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Setting post-1930

May 2013 Round Up: Contemporary Fiction

New Released in May

into-my-arms

Into My Arms by Kylie Ladd (Allen and Unwin)

“When Skye meets Ben their attraction is instantaneous and intense. Niether of them has ever felt more in synch – or in love – with anyone in their lives. What happens next will tear them both apart. Into My Arms is a searing love story and a gripping family drama – a shocking, haunting novel in the tradition of Jodi Picoult and Caroline Overington.
The kiss ignited something, blew it into being, and afterwards, all Skye could think about was Ben. One day a woman meets a man and falls instantly and irrevocably in love with him. It hits her like a thunderbolt, and she has to have him, has to be with him, regardless of the cost, of the pain of breaking up her existing relationship. She has never felt more in synch-or in love-with anyone in her whole life. So this is how it feels, she thinks to herself, this is what real love feels like.
It’s like that for him too; he wants her in a way he’s never wanted anything or anyone before: obsessively, passionately, all-consumingly.
She has found her one true love, her soulmate, and he has found his. What happens next will tear them apart and unleash havoc onto their worlds.
This brave, brilliant, electrifying novel from the acclaimed author of After the Fall and Last Summer, will move you deeply and shock you to your core. Love, lust and longing have rarely wielded such power, nor family secrets triggered such devastation.”

Reviewed by Marcia at Book Muster Down Under; Shelleyrae at Book’d Out; Monique at Write Note Reviews; Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best; Bree at All The Books I Can Read

The Rules of Conception by Angela Lawrence (Harlequin)

“Rachel Richards is ready to be a mother. She’s got a great job, a good income, a beautiful inner-cityapartment, and a great group of supportive friends. All she needs is a father.rules-of-conception-lawrence
But go-getter Rachel won’t let a little thing like that get in the way of her dreams. After investigating different options to become pregnant, co-parenting, adoption and anonymous sperm donors, Rachel finally settles on a method of conception – using a known donor. Making the decision to choose the biological father for her child, Rachel picks Digby. The single, softly-spoken Canadian with a complicated family background wants to have children, but not have a child.
After a few attempts, Rachel is able to conceive and begins to dream about the kind of life she will create for her and her child. But the well-established foundation for her dream soon begins to develop cracks. Lyndall, her nightmare boss, is becoming even more obsessed with ruining Rachel’s career, a desirable, but undeniably married, colleague is beginning to show inappropriate interest and the stress of her impending new life is starting to take its toll on Rachel’s health.
Now Rachel is beginning to question if she should have followed the rules of conception after all…”

Reviewed by Bree at All The Books I Can Read; Helen at Helen McKenna-Author; Shelleyrae at Book’d Out; Monique of Write Note Reviews

Peace Love and Khaki Socks by Kim Lock (MidnightSun Publishing)

peace-love-khaki-socks“One sultry October morning in Darwin, hemp-wearing army wife Amy Silva grips a trembling fist around two pink lines on a plastic stick. Struggling to come to terms with her rampant fertility, disillusioned with a haughty obstetrician, and infuriated by an inordinate amount of peeing, Amy finds solace in a decision to homebirth. After all, it worked for the cavewomen, right? But as a tropical cyclone threatens to whip down the main street, Amy finds herself facing more than biology.
Peace, Love and Khaki Socks explores what it is to be a woman, an expectant mother, a lover and a friend in a patriarchy. Sometimes horrifying, sometimes hilarious and always honest, this unforgettable story is one woman’s struggle to turn the ordinary into something extraordinary.”

Reviewed by Lara at This Charming Mum; Marcia at Book Muster Down Under; Bree at All The Books I Can Read; Shelleyrae at Book’d Out

The Yearning by Kate Belle (Penguin)

“It’s 1978 in a country town and a dreamy fifteen year old girl’s world is turned upside down by the arrival of the substitute English teacher. Solomon Andrews is beautiful, inspiring and she wants him like nothing else she’s wanted in her short life.Yearning_Belle
Charismatic and unconventional, Solomon easily wins the hearts and minds of his third form English class. He notices the attention of one girl, his new neighbour, who has taken to watching him from her upstairs window. He assumes it a harmless teenage crush, until erotic love notes begin to arrive in his letterbox.
Solomon knows he must resist, but her sensual words stir him. He has longings of his own, although they have nothing to do with love, or so he believes. One afternoon, as he stands reading her latest offering in his driveway, she turns up unannounced. Each must make a choice, the consequences of which will haunt them until they meet again twenty years later.”

Reviewed by Jenn J McLeod; Marcia at Book Muster Down Under; Shelleyrae at Book’d Out; Monique at Write Note Reviews;  Bree at All The Books I Can Read

AllTheBirdsSingingWyldAll the Birds, Singing by Evie Wyld (Random House)

“Who or what is watching Jake Whyte from the woods?
Jake Whyte is the sole resident of an old farmhouse on an unnamed island, a place of ceaseless rains and battering winds. It’s just her, her untamed companion, Dog, and a flock of sheep. Which is how she wanted it to be. But something is coming for the sheep – every few nights it picks one off, leaves it in rags.
It could be anything. There are foxes in the woods, a strange boy and a strange man, rumours of an obscure, formidable beast. And there is Jake’s unknown past, perhaps breaking into the present, a story hidden thousands of miles away and years ago, in a landscape of different colour and sound, a story held in the scars that stripe her back.
Set between Australia and a remote English island, All the Birds, Singing is the story of how one woman’s present comes from a terrible past.”

Reviewed by Heidi at …But Books Are Better

Letters to the End of Love by Yvette Walker (UQP) LettersToTheEndOfLoveWalker

“In a coastal village in Cork in 1969, a Russian painter and his Irish novelist wife write letters to one another as they try to come to terms with a fatal illness.
On Australia’s west coast in 2011, a bookseller writes to her estranged partner in an attempt to understand what has happened to their relationship.
In Bournemouth in 1948, a retired English doctor writes to the love of his life, a German artist he lived with in Vienna during the 1930s.
The simple domestic lives of these three couples are set against conversations about intimacy, art, war and loss. Told in a series of unforgettable letters, this is a novel about love and what it means when it might be coming to an end.”

Reviewed by Emily at The Incredible Rambling of Elimy

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About Me

My name is Shelleyrae Cusbert I am a mother of four children, aged 6 to 16, living in the mid north coast of NSW. I am an obsessive reader and publish my thoughts about what I read at my book blog,  Book’d Out.  In 2012 I read and reviewed a total of 109 books for the AWW Challenge (see obsessive!) and featured more than 35 Australian women writers. I juggle caring for my family with a part time job and volunteer at both the town’s local library and her children’s school library. While I have a degree in Education, I hope to gain a diploma in librarian studies in the near future.

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by shelleyrae @ Book'd Out on June 6, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Contemporary fiction

Posted by shelleyrae @ Book'd Out on June 6, 2013

http://australianwomenwriters.com/2013/06/06/may-2013-round-up-contemporary-fiction/

April 2013 Roundup: Diversity

With the backdrop of DisabilityCare and questions about gay marriage circulating in politics and the media recently, it was good to see readers picking up and thinking about books that address issues of disability, mental health issues, and rights for gays and lesbians this past month.

