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Posts from the ‘Australian Women Writers’ Category

17
Apr

The Trauma Cleaner

 

Finished: 17.04.2018
Genre: non-fiction
Rating: A+++
Review:

 

Who is Sandra/Peter?
She is a transgender, a survivor of a dysfunctional childhood, a husband, wife,
father, svelte star of many brothels and a savvy businesswoman.

 

What did I learn from Sandra?
Keep you life uncluttered…keep only what makes you happy.
Sandra: “I’ve made an executive decision.
This is shit”… and we are tossing it out!

  1. I just was so inspired by the strength Sandra showed
  2. ..when life threw her a curve ball.
  3. She helps her clients throw the junk out of their lives.
  4. She comforts them and always
  5. ...feels warm (character), like a car engine that’s been driving for hours.

 

Who was my favorite client?
Marilyn
A 70-ish “iron-tongued warrior in silken finery and bold beads.
Marilyn puttering around the house filled with junk and debris that almost sweeps the ceiling… with the aid of a gliding walker while balancing a gin and tonic on it in the early-morning light. Marilyn is a Christmas junkie… 2 artificial trees, Christmas-themed rugs, strings of lights an lots of Santas.
Hoarding does not discriminate on the basis of income or intelligence.

 

Strong point: Sarah Krasnostein can write! I am so impressed and happy I discovered this new writer.If this is a first book…I hope to read may more by Sarah!
Strong point: The book moved me to tears.
…and I mean that in a good way.
The narratives of the hoarders are as messy as their houses.
But Sandra has managed to maintain harmony in
her home and life as a means of survival.

 

Last thoughts:

  1. Sandra’s personal life is a rollercoaster ride of emotion.
  2. Hold on to your hat!
  3. But the chapters alternated with her work as trauma cleaner
  4. …..showing a compassion that just took my breath away.
  5. Sandra runs a tight ship when it comes to her business
  6. …but takes time to sit on the side of the bed with
  7. …’Marilyn’ in her lavender bathrobe.
  8. She assure her client that nothing is
  9. …tossed out with out her permission.
  10. Nothing goes in the dishwasher.
  11. Her workers will hand wash every utensil in the kitchen.
  12. Marilyn sighs a deep breath of relief.

#MustRead !

 

Sandra

 

11
Apr

From the Wreck Aurealis Award 2018 Best SF Novel

  • Author: J. Rawson
  • Title: From the Wreck
  • Published: 2017
  • Trivia: Winner Aurealis Award  2018  Best SF-novel
  • Trivia: Aurealis Award recognises the achievements of
  • Australian science fiction, fantasy, horror writers.

 

Why is From the Wreck considered science fiction?

  1. SF is not always about space ships, aliens, monsters,
  2. ..robots or giant man-eating insects.
  3. The first requirement for SF is that it should be possible!
  4. Realistic fiction is what  could have happened,
  5. …fantasy is about events that could not have happened
  6. …SF is about events that have not happened, or have not happened yet!

 

  1. This book is based upon the shipwreck of the SS Admella in 1859.
  2. But what has Jane Rawson done in her story to
  3. …bring this narrative into the science fiction category
  4. …and not historical fiction?
  5. I’m determined to find out.

Narrator:

  1. Third-person, non-participant narrator
  2. There are six chapters narrated by the ‘being from another dimension”

Structure:

  1. The Wreck –  2 chapters
  2. Life on Land – 4 chapters
  3. Henry – 9 chapters
  4. Cured –   4 chapters
  5. Some Journeys – 12 chapters

Setting:

  1. Rosewater  (small town above Adelaide)
  2. Portland (George works in Seaman’s Home in this town)
  3. Adelaide (George travels to this city to meet some characters)

 

Introduction:

  1. From the Wreck  tells the remarkable story of George Hills.
  2. He survived the sinking of the SS Admella off the South Australian coast in 1859.
  1. George “..rolled into the waves…but they would not have him…”
  2. the waves …”instruments of the Lord“
  3. People trying to help save George….he calls them
  4. “monstrous humans declaring death is near”
  5. “What do they know?
  6. George thinks
  7. “Death was not for him.
  8. He lived now in another  world.”
  9.  “Why had the waves not taken him? Why was he here?“
  1. He is haunted by his memories and the
  2. …disappearance of a fellow survivor.
  3. She is a  woman from another dimension
  4. ...and George must find her.
  5. She can…
  6. lure him
  7. destroy him
  8. return scraps of his health and sanity
  9. tell him what he had done was only a dream.

 

What was the hook that drew me into the book?

