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)
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)
Tim Flannery, After the future: Australia’s extinction crisis (Review)
Tim Flannery is an Australian palaeontologist-cum-environmentalist who has been on the public stage for a couple of decades now. He has published several books on environmental issues, some best-sellers, including The future eaters and The weather makers. He was Australian of the Year in 2007, has starred in three television documentary series with comedian John … Continue reading Tim Flannery, After the future: Australia’s extinction crisis (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)
Nigel Featherstone, I’m ready now (Review)
Way back in my youth when I started studying literature, I thought I had to get the "right" interpretation. It made reading a little scary, I must say. However, as I gained confidence, I discovered that there are as many responses to a novel as there are readers, something I was reminded of when I … Continue reading Nigel Featherstone, I’m ready now (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)
Barbara Baynton, Squeaker’s mate (Review)
My last post was about this year's Meanjin Tournament of Books which is pitting short stories against each other. One of the short stories is Barbara Baynton's "Squeaker's mate", which I've read before but a long time ago. I decided, though, to read it again, since I have easy access to a copy, on my … Continue reading Barbara Baynton, Squeaker’s mate (Review)
Kate Grenville, The lieutenant (Review)
I first came across William Dawes, the inspiration for Kate Grenville's The lieutenant, in Inga Clendinnen's award-winning history, Dancing with strangers (2003). But this is not the only book that Grenville's novel brought to mind, as it also reminded me of Kim Scott's That deadman dance. (Intriguing that both these books use a dance motif, … Continue reading Kate Grenville, The lieutenant (Review)
Elliot Perlman, The street sweeper (Review)
Elliot Perlman's latest novel, The street sweeper, is a complex book with a pretty simple message. It's complex because of its multiple interconnecting storylines that move back and forth between World War II, the American Civil Rights era, and contemporary times. It has multiple themes, about which I'll write further, but the underlying message is … Continue reading Elliot Perlman, The street sweeper (Review)
William Gilpin and travel photography
Yes, I know that William Gilpin, about whom I wrote in my last post, died before photography, though only just. He died in 1804 and, according to Wikipedia, the first permanent photograph produced by a camera was made in 1826. However, the notion of cameras - through the camera obscura - was already well known. … Continue reading William Gilpin and travel photography
