Where to start? Like all great classics, EM Forster's Howards End has so much to think and write about that it's difficult to know where to focus, not to mention what new angle I could possibly add. Perhaps I'll just start at the beginning - with its epigraph, "only connect..." That's a concept that's sure … Continue reading EM Forster, Howards End (#BookReview)
Reading
WG Sebald, Austerlitz (#BookReview)
For the first time in my reading group's 30-year history, we read a book recommended by a fictional character. It happened like this: after reading and discussing Rabih Alameddine's An unnecessary woman (my review) in January, we thought it would be interesting if we all nominated which book mentioned by the "unnecessary woman", Aaliya Saleh, that we'd … Continue reading WG Sebald, Austerlitz (#BookReview)
Monday musings on Australian literature: War-time reading tastes, World War 2
Continuing last week's brief survey of war-time reading habits... World War 2 And then we come to the Second World War. Here's The West Australian again, this time in July 1940, less than a year after the war had started (a bit like our 1915 World War 1 report last week.) The article is headed, … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: War-time reading tastes, World War 2
Monday musings on Australian literature: War-time reading tastes, World War 1
For the longest time I've understood that during war-time people turn to lighter forms of entertainment, to musicals in film, for example, or to escapist books in their reading. However, the truth - of course - is more complex, as I discovered in Trove's digitised newspapers. I was fascinated by how often the matter was, … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: War-time reading tastes, World War 1
Michelle de Kretser, The life to come (#BookReview)
Michelle de Kretser's Miles Franklin shortlisted novel, The life to come, makes for great reading but difficult blogging because, like her Miles Franklin Award winner, Questions of travel (my review), it is big, and covers a lot of ground. Where to start is the problem. However, I'll give it my best shot, starting with its form. … Continue reading Michelle de Kretser, The life to come (#BookReview)
Randolph Stow, The merry-go-round in the sea (#BookReview)
Randolph Stow is a writer I've been meaning to read for the longest time - since, would you believe, the 1970s? Embarrassing, really, given his significance. My plan had always been to read his Miles Franklin award-winning novel To the islands first. However, the first I actually bought was The merry-go-round in the sea - back in … Continue reading Randolph Stow, The merry-go-round in the sea (#BookReview)
Elizabeth Jolley, The orchard thieves (#BookReview)
Elizabeth Jolley's twelfth novel, The orchard thieves, is a little different from most of the other Jolleys I've read. It's a little less black, a little less about alienation, but it's unmistakably Jolley in style and preoccupations. By preoccupations, I mean her interest in family relationships and dynamics - and, related to that, her humane, … Continue reading Elizabeth Jolley, The orchard thieves (#BookReview)
Richard Flanagan, First person (#BookReview)
Richard Flanagan's latest novel First person, which I did with my reading group, is a challenge to read. By this I don't mean it's "hard" to read but that it requires careful attention to pin down. On the surface, its subject is straightforward. It's the story of struggling as-yet-unpublished writer, Kif Kehlmann, who accepts the job … Continue reading Richard Flanagan, First person (#BookReview)
Nick Earls, NoHo (#BookReview)
Nick Earls is a Queensland-based writer known mostly for humorous fiction about contemporary life. While I'd heard of him, I hadn't read any of his work when I attended a session involving him at the 2016 Canberra Writers Festival. The session was titled "Modern Masculinity" (my report). Earls was there because of the recent publication of … Continue reading Nick Earls, NoHo (#BookReview)
Monday musings on Australian literature: My reading group does Garner
You are never too old to try something new - and so it was that my 30-year-old reading group tried something new for our April meeting. The idea was that we would all read Garner, but our individual choice of Garner. We've discussed five Garners over the years, and many had read other Garners besides … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: My reading group does Garner
