No 261 - May, 2004

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https://hdl.handle.net/2328/304

LA TROBE UNIVERSITY ESSAY: Where Are We in the War on Terrorism? by Gareth Evans; Peter Rose reviews Philip Jones: Art & Life; Gail Jones reviews Peter Goldsworthy: The List of All Answers

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Now showing 1 - 20 of 40

Who Invented This Rule Anyway? "Sibyl's Cave" by Catherine Padmore and "The Submerged Cathedral" by Charlotte Wood. [review]
(Australian Book Review, 2004-05) Goldsworthy, Anna
This article is a review of two new novels by Catherine Padmore and Charlotte Wood.
A Small Town At War: The Drouin Collection
(Australian Book Review, 2004-05) Hetherington, Michelle
This article is a summary of a collection of photographs taken by Jim Fitzpatrick for the Australian Department of Information during World War Two. The photographs depict daily scenes in the small town of Drouin, and are available at: nla.gov.au/apps/picturescatalogue
Preserves and Presences. [journal review]
(Australian Book Review, 2004-05) Tucker, Robyn
This article is a review of various current journals, including: Chris Healy and Stephen Muecke (eds), "Cultural Studies Review: Charlatans, 9:2"; Julianne Schultz (ed), "Griffith Review: Webs of Power, 2004:3"; Ian Britain (ed), "Meanjin: Only Human, 63:1"; and David Brooks (ed), "Southerly: Face To Face, 63.2".
Young Heroes in Fantastic Settings. "The Winter Door" by Isobelle Carmody, "Shaedow Master" by Justin D'Ath and "Grim Tuesday" by Garth Nix. [review]
(Australian Book Review, 2004-05) Braithwaite, Elizabeth
Setting is a particularly important feature in fantasy texts. One of these three fantasy novels for young adults is set in a self-contained world, while the other two have their main character travel from the ‘real’ world into a secondary one.
A Sense of the Past. [review]
(Australian Book Review, 2004-05) Lees, Stella
This article is a review of Young Adult Non-Fiction, including: Robyn Annear, "Fly a Rebel Flag: The Battle at Eureka"; Dyan Blacklock illus. David Kennett, "The Roman Army"; Jacqui Grantford, "Shoes News"; and Karl Kruszelnicki, "Bumbreath, Botox and Bubbles".
Bestsellers/Subscription.
(Australian Book Review, 2004-05)
April Bestsellers 2003, and Subscription Form page of this issue.
Straight Reporting. "The Man Who Died Twice: The Life and Adventures of Morrison of Peking" by Peter Thompson and Robert Macklin. [review]
(Australian Book Review, 2004-05) Haigh, Gideon
This article is a review of "The Man Who Died Twice: The Life and Adventures of Morrison of Peking" by Peter Thompson and Robert Macklin. George Ernest 'Chinese' Morrison (1862-192) was a photojournalist and well-known authority on China.
Imperfect Days. "Levin's God" by Roger Wells. [review]
(Australian Book Review, 2004-05) Nichols, David
"Levin's God" is a two-part epic. The first half is a take on the Australian rock scene of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Singer-guitarist Levin Hoffman, on the strength of what people say are ‘great songs’, rapidly takes his band the Barking Dogs to the top of the charts. Levin — believe it or not — finds that success is hollow and that not even his devoted Indian-Australian girlfriend, Shelley, or his long-time friend-cum-manager, Lawrence, can rescue him from his indefinable angst. The second half of the book sees Levin in Thailand, where, lying low at a monastery after witnessing a horrific murder, he becomes a devotee of meditation.
Love and the Wall. "Snowleg" by Nicholas Shakespeare. [review]
(Australian Book Review, 2004-05) McGirr, Michael
The contrast between the two Leipzigs (during and after the Cold War) expresses the tension that is brilliantly exploited at many levels in Nicholas Shakespeare’s new novel, a tender work that explores brutality. It deals with the life of the spirit, on the one hand, and with obsession and control on the other.
Batmania. "Bright Planet" by Peter Mews. [review]
(Australian Book Review, 2004-05) Dooley, Gillian Mary
"Bright Planet" is a wry, laconic book; bold, entertaining and slightly mannered. Mews’s vocabulary is vivid and his epithets at times startlingly original. It is a kind of sustained exercise in bravado; Mews is playing games with us. That is allowed: this is not history, but highly imaginative, fantastic fiction.
Bronco Ride. "A Lot of Croc: An Urban Bush Legend" by Kate Finlayson. [review]
(Australian Book Review, 2004-05) Varga, Susan
This book’s strengths and weaknesses are on a big scale, and that alone makes Finlayson a writer worth watching. The portrait of the Territory — an utterly different universe from the Australia most of us know — is in-your-face vital and rich, if sometimes undisciplined. This is the best contemporary account of life in north-west Australia that I have read. It can be funny, too, with a frank humour that encompasses being ‘sung’ for love by an ugly old Aboriginal bloke, a natty account of an Alice Springs tattoo parlour, and some unlikely sex.
