Vladimir Nabokov’s Mary

Mary Vladimir Nabokov (translated from the Russian by Michael Glenny, in collaboration with Nabokov) Penguin Great Loves series (Aus, US) 9780141032900 (First published under pen name V Sirin in 1926.) Love is part attraction, part emotion and much imagination. In Mary, Vladimir Nabokov's first novel, a Russian man in Berlin, Ganin, recounts his one passionate love affair, … Continue reading Vladimir Nabokov’s Mary

Both ways is the only way she wants it: an interview with Maile Meloy

As the title indicates, Both Ways is the Only Way I Want it (Text, May 2010 in Aus, Riverhead US), Maile Meloy's engaging collection of stories, is about the fear, desire, pleasure, confusion and complications of wanting it both ways and sometimes having it so. It's like Guido's dilemma in Fellini's 8 1/2 - he wants … Continue reading Both ways is the only way she wants it: an interview with Maile Meloy

Guest review: Sam Cooney on I Can See My House From Here: UTS Writers’ Anthology 2010

I Can See My House From Here: UTS Writers’ Anthology 2010 Reviewed by Sam Cooney University anthologies are often pedestrian and insular. Even worse, at times they smack of desperation - you can almost wring it from the pages like water from hair. ‘Here is my story,’ each writer seems to say. ‘This is what … Continue reading Guest review: Sam Cooney on I Can See My House From Here: UTS Writers’ Anthology 2010

Dog’s Tails: storytelling nights at Dog’s Bar, St Kilda

It's a Thursday. G and I put on our coats and walk briskly down Acland Street, St Kilda, to the warm, busy, art-filled Dog's Bar for the weekly storytelling event 'Dog's Tails'. It's about 7:30 and we order a glass of the Dog's Shiraz. Curators of the storytelling event, Chris Flynn and Josephine Rowe, are there already, eating … Continue reading Dog’s Tails: storytelling nights at Dog’s Bar, St Kilda