Have you experienced the thrill of seeing original manuscripts by your favourite author or of a favourite book? I certainly have ... the most memorable for me, of course, being some pages from Jane Austen's Persuasion. But such personal thrill isn't the only value to be gained through having access to original manuscripts. Scholars love … Continue reading Whither literary manuscripts in the digital age?
Author: Whispering Gums
Monday musings on Australian literature: Guest Post from Guy of His Futile Preoccupations
Monday Musings' Guest Post no. 3 comes from Guy Savage of His Futile Preoccupations. Guy started commenting on my blog very early on and endeared himself to me by giving me the nickname of Gummie. That is a very Aussie thing to do - or is it English? Guy, you see, is an expat Brit … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Guest Post from Guy of His Futile Preoccupations
Shadow Man Asian Literary Prize 2011: Reviews from the week December 11-17
Week 5 of our Shadow Man Asian Literary Prize 2011 longlist reviewing project and we're moving along with quite a bumper crop of reviews this week ... Haruki Murakami's IQ84 (Japan) by Matt of A Novel Approach. Matt, a student of Japanese literature, has mixed feelings. He calls it unwieldy, though he also admits that … Continue reading Shadow Man Asian Literary Prize 2011: Reviews from the week December 11-17
Anuradha Roy, The folded earth (Shadow Man Asian Literary Prize 2011)
Anuradha Roy The folded earth London: MacLehose Press, 2011 257pp. ISBN: 9780857050441
Monday musings on Australian literature: Australian Gothic (19th century)
A few months ago I wrote a post on Horace Walpole's The castle of Otranto which is regarded as a pioneer in the Gothic novel tradition. I thought then that it would be good to explore how the Gothic translated to Australia where we have no castles in which the supernatural can rattle and clang. … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Australian Gothic (19th century)
Shadow Man Asian Literary Prize 2011: Reviews from the week December 4-10
Week 4 of our Shadow Man Asian Literary Prize 2011 longlist reviewing project and we're moving along with ... Jamil Ahmad's The wandering falcon (Pakistan) by Stu of Winston's Dad. He, like Lisa who has already reviewed it, liked it for what he felt to be its authentic portrayal of the tribespeople of an area that … Continue reading Shadow Man Asian Literary Prize 2011: Reviews from the week December 4-10
Meanjin’s Tournament of Books 2011, Finale
... and now we have a winner! Those of you who have been following the tournament will know that the two books facing off in the Finale were Helen Garner's The children's Bach and Joan London's Gilgamesh. I would not have guessed this at the beginning (and neither, they say, did the organisers). Not because these … Continue reading Meanjin’s Tournament of Books 2011, Finale
Delicious descriptions from Down Under: Andrew O’Hagan’s Maf meets some bedbugs
I can't not share at least one humorous little treasure from Andrew O'Hagan's The life and opinions of Maf the dog and of his friend Marilyn Monroe, because I think my review focused a little too much on the serious. Some of the delights of the book, if you suspend your disbelief, can be found … Continue reading Delicious descriptions from Down Under: Andrew O’Hagan’s Maf meets some bedbugs
Monday musings on Australian literature: Women of letters
Letter-writing has a long literary tradition - both fictional and non-fictional. Epistolary novels, according to Wikipedia, go back to the 1400s, and I'm sure if you're a reader you've read at least a few. My favourite Australian example is a gut-wrenching young adult novel Letters from the inside by John Marsden. But these are not my … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Women of letters
Shadow Man Asian Literary Prize 2011: Reviews from the week November 27 to December 3
Week 3 of our Shadow Man Asian Literary Prize 2011 longlist reviewing project brings you ... Mahmoud Dowlatabadi's The colonel (Iran) from Lisa of ANZLItLovers. This sounds quite different in style and structure, but worth reading, particularly since it's from a country whose literature is little known to me. Yan Lianke's Dream of Ding Village (China) from Matt … Continue reading Shadow Man Asian Literary Prize 2011: Reviews from the week November 27 to December 3
