April 2012 Random House 9781741668452 (buy paperback, ebook) I love a good historical novel: the ability to contrast past and present, to be absorbed in a world that’s (mainly) unfamiliar, and to experience vastly different circumstances, pressures, and social customs. Kate Forsyth allows us to taste, smell and feel 16th Century Italy and late 17th … Continue reading Parsley and blood: Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth
Reviews + Analyses
Books, poetry, journals and the occassional film…
Casual fate: Taking Shelter by Jessica Anderson
Published in 1989, by Penguin Jessica Anderson (1916-2010) won the Miles Franklin Literary Award twice, for Tirra Lirra by the River in 1978 and The Impersonators in 1980. Taking Shelter is one of her less lauded novels (they all sound quite different). I picked it up mainly because of one of the cover blurbs: 'A provocative … Continue reading Casual fate: Taking Shelter by Jessica Anderson
Sensation and survival: The Forrests by Emily Perkins
Bloomsbury, May 2012 9781408809235 (buy paperback, ebook) A version of this review first appeared in Bookseller+Publisher, April/May 2012 Dorothy Forrest is seven years old when the Forrests move from New York, with dwindling money, to New Zealand. At the opening of the novel, Frank, the father, is capturing his children on a movie camera, trying to make … Continue reading Sensation and survival: The Forrests by Emily Perkins
Recently read: The Fine Colour of Rust by PA O’Reilly & What the Family Needed by Steven Amsterdam
I'm fairly time-poor at the moment, but I wanted to at least make a small note about a couple of books I've read lately in preparation for the Sydney Writers' Festival next week! The Fine Colour of Rust, PA O'Reilly, Blue Door, 9780007434930, March 2012 (buy paperback, ebook) I'm a big fan of Paddy O'Reilly's … Continue reading Recently read: The Fine Colour of Rust by PA O’Reilly & What the Family Needed by Steven Amsterdam
Closer to Stone by Simon Cleary
UQP, March 2012 9780702239229 (buy paperback) A few years ago I read and enjoyed The Comfort of Figs by Simon Cleary, and I was excited to receive his new book Closer to Stone in the mail. It's about a young Australian man who travels to Northern Africa in the mid '90s in search of his missing brother. As I … Continue reading Closer to Stone by Simon Cleary
Dallas Angguish on Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson (guest review)
Jonathan Cape (Random House) 9780224093453, 2011 (buy hardcover, ebook) Review by Dallas Angguish Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal is the sometimes disturbing, sometimes tender and often funny story behind Jeanette Winterson’s debut novel Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit. Whereas Oranges was a semi-autobiographical novel, Why Be Happy is a memoir, a … Continue reading Dallas Angguish on Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson (guest review)
Choosing to fly: When We Have Wings by Claire Corbett
Allen & Unwin, 2011 9781742375564 (buy Aus paperback, ebook, US/Kindle) The main theme, and dilemma, for the two main characters in When We Have Wings is an old one: how do we deal with technological progress, the divides it can create (between classes, between generations), and the power it may provide to a privileged few? More specifically, … Continue reading Choosing to fly: When We Have Wings by Claire Corbett
Pleasure, memory, decay, and The Stranger’s Child: an interview with Alan Hollinghurst
I had the pleasure of speaking with British novelist and Man Booker Prize winner (for The Line of Beauty) Alan Hollinghurst at his hotel last month in Melbourne, over a pot of tea. Hollinghurst's latest novel The Stranger's Child opens in 1913. The poet Cecil Valance is visiting his Cambridge friend (and secret lover) George Sawle … Continue reading Pleasure, memory, decay, and The Stranger’s Child: an interview with Alan Hollinghurst
Guest review: Gabriel Ng on Various Pets Alive and Dead by Marina Lewycka
Fig Tree (Penguin) 9781905490912 March 2012 (buy paperback) review by Gabriel Ng The title of Various Pets Alive and Dead might make you think it involves lots of cute animal stories and some kind of furry genocide. Instead, it’s a very political novel about the global financial crisis and the failure of the leftist ideals, … Continue reading Guest review: Gabriel Ng on Various Pets Alive and Dead by Marina Lewycka
The isle of man: Sweet Old World by Deborah Robertson
Vintage, 9781741668254 March 2012 (buy paperback, ebook) This article was originally published in The Big Issue no. 402. Deborah Robertson’s latest book started out as a completely different project. The author of award-winning, bestselling novel Careless (2006) and the earlier short-story collection Proudflesh (1997) left her teaching position at Murdoch University—eventually relocating from Fremantle to … Continue reading The isle of man: Sweet Old World by Deborah Robertson
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