LettersToTheEndOfLoveWalkerElimy of The Incredible Rambling Elimy penned a clever letter to author Yvette Walker as a review of her book Letters to the End of Love, concluding with an entertaining and moving YouTube video of New Zealand MP Maurice Williamson’s speech on the passing of the gay marriage bill across the Tasman.  WriteReaderly, always pithy and to-the-point, reviewed Car Maintenance, Explosives and Love, and Other Contemporary Lesbian Writings, edited by Susan Hawthorne, Cathie Dunsford and Susan Sayer.  She’d bought it for the cover, and despite not being enamoured of all of its contents, which might be ‘ best considered as a contribution to an ongoing dialogue of lesbian writers’, decided it contained ‘enough smart, witty, well-written pieces among the drama, poetry and short stories compiled here to justify a couple of inches on my shelf.’

diamond-eyesBooks by Australian women writers that showcased issues of disability were also reviewed.  Nalini from Dark Matter Fanzine posted on A. A. Bell’s Diamond Eyes, the story of Mira, a young woman with extraordinary eyesight who is incarcerated in a mental health facility.  Nalini found the work incorporated realistic elements of vision impairment and gave ‘insight to readers who have not experienced disadvantage and have not had to deal with disability or medical professionals in this kind of relationship.’  She followed this up with a review of the second book in the trilogy, Hindsight, which she highly recommended. In the completely different genre of memoir was Boomer and Me, Jo Case’s story of her son with Asperger’s, reviewed by James Tierney of The Newtown Review of Books. Tierney writes that the work ‘is a book of heightened expression’, that its writer ‘is by turns proud, dismayed, vulnerable, vengeful, kind, dismissive – like us all, but with the boring bits cut out.’

fractured-barkerSwinging to contemporary fiction, the popularity of Dawn Barker’s Fractured (covered also by ShelleyRae in the March Contemporary Fiction roundup) gave much-needed air to the mental health issue of postnatal psychosis.  Several reviewers wrote of their empathy for the difficult situation in which new parents Anna and Tony find themselves.  Marcia of Book Muster Down Under wrote that the ‘all too real rawness of Anna’s emotions and state-of-mind had me vacillating between continuing to read or put it down,’ while Monique of Write Note Reviews opens her review with the observation that ‘Nothing can ever prepare you for the reality of having a child’ and that, having read the book, she hoped that ‘the next time I meet someone experiencing post-natal depression that I’m more aware, understanding and supportive.’

Annabel Smith extrapolated this experience to mental health in general, writing that:

one of the best things about this novel was the way other characters responded to Anna’s illness, and her actions while she was affected by post-natal psychosis. Her husband and his parents are conflicted, on one hand wanting to support her, and on the other, blaming her for something she had no control over. It is an insight into how people with mental health issues are often treated. 

Again, the use of ‘insight’ hearkens back to the question of perception and sight raised in Nalini’s review.  It demonstrates how reading helps us to see other worlds, and other ways of perceiving those worlds and the people who inhabit them.

double native wirrerThere were only two books reviewed by an Indigenous author this month, with Marilyn Brady reflecting on Anita Heiss’ Am I Black Enough for You?  Marilyn usefully summarises the book as ‘A valuable, informative account by an urbane, educated, highly successful Aboriginal Australian woman about her life and her work to include Aboriginal people in her nation’s conversation.’  She observes that Anita ‘never notes any conflicts between her Indigenous persona and her success in a non-Indigenous world.  Problems come from others who refuse to acknowledge who she is.’  Maree Kimberly’s review of Double Native, a memoir by Fiona Wirrer-George Oochunyung, also illustrates a redoubtable Indigenous woman, one whose story ‘you don’t hear often enough: a strong, determined Aboriginal woman who has a love of country, culture and life and never gives up.’

rise-of-the-fallenThere was also a book by an Indigenous author which I overlooked last month, Teagan Chilcott’s Rise of the Fallen, reviewed by Tsana.  Tsana found the writing of this young adult novel about demons, angels and elementals ‘a bit rough.’  However, the ‘ending was strong, setting up the next book in the series well’ and she comments that ‘It will be interesting to see how Chilcott’s writing develops in the future.’  Teagan, who identifies with the Kamilaroi (NSW) and Wakka Wakka (QLD) people, was a 2012 recipient of the kuril dhagun Indigenous Writing Fellowship.  This helped her to develop the manuscript with the State Library of Queensland’s black&write! initiative, which aims to nurture an Indigenous writing community.

from-moree-to-maboQuite a few reviews canvassed books with Indigenous issues, including two reviews by Janine Rizzetti of Resident Judge.  One was on Jacqueline Wright’s Red Dirt Talking which won the T.A. Hungerford prize for an unpublished manuscript by a Western Australian author, and which was long listed for the Dobbie award for first time women writers.  Despite some frustration with the device of ‘historian-as-protagonist’, Janine found that Wright cut through ‘the visual imagery of outback life- the mess, the flies, the rubbish strewn yards, and the people gathered under trees- and picks up on the humour, the complexities of relationships and histories, and the uneasy coexistence of wariness and generosity in a community where she is an outsider.’  Janine’s other review was of From Moree to Mabo: the Mary Gaudron story by Pamela Burton.  Gaudron was a child of the railway camps in Moree who grew up amongst Aboriginal children in Moree, and she later became a high court judge who was involved in the Mabo decision.  This was an unauthorised biography but, as Janine writes, ‘Despite Guadron’s reluctance to be involved with its production, it presents a fully-rounded view of an engaged, fiercely intelligent woman.’

Invasion to EmbassyMeanwhile, Jonathon Shaw wrote a detailed post on Heather Goodall’s Invasion to Embassy and urged his readers to pick it up, for ‘although the stories it tells are grim, often heartbreaking, I found it exhilarating: in these dying days of what W H Stanner called the ‘great Australian silence’ – the relegation of Aboriginal experience to footnotes in our history – books like this, where Aboriginal points of view are front and centre, are like doors opening onto the real world.’

From 7th-14th July is NAIDOC week, in which the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are celebrated by Indigenous and non-Indigenous people alike.  As part of the AWW Challenge, we’ll be encouraging readers to review books by Indigenous women writers, and I’ll post more information on this early next month.  In the meantime, you can head to our pages on Indigenous women writers and women writing on Indigenous issues to see what else is being read and absorbed.

Update

Lisa Hill, who blogs regularly and admirably at ANZ LitLovers LitBlog, is once again hosting Indigenous Writers Week to coincide with NAIDOC week.  She’s encouraging participants to read a book by Indigenous authors, and to sign up on her blog page so that they can post about the book.  This is a great initiative, and we encourage all AWW readers to join in.  Lisa has provided a list of literary titles which you can chose from, and I’ll also be posting early next month about the books by Indigenous women writers which have been reviewed for the Australian Women Writers Challenge.  Indigenous literature is vibrant, diverse and enriching, and it would be wonderful to see readers immersing themselves in it.

About Me

JessI’m Jessica White, a novelist and researcher, and I’ve been deaf since age 4 when I lost most of my hearing from meningitis.  I have a PhD from the University of London and have published two novels with Penguin, A Curious Intimacy (2007), about botany and lesbianism, and Entitlement (2012), about Native Title and grief.  You can find more information about me at my website.  I’m also on Twitter @ladyredjess.

4 Comments
by ladyredjess on May 25, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Book review, Contemporary fiction, Crime, mystery, detective, thriller, suspense, Diversity, History, memoir, biography, Indigenous literature, Young Adult - speculative fiction

Posted by ladyredjess on May 25, 2013

http://australianwomenwriters.com/2013/05/25/april-2013-roundup-diversity/

April 2013 Round Up: Contemporary Fiction

husband's-secret-moriarty

Is a talent for writing a genetic inheritance?

