They all nodded, not knowing what the hell curry* was but getting gist of the story all the same. Marie Munkara leads us a merry dance with Every secret thing, her first book, which won the David Unaipon Award for an unpublished Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander writer. What exactly is this "thing" she presents … Continue reading Marie Munkara, Every secret thing
Reading
Albert Camus, The plague (orig. La peste)
All I maintain is that on this earth there are pestilences and there are victims, and it's up to us, so far as possible, not to join forces with the pestilences. (Tarrou) and ... to state quite simply what we learn in a time of pestilence: that there are more things to admire in men … Continue reading Albert Camus, The plague (orig. La peste)
Abraham Verghese, Cutting for stone
I saw a man under the spell of his own tale, a snake charmer whose serpent has become his turban. I'm not sure how I want to use the above quote, which comes late in the book, but I just liked it and so decided to start this post with it. Bear with me! Discounting … Continue reading Abraham Verghese, Cutting for stone
Helene Hanff, 84 Charing Cross Road
Before you all (well, those of you of a certain age at least) gasp and wonder how it could be that I haven't read this delightful little tome before, I assure you that I have. However, on our drive home today from our week at the coast, we listened to an unabridged audiobook version, and … Continue reading Helene Hanff, 84 Charing Cross Road
Freedom, a postscript
In one of those wonderful bits of reading synchronicities, I woke up this morning to read about US District Judge Roger Vinson declaring ObamaCare unconstitutional. Florida Governor Rick Scott (among others) agrees, saying that: "ObamaCare is an unprecedented and unconstitutional infringement on the liberty of the American people". Those of us in other parts of the … Continue reading Freedom, a postscript
Jonathan Franzen, Freedom
Hmm ... where to start? Half way through this book I was tiring. I wanted to say to Franzen "Enough already" (which, if you've read the book, has a certain appositeness). I also started to think of those song lines, so well-known to my generation: Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose. In … Continue reading Jonathan Franzen, Freedom
Mario Vargas Llosa, The feast of the Goat
If Nobel Laureate Mario Vargas Llosa's The feast of the goat had been a traditional historical novel, chances are it would have started with the assassins concocting their plan and then worked chronologically to its logical conclusion. But, it is not a traditional historical novel, as is reflected in the structure Vargas Llosa has chosen to tell his … Continue reading Mario Vargas Llosa, The feast of the Goat
On being a taxonomical reviewer
I was reading a review this morning of a poetry anthology, and the reviewer, one Dr. Martin Duwell I believe, said that the book "encourages the taxonomist in me". Ah, I thought, a person after my own heart ... because I too have a taxonomical bent in my approach to literature. (I am, it has … Continue reading On being a taxonomical reviewer
Barbara Hanrahan, The scent of eucalyptus
Writer-artist Barbara Hanrahan was born half a generation before I was and in the city of Adelaide not a country town in Queensland, but the childhood she depicts in her first novel, The scent of eucalyptus, could almost have been mine. Almost, but not quite, as I was brought up in a standard nuclear family … Continue reading Barbara Hanrahan, The scent of eucalyptus
The gift of words
Middle age has come and all the plans and needs are chaff not seeds, blowing down the blue air to fall flat and trampled by some window where a hopeful girl braids her thick hair and hums. ("Humble", by Ginny Jackson) Better late than ... hmm, perhaps not, but I'm going to tell you anyhow. … Continue reading The gift of words