  1. Rawson begins her book with the description of the
  2. ship wreck by three different points of view.
  3. Rawson writes an amazing ‘cryptic’ second chapter
  4. …and I was hooked.
  5.  In chapter two Rawson switches constantly among
  6. four personal pronouns: WE  — I — THEY —   IT.
  7. If you read this chapter too quickly your eyes will glaze over.
  8. I read  line-for- line making a note as to what/who the
  9. …pronoun was referring.  It changes!
  10. This was the only chapter I had to read in this way
  11. …the rest was easy going.
  12. But it is important to understand who is talking in ch 2!
  13. Believe me..after you finish the book
  14. …you should re-read chapter 2.
  15. The pieces of the puzzle will now fall into place!

 

Theme:  abandonment, loneliness, and guilt.

  1. The George  suffers from all these feelings
  2. …which Rawson has translated into a story.

 

Tone: Gothic

  1. Part 1:
  2. whitened swollen ghosts had dragged themselves across the deck
  3. ghosts who wanted nothing more now but to be left alone
  4. looked at the ghosts about him…they were gone —
  5. He is  a creature of the devil.
  6. Ocean-fed devils
  8. Part 3:
  9. “You’ve seen these ghosts“
  10. …headless monsters walking the streets after dark wringing out
  11. …the bodies of cats and rats to drink their blood..”
  12. It is a sprawling birthmark.
  13. …was throbbing, rippling, pulsing. “Another brain in my brain…”
  14. …seethes and stretches, the edges crawling across his back..”
  16. Part 4:
  17. “What do you know about haunting? he asked.
  18. Or spells. Potions. Do you know anything about
  19. …spells to stop a haunting?’

 

Strong point: inner dialogue

  1. Internal narrative is the life’s blood of any story.
  2. Readers don’t just want to see what’s happening to your character.
  3. they want to know what he thinks.
  4. For example: George has thoughts that he
  5. …would LIKE to tell his brother-in-law
  6. ....but cannot.

 

Strong point: tension

  1. Suspense drives the narrative.
  2. Good example is in ch1  part 2.
  3. Tension is building.
  4. Rawson  is withholding information.
  5. She keeps the reader
  6. …waiting and waiting for a shocking revelation.
  7. The character is keeping his secret from his family.
  8. The reader will soon know the secret as well.
  9. Tension:
  10. Why does Henry…George’s son of 5 yr
  11. …use words like niche and reprobate?
  12. Uncle William is amazed  by small Henry.
  13. Does it mean he is ‘different’?  (big words for little kid!!)

 

Strong point:  pace

  1. I never really took notice of ‘pace’
  2. …until I started reading books more carefully.
  3. A writer uses her craft to equally balance action, drama, and plot elements
  4. …and I just miss it completely!
  5. Rawson mixes slow and quick pace chapters  part 3 “Henry” .
  6. Quick: Dialogue:  question – answer b/t characters (George – Alice Jarvis)
  7. Slow – reflections – inner dialogue, dream sequence – Henry dreams of ocean.
  8. Quick: wife about to give birth…George is rushing around get the doctor!
  9. Slow: introduction of new characters with long descriptions, back round
  10. Quick: …heart throbbing revelation for Henry!

 

Conclusion:

  1. Question?
  2. Alien being  has its own philosophy… but what is it?
  3. Why is  alien being implanting itself into  humans?
  4. Why does it insist on adapting to new shapes and forms?
  5. What has happened to push George or the edge?
  6. He is  so committed to finding the truth
  7. …that he’s willing to physically die for it.
  8. These  questions and more, you will have to answer
  9. yourself  after reading this
  10.  Aurealis Award 2018 …winning SF  novel!
  11. #MustRead…..amazing!

 

Last thoughts:

  1. As a reader who  is not drawn to the science fiction genre
  2. …this book delighted, surprised and inspired me
  3. …to read more of Jane Rawson.
  4. I must give science fiction a chance!
  5. This book is original, so well-written
  6. ….clean, sharp and spooky.
  7. I’ll never look at my cat in the same way….!

7
Apr

Jo Chandler: Feeling the Heat

 

Who is Jo Chandler?

  1. Chandler is a freelance journalist and author.
  2. She won the Walkely Award 2017 Freelancer of the Year. 
  3. I discovered Jo Chandler  in  The Best Australian Essays 2016

 

Introduction:

  1. In a attempt to understand what is happening to our planet,
  2. Chandler travels to climate science frontiers
  3. Antarctica, the Great Barrier Reef, the Wimmera and
  4. North Queensland’s tropical rainforests.
  5. Jo Chandler puts together some of the
  6. …pieces in the climate puzzle
  7. …meets many passionate and eccentric characters
  8. …discovers what makes them tick, and
  9. …learns a thing or two about herself.

 

What is Chandler’s goal in this book?