The gifted Moriarty sisters make a good argument for it. April welcomed the release of The Husband’s Secret, the fifth novel by Liane Moriarty garnering 8 reviews, all of which were overwhelmingly positive. Reviewers like Heidi of …but books are better  and Monique of  WriteNoteReviews , particularly remark on the authenticity of her characters, “Moriarty’s characters are everyday women. They’re the women living in our suburbs (maybe a little more affluent, but not overtly so), the women in That’s Life magazines (‘My daughter died and I know her killer’ or ‘My husband wants me to open this letter after he’s dead‘), the women we see at the school gate nudging their children into school.”,  while Marcia of Book Muster Down Under and Bree of All the Books I Can Read were appreciative of the “complex moral choices”and the “what if’s“explored within the story. Moriarty Paper Chains

Meanwhile, Liane’s youngest sister, Nicola Moriarty,  continues to accrue positive reviews for Paper Chains, with Teddyree of The Eclectic Reader claiming it “a beautiful read holding a special place in my heart.” while Jaclyn Moriarty‘s most recent fantasy novel, A Corner of White is adored by Tien of Tien’s Blurb.

Another sibling pair, authors Wendy James and Rebecca James, also earned reviews this month.

Out of the SilenceWhile Wendy’s most recent novel, The Mistake, was a popular title last year, April sees the re-release of two of her back list titles with Pan Macmillan’s digital publishing imprint, Momentum. Elizabeth Lhuede of the Devoted Eclectic reviewed The Steele Diaries, and feels it, “Loosely, it covers the same territory [as The Mistake]: family drama – or “Suburban Noir” – with the possibility of crime [however] the story unfolds at a gentler pace and has a more literary feel… In the end, however, it packs a similar punch and is arguably even more thought-provoking.” 

Younger sister’s Rebecca’s latest release, Sweet Damage, has been variously categorised as Contemporary,  Young Adult and Suspense,  blurring genres and audience reach. Bree of All The Books I Can Read writes “It is part mystery, part gothic-inspired thriller, part investigation and exploration of grief, love and how the mind can be so fragile.” Set in msweet-damage-jamesodern day Sydney, I thought it “an atmospheric and gripping story “. 

Do you know of any other Australian author siblings?

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About Me

My name is Shelleyrae Cusbert I am a mother of four children, aged 6 to 16, living in the mid north coast of NSW. I am an obsessive reader and publish my thoughts about what I read at my book blog,  Book’d Out.  In 2012 I read and reviewed a total of 109 books for the AWW Challenge (see obsessive!) and featured more than 35 Australian women writers. I juggle caring for my family with a part time job and volunteer at both the town’s local library and her children’s school library. While I have a degree in Education, I hope to gain a diploma in librarian studies in the near future.

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by shelleyrae @ Book'd Out on May 1, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Contemporary fiction

Posted by shelleyrae @ Book'd Out on May 1, 2013

http://australianwomenwriters.com/2013/05/01/april-2013-round-up-contemporary-fiction/

March 2013 Roundup: Diversity

Readers of the Australian Women Writers blog will have noticed that we’ve been peppered with long listings, short listings, and awards lately.  These are a boost to any writer’s career, but particularly those who might be overlooked on account of their gender, sexuality or race.  The effects of recognition are apparent in AWW reviews, with Subversive Reader writing of  Indigenous author Dylan Coleman’s Mazin Grace, long listed for the Stella Prize:

mazin-graceAlthough Mazin Grace was sad, and at times gut-wrenchingly confronting (and you must read the author’s note at the end), I was left with a feeling of hope – hope because stories like this are entering our consciousness, that writers like this are making long lists for awards, that books like this are available – easily – to readers like myself who don’t always find it easy to go to small or specialist book stores.

How lovely it is to see books that aren’t necessarily mainstream making an impact!

purple-threadsOther reviews of books by Indigenous authors included my own of Janine Leane’s Purple Threads, a gentle and meandering novel about the narrator’s childhood and aunties.  James Tierny from the Newtown Review of Books reviewed Melissa Lucashenko’s newly released Mullumbimby, her fifth novel.  He found it a ‘sure, funny and quietly modulated novel’ which ‘bursts the myth that Indigenous culture must present a unified face to Australia in order to be strong’, but questioned the ‘occasional tendency to use unnecessary adverbs or adjectives when neither the sense nor the flow of the narrative demands it.’  Poet Phillip Ellis reviewed Oodgeroo Noonuccal’s book of poems The Dawn is at Hand, commenting that the volume isn’t ‘simplistic, propagandistic poetry, but poetry that conveys its own worldviews’.  He also posted on Anita Heiss’ I’m Not Racist, But …, a collection of what Heiss terms ‘social observations,’ but which Phillip refers to as political poetry.

Patti Miller, The mind of a thiefPatti Miller’s The Mind of a Thief is about the author’s growing understanding that the country in which she grew up was a place of dispossession.  It was long listed for the Stella prize and, recently, the Kibble prize.  Anna Maria Dell’oso at the Newtown Review of Books wrote an inviting review, concluding with the observation that the novel’s final chapters leave the reader wondering ‘how the chain of human dispossession and thievery will continue to unfold into the stoic Australian landscape’.  Migratory Mel was more uneasy with the author’s stance, commenting that ‘Miller walks a fine line between her own memoir and a non-fiction story of rights to land, native title and registration claims’.  She was also irked by Miller’s ‘constant need to remind us of her own hardship growing up in Wellington (often repeated mentions of no running water, no hot tap)’ as though the author were ‘trying to place herself in a position as an equally hard-done by resident of Wellington alongside Indigenous Australians.’  However Mel also acknowledges that Miller’s honesty about her shortcomings helps the reader ‘to understand how the roles played by Indigenous Australians have been deeply hidden from our history’.  After reading both these reviews, I promptly downloaded the book from my library.

Another book on Indigenous issues reviewed over March was Chloe Hooper’s The Tall Man, reviewed by Nalini Haynes.  Nalini compared the book and documentary versions about the death of Cameron Doomadgee while in police custody in Palm Island, and highlights what she sees as some of the author’s biases.

people-smugglerOn the long list for the Miles Franklin and Stella awards was Robin de Crespigny’s non-fiction work The People Smuggler.  Bree wrote an impassioned review of this account of Ali Al Jenabi, a man who risks all to get refugees from the Middle East to safety in Australia.  She gave it 10/10, and wrote that ‘This book should be mandatory reading for every Australian school student.  It should help provide the one thing that the government does not: the other side.’

Other cultures also featured in the romance genre, with Coleen Kwan’s Short Soup reviewed by Kaetrin, who enjoyed the mix of Chinese and Australian culture. Lauren at The Australian Bookshelf reviewed another romance driven by cultural issues, Arranged to Love by Elizabeth Dunk.  The conflict in the book stems from the Indian-Australian female protagonist’s intention to go ahead with an arranged marriage, until her plans are thrown into disarray by her falling for an Australian man.  Lauren enjoyed the cultural aspects of the story but was frustrated with the characters at times.

let-the-dead-lieAustralian author Malla Nunn, who was born in Swaziland and moved to Perth in the 1970s, is a writer of suspense novels.  Marilyn Brady reviews her work Let the Dead Lie, set in South Africa at the time of apartheid.  The work shows how apartheid shaped people, and how it was never ‘the stark division of black and white people, as … envisioned by its designers’ but rather, ‘as Nunn displays, was messier’.  Marilyn also reviewed Alice Pung’s memoir Unpolished Gem about growing up as a Cambodian of Chinese ethnicity in Australia.  She describes the writing as ‘sure and affective, voicing on paper what could not be explained to non-immigrant friends about her life.’

monkey's mask porterOther issues which were canvassed include those of lesbian desire in Dorothy Porter’s The Monkey’s Mask, reviewed with punch and panache by WriteReaderly: ‘The plotting is smart, the affair is sexy, Sydney is gritty and real, the poems are bitey and sharp – a damned fab book.’  If Not, Read reviewed the same book, and loved it.

