The first thing to say about Hanif Kureishi's 1990 Whitbread award-winning novel The buddha of suburbia is that it's pretty funny. It's a comic satire - over-the-top at times, confronting at others. It has its dark moments, but it's also brash, irreverent and ultimately warm-hearted towards its tangled band of not always admirable but mostly very human characters. I've come late … Continue reading Hanif Kureishi, The buddha of suburbia (Review)
Author: Whispering Gums
Monday musings on Australian literature: Nature writing in Australia
Blogger Michelle (Adventures in Biography) posted last week on a presentation by literary agent, Mary Cunnane, at the HARDCOPY writers' workshop she attended here in Canberra. Answering a question about narrative non-fiction, Cunnane apparently said "I do wonder, for example, why there isn’t more really good nature writing in Australia". Quite coincidentally, last week another blogger, Stefanie … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Nature writing in Australia
Author Talk with Kate Llewellyn, Barbara Hill and Ruth Bacchus
Having attended Robert Drewe's Seymour Biography lecture at the National Library of Australia last week, I was thrilled to see another event come up this week. It was billed as an author talk with Kate Llewellyn, and with Barbara Hill and Ruth Bacchus who edited First things first, the collection of Llewellyn's letters which I reviewed a … Continue reading Author Talk with Kate Llewellyn, Barbara Hill and Ruth Bacchus
Karen Lamb, Thea Astley: Inventing her own weather (Review)
Courtesy: UQP One of the threads that runs through Karen Lamb's biography, Thea Astley: Inventing her own weather, is Astley's ongoing frustration about her work not being appreciated or recognised. On the face of it, this seems neurotic or, perhaps, paranoid. After all, she was the first writer to win the Miles Franklin Award four times, … Continue reading Karen Lamb, Thea Astley: Inventing her own weather (Review)
Monday musings on Australian literature: Australian literary biographies
Given that a literary biography won the National Biography Award this year, that I've recently posted Musings on literary autobiographies/memories, and that my next review will be for a literary biography, it seemed high time that I devoted a Monday Musings to the form, don't you think? Brenda Niall's True North: The story of Mary … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Australian literary biographies
Who me?: Robert Drewe’s Seymour Biography Lecture
One of the best parts of living in Canberra - and there are many best parts, despite what the politicians and media seem to say! - is that we have the National Library of Australia. It presents many literary events each year, to which I only ever manage to make a few. Some of them I've … Continue reading Who me?: Robert Drewe’s Seymour Biography Lecture
Mary Austin, The land (Review)
Regular readers here know that I choose my Library of America offerings for various reasons: for authors I haven't read before but would like to (such as Edgar Allan Poe and Sherwood Anderson), for authors I love and am always happy to read more of (such as Willa Cather, Kate Chopin and Edith Wharton), or … Continue reading Mary Austin, The land (Review)
Monday musings on Australian literature: Where is Australia’s George Orwell?
In a comment on my review last week of Kate Grenville's One life, Lisa (ANZLitLovers) asked "Where's Australia's George Orwell?". This was in reference to the idea that more novelists should write about climate change to help change public opinion. Interesting question, I thought, and one that I could explore in a Monday Musings. You … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Where is Australia’s George Orwell?
Rochelle Siemienowicz, Fallen (Review)
Being a reader who focuses more on "truths" than "facts", I'm not averse to writers playing around with fact in their fiction or fiction in their fact. This issue raises its head most frequently in historical fiction of course, but it's also present in autobiographies, memoirs and even biographies. And so, here I am, having … Continue reading Rochelle Siemienowicz, Fallen (Review)
Kate Grenville, One life: My mother’s story (Review)
Kate Grenville is one of Australia's best known contemporary writers, and is one of that small band to have succeeded both critically and commercially. Most know her for The secret river, which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize among other awards. I enjoyed that, and the other novels of hers that I've read, with my … Continue reading Kate Grenville, One life: My mother’s story (Review)
Whispering Gums 