  1. The purpose of the book is to tell the authentic,
  2. raw story of science at the real-world climate frontiers.
  3. Narrator:  Chandler  is of a non-scientist and journalist
  4. ….a questioning observer.
  5. Chandler presents scientist’s evidence as clear as
  6. possible and then takes a step back as all scientists do.
  7. “Our leaders must define the path which will get
  8. …us to where we need to go.” (pg 228, epilogue)

 

What did Chandler find personally?

  1. Chandler uses the metaphor
  2. …the difference between bearing and heading.
  3. Explorers note physical markers to register
  4. …their drift and shift against satellites.
  5. Heading is not always the
  6. …direction you are moving towards.
  7. Heading is the direction you are pointing.
  8. If we fail to define the
  9. …coordinates of our objective (…in life)
  10. …drift out of  course due to crosswinds
  11. …we plough blindly forward
  12. …without heed for perils along the way.
  13. It is important  to find your bearing.
  14. …your position with reference to a known (land)mark.
  15. “”..it feels like a revelation. A strategy to better find my way
  16. …when I return to earth.” (pg  40, ch 3)

 

Storm Front

  • Jo Chandler’s  departure from Hobart to Casey Antarctica:

Flight of the Albaross –  Arriving at Casey Base:

  1. 5 hr flight from Hobart
  2. 70 km (4 hrs rough riding from Wilkins Airport)
  3. 4000 km south of Perth
  4. Flight attendant Airbus landing at  Wilkens Inter Airport:
  5. ” Welcome to Antarctica…it’s not bad out there today
  6. ..mild mid-summer -6 C.”

Buried Treasure

  1. Fact: Antarctica holds 70% of the fresh water on the planet.
  2. Irony: Antarctica is the driest place on earth.
  3. Personal: Chandler experiences Antarctica
  4. …as more than an scientific platform.
  5. She felt moments of connection with nature
  6. …which ache so powerfully
  7. …it is like the instant of finding love.
  8. Antarctica  divines or future….and archives our past.
  9. Reasearch: Ice samples pulled from Law Dome
  10. contain bubbles of the atmosphere
  11. ….dating back 90.000 years!
  12. Expert:  scroll down to see beautiful
  13. …video (3 min) of Antarctica with
  14. … Dr. Tas van Ommen

 

Revisiting Gondwana

  1. Chandler now moves to the Wet Tropics of Australia.
  2. …the subtropical Gondwana Rainforests of Australia World Heritage Area
  3. Despite its small size these tropics host the highest biodiversity in the country.
  4. The forest throbs with life.
  5. Just take the time to LISTEN to the sounds of the rainforest….so relaxing!
  6. I listened…while reading!

  1. Some of the wettest areas on Earth where forests are so
  2. …often shrouded in cloud they truly are “cloud forests”.
  3. Clouds condense on leaves and drip to saturate soils below
  4. But the rainforests are deeply vulnerable
  5. …to human induced climate-change.
  6. Cyclones are a part of the north
  7. …they have always come…and they always will.
  8. But what happens when warmer oceans
  9. …feed the frequency and fury of the storms?
  10. Will the rainforest have the opportunity to recover between blasts?
  11. Cyclone Yasi  30.01.2011  CAT 5 ..most furious storm to visit east coast
  12. …of Australia in a century!
  13. Personal: Chandler feels unsettled in this place with a high ‘ick’ factor.
  14. It takes some days to come to terms with
  15. …the tight grasp of this menacing environment.

The Sleeping Giant:

  1. Climatic change is everywhere in the news.
  2. If you want to get the most out of this book
  3. …I would suggest while you are  reading
  4. …to google for images that will help you see what chandler is discussing.
  5. The Sleeping Giant refers to the East Antarctica ice sheets.
  6. They are now relatively stable.
  7. But Chandler explains that the character of the ice is changing.
  8. (warm current sweeping under the ice sheet)
  9. Without this image for instance …I would not have
  10. ..understood what Chandler meant.
  11. Antarctica is difficult to imagine!
  12. Personal: Chandler feels in Antarctica “..very isolated, very small,
  13. …very lucky and a little afraid.” (pg 112, ch 6)

 

Strong point:

  1. Explanations are clear and in accessible language.
  2. It is not academic book  but very strongly supported
  3. citing numerous articles in science magazines and research papers.
  4. The main topics that are being investigated in Antarcitca are:
  5. Ice sheets – ice melt – atmosphere (ozone hole) – ice cores (drilled to study the past)

 

Strong point:

  1. This is the first book I ever read about climatic change.
  2. Chandler’s perspective as a non-scientist observer
  3. …made me feel at ease.
  4. I was learning….as she was.
  5. Chandler helped me  with her journalistic style ‘here are the facts’  and
  6. …clever analogies (bathtub = hidden underbelly of the  Totten Glacier, ch 6).

 

Strong point: 

  1. You can read  all the chapters one after another
  2. …but I found I was
  3. drowning in information overload.
  4. You can also read the book as a series of essays
  5. …put the book down and let the information settle.