Finally, it’s always great to see issues popping up in young adult literature, and Mandee at Vegan YA Nerds couldn’t put Alex As Well down.  This is the story of Alex, who is born intersexed with both male and female genitalia.  Her parents agreed early on she was to be a boy, but as she grows up Alex feels more like a girl and decides to become one.  Mandee found Alex to be ‘a really intelligent girl and she made for an entertaining and honest narrator, who speaks directly to the reader, as if she’s telling us her story. She had so much personality that she was jumping out of the pages at me.’  Sounds like the author Alyssa Brugmann has done her work well!

If you’d like more recommendations for books that cover these sorts of issues, head over to the Australian Women Writer’s ever-growing list of Indigenous authors and authors writing on Indigenous issues, or check out the lists under Reading for Diversity.  And let’s hope that the awards season continues to shower fine writers like these.

About Me

JessI’m Jessica White, a novelist and researcher, and I’ve been deaf since age 4 when I lost most of my hearing from meningitis.  I have a PhD from the University of London and have published two novels with Penguin, A Curious Intimacy (2007), about botany and lesbianism, and Entitlement (2012), about Native Title and grief.  You can find more information about me at my website.  I’m also on Twitter @ladyredjess.

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by ladyredjess on April 26, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Book review, Contemporary fiction, Crime, mystery, detective, thriller, suspense, Diversity, Indigenous literature, Nonfiction - general, Poetry, Romance, Uncategorized, Young Adult
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Posted by ladyredjess on April 26, 2013

http://australianwomenwriters.com/2013/04/26/march-2013-roundup-diversity/

Announcement of the Kibble and Dobbie Awards longlist

Today the long lists for the Kibble award, for a work by an established woman writer, and the Dobbie award, for the first published work by a woman writer, were released.  This is the first time in the awards’ 21-year history that a long list has been announced, the intention being, as Chairperson and author Bridgid Rooney says, to ensure its writers ‘get the recognition they deserve’.  In light of this, it seems worthwhile to flag which books on the longlist have been reviewed in the Australian Women Writers Challenge, and those which readers might like to pick up before the shortlist is announced on 5th June, and the winners on 24th July.

The Kibble Literary Award Long List:

Questions-of-Travel-194-297James reviewed Michelle de Krester’s fourth novel, Questions of Travel, in the Newtown Review of Books, noting her attempts to defy the criticism that Australian literary fiction lacks ambition with ‘a palimpsest of themes’ that include ‘colonialism, ways of knowing, the soft incursion of technology, migration, tourism, the numbing bite of terror and the mean coinage of tolerance’.  However, as the work progressed, he found its ‘declarative prose’ had the effect of boxing in the main characters, Ravi and Laura, and suggested that the author was providing answers to questions, rather than leaving these for the reader to work out.  Kathy, of Play, Eat, Learn, Live, who has undertaken the admirable task of reviewing all books on the Stella Prize’s longlist, found the book took a while to get into, but appreciated the author’s ‘calm, measured, almost somnolent voice.’

beloved-faulknerAnnah Faulkner’s The Beloved has been reviewed by Lauren at The Australian Bookshelf.  As a fellow Queensland writer with an interest in art and disability, Lauren’s review prompted me to order this book from the library, and I hope that it finds other readers too.

Chloe Hooper’s psychological thriller, The Engagement, has a number of admirers, including Bree at allthebooksicanread, Monique at Write Note Reviews, Rebecca at Lit-icism and Kate at booksaremyfavouriteandbest.  Some, such as Caitlin at GoodReads, were more ambivalent, and her entertaining review is worth a read.  I also found the book a bit of a let-down (despite being a fan of Hooper’s work), for its well-crafted tension seemed to simply dissipate.

my-hundred-loversSusan Johnson’s sensuous My Hundred Lovers elicited a range of delicious responses.  Lara at This Charming Mum described it as ‘deeply moving’ and ‘blunt and unapologetic in its discussion of the unloveliness of the human body and the awkwardness of self-discovery,’ Linda at the Newtown Review of Books writes that the novel ‘remind[s] us of the wonder of our bodies simply drawing breath,’ Kate at The Truth be Told  consumed the book ‘with a passion I usually reserve for expensive wine’, Janine at Resident Judge found it ‘a beautifully written book, expanding love and sexuality to encompass the whole of life and being human,’ while Debra posted a detailed review on the AWW blog and Marg wrote up a readalong hosted by Bree of allthebooksicanread.  I also loved the novel’s concept and its absolutely gorgeous writing, and have long been a fan of Johnson’s oeuvre, but was a little let down by the ending.

Cate Kennedy’s book of short stories, Like A House On Fire, was referred to as a ‘hit-and-miss collection’ by ifnotread, while Kathy ‘whipped through it at a rapid pace, finding it not only beautiful, meaningful and moving but also, not to put too fine a point on it, a bloody good read.’  Janine at Resident Judge was, up until the point of reading this, quite opposed to short-stories, but found herself writing, ‘I don’t think that I’ve ever enjoyed a collection of short stories so much.’  It also prompted Denise at GoodReads to go back to Kennedy’s other works.

Patti Miller’s search for her ancestors in her non-fiction work, The Mind of a Thief , was reviewed by Anna Maria Dell’oso at the Newtown Review of Books, Mel at Migratory Mel and Deborah at GoodReads.  In general, readers seemed to find themselves unsettled by the book, sometimes questioning its style and delivery, and I wonder if any novel about belonging in Australia will have this effect.

an-opening-radokStephanie Radok’s collection of essays, An Opening: Twelve Love Stories about Art, was intelligently reviewed by Kathy, who described it as  ‘telescop[ing] unevenly between [Radok’s] personal reflections and recollections and the wider, more philosophical musings that she engages in with respect to art (particularly indigenous art).’  Radok’s book is on my desk, and I’m planning to review it this weekend.

Mateship with Birds, Carrie Tiffany’s second novel, has been widely and, for the most part, positively, reviewed.  I refer readers to Paula Grunseit’s summary of this in her wrap-up of the Miles Franklin longlist.

Dobbie Literary Award Long List:

Paula also noted six reviews of Romy Ash’s Floundering in her roundup of the Stella Prize longlist in February, and mentions Courtney Collins’ The Burial in this same post.  Adding to this is a review by Kathy, who describes the narrator as telling ‘the story of the bones of the earth, of the tragedy of wanting to live even when life is pain, of the bush and the struggles it holds.’

Jessie Cole’s Darkness on the Edge of Town was reviewed by Lisa Walker, who makes the interesting comment that this is a ‘you’ll read quickly and then wish you’d read slowly because you don’t want it to end.’   Meanwhile, for Shelleyrae, the prose created ‘a haunting melody of loneliness, grief and desire.’

finding-jasperLynne Leonhardt’s Finding Jasper was reviewed by Amanda Curtin, who knew the novel when it was a manuscript, and by Elizabeth at Devoted Eclectic.  Elizabeth found a resonance with the flawed, female protagonist, and felt the book was haunting, the way music might be.

Jacqueline Wright’s Red Dirt Talking and Lily Chan’s Toyo: A memoir, haven’t yet been reviewed for the AWW Challenge.  It would be great to hear some responses to these before the shortlist is announced.

Why do we need awards for women writers?

The short answer is: to redress bias.  This is the bias that leads to more books with male authors being reviewed than female authors, which is catalogued by the annual Vida statistics.  It’s often an unconscious bias, which means that many take the view that male dominance of our culture is universal, when in fact it’s a skewed perspective because women haven’t been able, or even permitted, to contribute their voices.  Even the more well-read among us haven’t been conscious of this attitude, as Elizabeth Lhuede writes in her account of establishing the AWW challenge.

