Granta, September 2010, through Allen & Unwin in Australia (Aus, US, UK) 9781847081032 Super. Here’s a too-easily-imaginable near-future world where everyone is attached to a device, books are obsolete, people walk around half-naked and rate each other’s bits, the American empire is failing, and it’s hard to make a true and lasting connection. Sad. The … Continue reading ‘If only a nippleless bra could make it all work’: Gary Shteyngart’s Super Sad True Love Story
Reviews + Analyses
Books, poetry, journals and the occassional film…
Bite-sized book reviews
Here's the first batch of mini reviews I commissioned from some of my Twitter followers. They get a free book, I retweet the review to my followers and publish it here (slightly edited). It can be over two tweets. Enjoy! @toria_jayne: Boys of Summer by Peter Skrzynecki. Great coming of age story set in Sydney's … Continue reading Bite-sized book reviews
The Mary Smokes Boys by Patrick Holland
Transit Lounge August 2010 9780980571790 A version of this review originally appeared in the Byron Shire Echo. Grey North lives in the small town of Mary Smokes, outside of Brisbane. Grey’s mother dies giving birth to his little sister, Irene, and from this traumatic event the novel, and Grey’s character, emerges. On the night his … Continue reading The Mary Smokes Boys by Patrick Holland
Guest review: Derek Motion on Tiggy Johnson’s First Taste
Page Seventeen, 2010 9780980813609 Reviewed by Derek Motion I often have to catch the bus out to the university, and from the stop near my house the journey takes around 15 minutes. This parcel of time is – if you get straight on to the task and don’t waste any time looking out the window … Continue reading Guest review: Derek Motion on Tiggy Johnson’s First Taste
Read and received lately
Read Freedom Jonathan Franzen Fourth Estate Of course you’ve heard of it. I liked it. I appreciated it, really. It took over me a little while I was reading it. I felt really blue. The characters get inside of you, because they’re so fully-formed, and there's much space for them. The opening reminded me of Richard … Continue reading Read and received lately
Guest review: Elizabeth Bryer on Shane Jones’ Light Boxes
Hamish Hamilton July 2010 9780241144954 (Aus, US, UK) Reviewed by Elizabeth Bryer This is one of those books that comes with baggage. Cult status? Check. Author plucked from obscurity? Check. Endorsement by guy with cultural cache? Check. (The latter was Spike Jonze, by the way, who at one stage acquired film rights to the … Continue reading Guest review: Elizabeth Bryer on Shane Jones’ Light Boxes
Guest review: Annie Stevens on Melissa Febos’ Whip Smart
Whip Smart: A Memoir Picador, 2010 9780312561024 (Aus, US, UK) review by Annie Stevens Reading Melissa Febos’ memoir, Whip Smart, reminded me of when I first read Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho. So graphic and stomach-churning is some of the content that I had to have short 'rests' between chapters. What makes Whip Smart even more … Continue reading Guest review: Annie Stevens on Melissa Febos’ Whip Smart
Guest review: Sam Cooney on The Lifted Brow no. 7
The Lifted Brow no. 7 ed. Ronnie Scott 2010 (website) Reviewed by Sam Cooney The Lifted Brow no. 7. It’s good. (Could I leave it at that? Yes.) Ronnie Scott’s short editorial is about penises, sneakers and a forgotten Halloween special. I will extract two declarations from the editorial that sum up this Brow: 'I’ve never … Continue reading Guest review: Sam Cooney on The Lifted Brow no. 7
Investing in rainbows: Lisa Lang’s Utopian Man
Utopian Man Lisa Lang Allen & Unwin 9781742373348 2010 (Australia) Edward Cole was the forward-thinking, optimistic and eccentric founder of Cole’s Book Arcade – a utopian hive of 1880’s Melbourne. In the Arcade was stacked all manner of books (which were able to be perused on in-store lounges), pamphlets (including challenging, self-published explorations by Cole), and eventually, … Continue reading Investing in rainbows: Lisa Lang’s Utopian Man
Guest review: Chris Flynn on Justin Cronin’s The Passage
The Passage Justin Cronin (Aus, US) Orion 9780752897851 Reviewed by Chris Flynn It’s funny how movies influence books so much these days. The fact that The Passage was optioned by Sir Ridley Scott for $1.75 million within a week of Cronin settling on a $3.75 million publishing deal for his vampire apocalypse trilogy is unsurprising … Continue reading Guest review: Chris Flynn on Justin Cronin’s The Passage
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