Zed
Author Gerard Lee writes a witty tale of a young man's idiocy. Under normal circumstances I may have just enjoyed this for what it is, light entertainment. But this book is a case of me having been there at the time of the events and being taken on a nostalgic tour of areas I hung out as young bloke. Things I had forgotten about were given a nod. How many Brisbanites recall that Channel 10 was once Channel O for example ? And the Curry Shop gets a reference. Oh how I recall that place being the den of iniquity for us underground hipsters during those authoritarian times when the state of Queensland was ruled with an iron fascist fist. Recommended for any Brisbane reader who is in their mid-fifties or a bit older. They will get a great sense of nostalgia in recalling a culturally changing Brisbane from a sleepy country town to a city making its way in a wider world.
http://www.couriermail.com.au/ipad/river-city-dreaming/news-story/f08076616cbb14dd3809e4161d74fac3
If I was asked to say what this book was about I would most likely answer “I dunno really, I feel real bad inside for not knowing.” Perhaps after all, one has to end the read by characterising it as a sort of cloud or emanation, but invisible, like the vapour you know is present in the air of the room that you sit in, makes part of the air that you know is there when you look out of a window – your eye is traversing air, so your intellect tells you when you look at a sparrow pecking insects off a twig; and you know that the air is part of the water vapour which at any moment – as a slap of cold air comes in from somewhere else – will condescend as mist or fall as rain. This book was everywhere, in everything, moved in my blood, my mind. This book was nothing that could be described once and for all, or pinned down, or kept stationary; this book is an illness, a tiredness, boils; this book is a pain, forty three years old at the time of writing, locked into a necessity to – sweep away dead leaves; this book is the price or unreliability of hoping that one likes it, the way it might not work, the difference between the critics thoughts, those if us that like it and those of us that don't, the book is finally what you experience...and is in a space in my brain, moved the players in my brain, just as much as there is in my ordinary brain where one hour followed another and life obeyed the unities, like a certain kind of play.
As this winter endures there is a bad state of affairs in the words in this book as in this review, with me. Or perhaps it was only that I was reading what went on in this book less clearly. Instead of understanding the book, or the story, where there was a plot that opened the tale from chapter to chapter, or even paragraph to paragraph, so I was not understanding the opportunities and possibilities, but limited to the next turn of the page, the opening of the next page - the sense of words, words always opening out and away kept within a framework of order within which I read – the sense of words, of text always opening out and away kept within a framework of a novel within which I am reading, as part of it – now is seems as if a perspective has shifted and I am seeing no meaning when I read this novel, nor am I able to read through it fast as I revisit sentence after sentence and could visit them all and get exhausted. At any rate, this feeling of surprise, of expectancy, has gone, and I could even say this stream of conscious drivel of a book, until recently so full of alternatives and possibilities, had absorbed into me something of the claustrophobic air of the realm of the ‘personal' with its rigid necessity. And yet the disorder had never been so great. Sometimes it seemed to me that this book has been set up, carefully, correct to the last detail, simply in order to be knocked flat; as if this book had been taken over and decorated to display one hundred manners, modes, epochs – but quite arbitrarily, not consecutively and in an order to give sense of stream of consciousness boredom, set up too perfect – but then knock flat. I cannot give an idea as to the boredom of this book. Perhaps I should not have finished this book at all, it is so heaped with prose as I have just written, overwrought and pretentious. Other books of this type at least have a story to tell but this is a literary refuse dump; boring words fill the pages. Some of the words neatly set out on the pages, but tedious and dull. Once in the middle of this formal style of stream consciousness boredom – lifeless as if it had been written for a joke, the remains of my patience wore thin, I read a book on China, I even read a ponderous history of the Warsaw uprising, I even began a light comedy novel from my home town, I even baked potatoes. I knew that I had to soldier on, and if I wanted to keep my life sane at least reach the end. Already I am a corpse, with blood staining the carpet around me.
Winner of the Miles Franklin in 1985 and certainly an interesting choice. The writing is excellent and the story is fine but the presentation just feels too forced. It now has a certain feel that it may have been of its time.
Richard Miller a polio ridden child of WW2 takes his enquiring mind and his actors needs to the bright lights of Melbourne and then Sydney and drags himself into the culturally changing world of the 1960's. The reader is constantly engaged in the Doubleman thoughts of a couple of characters with Richard, for me at least, being the most important. His thinking seems to lead from one direction to the other with a final burst of religious idealism that makes for a thoughtful ending though one that leaves the reader to decide what is happening.
The author is seemingly aware, or been a fan, of the acoustic and electric folk upheavals of the 60's and also aware of the influence of occultist Aleister Crowley. For me this lay heavily on the story late and as much as I enjoyed the book it just seemed a slightly ham fisted attempt to make the underground scene in Sydney something it was not. One historical error is that the band that is central to the story is an electric folk band and their time is 1964/65 with their big influence Pentangle. Pentangle did not form until 1967. I doubt that the author cared for pedants like me though. I had never heard of magic mushroom cookies either. Maybe someone can tell me different on that.
In the end an enjoyable read, very good writer and look forward to reading more by him, but not a book worthy of the Miles Franklin Award in my view.
So good this book it hurts. This is my second Thea Astley novel and if I thought the Miles Franklin award winner The Slow Natives was very good this, her second novel verges on great.
Written in 1960 this stunning books stands the test of time. The author's writing shows profound cynicism from the beginning and very deep sadness at a very bitter end. The descriptive prose and the use of brilliant analogy and metaphor make Thea Astley a great writer and I for one look forward to immersing myself in her work well into the future.