For the long answer, I refer readers to Deborah Copaken Kogan’s eye-opening (and, to continue the bodily metaphors, jaw-dropping) account of her publishing history in which she was denied recognition and had to fight earnestly to be treated as her male peers were.  As she writes, ‘There’s a reason J.K. Rowling’s publishers demanded that she use initials instead of “Joanne”: it’s the same reason Mary Anne Evans used the pen name George Eliot; the same reason Robert Southey, then England’s poet laureate, wrote to Charlotte Brontë: “Literature cannot be the business of a woman’s life, and it ought not to be.”‘  It’s also the same reason why Miss Nita Kibble (for whom the award is named by her niece Nita Dobbie) was successful in her application for the position of junior assistant at the Public Library of NSW in the 1800s: her signature was taken for a man’s.

Later, she became the first woman to be appointed a librarian with the State Library of New South Wales and held the position of Principal Research Officer from 1919 until her retirement.  Had her writing been taken for a woman’s, she would never have had the opportunity to offer as much as she did to the library profession.

Until a woman’s name on a book means that she’ll be read with the same seriousness as a man’s, we need the Stella, the Barbara Jefferis, the Kibble, and the Dobbie to increase awareness of, and the audience for, Australian women’s writing.  I’m damn pleased for every writer on this longlist, and hope that many more readers will find their books because of it, both in the lead-up to and the aftermath of the award ceremony.

About Me

JessI’m Jessica White, a novelist and researcher, and I’ve been deaf since age 4 when I lost most of my hearing from meningitis.  I have a PhD from the University of London and have published two novels with Penguin, A Curious Intimacy (2007), about botany and lesbianism, and Entitlement (2012), about Native Title and grief.  A Curious Intimacy was shortlisted for the Dobbie award in 2008.  You can find more information about me at my website.  I’m also on Twitter @ladyredjess.

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by ladyredjess on April 11, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Book review, Contemporary fiction, Genre bias, History, memoir, biography, Indigenous literature, Literary, Classic, News, Nonfiction - general, Prize winner, Short stories

Posted by ladyredjess on April 11, 2013

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March 2013 Roundup: Contemporary Fiction

 While the focus this month has been on the titles featured on various award lists, contemporary fiction continues to be popular with challenge participants.

fractured-barkerDebut novelist Dawn Barker, a West Australian psychologist, is garnering attention for Fractured. The story of a young family shattered by an episode of post natal psychosis is “Written with compassion, understanding and sensitivity…” says Heidi of …but books are better while Lauren from The Australian Bookshelf , who works in the field of perinatal mental health, ‘couldn’t fault it”. Reviewers are not only in agreement that the novel is a moving story but also feel it is well written – Natasha Lester praises the ” skilful narrative” and found it “so accomplished that it is difficult to imagine it is Dawn’s first [novel]“.

house for all seasonsHouse For All Seasons is also a debut novel for Jenn J McLeod. It is the story of four women, once childhood friends, now strangers, drawn back to their hometown by the unusual terms of a surprising inheritance. Brenda was initially wary of the characters but “grew to like and then love them. [She] felt for them, and their varying circumstances made [her] laugh and cry.” Bree of All the Books I Can Read concludes her review with the statement, “It’s beautifully written, a story that sweeps you in and holds you there. There’s a little bit of magic in this one.”

While both of these new releases have received several reviews, there are a number of titles with only single reviews so far this year.

harmless-van-loonElizabeth Lhuede posted a review for the novella Harmless by Julienne Van Loon and recommends it to “Anyone who relishes subtle and emotionally powerful prose; who is interested in a portrait of contemporary Australian life that doesn’t shy away from issues of social disadvantage; and who can bear the heartbreak.”

dancing-to-the-flute-AminJennie of Daystarz Books feels Dancing to the Flute by Manisha Jolie Amin, “… is like a beautiful complex tapestry – the story of Kalu and his love for friends and music all interwoven with popular Hindu lore”.

How to be a Good WifeHow to Be A Good Wife by Emma Chapman left Monique of Write Note Reviews in a quandry, she writes, “Was it enjoyable? Do we really enjoy being in a state of tension for a prolonged period of time? Not really. Enjoyable is not the right word for this book, which is on the darker side, if not scary. I appreciated this book for what it was – a remarkably clever and polished book.”

In contraeasement-dillonst, Kevin of Red Bluff Review enjoyed Queenslander Laraine Dillon’s first novel, The Easement, “a passionate and irreverent tale of moving to the seaside in the late 1980s.”

reunion goldsmithMelanie of BlakkopyKat has shared a thoughtful review of The Reunion by Andrea Goldsmith, She says this novel, about four friends reunited after twenty years,  “…fairly teems with ideas to be mulled over and the benefit of writing about smart, high achievers with differing fields of interest is that these ideas − on friendship, memory, nostalgia, romantic love, marriage and fidelity, religion, philosophy, humanity, science, professional ethics and integrity – can be weighed up, drawn out, examined, turned over and evaluated, without steering the narrative off course.”

Looking for more contemporary fiction to try? Click HERE to visit the AWW Bookshelf and browse the titles listed.

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About Me

My name is Shelleyrae Cusbert I am a mother of four children, aged 6 to 16, living in the mid north coast of NSW. I am an obsessive reader and publish my thoughts about what I read at my book blog,  Book’d Out.  In 2012 I read and reviewed a total of 109 books for the AWW Challenge (see obsessive!) and featured more than 35 Australian women writers. I juggle caring for my family with a part time job and volunteer at both the town’s local library and her children’s school library. While I have a degree in Education, I hope to gain a diploma in librarian studies in the near future.

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by shelleyrae @ Book'd Out on April 1, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Contemporary fiction

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February 2013 Roundup: Diversity

Keighery WhisperOn the starting block for February’s reviews of themes of diversity is Subversive Reader’s write-up of Whisper, by Chrissie Keighery.  This is the story of Demi, a regular 14 year old who becomes profoundly deaf after contracting meningitis, and who needs to learn how to come to terms with her altered life.  I’m really glad to see books like being written, read and reviewed, not least because meningitis also wiped out most of my hearing when I was nearly 4, but also because they introduce kids to diversity, and the concept that there are many other ways of existing in the world.  However, it’s important that this is done well.  If it isn’t, there is the risk of stereotyping people with disabilities, rather than rendering them as fully fledged human beings.  In another review by Subversive Reader, this time of Julia Lawrinson’s Chess Nuts, a character Josh has autism, but the reader never sees in him ‘the shades of up and down that most people with ASD have’.

It is such shading that makes a character three-dimensional, and it was heartening to see some twenty reviews (although I haven’t the space to cover each one) of books that attempt to show their diverse characters as rounded people.  Of these, nine were by Indigenous authors, while an additional book was by a white author on Indigenous issues.

manhattan-dreamingDinner at Caphs wrote a spirited review of Manhattan Dreaming by Indigenous writer Anita Heiss.  As with Sue of Whispering Gums in her review of Heiss’ Paris Dreaming (mentioned by Kat Mayo in the February roundup of Romance Fiction and Erotica), the reviewer was aware of Heiss’ commitment to ‘to depicting Aboriginal people as ordinary individuals living their lives.’  In this instance, she writes about urban Aboriginal people for, as noted by Sue in her review, ‘30% or more of indigenous Australians are urban and this book, as its genre suggests, is about young urban indigenous women.’  Dinner at Caphs was frustrated by the protagonist’s continuing desire to be appreciated by men, but at the same time was interested in Heiss’ imagined role for Old Parliament House, into which the Indigenous people from the Tent Embassy moved.  The reviewer also made a fascinating reference to Indigenous people’s reactions to Old Parliament House which is ‘contested ground.’  To my amusement, they flung in that ‘If Andrew Bolt hates you, you are a superstar in my book’, a reference to Heiss’ nonfiction work, Am I Black Enough for You?, reviewed this month by Migratory Mel.  This book stemmed from Andrew Bolt’s absurd and defamatory claim that Heiss identified herself as Aboriginal to advance her career.

too flashOther Indigenous works reviewed include Melissa Lucashenko’s Too Flash, described by My Book Corner as giving a ‘strong, powerful voice to Indigenous teenagers’, and Nicole Watson’s crime novel The Boundary, which draws upon themes such as Native Title and Indigenous deaths in custody.  This was reviewed at GoodReads by Maree Kimberly who found that, although the work wasn’t without flaws, it was still ‘an original work that offers perspectives not often seen in Australian crime novels’.