The Great Obituarist. "Art & Life" by Philip Jones. [review]
(Australian Book Review, 2004-05) Rose, Peter John
This article is a review of "Art and Life", the memoir of Philip Jones.
Archetypal Landscapes. "The White Earth" by Andrew McGahan. [review]
(Australian Book Review, 2004-05) Bradley, James
What McGahan’s many admirers will make of "The White Earth" is not clear. Those expecting a novel that continues to explore the sorts of territory marked out in his earlier novels may well be unsettled by the novel’s uneasy energies, and by the move away from the urban landscapes he is more readily associated with. Those prepared to follow him will find something uncertain and not easily assimilated, yet possessed of a resonance and symbolic complexity that exceeds anything he has done before. McGahan is engaged in an exploration out of the archetypal landscape we all share, a place suspended halfway between the differing meanings of belonging and possession.
Something about Mystery. "The New Dark Age" by Joan London. [review]
(Australian Book Review, 2004-05) Hetherignton, Paul
Western Australian writer Joan London’s recently released collected stories, "The New Dark Age", combines most of the stories originally published in two slender volumes by Fremantle Arts Centre Press in 1986 and 1993, with two recent stories added at the end. London has received considerable attention for her novel "Gilgamesh" (2001), but it was as a short fiction writer that she developed and honed her craft. She is a skilful stylist, whose narratives about ordinary-seeming lives have a resonant and, at times, lyrical intensity.
A Luminous Cocoon. "Across the Magic Line: Growing Up in Fiji" by Patricia Page. [review]
(Australian Book Review, 2004-05) Walker, Shirley
In "Across the Magic Line: Growing up in Fiji", Patricia Page comes full circle, returning with her sister Gay after an absence of fifty years to the enchanted islands of their childhood, reliving their memories and examining the very different Fiji of the present. Despite changes everywhere, the astonishing beauty of the islands remains, and the kindness of the Fijians is constant.
Thinking Images. "How Images Think" by Ron Burnett. [review]
(Australian Book Review, 2004-05) Snyder, Ilana
Although we may be aware of the increasing cultural presence of images, less apparent are the changes in how we might think about them. In the new media landscape, images are no longer just representations or interpretations of our actions; they have become central to every activity that connects us to each other and to technology. Understanding the nature of the complex relationship we have with the images that surround us is the principal concern of Ron Burnett’s new book, "How Images Think."
Sublime Cocktail. [gallery notes]
(Australian Book Review, 2004-05) Eagle, Mary
This article is a summary of the "Sublime" exhibition at the National Library of Australia.
A Life Enhancer. "The Diaries of Miles Franklin" by Paul Brunton (ed). [review]
(Australian Book Review, 2004-05) Hooton, Joy
Primarily, Paul Brunton’s source is the enormous archive of letters, manuscripts, reviews, notebooks and diaries that Franklin left to the Mitchell Library. Brunton has mined this archive with great sensitivity and fine scholarship. This volume has a balanced introduction placing the entries in the context of Franklin’s life, explanatory footnotes through the text, a glossary of names, a bibliography of Franklin’s published works, a list of manuscript sources, an index and photographs. An occasional editorial note is inserted tactfully as a biographical signpost.
Blurring Boundaries. "Media Matrix: Sexing the New Reality" by Barbara Creed. [review]
(Australian Book Review, 2004-05) Conor, Liz
Barbara Creed’s "Media Matrix: Sexing the New Reality" intersects with the present preoccupation with new global media forms and their implications for how we think about sex and the public. While the differences within feminism have long since made it impossible to write a book that accurately represents any singular feminist approach, "Media Matrix" sets out the cardinal theoretical points informing feminist critical theory: postmodernism, psychoanalysis, queer theory, globalisation. It also introduces key feminist writers over a range of cultural forms that one way or another make contact with feminine identity.
Iatrogenic Fictions. "The List of All Answers" by Peter Goldsworthy. [review]
(Australian Book Review, 2004-05) Jones, Gail
Peter Goldsworthy’s "Collected Stories" is the work of an accomplished and established writer, perhaps better known for his librettos and his six novels, the most recent of which, "Three Dog Night" (2003), has met with particular critical acclaim. Yet the thirty-three stories in this collection suggest a sustained engagement with the short story form, and an abiding interest in the stringent aesthetics of smaller narratives and particularised moments.

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