The themes of the book are what many should not have to relate to but just maybe could. Cruel gossip that cuts at the core of the understanding reader as they are taken on a journey of the pretentiously small town middle class. A middle class forcing their pathetic demands for conformity onto their children and their children's peers as they swill sherry at their beach houses but seem to, with consummate ease, wallow in their own barbaric self-serving pity. It was true back in the time that this book was written and can still be to this very day. Ask any one that has left a small town in Qld to escape the rigid thinking of their so called betters. In fact ask anyone anywhere about their needs to leave small minded thinking.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1AJPpiVW60
All around the room in a whirl
You saw dancers catch fire when you were still a girl
In a town that's built on the whispers of tattlers
But yet to inspire a single a single dot in the Commonwealth atlas
God only knows how these things ever start
An empty plate in the place of a heart
That finds it's way on a trail of crumbs
And stains windowpanes on the prints of thumbs
So go take rest
Pull the blankets up tightly with your knees to your chest
A far off sound
But to such delicate ears it must seem like there's a zoo burning down
A nagging ache there must be some place better
Searched through every library book down to the last letter
Even Thornfield Manor sounds enticing
With echoes down the hall and on the walls the heads of bison
So go take rest
Pull the blankets up tightly with your knees to your chest
A schoolyard song
And no one can blame you for getting it so horribly wrong
The old saddlers breath that always smells of leather
The café sign letters been faded forever
Irrelevant facts from the history tester
Snowed under the chalk dust of last semester
Can't you see
What it's done to your mother, what it's done to me?
All their words
Will shatter into pieces when I lock you in my arms again
The story is about one of the strange quarks of life that makes the least likely figure, in this case Frank Harland, noted as an artist of extraordinary talent beyond what he could have been considering his circumstances. Born to a dirt poor widower before the Great War we follow Harland's outsider life and that of his outsider family as he becomes closely associated with the flawed middle class Vernon's.
I rapidly got sucked in hard by this brilliant book. Malouf's writing is a pleasure. Descriptive without being overwrought. He has written such wonderful prose that I found myself rereading his powerful descriptions of Harland's art as well as the accidental life and fate that he was immersed by. The writing was so good that it could seamlessly convey the changes in narration from the third person to the first, never making me the reader lose track of the intense power of the words written. Their power made it easy to read of a changing Brisbane, and with that Australia in general, from one being a begotten colonial outpost to a nation becoming part of a changing wider world. All this mirrored through the life of the strange but gifted Harland and his family through to, the sometime narrator, Phil Vernon who in his own way was aware of being an observer to that change.
I was recommended this book by Greg. His fantastic review here.
An Australian literary classic!
I read a lot of John Wyndham in my Sci Fi youth. I suppose typical of the times he was that perfect English disaster/dystopia writer that was popular in the 50's. A style that held its own for a long time after. I have hazy memories of being enthralled by The Day of the Triffids, The Midwich Cuckoos and The Chrysalids but Chocky passed me by. I wonder what I would have made of it back then.
Reading this in later life I can but say that it is Sci Fi for sure but hardly disaster/dystopian writing I recall. In fact I found the book rather hopeful in tone. To tell why would give the story away so for those interested in 50'/60's sci fi I say read it. It is a good read.
But be warned. It is written in a style that had me cringing periodically. So middle upper class with lots of mummies and daddies. Whiskies snorted by daddy and cigarettes lit by mummy to ease their tension. Lots of “old man”s even from father to son. I have no memory of this in the other three Wyndham books I read but then I read them an eternity ago.
Patrick Leigh Fermor is such a great writer that he makes this a seamless story. The abduction is fairly well known having had previous books written about and a film made. Anyone that has an interest in the Cretan events of WW2 will find this a more than useful addiction to their reading. Though the main story is short, only 91 pages in my copy, there is plenty more that the publishers have added to keep interest. Nine of the authors wartime reports make fascinating reading and there is a very good guide to the abduction route that has to be more than useful for anyone who would like to take that in while visiting Crete. Very good.
On a personal level this reminded me in style of Voss by Patrick White. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1734167.Voss
The differences being that the story itself was stronger, the occasional stream of consciousness delivery at least made sense and I found the characters believable. Voss I detested for confusing me. Bring Larks and Heroes on the other hand never once made me feel like I was missing something.
As far as the story goes it was grim reading. The brutality of a convict settlement, in what I presumed was present day Sydney, made harsh reading. There was a foreboding sense of danger throughout the book that culminated in an ending that was sadly gripping. The main protagonist, Halloran, was a character I could relate to. He was not saccharine sweet by any stretch of the imagination but had a humane touch and was consciously thoughtful in a manner that made him compelling.
Only my 2nd Keneally, I read the more well-known Schindler's Ark many years back, but I may read him some more. Very good.
The very interesting Battle for Crete is covered from an Australasian point of view. Written in a populist style this starts with 170 pages covering the Greek campaign and even Tobruk before getting into the subject at hand. A well researched book, very good maps, footnotes galore and an excellent bibliography. Written in chronological order this is recommended for anyone interested in the subject. Stylistically the author is not my type but none the less the general reader with no previous reading on the subject should enjoy.
Very good. Very clever use of historical figures and cultural references. Those historical and cultural nods do make it a very cynical book. This novel is an attack on organised religion, in this case the Roman Catholic Church. Science is frowned upon and even suppressed in some cases. Even the enlightened practise apartheid and are ethnocentric.