Elizabeth Hodgson’s Skin Painting, a winner of the David Unaipon award, was reviewed by poet Phillip Ellis.  He refers to the genre as ‘non-fiction poetry’, an interesting term derived from the online magazine rabbit.  He pays homage to Hodgon’s style and confessional mode, but a sustained description of her culture and identity is missing.  Ellis describes the work as a memoir, applauding Hodgon’s ‘clarity and candour’, and I was wished that I could have seen some of this in the review; I shall have to get hold of the book!

Faith Bandler by Marilyn LakeIt was also great to see another review of Fiona Paisley’s The Lone Protestor, about the peripatetic, Indigenous protestor Anthony Martin Fernando.  This was reviewed by Jenny, who picked it up after reading Yvonne’s thorough review of the work from January.  Also in this genre is Marilyn Lake’s biography of activist Faith Bandler, comprehensively reviewed by Marilyn Brady.  Faith Bandler was, as Marilyn writes, ‘the daughter of a man from the South Sea Islands who was kidnapped, enslaved, and brought to labor on the sugar plantations of northern Queensland’, while her mother was from a family that had migrated to Australia from India.  Bandler’s skills for gentle persuasion and bringing diverse groups together were notable, but she often faced resistance for her South Sea Islander heritage and her gender, as Marilyn explains:

Lake writes sensitively about the fear that men had over the strong, articulate women, like Bandler, who did much to fund and drive the organizations. Indigenous men, long denied their “manhood” were particularly incensed about the women who competed with them for leadership roles. Bandler used her gentle, poised demeanor to try to calm tempers, but she was among those attacked.

This is a wonderfully interesting account of the intersection of race and gender, and the tension to which this can lead.

people-smugglerOther cultures are represented in books such as The People Smuggler by Robin de Crespigny, which is reviewed by Migratory Mel.    An account of Ali al Jenabi, one of the first people in Australia to be tried for people smuggling, the book demonstrates that the decision to save oneself and one’s family from persecution is never straightforward, and ‘makes the reader question what we are told is the “truth” about asylum seekers and displacement’.  The book also won the 2012 Human Rights Award for non-fiction.

In the fantasy genre, which always showcases a plethora of cultures, is Brisbane-based Kylie Chan’s Small Shen, a graphic novel which she wrote, she said, because she ‘bored [her] family and friends completely to tears telling them about the differences between Chinese and Western culture’ so she ‘decided to write it all down … [and] make it fun’.  The book, a prequel to a series, is reviewed by Australasian Educator, who describes how the characters respond ‘to a mixed pot of historical and mythological sequences alongside circumstances such as the Opium Wars, Hong Kong in the 1990s, and histori-fantasy versions of 19th and 20th Century China’.

Short Soup by Coleen Kwan (published by Escape)

Asian Australians feature in the romance genre with Coleen Kwan’s Short Soup.  For reviewer Giraffe Days, the book was ‘a breath of fresh air, truly it was, and I really enjoyed it. I don’t think I’ve ever read a contemporary romance featuring Chinese characters before – well, Chinese-Australian, but you know what I mean. They have retained enough of their culture to be both different and familiar, like I knew them personally but still recognised them as, well, not white.’   This is wonderful for, as Kat notes in her February roundup, ‘romance should be for everyone’.  This includes gay romance, which moves the plot along in Ann Somerville’s Unnatural Selection.  The book is reviewed by Lynxie in a write-up which interested me enough to add the book to my worryingly long list of things to read.

 
Dog-boyFinally, Giraffe Days’ review of Eva Hornung’s Dog Boy, a complex and unsettling novel which has prompted a number of thoughtful reviews (see those by Elizabeth, Sue and myself), illuminates a story that is ‘dense, descriptive, questioning, wondering and brutally honest. Beneath it all lies layers of philosophical thought, the riddle of human nature, and a hard poke at what separates us from other animals – or at what we think separates us.’  It is the story of Romochka, an abandoned boy who is brought up by a pack of dogs, and Giraffe Days found it a ‘profoundly thought-provoking novel, but … also one of deep compassion and empathy’.  This, I think, is the hallmark of a brilliant book: one that enables us to emapathise with another consciousness (whether human, animal, or something else altogether), instead of dismissing it as something too foreign to be understood.

About Me

JessI’m Jessica White, a novelist and researcher, and I’ve been deaf since age 4 when I lost most of my hearing from meningitis.  I have a PhD from the University of London and have published two novels with Penguin, A Curious Intimacy (2007), about botany and lesbianism, and Entitlement (2012), about Native Title and grief.  You can find more information about me at my website.  I’m also on Twitter @ladyredjess.

4 Comments
by ladyredjess on March 23, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Children's, Contemporary fiction, Crime, mystery, detective, thriller, suspense, Diversity, History, memoir, biography, Indigenous literature, Nonfiction - general, Poetry, Romance
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Posted by ladyredjess on March 23, 2013

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February 2013 Roundup: Contemporary Fiction

February has seen the addition of another 200+ reviews to the AWW challenge, an impressive achievement and I am delighted to highlight several of the contemporary fiction titles reviewed during the month.

Moriarty Paper ChainsNicola Moriarty’s second novel, Paper Chains (Random House 2013) has garnered the most reviews this month, all of which have been overwhelmingly positive. The deceptively lighthearted introduction to Paper Chains gives way to reveal the heartbreaking secrets of two young Australian women, India and Hannah, who meet while in London. “Ms Moriarty has created a heart-warming tale of unlikely friendship, hope and divine providence…” says Marcia at Book Muster Down Under, that “…shattered [Lauredhel] into tiny pieces…” and made Bree from All the Books I Can Read “…cry (more than once actually)“.

Losing February: a story of love, sex and longing (Pan Macmillan 2013) “...straddles the thin divide between truth and fiction with the author, Susanna Freymark, admitting the events of this raw and frank novel losing-february-freymarkclosely parallels her own experience during a difficult period of her life” (Book’d Out). Her protagonist, Bernie is in her early forties, a writer who lives on the outskirts of Byron Bay, content in the shed she calls home. Her sexless marriage has recently ended and she shares amicable custody of her children with her ex husband. When a past love comes back into her life, Bernie re-discovers desire but Jack is married and their tortured, emotional affair triggers a disturbing slide into a world of sexual addiction in her desperate search for the meaning of love. Lisa Walker “… was gripped from the first sentence of this book…” and found it “…a raw and honest portrayal of the grief that comes from loving the wrong person.”  Monique of Write Note Reviews found it “…confronting and evocative, but despite the strong and sometimes disturbing images, it’s a strangely addictive read.”

shallow-breathThe third novel by Sara Foster, Shallow Breath (Random House 2013), begins in Western Australia and eventually spans five continents. “Inspired by her own amazing encounters during her many travels around the world, as well as a 2009 documentary film entitled The Cove which analyses and questions the dolphin hunting culture in Japan, Sara has created a fabulous novel of suspense with substantial research and, in blending fact with fiction, has indeed created a complex plot and characters with extremely strong voices capable of leading us to ask the question – how far would we go in order to stand up and fight for what we believe in?” writes Marcia at Book Muster Down Under. With it’s emphasis on animal conservation, Lauren of The Australian Bookshelf, was able to “…appreciateelsewhereinsuccesste the research and the underlying messages in the story.” while Bree from All the Books I Can Read was drawn in by the  “…wonderful portrayal of family and fractured connections...”