 

Strong point:

  1. Chandler’s book made me more aware of the consequences
  2. of climate change that I experience myself: 
  3. frequent storms,  diluvian cloudbursts and sweltering heatwaves.

 

Weak point: no illustrations!

 

Conclusion:

  1. This book is a great read emphasizing that
  2. …the clock is ticking and issues like
  3. …ice melt and sea-level rise are urgent.
  4. If there is even the smallish risk
  5. …of a very big adverse outcome
  6. ..due to sea rise and ice-melt (Antarctica and Greenland)
  7. it would be wise to do something about it.
  8. “Once the thaw starts the risk is that the
  9. …tipping point is tripped...” (pg 122, ch 6)
  10. But as we know action is blocked by
  11. Big Oil and Big Coal.
  12. I think one of the things I or any other citizen of the world
  13. …can do is #VoteThemOut
  14. Vote  out the politicians
  15. …and leaders of countries who are on the
  16. ..fossil fuel industries…payroll!

 

Last thoughts:

  1. Chandler’s mission:
  2. Explore and explain the dynamics of
  3. …the forces at work in a changing world.
  4. Personally..
  5. …I was most fascinated by the Antarctica.
  6. Jo Chandler’s  storytelling is
  7. ….personal (ch 6-7 and especially the epiloge)
  8. … mixed with scientific: for example…
  9. man-made ocean acidification ch 8
  10. Great Barrier Reef and Heron Island  ch 9-10-11-12
  11. Penguins Antarctic Adélies, elephant seals 
  12. …and mosses, the most advanced plants
  13. …on continental Antarctica! ch 13

  1. It is an amazing feat to
  2. …digest all this scientific information
  3. …clarify all the jargon for the  readers
  4. …who just dabble in science, like me.
  5. One thing I DID LEARN...
  6. What caused the biting cold Polar Vortex
  7. …24 February – 01 March 2018 that brought
  8. ..The Netherlands  back to ice skating on the canals?
  9. There is more heat coming off the relatively ice-free Arctic  waters
  10. …increasing air pressure and
  11. …pushing the polar cold air south …in my direction!
  12. #MustRead

3
Apr

The Acolyte

 

Epigraph: (see photo above)

  1. Written by Harry Graham know for his Ruthless Rhymes
  2. full of  black humor.
  3. Black humor is the humorous portrayal of incidents which should not be laughable.
  4. We find ourselves  laughing, but quickly realize the horror that lies beneath
  5. …the seemingly amusing situation.

 

Introduction:   (exposition)

  1. Setting: Grogbusters, Australia
  2. Timeline: 28 years
  3. Characters: …a hideous Greek chorus of yes-men (pg 7)
  4. This story is not a love triangle.…
  5.  …lines that connect but never never never intersect.
  6. ..You have us, a trapezoid. (pg 88)
  7. Sisters born in Australia: Hilda and Ilse
  8. Hilda –  Hilda wife of Holberg, retained only the
  9. cuckoo-clock vestiges of their fatherland. (pg 12)
  10. Hilda patiently bears his cruelty and indifference,
  11. …along with his frequent infidelities, and remains
  12. humble and servile, even to the
  13. …point of feigning blindness at times.
  14. Ilse –  flax-coloured hair, fragility of bone, cottage cheese skin (pg 12)
  15. Jack Holberg –  …sweated confidence (pg 25)
  16. …the beer-hall piano player turned
  17. …high priest of avant-garde serious music.
  18. “Men can shrivel women in a marriage.
  19. …I’ve watched Hilda shrivel” (pg 73)
  20. Paul Vespers –  (narrator…and in love with Hilda)
  21. …non-achiever, no-hoper, failure,
  22. …parental slap in the face of gratitude. (pg 10)
  23. ..becomes  “valet Vesper” for Holberg.
  24. Paul describes himself:
  25. Cyclops Vesper, the twelfth  man
  26. (non-playing reserve in 11-player cricket side)
  27. a dog in his responses
  28. ….the gauche butler, harem pander, dusting maid. (pg 115)
  29. Paul is ‘The Acolyte” in the title
  30. …willingly giving  up his own life, sacrificed for art and celebrity.

 

What is the first plot point? (act 1)

  1. “I’ve burnt my bridges” ( pg 67) – Paul makes a major decision.
  2. This is the point of no return.
  3. Paul has crossed his personal Rubicon.
  4. He will soon act in a way that cannot be undone.
  5. This decision to leave ‘the outside world’
  6. … drives the plot forward. (tension)
  7. Paul has no clear idea of what he’s really getting himself into.

