9780143009573 Penguin (Aus, US/Kindle) In an active, atmospheric introduction, a woman and her two children arrive at the gate, and then the house, of the woman’s childhood. The woman, Olivia, explains to her mother she ‘had to come home’ and is accepted. Soon arrives Olivia’s grief-stricken brother and wife, with their baby’s body (who has … Continue reading Julia Leigh's Disquiet
Reviews + Analyses
Books, poetry, journals and the occassional film…
MJ Hyland's This is How
Text Publishing July 2009 (Australia) (US) 9781921520532 At the beginning of This is How, Patrick Oxtoby arrives at a boarding house. The landlady wants to hang up his coat. He'd prefer to leave it on. When he finally takes it off and puts it on the rack, it falls off. Neither of them pick it … Continue reading MJ Hyland's This is How
Eric Garcia's The Repossession Mambo
9781921372810 Scribe 2009 (Australia) (and Harper US) In the near future, artificial organs (artiforgs) can be bought to save a person's life - or simply enhance life's quality. From kidneys to central nervous systems, the expensive artiforgs can be bought on credit, and if you miss too many payments, they can be repossessed. When we … Continue reading Eric Garcia's The Repossession Mambo
The Danger Game by Kalinda Ashton
Sleepers Publishing August 2009, Australia 9781740668132 Three children - one insular, one bold, and one stubborn and growing - dare each other to undertake dangerous or humiliating tasks in the 'danger game'. Their lives are daring enough, with an unstable father and a mother on-edge, and mature secrets inside each of their little heads. Only two of … Continue reading The Danger Game by Kalinda Ashton
Kate Grenville's Dark Places
A LiteraryMinded review of an Australian classic. Dark Places Kate Grenville Macmillan 1994 + Text Publishing 2008 (Aus, US) Dark Places charts the life of a pitiful, self-absorbed and knowingly empty man, Albion Gidley Singer. From a young age he attempts to fill a void that exists within him - a void associated with his lack … Continue reading Kate Grenville's Dark Places
Guest review: Sam Cooney on Mark Mordue's Dastgah
Dastgah, Mark Mordue Allen & Unwin (2001, Australia). Also published overseas. Review by Sam Cooney. Dastgah is an account of Australian writer, journalist and editor Mark Mordue's first trip overseas: a one-year journey through the regions of India, Nepal, the United Kingdom, Turkey and Iran, and the cities of Paris and New York. The … Continue reading Guest review: Sam Cooney on Mark Mordue's Dastgah
How to Eat a Wolf by Sharanya Manivannan: a poem
Does all lust start and end like this? Don't get me wrong. I loved my wolf. I held him tethered like a pussycat. I nursed the rumble in his belly with hands gentle as a burglar's. He lived on milk and blood and ocean. He had violets for his furs. It's just that he was … Continue reading How to Eat a Wolf by Sharanya Manivannan: a poem
Peter Goldsworthy's Everything I Knew
Penguin Aus ISBN 9780143009634 (paperback, August 2009) It's 1964 in small-town South Australia and Robert Burns (like the poet) is on the cusp of adolescence. 'Happiness is a default state', he narrates, looking back. Reading it, no matter when or where you grew up, one can relate to that simplicity, the time before 'adult' aspects of … Continue reading Peter Goldsworthy's Everything I Knew
Carrie Ryan's The Forest of Hands and Teeth
The Forest of Hands and Teeth Carrie Ryan Gollancz 9780575090859 2009 (Aus, US) Mary's village is surrounded by tall fences to keep out the 'Unconsecrated'. It is the only world she has ever known, but she remembers her mother's stories of the world before the return - tales of tall buildings, and a vast expanse … Continue reading Carrie Ryan's The Forest of Hands and Teeth
J.M. Coetzee's Disgrace
Disgrace JM Coetzee 9780099289524 Vintage (Aus, US) Disgrace is centred around David Lurie, a Romantic Poetry Professor at a Cape Town University, and an unapologetic lover of the firm, youthful, accommodating female form. He's been married twice, and in the story satisfies his hunger with a prostitute, and then a student, becoming enamored with both … Continue reading J.M. Coetzee's Disgrace
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