I have been thinking about this book and Pavane by Keith Roberts. Amiss gives a nod to Pavane in this book as one of the many cultural references.
The similarities is that we have a catholic theocracy ruling England. Amis book covers the treatment of one specific individual by the ruling class. It is a very good tale and has one thinking about authoritarianism as a subject.
Pavane on the other hand has 6 chapters with each covering various individuals from all classes. Each chapter is vaguely interlinked so that made me feel that Roberts was able to get to the core of the individuals and how they used their circumstances within their class to their advantage, how they rebelled, how they lived, how they died. I prefer Pavane. It has a humanity about the characters that I found compelling, I had a sympathy for their circumstances. The Alteration did not quite get to that depth of characterisation.
My review of Pavane.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1616637279?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1
“Peculiar trait of the western people, thought Grant, that you could sleep with their wives, despoil their daughters, sponge on them, defraud them, do almost anything that would mean at least ostracism in normal society and they would barely seem to notice it. But refuse a drink with them and they immediately become your mortal enemy” A brilliant exaggeration of the fact by author Kenneth Cook.
Written in 1961 this short story is proof that the characterisation of the typical bush Australian alpha male as generally a Crocodile Dundee style individual was, and still is, a nonsense. The overly matey drinking culture was, and again still is, based on the ability to drink copious amounts of very poor beer, fight, shoot and root and if you are unable to be part of that you are an obvious poofta and should bugga off. What a good book!
In the end I actually began to despise this book. Overwrought and pretentious in my opinion. A simple story based on an explorer disappearing in outback Australia during colonial times I never felt that the simplicity of the story was saved by the writing. Challenging prose is fine by me but this went beyond a challenge.
I almost feel that I read this book two and a half times as I read and reread passage after passage to try and get the nuances that were obviously completely above my tiny little brain. At one point Voss reads a poem written by one of his men and hates it. I reread the poem and his reaction to it four times and even now as I type this, a reread for a fifth time, I am none the wiser as to why he dislikes the poem. What did I miss? Someone tell me.
The presentation of this book is also paragraphless (is that a word?) in what seemed one long almost stream of consciousness delivery that had me returning to reread why the sudden change from character to character. No doubt intentional but it left me frustrated and annoyed.
But again what would I know. Loved by many, a friend of mine adores this and has read it several times, awarded the first ever Miles Franklin and author Patrick White is the only Australian Nobel Prize winner. Yep what would I know. I feel an utter traitor to Australian literature considering the reverence this is held in some circles but to be frank I detested it. It took all my will to finish and I am glad I have. Onwards and upwards.
In this book we get the thoughts of a Red Setter called Archimedes.
I say that his name is Archimedes but as Archimedes himself writes “My name is Harrison B Guest. ‘Happy for short'” His human family, or employers as Archimedes explains early in the book, call him various names with the initial birth name being Spangler Red Brian Boru. “Other aliases I have, courtesy of human superiority are Blue (because I am red) Dog, Mr Dogg, Towser, Buster, Red, Here Boy, Hey You and Hey Mong”.
Archimedes has learnt to also understand what not only humans say but other animals. Archimedes can read. Archimedes is very articulate and can explain things to us human reader's about dog thinking in a very human way. Archimedes explains the way dogs smell us for example. The reality is that we stink. We humans are repulsive to dogs. Not as in the way we physically smell but in the way we smell of things as unedifying as death and desperation. Archimedes can smell our loneliness, defeat, fear but then also our joy. Even our criminality. Archimedes notices that things pray on man's minds, money issues for example. He notices when we are unwell. He sometimes tries to let us know but we never quite get that. He is good at observing us and is interested in everything. Archimedes says that if anyone can tell him of anything that is not interesting he would be “.....interested to see it”
Archimedes watches Seagulls. He watches a protest one day. Gay seagulls are protesting about the “discriminating practises by heterosexual Gulls” As they protest Archimedes asks a profound question as to why they walk when they can fly.
Archimedes observes that he is one of The Fortunate Few. He writes that many dogs lose employment. With that their employers either take them a long way away and dump them or at worst take them to a concentration camp where they get a needle and then are incinerated. All that for just losing their jobs.
Archimedes observes two dogs fighting over territory. Apparently one had once been into “oblivion” but he heard a cat explain that after death there was a beautiful place where there was peace. Now said dog did nothing but fight. Archimedes profoundly observed that perhaps he fought “...to counter the threat of endless peace....”
Archimedes observes human debt. The fact that humans don't have any money but are out to buy the world. In Archimedes opinion “.....the taker of credit is a thief of the future, and the giver of credit aids and abets the theft.”
Archimedes comments on democracy in Australia. He thinks that lies come from the government, press, business, educationalists, and are left lying around. He thinks that the spirit of Australia is the people. Though “not in the land they squat on”. The spirit of the land he thinks will stay a secret forever.
Archimedes see a Gulls wedding. He hears them chatter and finds that the groom is a member of the fire watch and that the bride a food researcher. Interestingly the couple's parents are conservationists who “.....work to save the customs and the attitudes of the past....”
Archimedes wonders why humans think the way they do. He heard a beautiful bird song one day and jumped about to bring it to the attention of his family, they thought he wanted to eat the bird. He was almost annoyed at their presumption.
But in the end Archimedes is satisfied with his lot in life. He is happy in that kindness is “the foundation” of his religious beliefs and he finds kindness most temperate and fair. He has passed through all the stages of a dog's life. And he has written a book! What more can he want!