 

Middle: (act 2)  (religious allusions)

  1. Paul feels he is being punished for following  Holberg.
  2. “Holberg  is my cross and I’m nailed to him...” (pg 70)
  3. Paul adresses the reader: “Have you noticed as I have noticed
  4. …that since the taking of vows (7 yrs with Holberg) my
  5. …style has been bruised?” (pg 80)
  6. “This the beginning of the crack-up?” (pg 80)

 

What is the second  plot point? (act 3….and resolution)

  1. Holberg is  totally unconcerned about  Paul’s feelings.
  2. Holberg is the kicker.
  3. He pushes, jabs, pokes and thumps Paul to a breaking point.
  4. Paul: major character change…reactive –> pro-active
  5. Holberg:  what does he really want?  (pg 117) (..no spoiler)
  6. Climax: Paul and Holberg clash. (pg 117-118) (no spoiler)
  7. Resolution: “It was the laugh that did it.” (pg 155)
  8. Holberg finally comes alive “cracking for the first time” (pg 157)
  9. He does not care about Paul…until  valet Vesper   gets in his way!
  10. Last words of Holberg: ” I’ll finish you Vesper!…Finish you for this.”

 

Theme:

  1. Blindness  (disability)
  2. Irony: blindness is something worthy, characters long for it.
  3. Sense of sight
  4. Irony: gift of sight becomes burdensome.
  5. Paul says near the end of the book  (reads Holberg’s journal in braille)
  6. …that he had to throw off his gift of sight to finally see
  7. …Jack Holberg  for what he really is
  8. …and gain ultimate enlightenment!

 

Conclusion:

  1. Strong point: Astley leaves a trail of clues for the reader.
  2. “…an epiphany that brought me to a self-sense for the minute…”
  3.  parable of trees (pg 22) (Judges 9: 8-15 …look it up!)
  4. Every character  is  either physically or metaphorically blind!
  5. Astley fills the novel with subtle references
  6. ” I buried my outrage in sherry.” (not wanting to see) pg 7
  7. Sadie (Holberg’s guardian) 
  8. fakes blindness herself…
  9. “Sadie has sensibly turned her back on all of us.” (pg 119)
  10. Statues in garden  
  11. “Their blind eyes stare at…fruit the will never touch”(pg 67)
  12. While you read the book…just notice who cleverly Astley does this!

 

  1. Strong point: Astley  writes a roman à clef
  2. “…she vented her rage at ‘followers’ of all kinds
  3. …a critique of ‘followers’ of the literary critical establishment.”
  4. ref: Thea Astley: Inventing Her Own Weather by  K. Lamb, pg 214)
  5. Pg 153:  Holberg plays with a sling-shot Paul made:
  6. “What’s the purpose of  it? Let me guess…Beleaguered by the
  7. public and the critics, we aim this pretty thing in our defense. Is that it?”
  8. Astley’s book represents the ‘sling-shot’.
  9. Pg 55: The wolf-pack will be on to me.
  10. Bite and snap till you’ve made it,
  11. …then fawn to the very end.”
  12. ….sounds like Thea Astley speaking!!

 

  1. Strong point: clever metaphors, allusions to music,
  2. …Catholic rituals and history, poetry.
  3. Half the fun is trying to find all
  4. …these ‘gems’ hidden in the text!
  5. Weak point: ch 3 and ch 7  where the story
  6. …begins to drag and feels stretched
  7. …but just keep on reading!

 

Personal favorites:

  1. pg 15: “Pulling on my clothes was like robing for tenebrae. There was a death somewhere and no communion”    This is a brilliant allusion.
  2. Tenebrae is Latin for “darkness”. It is a religious service consisting of matins and lauds of the last three days of Holy Week. (Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday.
  3. Tone: ominous, gloom.

 

  1. pg 17: ” I was whacking away towards Canossa in an instant, putting genuine arms around her this time…..and sensing Hilda’s curious eyes!” (Paul seeking pardon from mother.)
  2. In January 1077 the Holy Roman emperor Henry IV did penance at the castle Canossa to obtain a pardon from his excommunication by Pope Gregory VII.
  3. Tone: funny

 

Last thoughts:

