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
The Novel Challenge – help Team LiteraryMinded raise money for people affected by MS
I used to do the MS Read-A-Thon every year when I was a kid. When I heard that the challenge was now open to adults (as The Novel Challenge), I realised what a good opportunity this would be to raise money for a worthy cause. So I've gotten some friends and writerly-folk together, and Team … Continue reading The Novel Challenge – help Team LiteraryMinded raise money for people affected by MS
A postcard from Beth Sometimes
Beth Sometimes is the author/creator of From Sometimes Love Beth, where Sometimes wrote a postcard to somebody or someone (or something) every day for a year. She sent me this postcard, which gives you some insight into her work! Sometimes will be appearing at the Emerging Writers' Festival, which starts this weekend in Melbourne (how exciting!)
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
Elif Batuman, author of The Possessed: a ‘responsive’ interview
Elif Batuman's The Possessed (Aus, US/Kindle) is a personalised, intelligent, humorous exploration of Russian literature; and of academia, reading, and writers - with plenty of travel and adventure. It's the kind of book you devour and dog-ear - where you're learning with delight, being provided insight into authors, stories, countries, languages and lifestyles. I thought Elif would … Continue reading Elif Batuman, author of The Possessed: a ‘responsive’ interview
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
LiteraryMinded is wearing a party hat
This here blog turns three today. With an average of two to three posts a week since its inception, I feel like celebrating! I was going to do a retrospective, but I usually do those at year's end, so I won't, but please wander back though the archives and see how she has grown. Tonight … Continue reading LiteraryMinded is wearing a party hat
‘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
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