We have a novel in similar structures of style from the past that David Ireland has written, the standard short, sharp essay like chapters. But the tone of his writing has changed considerably. Interestingly the most positive of his past books was for me The Glass Canoe but this one outshines that as it just glows with a future that is positive. David Ireland delivers Archimedes happy with his lot in life, able to observe human inanity and foibles but able to shrug them all off. Ireland writes with a wittiness beyond his usual dark satire and irony. The book ends on a hopeful note.
Does it work? To a degree but its whimsiness just leaves it short of being very good. Plus the themes of the past appear periodically and that in itself leaves it a little too close to being ‘more of the same'. But I would recommend it. Those that like light fantasy and dogs should enjoy Archimedes and the Seagle. Plus the joke about a dog called Dogenes is worth the entrance fee alone. At 228 pages easy to read. A sunny afternoon book.
How does a white, late 50's, Australian come to read a satire on race relations in the USA, an area he has little knowledge about in said subject?
I had recently read the brilliant A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James and was telling “all and sundry” what a superb read it was. I could recall a fair bit of the heady days of Marley and the powerful political fallout in Jamaica back in the late 70's. I had got Exodus on release so was not in new territory subject wise. The writing and presentation was so powerful as to be mesmerising and I was hooked. But in conversation “all and sundry” began to tell me about this book by Paul Beatty called The Sellout. “All and sundry” finally became the final push to read The Sellout in the shape of a new dad at a suburban one year old's birthday party, you know the type of event, the mums all go gah gah at the kids and the dads talk about other things while their kids gorge themselves on cake. The “all and sundry” new dad, I am not a new dad by the way, just kept shaking his head about this book The Sellout. He had various ways of saying read it:- “you have to read it” “by the sound of it if you liked that Marley book you have to read this” “if you like satire you have to read this” “sounds like a little bit of humour in that Marley book but this is entirely satirical humour so you have to read it” “I did not understand a lot of the references but I got the gist to the point that you have to read it” and so on and so forth. And so I did.
About 70 pages in, I discovered a few things. As mentioned above I knew little of US race relations and a fair few of the references towards that thorny subject were beyond me. So with that I started afresh and while reading marked each not or little understood reference and referred back to them with an internet search after each chapter. With that all I can say is “what a journey”. The journey has been a slow read as the enormity of my lack of knowledge loomed large. I read each wiki (or other) link as I went on a weird and wonderful journey into both a political, cultural, and most of all, satirical look at the subject at hand. My copy says that one review said the “......longer I stared at the pages...” the smarter I would get. Nice! And with that new intelligence all I can say is what a book, what a hilarious learning curve it all was for this little white boy.
What more can I add? I mean there are more meaningful dissertations on The Sellout than the drivel I am writing but just maybe anyone from a non US background, who is white and sheltered from US race issues can use the links I used to assist them along in this riveting read. And my apologies for missing any. I put in what I did not know, know little about or just did not recall.
Enjoy.
Prologue
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scopes_Trial
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammurabi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottsboro_Boys
Supreme court “Courtroom friezes: The South Wall Frieze includes figures of lawgivers from the ancient world and includes Menes, Hammurabi, Moses, Solomon, Lycurgus, Solon, Draco, Confucius, and Augustus.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laozi
The Shit You Shovel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piaget's_theory_of_cognitive_development
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dred_Scott
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plessy_v.Fergusonhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luther_Campbellhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MEChAhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Bloomhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-Fifths_Compromisehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Albert_experimenthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bystander_effecthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Kitty_Genovesehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandwagon_effecthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enter_the_Wu-Tang(36Chambers)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_and_Mamie_Clarkhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Tubmanhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Horse_Whisperer(novel)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1107024.The_Planning_Of_Change
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Still_of_the_Night_(The_Five_Satins_song)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_flash
http://blog.press.princeton.edu/2016/10/28/daniel-hack-the-sellout-and-a-tradition-of-black-anglophilia/
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=willie%20lump%20lump
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oedipus_complex
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salton_Sea
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student's_t-test
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Russell
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Gabriel_Mountains
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington_Carver
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phaseolus_vulgaris
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregor_Mendel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chia_Pet
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Kangaroo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Brannum
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjKtPau8HTk
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ataxia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosopagnosia
Page 66. My best effort at translation of the following:-
yo soy el gran pinche mayate! julio cesar chavez es un puto
I think it means
“I am the great dung beetle servant. Julio Cesar Chavez is a fucker” See comment 20 below.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Gang
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Switzer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billie_Thomas
ol' Remus http://www.woodpilereport.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darla_Hood
http://ourgang.wikia.com/wiki/He-Man_Woman-Haters_Club
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betsy_Ross_flag
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Chodorow
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermeneutics
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electra
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFnJa9Tlk0k
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%A9b%C3%A9's_Kids
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shonen_Knife
https://teikokublog.com/2014/05/14/traditional-handicraft-of-kyoto-kyo-ningyo/
Hambone? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juba_dance
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amos_‘n'Andyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Chappellehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-dunn/dave-chappelle-hartford_b_3844742.htmlhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Slave_Revolt_of_1712https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Amistadhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Strasberghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5150(involuntary_psychiatric_hold)
http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0032774/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Best
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beulah_(series)
http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/reference-entries/21225862/dissociative-reaction
libidinal dyslexia. https://www.appi.org/products/dsm-manual-of-mental-disorders
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Bernardino_Mountains
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pharcyde
Postbellum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconstruction_Era
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=doobage
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotty_Beckett
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulatto
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernie_Morrison
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vin_Scully
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Guide
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacagawea
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sure%C3%B1os
The Dum Dum Donut Intellectuals
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_8(2008)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_187https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crash(1996film)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Eggers Exact Change, or Zen and the Art of Bus Riding and Relationship Repair.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Larochehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drakkar_Noir https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilmington_Oil_Fieldhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masterpiece(TV_series)
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=wake%20n%20bake
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In-N-Out_Burger
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laugh_Factory
http://florentinehollywood.com/
I Threes. Marleys back up singers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristy_McNichol
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coconut_Teaszer
I never knew Prince was called His Royal Badness before.