  1. I had to re-read chapter 1.
  2. I have missed so many clues.
  3. The first four paragraphs are in the far future.
  4. Don’t worry about Nielsen, music critic, in the first sentence…
  5. “true earthworm in the garden of art (pg 149)
  6. …he pops up in the last chapter.
  7. I tell you this so you won’t make the mistakes I made!
  8. Paul is older and his remarks reveal how he feels.
  9. “ I’d been in the habit of giving for years.
  10. …But my tongue was in clamps.”
  11. I have to finish The Acolyte today but it will be rough going.
  12. The book is intense every word packs a punch and
  13. …this takes a toll on my brain.
  14. It is an exhausting book….but also exhilarating.
  15. I see the craft in the writing and this comes
  16. ..from Astley’s depth  of knowledge of syntax, poetry,
  17. literary devices (irony, anaphora, metaphor, homonym).
  18. Her Catholic heritage and love of music  add the finishing touches.
  19. Astley uses latin phrases, catholic history ( “…wacking towards Canossa” pg 17)
  20. autos-da-fé (ritual of public penance of condemned heretics) pg 147.
  21. details of the catholic rituals  (tenebrae) and many
  22. references to composers, (Dag Wiren) their works and  the
  23. vocabulary of music (cadenza, allegro, triad, allegretto (pg 139).
  24.  Astley’s  story structure is nothing more or less than a
  25. ..recognition of how life works.
  26. She recreates it in a dramatic, satirical way on the page.
  27. It took Astley 3 years to write this  book.
  28. It took me 4 days to read….158 pages!
  29. I was relieved, nobody died at the end.
  30. No headaches….tonight…just a feeling that I have
  31. …read great literature!
  32. #MustRead

 

 

Cover:

  1. This book is not available as an E-book
  2. so I had to order it from Australia.
  3. This is the cover I received from University Queensland Press
  4. …and is not available on Amazon.

28
Mar

A Writing Life Helen Garner and Her Work

  • Author: B. Brennan
  • Title: A Writing Life Helen Garner and Her Work
  • Published: 2017
  • Triva: Longlist Stella Prize 2018

 


Conclusion:

  1. Helen Garner writes fiction but has accrued
  2. …quite a bit of attention with her non-fiction books:
  3. Joe Cinque’s Consolation ( 2004) and
  4. The House of Grief (2014).
  5. She delves deeply into a crime, follows the
  6. judicial process carefully, speaks to expert
  7. psychologists/psychiatrists/doctors/pathologists and the family members.
  8. It is an extraordinary way of writing.
  9. She has to take care that
  10. ..she is not “drawn into the darkness”
  11. …of the subject she is writing about.
  12. It has taken an emotional an
  13. physical toll on Helen Garner.
  14. I had my doubts on page 80.
  15. I nearly abandoned this book. Why?
  16. I knew nothing about Helen Garner.
  17. I had difficultlygetting through her …early writing years ( Monkey Grip)
  18. But I found the muscle to keep going after a slow start.
  19. Once Helen Garner moved to non-fiction
  20. …I was hooked while reading chapter 7.
  21. Strong point:  Garner’s her ability to get into people’s heads.
  22. Strong point: Garner operates as a filter for ideas.
  23. Strong point: Garner presents the evidence of the crime
  24. but into a form that builds the narrative tension.
  25. Last thoughts:
  26. The book is an impressive undertaking.
  27. Bernadette Brennan did a stellar job.
  28. The book deserved to be mentioned
  29. …on the longlist for Stella Prize 2018.
  30. I am only sorry the jury did
  31. …not place it on the  Stella Prize shortlist.
  32. But we all know...sometimes the real winners
  33. …are on the long list!
  34. You just have to look for them!
15
Mar

Anna Sargo-Ryan You Know How It Is (short story)

  • Author: Anna Spargo-Ryan
  • Title: You Know How It Is
  • Published: 2018    @islandmagtas  #Island152

 

Conclusion:

  1. You Know How It Is  by Anna Spargo-Ryan is a story
  2. I found in the literary magazine Island nr 152.
  3. The magazine is shipped to me …all the way from Hobart Tasmania!
  4. There is some great writing and writers to be discovered ‘down under’.
  5. The Anna Spargo-Ryan  has learned the first lesson in writing:
  6. “hook”  the reader in the first sentence.
  7. “The first thing Les Harrison catches on his
  8. …new line is a shark with his wife’s hand inside”.
  9. This shock start sets the stage .
  10. This is going to be a husband (Les) who
  11. …discovers his missing wife…dead (Claire).
  12. Claire announces earlier (flashback) that  she is traveling
  13. …with some teachers to Sidney for a conference,
  14. …no partners allowed.
  15. Les is afraid his wife is leaving him.
  16. Spargo-Ryan stitches the layers of the narrative together
  17. …alternating the present (5x) with flashbacks (4x).
  18. She creates a seam of tension  that kept pulling me through the story.
  19. I discovered Anna Spargo-Ryan  in The Best Australian Essays 2016.
  20. Her story  How to Love Football
  21. …about her grandfather and his favorite football team the Norwood Redlegs
  22. …was heartwarming,  good-feeling story.
  23. In You Know How It Is 
  24. Anna Spargo-Ryan shows her darker side with a whiff of humor.

