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
Australian authors
Thoughts on 2009 Miles Franklin Literary Award winner Breath, by Tim Winton
Breath, Tim Winton, Penguin, 9780143009580 (Aus, US) Breath is my first Tim Winton. Yes, I know. He's just not someone I had gotten to yet. And yes, I will read Cloudstreet, eventually. Last week, Breath was awarded our nation's most prestigious literary prize - the Miles Franklin Literary Award, which is for books that in … Continue reading Thoughts on 2009 Miles Franklin Literary Award winner Breath, by Tim Winton
Sexy romance + serious issues: Toni Jordan on Addition
Addition (Text, Aus/Polebridge, US) is a sexy, smart, funny and totally refreshing read. It's the story of numerical-obsessive Grace, and her unique navigation of life. When Grace meets Seamus, her lifestyle comes into question - the counting, the obsession with dead mathematician Nicola Tesla, the careful structures of her daily life. Can she fall messily … Continue reading Sexy romance + serious issues: Toni Jordan on Addition
Turner's Paintbox by Paul Morgan
Viking, 9780670071364, 2007 (Australia) Gerard Moyne is an extremely successful Sydney-based art consultant, art lover, and all round philosophical aesthete. He falls for the independent, earthy, and oft-scattered Julia. They're not exactly opposites, but nor do they complement each other entirely. Their relationship, and its undoing (it begins with this) are chronicled, alongside the narrative … Continue reading Turner's Paintbox by Paul Morgan
Everything Beautiful by Simmone Howell
Pan, 9780330424639 (Aus, US) Riley Rose hasn't cried since the death of her mother. This plus-sized, take-no-shit, gorgeous, rebellious character is sent to a Christian camp by her father and his dull girlfriend for acting out. But Riley's drug, sex and rock & roll 'tude isn't going to be tamed by a bunch of commandments and Jesus … Continue reading Everything Beautiful by Simmone Howell
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
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
‘Discomfort is sometimes what is most precious to me about great art’ – Christos Tsiolkas on The Slap
Note: This review/interview is uncensored and contains swearing. The Slap (Aus, US) is a novel that grabs you by your tender spots, squeezes, and doesn't let go. Set in contemporary Melbourne and its suburbs, a man slaps another person's child at a barbeque. From there, the narrative expands out to the lives of several characters of … Continue reading ‘Discomfort is sometimes what is most precious to me about great art’ – Christos Tsiolkas on The Slap
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
Literary Space – Paul Morgan
Paul Morgan, author of Turner's Paintbox, The Pelagius Book and The Art of Richard Hughes says: I have no writing room. In fact, I rarely work in the house. I feel too vulnerable to distraction there, knowing that at any moment the phone could ring or someone might knock on the door and my ‘zone' … Continue reading Literary Space – Paul Morgan
LiteraryMinded 