slowly learning about illnesses such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as we continue to ‘debrief’ as a community the aftermath of war, for example. Tony confronted his post-Vietnam demons and turned them on their head, as it were- by enlisting fellow vets for those days to help the war-damaged people of Cambodia, The story is not always very well-written, but deserves to be heard.<br /><strong> “Bomber”, Macmillan, pb, rrp $35,pp 292</strong><br /><br /> New Zealand-born Rob Maylor served as a soldier in various guises and in different theatres. His story ranges from his homeland to Northern Ireland through East Timor [sic] to Iraq and Afghanistan. As the cover blurb says, his was “the world of an elite Australian marksman”. Established author, Robert Macklin, worked on Rob’s memoirs with him…fortunately because this book narrowly avoids being a smoke-social, boys-own-adventure rave. I have little doubt that people like Rob are necessary tools in our defence apparatus, but I wondered at times abut his motivation and thought processes in the field, and his evaluation the events he recalls. <br /><strong>“SAS Sniper”, Hatchette, pb, rrp $35,pp 330 </strong><br /><br /> Just when I had completed these jottings, onto my desk came Craig Stockings’ weirdly-titled “Zombie Myths of Australian Military History”. The book sets out to tackle ten myths – eg the ‘heroism’ of “Breaker Morant” [not even his real name!] – most of us have entertained unquestioningly forever. Perhaps, Stockings argues, Australians have a need “to commemorate and venerate the deeds of past servicemen, conceptions of national identity wrapped in the imagery of war, and the all-encompassing social implications of our central national legends – Anzac and the ‘Digger’…challenging stuff? Indeed. I hasten to add that nowhere in this lively book is the authentic bravery of our military doubted, it is the myths that are under fire. Heartily recommended. <br /><strong> “Zombie Myths of Australian Military History”, Newsouth Books, pb, rrp $35, pp 275 </strong>Blurb Production Teamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13530191833029376377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1111246176394854195.post-14240210657325950922010-12-02T09:06:00.003+11:002010-12-02T09:24:08.683+11:00November 23rd<h3>John’s Review- ‘How It Feels’ by Brendan Cowell </h3><br />I have to confess I come to this review with something of a personal prejudice. This is a book written by someone who identifies as an actor albeit an actor I much admire. Brendan Cowell is an Australian actor, writer and director and perhaps best known for his role as Tom in Love My Way. He was nominated for an AFI award for his role in Noise a nomination I thought he thoroughly deserved and for a film I thought did not receive the acclaim it deserved.<br />However, I’m always a bit suspicious when professions cross boundaries. I mean would you employ a plumber to perform your open heart surgery? Should writers be allowed to act or actors allowed to write? Perhaps the listeners have some views on this topic.<br />I concede there are closer links between the skills of an actor and those of a writer than perhaps between plumbing and surgery and to be fair Cowell has written scripts for film and television. <br />‘How It Feels’ is basically a coming-of-age story about Neil Cronk and his girlfriend Courtney and his mates Gordon and Stuart. It’s a story of booze, drugs sex and violence told in a style that is unrelentingly gritty, coarse and very frank and perhaps comes across as trapped in an adolescent rebellious style. As a genre I suppose it could best be described as ‘grunge’ and in the Australian tradition of Loaded by Christos Tsiolkas or Praise by Andrew McGahan. The writing style is direct and unflinching and packs a real punch. It’s an unrelenting high octane story of the struggle of a young man to move beyond the self-destruction of addiction and his total focus on personal needs above those of anybody else. This is a compelling story but I do think there are some problems with the style.<br /> For example there is some confusion about the construction of the story. The first few chapters proceed in a chronological order which is easy to follow but then in mid story there are movements back and forth in both time and location that left me confused. I’m not a rabid supporter of sticking to a strictly chronological structure and some of the best novels are flexible in playing with time and location in a narrative but here these changes were badly handled and confusing. <br />There are also some gaps in information and presumptions from time to time that needed more explanation, a sketchiness that the narrative doesn’t completely cover.<br /> Despite the energy of the writing style, and there is plenty of that, at times the style fell into purple prose or felt just too overwritten. A simpler, more pruned back style could have been just as dramatic and more impactful. Take for example this statement: ‘Hell sat pregnant in my face. Something beautiful had left the building. I was a shell of a man. The scallop of my soul had been sucked out and I couldn’t help but think the cliché: I could have saved him.’ Much of the style is like this, overwritten, overdramatic, even clichéd when less might have been better.<br />The novel’s point of view is very definitely a strong first person main protagonist voice but it does have some limitations. We see everything through this character’s eyes and I soon wondered how reliable a narrator he really was. The other characters feel a bit like puppets or chess pieces to be moved about or given dialogue to deliver rather than living as full-blooded characters in their own right.<br /> I’d love to hear what some female readers would make of his portrayal of the female characters and what his male characters have to say about women. I did notice that Louise Swinn in The Age on November 6th suggests that ‘we don’t get a good enough view of Courtney, who is an important character.’ One of the main revelations of the story revolves around the question of which of the 3 male characters ‘took’ Courtney’s virginity, which is a pretty sexist view.<br />In many ways this is a ‘blokey’ novel, not exactly from a sexist angle but more than that, concentrating on the fraught ways Australian men struggle to express affection and friendship for one another. But it should be highly commended for its attempt to portray Australian male friendship, something that has perhaps been neglected in contemporary Australian fiction.<br />With a first novel questions can always be asked about the quantity of autobiographical detail and this is a fair question in this case. Given that Neil Cronk’s CV has some resemblances to that of Cowell we can fairly conclude that there is some autobiographical material here. Both grew up in Cronulla and attended Drama at Bathurst University.<br /> Despite its flaws there is an incredible energy and heart at the centre of this novel, which mostly overrides the stylistic limitations I have mentioned. This is a story told with guts and lack of pretension and armed with this sort of energy Cowell can only go on to refine his writing skills further. Perhaps after all it’s an argument for more not less intermarriage between writing books and writing for the theatre. <br /><br /> <h3>This Weeks Poem: </h3><br /><strong> “Phar Lap in the Melbourne Museum ”- Peter Porter </strong><br /><br /><h3>Music</h3><br />This week we played the following tracks:<br />-‘Livin In The Seventies’ by Skyhooks<br />-‘War’ by Gossling<br /><br /><object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/CqAJ0nO4sro?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/CqAJ0nO4sro?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>Blurb Production Teamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13530191833029376377noreply@blogger.com0