Amanda Curtain of Looking Up/Looking Down recommends Elsewhere in Success (Fremantle Press, 2013) by debut novelist and psychologist, Iris Lavell about Harry and Louisa, who look like an ordinary couple, they live in an ordinary house in an ordinary street in a suburb called Success, and “…reminds us that ‘ordinary’ does not mean ‘simple’—or perhaps just that there is no such thing as an ordinary life.”

sex-lies-bonsaiLisa Walker earned reviews for both of her titles, Liar Bird (Harper Collins 2012) and Sex, Lies and Bonsai (Harper Collins 2013). Peta-Jo gave Liar Bird five stars writing, “To say I felt I’d found my best friend new favourite author wouldn’t be stretching the truth.” and Bree of All The Books I Can Read wants to re-read it after finding “Sex, Lies & Bonsai a very enjoyable novel, refreshingly real and distinctly Australian in voice and setting with quirky characters that you’ll end up coming to care about…“

Rural Fiction continues to be a popular genre with readers. Blackwattle Lake (Hachette 2012) by Pamela Cook invites the reader into contemporary Australian small town life. For me (Shelleyrae at Book’d Out), “The moment Eve swore, lit a cigarette and poured herself a drink while her kelpie, Banjo, lay panting at her feet, I knew we were going to get along. “, and both Paula from My Bookshelf and I felt the lack of romance a refreshing point of difference for this debut novel. Purple Roads (Allen & Unwin 2012) by Fleur McDonald earned a review from Bree from All The Books I Can Read  while Lauren from The Australian Bookshelf read and reviewed Rachael Treasure’s Jillaroo (Penguin 2002).

Blackwattle Lake by Pamela Cook (published by Hachette Australia) purple-roads Jillaroo

If none of these contemporary titles pique your interest, there are more to browse on the AWW Review Listings page. 

What contemporary fiction novel will you be adding to your TBR list this month?

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About Me bookdout_squarebadge_web

My name is Shelleyrae Cusbert I am a mother of four children, aged 6 to 16, living in the mid north coast of NSW. I am an obsessive reader and publish my thoughts about what I read at my book blog,  Book’d Out.  In 2012 I read and reviewed a total of 109 books for the AWW Challenge (see obsessive!) and featured more than 35 Australian women writers. I juggle caring for my family with a part time job and volunteer at both the town’s local library and her children’s school library. While I have a degree in Education, I hope to gain a diploma in librarian studies in the near future.

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by shelleyrae @ Book'd Out on March 1, 2013  •  Permalink
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January 2013 Roundup: Diversity

Reviews of books about diversity have got off to a good start this year, with some twenty reviews in January on books either by Indigenous authors, or canvassing themes of Aboriginality, gender and sexuality, disability, and race.

home-larissa-behrendtThere were a few reviews of books by Indigenous authors in January, and more have been coming through this month, which is fabulous. Writereaderly reviewed Larissa Behrendt’s 2004 novel, Home.  Her reaction to the book was ambivalent, finding the framing-story at the beginning ‘heavy-handed’ and ‘infuriating’.  As she continued reading, however, the reviewer became absorbed in the work, commenting that ‘the stories of Garibooli’s kidnapping from her family in the early 1900s, and the trajectories of her children and grandchildren, are diverse, well-informed and emotive without being overly emotional’.  She also suspects it was a ‘successful prize-winner because of a wee bit of white-man guilt.’  Getting the correct balance between style and subject matter is an interesting topic, and one which I hope to write about later down the track, and at least, as she concludes, ‘the awards got more people to read this novel.’  Behrendt’s second novel, Legacy, was also reviewed by Maree Kimberley at GoodReads, who described it as ‘unputdownable’.

Paisley lone protestorThere were several books that addressed Indigenous themes or people, but which were not necessarily written by Indigenous authors.  I was delighted to see a review of Fiona Paisley’s The Lone Protestor, about the life of Anthony Martin Fernando, an Indigenous man who left Australia in the early 20th Century to protest against the injustices done to his people.  Yvonne has written a highly articulate summary of the work, noting the difficulties that Fiona encountered in undertaking her research because Fernando moved across several countries in Europe, and the archives of marginalised groups such as Indigenous people have not been kept because they weren’t considered to be important.  In the case of Indigenous people as well (although not necessarily in Fernando’s instance), their emphasis on oral storytelling means that their history is passed down through voice rather than written records.

secret-riverKate Grenville’s trilogy on the settlement of Sydney and early white-black relations continues to be reviewed.  Buggalugz found the violence of the first of these novels, The Secret River, to be quite confronting, and believed ‘this was probably Grenville’s intention when it came to writing about this aspect of our history; to appeal to the conscience of every person who reads this story.’  Meanwhile, John from Musings of a Literary Dilettante, penned an in-depth review of book three, Sarah Thornhill, and included the interesting link to one of his ancestors who features in the book.  He countered many of the criticisms of the novel, one of which was that the Indigenous people were portrayed as passive.  John notes that ‘The aboriginal stable hands at Thornhill’s farm are indeed meek, yet this is plausible because their lives have been so reduced by working for Thornhill. They must know of Thornhill’s past. To work for such a man would cause a reduction of spirit that we can’t fathom.’  I can’t help but wonder, however, if it is not the task of a novelist, particularly those writing on Indigenous issues, to help their readers understand this ‘reduction of spirit’ (a fine phrase), particularly given the antipathy of many white people to Indigenous people and their losses.

Same, but little bit diff'rentReviews of childrens’ books featuring Indigenous themes include Kylie Dunstan’s Same, but little bit diff’rent, which is reviewed by Subversive Reader (scroll down to reach the review).  She adored this book about Normie from the Top End.  The Barrumbi Kids by Leonie Norrington was reviewed by Narelle M Harris, who spoke highly of its believable representation of kids crossing the cultural divide.

Subversive Reader also reviewed Love Like Water, Meme McDonald’s young adult/adult novel about three characters in Alice Springs.  These include Jay, a successful DJ in Sydney whose urban background differs strongly to that of the Indigenous people in Alice, and who encounters pockets of racism in different contexts.

Tsana’s reviews of the The Fallen Moon series by K.J. Taylor, which includes The Dark Griffin, The Griffin’s Flight and The Griffin’s War, demonstrate how fantasy can also be used to illustrate racism by transposing it into an imaginary world.  In the world of The Dark Griffin, the protagonist Arran is ostracised because of his race even though, as Tsana notes with appreciation, ‘the racism was not based on skin colour’, but rather because he looked slightly different.

eonFantasy is also used to explore issues of gender and disability.  Alison Goodman’s Eon and Eona, reviewed by Nalini at Dark Matter fan zine, follows the protagonist Eon, a girl who masquerades as a boy eunuch to get ahead.  Both books also feature disability which, as Nalini writes, is usually healed with magic in the fantasy genre.  As she rightly points out, this is a little convenient, for ‘in real life people with disabilities don’t get healed’.  She found that Goodman redeems herself by having Eona adjust to her lame body (caused by a badly set broken hip).   I really enjoyed Nalini’s discussions of this issue and, as with her, I’d like to see more realistic representations of characters functioning with their disability in fantasy.  These two books and their themes were also reviewed last year by Tsana.

alex as wellOther portrayals of gender are examined in Alyssa Brugmann’s Alex as Well, a young adult novel reviewed by Danielle (and also mentioned by Amanda in her January wrap up of non-speculative YA fiction).  She was impressed with the book, writing that ‘Putting yourself into the shoes of a transgendered youth is no mean feat, but Brugman accomplishes the seemingly impossible’ and, at the same time, fulfils the important role of creating stories about transgendered youth. As with other young people struggling to define who they are, they need positive stories and representations of themselves, particularly given their high suicide rate.  Meanwhile, Marisa came across a book by Marj McRae titled Not a Man, featuring a eunuch.  Although, she says, it isn’t a book for the faint-hearted, after a while the reader becomes ‘dragged in’.  I have never read a book featuring a eunuch and I, too, was intrigued, not least because of Marisa’s comment that ‘The relationships Shuki has with people are odd to say the least, mostly because as an eunuch, relationships work out very differently’.