https://www.dennys.com/food/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerhard_Richter
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hammons
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Murray_(artist)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Michel_Basquiat
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amoeba_Music
I need to read Kafka as I never have.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omphaloskepsis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwendolyn_Brooks
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Eisenstein
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bikram_Yoga
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tchotchke
and how to pronounce Tchotchke
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xd5iji93too
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodney_King
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Reginald_Denny
I admit to never having heard of this book.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38462.Giovanni_s_Room?ac=1&from_search=true
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni's_Room
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cigar_store_Indian
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stand_in_the_Schoolhouse_Door
George Wallace was a sanga short of a picnic
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=get%20like%20me&defid=2627522
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_in_the_Box
In 1981, horse meat labelled as beef was discovered at a Foodmaker plant that supplied hamburger and taco meat to Jack in the Box. The meat was originally from Profreeze of Australia, and during their checks on location, the food inspectors discovered other shipments destined for the United States which included kangaroo meat.[23][24]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w8-lXBtJlk
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Carrillo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chakra
http://asia.christianlouboutin.com/au_en/
The Color Of Burnt Toast. page 142. ?????
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Douglass
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ten_Commandments_(1956film)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guadalupe-Nipomo_Duneshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%B6llersheimhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varosha,_Famagustahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokor_Hill_Stationhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oradour-sur-Glane_massacrehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ouham-Pend%C3%A9https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Bola%C3%B1oToo Many Mexicans https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Camino_Real(California)
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Califas
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/765172.Cane?ac=1&from_search=true
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fast_and_the_Furious
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charro!
http://www.themijachronicles.com/2010/12/how-to-make-ponche-the-traditional-mexican-christmas-punch/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iqvrNM58vg
101 muertes del jaripeo (The 101 deaths of jaripeo)
1,000 litros de sangre (a thousand litres of blood.)
si chingas el toro, te llevas los cuernos ( If you fuck the bull, you get the horns)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_Duds
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sing_Sing
http://www.dict.cc/german-english/Fliegenschutz.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trail_of_Tears
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994Northridge_earthquakehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kick_the_canhttp://www.gameskidsplay.net/games/sensing_games/rl_gl.htmHorchata complexion. http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=White%20Mexican&defid=4228583Page 165. Spanish translates to:- “Every day of my professional career I think the same thing. Of these two hundred and fifty children, how many will finish high school? Forty percent? Orale, and of that lucky hundred, how many will go to college? Online, junior, clown college, or whatever? About five, more or less. And how many will graduate? Two, maybe. What a pity. We're nuts.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%93raleMy thanks to Antonomasia from https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/18191001-2016-winner-the-sellout for that translation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Care_Bear_characters#Funshine_Bearhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Henry(folklore)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheezer ???
I see Paris I see France. ????
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/10331.Ishmael_Reed
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Americans_in_the_United_States_Congress#Reconstruction_and_Redemption
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dale_Earnhardt
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eli_Whitney
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uno_(card_game)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chitlin%27CircuitApples and Oranges https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Howard_Latimerhttp://www.sunnylevine.com/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_bird_dinnerhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuskegee_Universityhttps://www.google.com.au/#q=arschloch+in+english&*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wannsee_Conferencehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V8(beverage)
http://www.lowrider.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patek_Philippe_%26Co.http://www.ticker.com/МОИ ТРУСИКИ МОКЫЕ (Translates as My panties are wet)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crip_Walkhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Baptiste_Point_du_Sablehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Overton(Portland_founder)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Brothers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Coles
http://www.streetswing.com/histmai2/d2bucbu1.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_W.Bubblesun millar de muchachos mexicanos (translates as a 1000 mexican boys) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduardo_N%C3%A1jerahttp://www.nevadawolfpack.com/sports/w-baskbl/mtt/tahnee_robinson_974686.htmlhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Watsonhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoni_Schimmelhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orlando_M%C3%A9ndez-Valdezhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act_of_1964https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marco_Polo(game)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Passage
https://www.holtsauto.com/simoniz/support/carnauba-wax/
Polynesian gardens https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiian_Gardens,Californiahttps://unitedgangs.com/2014/12/22/varrio-hawaiian-gardens/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bessie_Smhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kara_Walkerhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathleen_Battlehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Ewinghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer_of_Sheephttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Morganhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran_Rosshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Otishttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuart_Theatrenu iota gamma ???https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepin_Fetchithttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Boophttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Fleischerhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Robinsonhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Groundlingshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Second_CityTambo and bones. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christy%27s_Minstrelshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes-Benz_300_SLhttps://newrepublic.com/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lost_Treasure_of_the_Grand_Canyonhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurel_Canyon(film)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orval_Faubus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasunari_Kawabata
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yukio_Mishima
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Mayakovsky
DFW ??? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Foster_Wallace ???
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sag_Harbor,New_Yorkhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeopardy!_Teen_Tournamenthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theresienstadt_concentration_camphttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vibe(magazine)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act covers the lot.
