No 255 - October, 2003

Permanent URI for this collection

https://hdl.handle.net/2328/485

Tony Birch reviews Stuart Macintyre and Anne Clark's The History Wars
and Robert Manne's Whitewash
Peter Ryan reviews Chester Porter's autobiography Walking on Water
Spring Reading by Lolla Stewart

Browse

Now showing 1 - 6 of 38

A Comet of Wonder Fallen to Earth: The Diaries of Miles Franklin.

(Australian Book Review, 2003-10) Brunton, Paul

Franklin published fifteen books in her lifetime becoming a respected literary figure in Australia in her last twenty years. But none of the books would be quite the success that "My Brilliant Career" was, at least in her own mind. In the period immediately following its publication, when Franklin was taken into Rose Scott’s glittering circle, she was regarded, she believed, as a ‘comet of wonder’ by many people. She rather liked that. By the time she wrote about this in her diary in April 1949, she added the phrase ‘God knows why’. The comet had plummeted to earth. Now she had the gnawing doubt that perhaps she really was not a great writer. Franklin's diaries bring her to life in all her infinite variety.‘I bewilder myself, I’m so complex,’ she wrote to Emma Pischel, a friend from Chicago days, in May 1947, ‘so how cd he who knows me not, be able to unravel me?’ The diaries help in the unravelling process.
Bestsellers/Subscription

(Australian Book Review, 2003-10)

This item is the September 2003 Bestsellers and Subscription Form page of this issue.
Among the Chinese. "From Rice to Riches: A Personal Journey Through A Changing China" by Jane Hutcheon. [review]

(Australian Book Review, 2003-10) Torney-Parlicki, Prue

The opening scene of "From Rice to Riches" has the author travelling in a taxi with a camera crew through the city of Bengbu in China’s central Anhui province. A furtive glance in the mirror of her powder compact convinces Jane Hutcheon that they are being followed by Chinese officials. Determined to escape their pursuers in order to obtain the interviews needed for an investigative report on the pollution of the nearby Huai River, the crew twice changes taxi before diving into a crowded street market. It is a fitting introduction to a book that is largely about journalism and the means by which journalists — in this case, foreign correspondents — get their stories.
Shoals of Fingerlings

(Australian Book Review, 2003-10) Dennis, Oliver

This article is a review of Poetry, including: "Tightrope Horizon" by Ross Donlon, "Flight" by Jan Teagle Kapetas, "Venus Steps Out" by Helen Lambert, "Tender Hammers" by Tric O'Heare, "Compound Eye" by Louise Oxley and "Kissing the Curve" by Alicia Sometimes.
Striated Tears. "Blood and Old Belief" by Paul Hetherington. [review]

(Australian Book Review, 2003-10) Pierce, Peter

The scene of Paul Hetherington's ‘verse novel’, "Blood and Old Belief", is established in the opening stanza. From the start, we are in the hands of a skilled verse practitioner for whom ‘conservative’ metrical forms are both the bedrock and the supple medium of the story that he tells.
Familial Thrills. "Lethal Factor" by Gabrielle Lord. [review]

(Australian Book Review, 2003-10) Caterson, Simon

This is a crime novel written largely in headlines. "Lethal Factor" is replete with references to such choice items as bio-terrorism, the conflict in the Balkans, paedophilia, Nazi war criminals, strange goings-on in the Catholic Church and academic plagiarism. Such manifold topicality is no guarantee of success in a thriller, and the particular merit of "Lethal Factor" lies not in its wide coverage of current affairs but rather the attention it pays to the detail of everyday life and relationships.

Browse

Recent Submissions