A few months ago I wrote a Monday Musings on the Australian Society of Authors' digital publishing initiative, Authors Unlimited e_Book portal. At the time I decided to try it out and bought Dorothy Johnston's collection of short stories, Eight pieces on prostitution. The collection comprises 7 short stories and a long story or novella. One … Continue reading Dorothy Johnston, Eight pieces on prostitution (Review)
20th century literature
Dymphna Cusack, A window in the dark (Review)
Dymphna Cusack's A window in the dark has been glaring at me from my TBR pile for many years now. Not being able to stand it any longer, I decided to sneak it in before my next reading group book, Michelle de Kretser's Questions of travel. Posthumously published by the National Library of Australia, A window … Continue reading Dymphna Cusack, A window in the dark (Review)
Irma Gold (ed), The invisible thread (Review)
I even get nervous when I open a book, you know, for the first time. It's the same thing, isn't it. You never know what you'll find, do you? Each person, each book, is like a new world ... (from Mark Henshaw's Out of the line of fire, in The invisible thread) At last, you … Continue reading Irma Gold (ed), The invisible thread (Review)
Thea Astley, The monstrous accent on youth (Review)
I was going to start this post with that well-known quote by Sophocles - or was it Plato - complaining about the young people of today, but a little bit of research turned up the fact that that quote is somewhat spurious. It was probably inspired by Plato's Republic in which he presents a dialogue … Continue reading Thea Astley, The monstrous accent on youth (Review)
Barbara Baynton, A dreamer (Review)
Finally, having reviewed three stories in Barbara Baynton's collection Bush studies, I start at the beginning with the story "A dreamer". This story is a little different to the three* I've reviewed to date, primarily because men do not play a significant role in the action or denouement of the plot. The plot is a … Continue reading Barbara Baynton, A dreamer (Review)
Barbara Baynton, Scrammy ‘and (Review)
Back in November, Trevor at Mookse and the Gripes, decided that rather than write a single review of Alice Munro's latest collection of short stories, Dear life, he would, over a period of time, read and review the individual stories. Now, there's something to be said for reviewing a collection of short stories as a … Continue reading Barbara Baynton, Scrammy ‘and (Review)
Patrick White, Happy Valley (Review)
My love affair with Patrick White, figuratively speaking, began in my last year of high school when I studied Voss. Always partial to Aussie literature, I was, at 17 or 18, bowled over by White's writing, passion and vision - and by his rather acerbic, though mostly compassionate, view of the way people submerge their … Continue reading Patrick White, Happy Valley (Review)
Thea Astley, Hunting the wild pineapple (Review)
Thea Astley's "Hunting the wild pineapple" is both a short story and the title of a collection of connected short stories (that includes, of course, the title story). Today I am going to write on the short story as it's one of the 16 included in the current Meanjin Tournament of Books - and it … Continue reading Thea Astley, Hunting the wild pineapple (Review)
Gerald Murnane, The plains (Review)
Wayne Macauley, he of the Most Underrated Book Award fame, wrote in his introduction to my edition of Gerald Murnane's The plains that "you might not know where Murnane is taking you but you can't help being taken". That's a perfect description of my experience of reading this now classic novella. It was like confronting … Continue reading Gerald Murnane, The plains (Review)
Barbara Baynton, The chosen vessel (Review)
I'm blaming author and blogger Karen Lee Thompson again for this post, because she wrote a wonderful comment on my post on Barbara Baynton's short story "Squeaker's mate", and I'm going to quote it pretty much in full (I hope that's ok from a copyright point of view - tell me if it isn't Karen … Continue reading Barbara Baynton, The chosen vessel (Review)