Kate Grenville, Sarah ThornhillOn a final note, the Stella Prize longlist has just been released (see Paula’s post at AWW for commentary), reminding us of the need to champion writing by women, as well as that of minorities who do not receive the recognition they deserve.  Sometimes this recognition is mislaid due to marketing by publishers, an issue flagged by John in his review of Sarah Thornhill.  As he notes, the hardback edition features the back of a woman’s head as she looks towards a sepia-coloured river, while the soft cover is of a black and white image of the sea crashing against the cliffs.  John wonders why the more ‘feminine’ cover was changed, as he writes: ‘Although I’d like to say a man wouldn’t worry about such things, I’d say that many would. It’s not one I’m particularly drawn to. I have no idea whether this was done on purpose—to market the book toward readers of what is derisively termed ‘women’s fiction’ (which outsells ‘literary fiction’).’

These comments echo those made by Jane Gleeson-White in her Overland essay on ‘The Year of Australian Women Writers’, in which she compares the reception of Grenville’s first novel, The Secret River, with Sarah Thornhill.  The third novel, she observes, doesn’t seem to have received the same level of critical attention as the first although, in her opinion, Sarah Thornhill was a finer novel.  On contemplating the reasons for this, she comes to the issue of voice:

Grenville has conjured from nowhere, almost, with very few archival records of early nineteenth-century women’s voices, the vivid voice of an early Australian colonial girl, woman, lover, wife, mother. The novel is told in the first person, from the constrained, socially restricted, uneducated viewpoint of a girl. Does such a voice carry weight in our broader Australian literary culture? Not much, it seems. Or not as much as a third person account of Sarah Thornhill’s pioneering, nation-making father, the protagonist of The Secret River.

Huon Dark WetIn the ensuing comments on this article (which add complexity to Jane’s commentary), Emmett Stinson noted that at the Australian Book Industry Awards, Sarah Thornhill won in the ‘General Fiction’ category, rather than the ‘Literary Fiction’ category.  The prevalence of such marketing and pigeon-holing indicates the necessity of the Stella Prize and the Australian Women Writers Challenge, which encourage readers to become more savvy, to recognise that their reading choices are sometimes guided by marketing and culture.  It would be marvellous if, as I mentioned in my review of Jess Huon’s The Dark Wet, a person’s skin colour, sexual orientation, body make-up or gender didn’t package them into checklist-like boxes.  However, the day in which we are all seen as equal is sadly a long way off, and until then, these considered reviews on the voices of diverse people are necessary — and wonderfully interesting — reading.

                                                                                                                          

About Me

Photo JWI’m Jessica White, a novelist and researcher, and I’ve been deaf since age 4 when I lost most of my hearing from meningitis.  I have a PhD from the University of London and have published two novels with Penguin, A Curious Intimacy (2007), about botany and lesbianism, and Entitlement (2012), about Native Title and grief.  You can find more information about me at my website.  I’m also on Twitter @ladyredjess.

2 Comments
by ladyredjess on February 23, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Book review, Children's, Contemporary fiction, Diversity, History, memoir, biography, Indigenous literature, Literary, Classic, Uncategorized, Young Adult

Posted by ladyredjess on February 23, 2013

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January 2013 Roundup: Contemporary Fiction

The 2013 AWW Challenge  has attracted well over 300 participants in its second year and during the first month of the new year there are already 200+ reviews listed. That is an impressive contribution, especially as a number of participants identify as ‘read only’.

Of that number, around a quarter of books have been identified as contemporary fiction – novels set post mid 1900′s, and about a quarter of those do not fit neatly into a specific genre. In this post I will be highlighting some of the submitted reviews for January.

fishing-for-tigersFishing For Tigers (Picador Sept 2012) is Emily McGuire’s fourth novel of which Olivia at The Baraza writes “set in steamy Hanoi and primarily focuses on the secret affair between Mischa, a 35 year old Australian expatriate, and Cal, the 18 year old Vietnamese-Australian son of Mischa’s closest friend in Hanoi.  Maguire examines the complicated physical and emotional relationship between Mischa and Cal in the context of a Western expatriate community seeking to lose itself in Vietnam’s calm and chaos without actually having to acknowledge the realities of everyday life there.” Olivia, who has visited Hanoi, felt “Maguire writes evocatively of Hanoi’s cultural intensity and grubby beauty” but in contrast, Jacqueline at Under Review , who lived in the city for a few years in the mid 2000′s, felt  “the descriptions of Hanoi and of Misha’s life skimmed the surface and didn’t seem to come from a person who supposedly had lived there for six years”, though both agreed the book is thought-provoking and an enjoyable read. Seduction by Kate Forster (published by Penguin Australia)

From London to LA, Byron Bay to Sydney,  Kate Forster’s Seduction (Penguin Jan 2013) is a lush, compelling story about passion, betrayal, forgiveness, and the price of fame. “Glitzy, romantic and sexy” is how Marcia of Book Muster Down Under describes it but Bree of All the Books I Can Read who “was expecting a light, almost trashy beach read in the movie world …” feels it offers more and was surprised to find herself “invested in the characters”.

whisky-charlie-foxtrotAntoinetta’s review of Whisky Charlie Foxtrot by Annabel Smith (Fremantle Press Jan 2013) at Afternoon Reads caught my attention. This novel is told from the point of view of Charlie, who examines his relationship with his twin brother, who lies in coma after a tragic accident. She gave it five stars and wrote, “It’s a story about family and friendship and love that manages to be both heart breaking and heart warming.”

Debut novelist Kathryn Ledson has gained attention for Rough Diamond (Penguin Jan 2013), a contemporary genre bender, and been interviewed by both Bree at All the Books I Can Read and Shelleyrae at Book’d Out rough-diamond “Action, humour, mystery and romance blend in Rough Diamond to create a lighthearted romp with an improbable plot involving terrorists armed with a hijacked load of fertiliser, a few villainous psychopaths and a secret team of well-funded vigilantes protecting Melbourne from terrorist threats. It’s pure escapist fun, allowing the reader to fantasise about escaping their ordinary lives into the arms of a handsome, rich hero and saving the world, or at least their corner of the world, at the same time.” {Shelleyrae @ Book’d Out}

The Girl in the Hard Hat by Loretta Hill (published by Random House)The Girl in The Hard Hat by Loretta Hill (Random House Jan 2013) is the follow up to the popular The Girl in the Steel Capped Boots reviewed multiple times in 2012. The author returns to the Pilbara with a new protagonist, engineer Wendy Hopkins. Monique at Write Note Reviews noted “the storyline was well-executed and I think, even better than the first book”. Marg of The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader praises the authenticity of the setting and the characters.

Other contemporary novels reviewed during January include The Woman in Black by Madeleine St John at Booklover Book Reviews, The Last Chance Cafe by Brenda, and Kylie Ladd’s After the Fall by Kevin Rennie at Red Bluff Review.

You can browse a list of all the contemporary fiction novels listed HERE as they are submitted.

What contemporary fiction novels have you read during January that you would recommend to other participants?

Let me know in the comments…

4 Comments
by shelleyrae @ Book'd Out on February 1, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Contemporary fiction, News

Posted by shelleyrae @ Book'd Out on February 1, 2013

http://australianwomenwriters.com/2013/02/01/january-2013-roundup-contemporary-fiction/

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