It's time, methinks, for another Monday Musings post highlighting a specific writer - and this time I've chosen Ada Cambridge. I discovered Cambridge back in the late 1980s when there was a resurgence (in Australia anyhow) in recognition of women writers. What was great about this resurgence was that it not only saw increased publication of … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Ada Cambridge
Women writers
Irma Gold, Two steps forward
Irma Gold's* Two steps forward is, apparently, the last release in Affirm Press's Long Story Short series. I have reviewed two others previously - Gretchen Shirm's Having cried wolf and Leah Swann's Bearings - but, before talking about this book, I must say how much I love the books themselves. I am starting to read eBooks. I … Continue reading Irma Gold, Two steps forward
Hazel Rowley, Franklin and Eleanor: An extraordinary marriage
I wonder what would make an Australian biographer decide to write about an American couple? And I wonder, having now read Hazel Rowley's Franklin and Eleanor: An extraordinary marriage, what she would have made of, say, Joseph and Enid Lyons, Australia's own political power couple. Unfortunately we'll never know as Rowley died just around the … Continue reading Hazel Rowley, Franklin and Eleanor: An extraordinary marriage
Willa Cather, When I knew Stephen Crane
I haven't reviewed a Library of America offering for a while and so have decided it's time I dipped again into its offerings. Willa Cather's essay/journalistic piece "When I knew Stephen Crane", which they published last month, appealed to me because of a couple of synchronicities. One is that Lisa of ANZLitLovers reviewed Crane's The red … Continue reading Willa Cather, When I knew Stephen Crane
Monday musings on Australian literature: Japanese poetry in Australia
Papa Gums loves to give me clippings of obituaries that he knows will interest me. Last week, from his hospital bed, he gave me one for an Australian poet I'd never heard of, Janice Bostock. She was, according to the obituary in the Sydney Morning Herald, "one of Australia's leading writers of Japanese poetic forms", … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Japanese poetry in Australia
Leslie Cannold, The book of Rachael
For someone who doesn't seek out historical fiction, I seem to have read a lot of it lately. Leslie Cannold's The book of Rachael is the third historical novel I've read in succession - and it's the third with an author's afterword/postscript, which suggests to me some uncertainty in the writers about historical fiction. Tansley quoted Doris Lessing's statement … Continue reading Leslie Cannold, The book of Rachael
Geraldine Brooks, Caleb’s crossing
In the Afterword to her latest novel, Caleb's crossing, which was inspired by the first Native American to graduate from Harvard College, Geraldine Brooks describes the reactions of members of the Wampanoag Tribe: Individual tribal members have been encouraging and generous in sharing information and insights and in reading early drafts. Others have been frank … Continue reading Geraldine Brooks, Caleb’s crossing
Ginny Jackson, The still deceived
Brother Gums and his partner, who live in our southernmost state, Tasmania, often give me books by local writers, many of whom I may not easily come across on "the mainland". Their offering last Christmas was one of these, The still deceived, a collection of poems by Ginny Jackson. It was published by one of Australia's … Continue reading Ginny Jackson, The still deceived
Monday musings on Australian literature: Reading about Australian women writers
In the 1980s my interest in Australian literature, which had been initially kindled by my parents and school, was renewed. In the 1980s, too, women writers started to flourish again. Consequently, this second wave interest of mine was drawn particularly to these women. I read their books of course (I'm thinking particularly of Elizabeth Jolley, … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Reading about Australian women writers
Tangea Tansley, A break in the chain: The early Kozminskys
In the postscript to her novel A break in the chain, Tangea Tansley quotes Doris Lessing's statement that 'fiction is better at "the truth" than a factual record'. This gets to the nub of my challenge with this book, which is a fictionalised account of three generations of the author's family, particularly her great grandparents … Continue reading Tangea Tansley, A break in the chain: The early Kozminskys