 

9
Mar

Tracker

  • Author: Alexis Wright
  • Title: Tracker
  • Published: 2017
  • Trivia: Shortlisted for the Stella Prize 2018
  • Trivia: #AWW2018 
  • #NonFicReads18   Doing Dewey (Katie)

 

Conclusion:

  1. Before starting this book….I read NO reviews about it.
  2. I wanted to  begin it with a clean slate.
  3. I read the introduction and the prologue in the
  4. …hope it would prepare me for an interesting book.
  5. This is a collection of short personal narratives.
  6. Wright fails to create an interesting situation.
  7. Excessive description:
  8. long winded, no powerful prose to ‘hook’ the reader.
  9. Irrelevant information:
  10. The first few lines of your story are crucial
  11. Wright gave me trivial information…nothing I could sink my teeth in!
  12. The writing  in this chapter is at elementary level.
  13. I hope Wright changes her  writing style
  14. …otherwise I may  not last 650 pages of this.
  15. 4 chapters are written in first person point of view.
  16. Each chapter had more than 7 changes of voice.
  17. Chapter 1 and 3  had a whopping
  18. …16 different changes of perspective.
  19. This is not the way to ‘grab’ a readers attention!
  20. There is certainly nothing  wrong
  21. …with multiple first-person narrators.
  22. We  avoid getting only one person’s  view of the action.
  23. But it should be done well!
  24. There are pages of nothing but
  25. …I  did this, I did that, I was thinking, So I said to him…
  26. I made it through part 1, 20% of the book.
  27. Time to look forward…
  28. there were pages and pages
  29. …of the same waiting for me.
  30. This is an exhaustive form of
  31. experimental  ‘collective’ memoir.
  32. I think A. Wright decided to write her book in
  33. this style because she wanted not to refer to emotion but
  34. …to re-create it in the first person narrative.
  35. I just could not manage 650 pages of it.
  36. Narrative sounds like the flow of casual talk
  37. …campfire yarns…and in my opinion no great craft.
  38. You may like it….I did not.
  39. #DNF

 

Last Thoughts:

  1. If you are interested in the power of contemporary Aboriginal storytelling
  2. …then I suggest you read My Place by Sally Morgan.

 

 

 

 

 

29
Nov

Position Doubtful

Tanami Desert Australian Sunset

 

Title:

  1. The book is named after a term Mahood came across
  2. …in her father’s account of his expedition
  3. across the Tanami Desert in 1962.
  4. He observed that the only landmark marked anywhere near his route
  5. …was marked Position Doubtful.

 

Kim Mahood:

 

Kim, daughter of a Tanami rancher…

  1. grew up in the region of Tanami Desert
  2. …on a cattle station  in East Kimberley.
  3. She was raised in part by Aboriginal people.
  4. She has a distinctly different and deeper relationship
  5. with the community here…
  6. living and working in Mulan for three months out of the year.
  7. Mahood has been painting a set of very large canvases
  8. that are at first simple topographical maps of the land.
  9. The maps are both works of art, but also
  10. documents that can help influence politics and policies.

In this book Mahood takes us with her as she returned for

  1. 20 years to a remote pocket of inland Australia that extends
  2. across the Tanami Desert to the edge of East Kimberley.
  3. A one time pilgrimage to the country of her late childhood has
  4. morphed into yearly field trips with her artist friend Pam Lofts.
  5. “We were like migratory birds, driven to return year after year.” (pg 290)

 

There were very arcane chapters in which Manhood explains

  1. how she uses archaeological grids as an intermediary between
  2. her map making project and observance of aboriginal paintings.
  3. She learns to read the desert landscape with skill.
  4. Mahood uses these skills to give her maps and paintings  the
  5. visual shimmer of the desert breathing the Aboriginal essence into her works.

 

On a personal note….Mahood touchingly reveals her grief for

  1. friend Pam Lofts as she dies from MND (Lou Gehrig’s disease).
  2. She describes the map of their friendship.
  3. Mahood’s also makes peace with dog ghosts
  4. — Old Sam who made the first pilgrimage,
  5. Slippers for seven trips and now her pal Pirate.

 

The best chapters are the last 3:

  1. Requiem
  2. Unstable Horizons 
  3. Undertow
  4. …just because they are so personal. (pg 286 – 339)

 

Last thoughts:

  1. This was a very informative but more importantly moving book.
  2. Kim Mahood  can PAINT  and WRITE !
  3. It is a combination of Jung and Geography
  4. It confirms what I also feel
  5. ….place, memory and emotion are  inextricably linked.
  6. Bravo…Kim Mahood
  7. #MustRead  or #MustListen  audiobook.
  8. PS: For @Brona’s Books
  9. …I learned another word that pops into my head
  10. ….when I think of Australia: “the cockroach bush!”