Unmitigated Blackness
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12Angry_Men(1957film)https://www.google.com.au/#q=to+kill+a+mockingbird+movie&*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Few_Good_Men the overacting of Cruise made this a difficult watchhttps://www.google.com.au/#q=co%C3%B1o+spanish+meaning&*chupa mi verga, carbon (suck my dick) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth_Rockhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaculahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boba_Fetthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hikikomorihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Rubinhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Atlantichttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_Universityhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Genethttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Black_Teenagershttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Real_World:_Back_to_New_Yorkhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coral_Smithhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_TurtlesThe Skreeches. ???? (“It's the Turtles, the Skreetches, the David Schwimmers and the George Costanzas of the Group” refers to the meek / lovable losers / good guy characters from the following TV shows:1. “Entourage”, in the case of Turtle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtle... ;
2. “Saved by the Bell”, in the case of Screech (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...) ;
3. “Friends”, in the case of Ross (David Schwimmer); and
4. “Seinfeld”, in the case of George Costanza. ) as per comment posted Chivdog 20/6/17
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Schwimmer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Landsberger
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sojourner_Truth
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moms_Mabley
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Goines
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chester_Himes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbey_Lincoln
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Garvey
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfre_Woodard
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiparillo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chitterlings
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_Cooper the judge or the author?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Parker
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Pryor
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_Deren
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Ra
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenji_Mizoguchi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frida_Kahlo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Luc_Godard
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gong_Li
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_a_Nation
Hip Hop Cop. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/12/08/the-rap ????
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roslag
Vara Modig (Be Brave in Swedish) When I translate this later and reread the context it adds to my consideration that this is one very witty book.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amandla_(power)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Winters
Acknowledgements
The negro to black conversion experience
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_E.Cross,_Jr.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_E._Cross,_Jr.#The_Negro-to-Black_Conversion_Experience.281971.29_.5B10.5D
Very good and at times remarkable. The final few chapters are a superb read. In this very worthy winner of the 1958 Miles Franklin award we follow Stephen Heriot in his quest to die. Heriot has a head full of fear, guilt and after a life of working on a mission, has reached the end of his ability to have faith in life itself. After an incident at the mission he leaves with Justin, an aboriginal guide and with that fuels his fears and guilt's to a bitter end.
What adds to the beautiful prose from the author is his excellent portrayal of Heriot as a man of urbane cultural needs questioning his own compassion. On this journey the reader is given pause to think as we are led into a world of race relations that is still an issue in Australia to this very day.
“No don't kill anything. Not this morning. Just for one morning let us not prey on anything”
“People got to eat, brother”
“Why” asked Heriot, glancing up at him dejectedly. “God, what malice must have gone into creating a world where people have to eat. I renounce it”
This book also covers a wealth of reference that had me scurrying to research. A few as follows:-
The poem Spleen by Charles Baudelaire
http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=35871 with reference to a racist poem.
http://knkx.org/post/another-man-done-gone-powerful-tale-woe-chain-gang in reference to the lyric of this old folk song.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozymandias
The poem Spring by Gerard Manley Hopkins
http://www.australian-cultural-atlas.info/CAA/listing.php?id=235 for the Onmalmeri massacre.
The poem The garden by Andrew Marvell
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiresias
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_River_Valley_(song)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pens%C3%A9es
http://alldownunder.com/australian-music-songs/banks-of-the-condamine.htm
Edit: 25/6/17. https://theconversation.com/the-case-for-randolph-stows-to-the-islands-28193
In what could be called a brief history of an airborne attack of Crete, this battle was fought in just over 2 weeks with this book covering the area of contention mainly around the north western side of the island at Maleme and surrounds. After several hard fought incidents mostly involving Australian and New Zealand troops various issues of command and lack of air support eventually took their toll with an evacuation of the island taking place. A worthy subject to anyone with an interest in WW2.
So with me personally never having read an in-depth book on the fall of Crete this was interesting to read for long periods but the faults were far too overt and in the end they became annoying. Occasionally, military personnel appear without reference as to who they are. The lack of detailed maps. One of the entire Mediterranean theatre and a useless map of Crete are all we get. If describing a battle surely a localised map is not too much to ask. The index helped most of the time but even then fell down occasionally. Australian politician Menzies gets a mention at one point with no explanation as to who he is but then has no reference in the index. The writing gives the impression of an atrocity committed on NZ wounded in a captured hospital but the NZ Official history and a newspaper cutting from later hardly give that impression. The author gave a sycophantic write up on the prowess of the Australian soldier that is too ridiculous for words. A fairly useless epilogue with a few little escape tales from those left behind after the evacuation.
To be fair to the author he has used both the Australian and NZ official histories and an interesting bibliography. He has also used the footnotes well. I would not tell anyone interested in this event to not read this book, the pickings seem to be slim in terms of a book focused on the entire campaign with Beevor the only one coming to mind at this point in time. But in the end it just lacked polish for me.
Very good. A story of the working poor in pre-war Surry Hills in Sydney. Nowadays Surry Hill is probably as expensive as any place on planet earth so the description of this long lost working poor suburb is a look into a past that no longer exists.
The story itself covers the life of the Catholic Darcy family, the sons and daughters of Irish migrants, and makes a humane read of these people and their struggles through life be it tragic loss or love. Their trials and tribulations are well told in the hands of Ruth Park who has a beautiful turn of phrase and also an understanding of the life and thoughts of these working poor.
