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
Reviews + Analyses
Books, poetry, journals and the occassional film…
Guest review: Raili Simojoki on Benjamin Law’s The Family Law
The Family Law Benjamin Law Black Inc. 9781863954785 June 2010 (Aus, US) Reviewed by Raili Simojoki. Benjamin Law’s first book, The Family Law, is a collection of themed essays about his eccentric yet endearing family. His shorter pieces offer quirky insights into eclectic topics such as green burial, sleep deprivation, homosexuality healing workshops, and 90s … Continue reading Guest review: Raili Simojoki on Benjamin Law’s The Family Law
Joel Magarey’s Exposure: A Journey
Exposure: A Journey Joel Magarey Wakefield Press (Australia) 9781862548237 2009 I write this review just moments after finishing the book, and really, I’m aching from it. Joel Magarey has just taken me on an adventure - around the world, through illness and through love. The narrative flows back and forth between periods in the '80s and '90s … Continue reading Joel Magarey’s Exposure: A Journey
On Kafka's 'In the Penal Colony' and WIN books with LiteraryMinded and The Gum Wall
I have written a guest post on one of my favourite short stories, Franz Kafka's 'In the Penal Colony', for The Gum Wall. Here's an extract: It’s difficult to choose just one of his affecting, off-kilter short stories to talk about. Among my favourites are ‘The Judgment’, ‘The Metamorphosis’ (its brilliance is not exaggerated), ‘A … Continue reading On Kafka's 'In the Penal Colony' and WIN books with LiteraryMinded and The Gum Wall
‘Down in the hole, lingeringly, the grave digger puts on the forceps.’ (Yesterday, today, tomorrow.)
Next day. Same time. Same place. Saw Sean Mathias' production of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot last night. Woke up sad that it was yesterday and it's over. It (so knowingly) passed the time. I really enjoyed the production, particularly the physicality of it - the gestures, the slapstick. When they said 'calm yourself', they would … Continue reading ‘Down in the hole, lingeringly, the grave digger puts on the forceps.’ (Yesterday, today, tomorrow.)
Guest review: Sam Cooney on Clinton Caward’s Love Machine
Love Machine Clinton Caward Hamish Hamilton (Penguin) February 2010, Australia 9781926428024 Reviewed by Sam Cooney. I first encountered Clinton Caward’s writing last year in the lit journal Cutwater; his two short stories punched me in the gut with their corrosive and compelling strength, and the accompanying author interview struck some chords. (Indeed, I said so … Continue reading Guest review: Sam Cooney on Clinton Caward’s Love Machine
Don DeLillo’s Point Omega
Point Omega Don DeLillo Picador, 2010, 9780330512381 (buy Aus, US/Kindle) I’ve been ‘doing’ a few American writers of late. Loved my first encounter with Michael Chabon, in A Model World – he’s a master of beginnings and endings in those short gems – and will follow-up someday with The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay and … Continue reading Don DeLillo’s Point Omega
Guest post: Splinters and Ore, by JJ DeCeglie
I adhere to old Henry Miller and I quote: I believe that today more than ever a book should be sought after even if it has only one great page in it: we must search for fragments, splinters, toenails, anything that has ore in it, anything that is capable of resuscitating the body and soul. … Continue reading Guest post: Splinters and Ore, by JJ DeCeglie
Guest review: Elena Gomez on Kill Your Darlings Issue One
I was really excited when Ange asked me to review the very first issue of new literary journal Kill Your Darlings, created by some hip Melbourne literary-types, edited by Affirm Press’s Rebecca Starford. Then I read its opening article: Gideon Haigh’s scathing piece on the Australian book review landscape. I got a little stage fright … Continue reading Guest review: Elena Gomez on Kill Your Darlings Issue One
Tom Rachman’s The Imperfectionists
Text Publishing 2010 9781921656033 (Aus, US) Kathleen Solson, the editor-in-chief of an international newspaper based in Rome, suspects her husband is having an affair. Solson has always ranked people by ‘intelligence’, her ex notes. Maybe she is calculating. Maybe she needs attention. In Tom Rachman’s The Imperfectionists we are given a glimpse of Solson’s life, as … Continue reading Tom Rachman’s The Imperfectionists
LiteraryMinded 