 

22
Nov

A Boat Load of Home Folk

Winslow Homer

 

  • Author: Thea Astley  (1925-2004)
  • Title: A Boat Load of Home Folk
  • Published: 1968
  • Genre: social satire
  • Setting: Coral Sea Island
  • “…it was Maugham country”  (tropical setting)
  • “…Everything was  Gauguinesqe.”
  • Timeline: 48 hours
  • Weather: “..it rained hammers of wet.”
  • Trivia: #AWW    AusWomenWriters
  • Trivia: List of Challenges

 

Conclusion:

  1. The book recounts the effect of a  hurricane on a group of Australians
  2. …stranded on a Coral Island.
  3. Love, infidelity, passion and prejudice
  4. …all come together in the ‘eye of a hurricane’.
  5. The plot is cleverly set within the saying of the Mass by a local Catholic Bishop.
  6. The characters are overwhelmed by their sinful unworthiness.
  7. “Domine, non sum dignus…” (Lord, I am not worthy…).
  8. Astley left the Catholic Church…..but she is not without God.
  9. She show us how her characters (…as well as Astley)
  10. found God outside of Christian practice.
  11. Thea Astley is blessed with a ‘nose for the lurking detail’.
  12. That is what makes her writing so exceptional in my opinion.
  13. What is unique about Astley was her readiness to take a side track.
  14. Her satire about the ‘steamy’ side of the Catholic clergy’s sexual urges
  15. ….that we now know more of… is bold!
  16. Priest Father Lake is just bout to ‘crack’ under the oppressive heat and his vocation.
  17. “…he could observe tantalizingly the brown John Terope (house boy)
  18. …padding between the lime trees towards the water tanks behind the school.” (pg 27)
  19. Even in the 1960’s Astley could see how it all
  20. tied up and was not afraid to publish it in her books!
  21. Tone:  biting satire
  22. Astley criticizes the Catholic belief system…yet again!
  23. She exposes the weaknesses of the church adherents and the
  24. …bishop is very unsympathetic
  25. …and there is nothing ‘divine’ about him!
  26. #MustRead
  27. … Astley is a master writer!

 

Don’t you wish you could write like this?

Marriage:

  1. The bliss flaked off within months and there they were…
  2. the contestants, one battered, one victor…
  3. and the ropes sagging all around the ring.” (pg 60)

Lover:

  1. “Taking a lover was no more to her than…
  2. …an after work gin …” (pg 75)

 

PS:  One of my favorite images:

  • Miss Paradise and Miss Trump..
  • …genteel ladies trying to graciously climb into a dinghy to go ashore.
  • Astely captures this perfectly!
  • “…the orgy of leg and thigh and overbalance…” (pg 16)

 

17
Nov

My Place

 

What do we know about Sally Morgan?

  1. I knew nothing about Sally Morgan until I read
  2. Brona’s Books post in 2016 about her children’s book Sister Heart.
  3. Then I stumbled upon her  simple poem Janey Told Me.
  4. In just a few words you feel something hidden…a stigma no one must know!
  5. During  my weeks searching for books for #AusReadingMonth @Brona’s Books
  6. …I found myself curious about the plight of the Aboriginal race in Australia.
  7. So I decided to read My Place (memoir) by Ms Morgan.
  8. Brona tells us in her post:
  9. “Sally Morgan’s autobiography, My Place was
  10. one of the publishing super stories of the late 1980’s.
  11. Her story was fascinating but has since been
  12. …surrounded by various controversies and academic debates.”

 

Introduction:

  1. Sally Morgan tell us how she learned  of her Indigenous Australian heritage.
  2. Morgan visits family, old acquaintances  in the land of her ancestors.
  3. She tape-recorded the monologues of her relatives and they take over the narration.

 

Quote:  pg 192

  1. Sally: I found out that there was a lot to be ashamed of.
  2. Mum: You mean we should feel ashamed?
  3. Sally: No, I mean Australia should.

 

Conclusion:

  1. This is one one of the first books written from the Aboriginal point of view.
  2. “No one knows what it was like for us.” (pg 208)
  3. People must realize  that identity is a complex thing.
  4. Identity is often not fully dependent on
  5. …your culture or the way you look.
  6. Morgan’s family shame…
  7. was so strong that she had not been told she was indigenous.
  8. She was well into her teens when her mother admitted the truth. (pg 170-71)
  9. Sally Morgan’s book  My Place was written  30 years ago.
  10. But is is still a very relevant
  11. She is an excellent storyteller…and her family history will touch a heart string.
  12. It touched mine!

 

Last thoughts:

  1. I started this book My Place yesterday in the train
  2. I never looked out the window because
  3. this story was very moving.
  4. The book really picks up steam in chapter ‘Owning up’ (pg 165).
  5. Pages 7-164 deal with Morgan’s childhood.
  6. Basic info…but not overly interesting.
  7. So you must decide is ‘skimming’ in the beginning
  8. …of the book is a good idea,
  9. Despite the slow start… the book engaged and entertained me
  10. ….that is what good books do!
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