UWAP, 9781921401114 (Aus, US) Amanda Curtin's atmospheric novel begins with a bizarre and horrific murder at the Sinkings, in Western Australia, 1882. Flash forward to the present and reclusive, aging writer/editor Willa is reflecting upon the daughter that has gone away from her. Tying these two narratives together are the hermaphroditism of both 'Little Jock' - … Continue reading The Sinkings by Amanda Curtin
Reviews + Analyses
Books, poetry, journals and the occassional film…
Things We Didn’t See Coming by Steven Amsterdam
Sleepers Publishing, 9781740667012, 2009 (Aus, US) Things We Didn't See Coming is a series of vignettes, from different stages of the unnamed protagonist's life in a dystopian alterno-present/future. It is a post-apocalyptic story, but told in a hard-boiled, yet highly resonant literary style. The sentences are sharp, the character is hard and the environment is … Continue reading Things We Didn’t See Coming by Steven Amsterdam
Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You by Peter Cameron
Scribe, 2007, 9781921372148 (Aus, US) James is eighteen, works at his mother's gallery in New York, and is trying to worm his way out of going to Brown in the fall. Why? He prefers the idea of buying a nice old house out in a ‘quiet' state, and not being around other people his own … Continue reading Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You by Peter Cameron
Read and Seen: Revolutionary Road
The first in a series of simultaneous book and film reviews by LiteraryMinded's Angela Meyer and Celluloid Tongue's Gerard Elson. Revolutionary Road, Richard Yates (orig. 1961, several editions: Aus, US) Angela says... Revolutionary Road opens with a moody series of observances and a sense of foreboding - 1955, Western Connecticut, settled yet restless characters, cars too … Continue reading Read and Seen: Revolutionary Road
Princesses & Pornstars by Emily Maguire
Text, 2008 (Australia) 9781921351310 Update: now also available in a YA edition Your Skirt's Too Short: Sex, Power, Choice Emily Maguire's Princesses & Pornstars is a call to arms. It's a highly intelligent, entertaining, and sometimes endearingly awkward rant. To have a feminist stance is not just to talk about women, Maguire argues, it's to talk … Continue reading Princesses & Pornstars by Emily Maguire
Svetlana or Otherwise – Tiggy Johnson
Mockingbird, 2007, 9781740274616 Svetlana or Otherwise is a collection of small explorations. Tiggy Johnson constructs a story well, often ending with a surprise. Most of the stories revolve around a character in a family situation; some deal with memory; all of them touch on the ephemeral, as the best literature usually does. Some are in … Continue reading Svetlana or Otherwise – Tiggy Johnson
The Steele Diaries – Wendy James
Vintage, 2008, 9781740513845 Ruth comes from a line of artists, but preferred to study medicine and become a doctor like her father. When her father passes away, she is forced to leave the city and head home to arrange everything. A man called Douglas Grant calls, who had written a biography of her grandmother - bohemian artist … Continue reading The Steele Diaries – Wendy James
Overland 193
Summer 2008, ed. Jeff Sparrow, 9780980534603 Another stimulating issue of a journal that dares to challenge you. By this I don't mean just political stimulation (thought there is plenty of that there) but through non-mainstream points of observation. Overland generally gives you a variety of pieces on topics you may not have even thought of thinking about, if you know what … Continue reading Overland 193
Crime Time! Doors Open by Ian Rankin
Orion, 2008, 9780752890715 (Aus, US/Kindle) Ian Rankin is known for uncovering Edinburgh's underbelly in his Inspector Rebus novels, but a different side again is exposed in Doors Open - the dark streak of rich, bored executives; art lovers; and software engineers in the Scottish capital. Mike Mackenzie is a 37-year-old art collector who is offered … Continue reading Crime Time! Doors Open by Ian Rankin
Home and Away – John Marsden & Matt Ottley
Lothian, 2008, 9780734410566 (Australia) This is my picture book of 2008 - a poignant and necessary story of an ordinary Australian family who find themselves in the midst of a war, and as refugees, are placed in a detention camp. The book is heartbreaking, and older kids should read it. Yes, it will make them … Continue reading Home and Away – John Marsden & Matt Ottley
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