Many passages stood out and one of a young girl going to the beach for the first time showed an author of rare insight to youthful joy.
“At half past seven that night Dolour, almost purple with sunburn, and with sand in almost everything except her mouth, came bursting into the room. Behind her was a brilliant memory of a day at the beach, of bus rides, of yelling ‘Waltzing Matilda' and ‘Little Nellie Kelly” and ‘Hail Queen of Heaven'; of swooping white roads and sudden revelations of cobalt seas iced with foam; of Harry Drummy being sick all over the three Sicilianos, and Father Cooley being forced to take Bertie Stevens aside and explain to him about the gigantic hole in the seat of his trunks; of Sister Theophilus sitting calmly hour by hour making high turreted sandcastles which were wiped into spinning dust and pygmy willy-willies by the afternoon wind. There were so many things to talk about. Dolour had experienced them all in one day, but it took her weeks to tell about them all.”
The copy of this book that I have is an old Queensland school library copy with a few names stamped in the front cover from back in the early 80's. I got curious and asked around. I was told that this was on the high school reading list of year 11 students for many years. I have no issue with that at all as the book has subjects that young people should read about and understand, abortion, alcoholism, sectarianism and racial prejudice for example. With that I am intrigued as it making the reading lists of Queensland state schools even as late as 1984. I vividly recall Rona Joyner and her anti humanist campaign in schools for subjects such as sex education and reading lists. This book, I would have thought would have been in that spotlight but seemingly passed the censors by. I recall books such as To Kill a Mockingbird, The Catcher in the Rye, Lady Chatterley's Lover and Fahrenheit 451 were attacked. Link here for anyone interested.
http://blogs.slq.qld.gov.au/jol/2016/09/26/rona-joyner-and-the-society-to-outlaw-pornography/
One other character is Delie Stock. I am wondering if Ruth Park modelled her on the infamous Tilly Devine. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilly_Devine
A book for anyone interested in Australian literature from the past.
Abysmal. I am shocked how poor this book is. The author, David Starkey, I have seen on several television documentaries and have always enjoyed them for what they are, popular history that those without the need to read can enjoy. Yes he comes across as a sanctimonious, pompous know-all but he, at least, told a good story.
This, my first read of any of his books has left me cold. I could not wait to finish this as it was so poorly presented and so badly written as to be of little use to the serious scholar interested in the youthful Henry VIII.
The introduction alone should have had the alarm bells ringing as we get a faecal matter joke. Seriously? Onwards and upwards this reader thought. Nope! There is constant supposition with poorly backed footnotes, nor a bibliography I might add, and some of the most pompous prose I have ever read. Take this for example when a very young Prince Henry is made Duke of York by his father.
“What, if anything, did the three and half year Henry understand of all this and remember? The higher symbolism – of physical cleansing, spiritual purification, sleep and awakening as a (re)new(ed) man – would have been beyond him, as indeed it was probably beyond adult fellow postulants as well. Perhaps instead the even lingered in his memory as a series of intense sensory experiences: cold and heat; wetting and being towelled dry; the scratchy fabric of his hermits gown; the mysterious gloom of the chapel in the small hours and the weariness of staying up later than he'd ever done before; and, in the morning the exhilaration of showing, once more, that he could ride all by himself”
And it don't finish there! We get another 124 words of dribble about his nurse, his mistress and women, vigils and watches and other complete rot that is utterly superfluous to the story of his dukedom and the machinations behind it.
And the analogies. When discussing William Compton, Henry VIII's Groom of the Stool, Starkey compares their relationship to Sancho Panza and Don Quixote, Figaro and Count Almaviva and Jeeves and Wooster! “....to play the rear legs and be the brains of the enterprise”
In the introduction Starkey makes it clear that this is a book on the youthful Henry VIII and as such is titled Henry Virtuous Prince. I suspect that he has bitten of more than he could chew because this book should have finished with his crowning as king. Instead it is padded out with his life up to the coming of Thomas Wolsey. The last chapter comes to an abrupt halt while discussing Wolsey and is so sudden, a short meaningless sentence to the future is at the end, that I would have thought that even more forgiving readers than me may have been surprised.
In the end a terrible book and for anyone interested in the fascinating life of Henry VIII steer well clear of this pretentious drivel.
This is a very very good book and a worthy winner of the Miles Franklin. Though short, about 140 pages, author Jessica Anderson has packed in a life time of emotion with an almost seemingly bitter sweet “autobiographical” work.
The books narrator, 70 year old Nora Porteous, has returned to Brisbane after many years absence and reflects back on her life. She recalls early lost opportunities but also that one daring life decision that would also have been an anathema to the conservative attitudes of her depression years life and times. Generations of women trapped into, and by, the constrictions of those times I could imagine being dragged into the maelstrom of conflicting emotions that are Nora's memories and thoughts.
Reading this as a male in their late 50's I feel that this review hardly does the book justice. Highly recommended.
If forced to use one word on this book, fascinating comes to mind as we read the letters by Everett Reuss from the age of 16 to his disappearance as a 20-year-old in the Utah desert in 1934. This is not spoiling the book, as the author explains his disappearance in both the preface and first chapter. The author writes that Everett “...was a highly complex young man...” and that is shown by these letters that he wrote to friends and family.
Everett Ruess began his wanderings at a young age. He was 16, an age the vast majority of boys and girls have more on their minds than the determination to be an outsider and free spirit. Everett was different and he knew that. At one point he writes, “My tragedy is that I don't fit in with any type of people.” and continues to write along the same theme periodically. His parents, especially his mother, knew this and that may have been why they never hindered him in his quest to travel.
With each letter, it became apparent that he was an artist with an eye to see Beauty. The author makes this clear from the first chapter; a chapter he aptly calls The Beauty and the Tragedy of Everett Ruess. Everett himself often wrote on his need for Beauty and his art. His Blockprints, to my untrained eye, show a depth of sharp imagination.
Everett was also an avid reader. He makes mention of many books he reads in the letters he writes. Those that have an interest in book reading could not be anything but impressed with the scope of literature that he devoured. He read many that must surely be interesting to every bibliophile, the noted such as Don Quixote, the more obscure such as The Fantastic Traveller by Maude Meagher being but one example of that. The Fantastic Traveller does not even have a Goodreads entry, but was seemingly popular in the early 1930s from what I can ascertain.
In a letter to his father, he makes mention of a book called A Short Introduction to the History of Human Stupidity by Walter B. Pitkin. The then nineteen-year-old Everett says he is “mentally stimulated” by it. He writes a few quotes that he thinks will interest his father. When he makes mention of works such as this, I find it impossible not to look up on Goodreads and other sources and just as an example, I found this link about Pitkins book for anyone that may be interested.
http://www.redwoodlibrary.org/blog/rkelly/2013/10/01/stacks-short-introduction-history-human-stupidity-walter-b-pitkin
Kurt Vonnegut, I was told, mentioned this book in The Last Interview.
In the end, though, the need for the beauty of the wilderness runs deep in his letters, and this may have led to his mysterious disappearance. Even those that come into contact with him sensed his needs. Archaeologist Clay Locket made mention of Everett nearly killing himself trying to find vantage points on steep and wet cliffs just to paint a watercolour. He “...loved everything.” said Lockett, who also called him a “strange kid.” For those of us in a comfortable suburban life, being that “strange kid” maybe what the attraction of this book is all about. My good friend Gordon Wilson has a keen eye for books such as this and wrote Ruess was a wandering soul that “we can all relate to at some level.” Well said!
Highly recommended for those that like travel. https://everettruess.net/
Life and Fate. The perfect title for an astonishingly good book.
I am going to call Life and Fate a masterpiece. Yes it is as good as the reviews I have just read say it is. On a personal level it is a long time since I have had an emotional involvement with the characters of a novel. Les Misérables maybe? Though a large cast the life and fate of the protagonists at the time of the battle for Stalingrad made powerful and compelling reading.
My copy is the Vintage edition 2006. It has an introduction by Linda Carter who writes she read the book in 3 weeks and took 3 weeks to “recover from the experience.” She had also “urged all my friends to read it.” She is of the opinion that the novel should be as famous as Doctor Zhivago and The Gulag Archipelago. I have never read these books but based on what I think of Life and Fate these must be truly remarkable books with such high praise. She also includes a historical background that is followed by a one page explanation of the translation by Robert Chandler. We also have a page that lists a few books on Stalin's Russia and Grossman himself. There is also a List of Chief Characters at the back of the book to aid the reader who may not be used to the complicated Russian names. I found this a great resource and referred to it constantly. As time went on the names became familiar.
The story itself revolves around the Shaposhnikova family and those that come into contact with them in one way or another. Dare I say it without seeming trite but almost a six degrees of separation story? This lead to the reader following the lives of everyone within that circle from those that fought and died to those that had issues with the state politics of the time. With that we became involved in an emotional rollercoaster be that the death of a son through to the agony of being untrue to one's self belief. All this told with emotionally charged prose by Grossman that left me as the reader spellbound. Some chapters were so astonishingly emotionally charged I was putting the book down to take stock. The mother whose son had been killed was sad beyond belief but the final thoughts of those going to their deaths in the gas chamber in chapter 48 part two will live with me forever.
A truly stunning book.
Released in 1978 Brisbane author Gerard Lee has shown himself to be an observer of the idiosyncrasies of his times. In Pieces for a Glass Piano he has written many short stories with a sharp wit that had me chucking out loud.
Let's start with the negative. I just felt that some maybe had not aged as well as they might have. There is also an absurdist quality to a few of the pieces where others seem observational and biographical and with that they did not, in my opinion, mix well. Also in the acknowledgements it says that some of the pieces appeared in various respected publications such as Meanjin and The Cane Toad times. Perhaps they would have had more effect on the reader as part of these literary journals?
On positive side the highs are fantastic and the first tale, called AJAX and the Dunny Van, is a wonderful tale of the characters in a mining site outside Dysart in central Queensland. This was written well before the recent mining boom hit Queensland, when back in the 70's working at these places did not earn the big bucks and the only people who worked in mining where those that had no choices as they lived local or were down and out or migrant itinerants. With that our protagonist is a reader of the classics and don't his fellow workers, in their rural and earthy way, let him know it.
The scene is now set for a succession of yarns covering love under a bridge on a rainy day outside Beenleigh through to a witty tale of a flatmate bringing home Buddhists with an even more absurd tale of a another flatmate trying to stop our hero masturbating when he could in fact be having wet dreams. One tale, The Legend of Barp Doo-arp was a tale of that distinctly Australian youth culture the Bodgie and the Widgies. Actually affairs of the flesh play a large part in this book.
The very good is so good that I will be reading Gerard Lee further. He has a fine wit and a great eye for life's absurdities. As to a soundtrack to this book? Never The Saints as Gerard Lee was never Stranded. More a Go-Between. In fact wiki claims he was an early drummer!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPErA7NZISM