Bookclub Notes

From Sunday Bookclub, January 25th. The Boat by Nam Le A quick show of hands at Gleebooks Sunday Bookclub review of Nam Le's The Boat, revealed a 60/40 split between those who loved it and those who found it a bit of a yawn. One thing was immediately apparent however, and that is that everyone thinks the 26 year old writer Nam Le is a brilliant new talent. The jury is still out on how good a storyteller he is however. The Boat is a cleverly assembled collection of seemingly disparate stories penned by Le throughout his undeniably impressive, albeit short career as a writer so far. But on a too-good-to-be-inside summer afternoon upstairs at Gleebooks, it emerged from a full house of forty or so readers, that many saw obvious themes of belonging, longing, death and identity linking The Boat's otherwise far-flung tales. Le takes us from an almost voyeuristic, autobiographical look at the relationship between a refugee Vietnamese father and son played out in a cramped apartment in Iowa, to the slums of Columbia, through the harrowing streets of Hiroshima, to the frustratingly naïve selfishness of a heartbroken Australian woman trying to 'find herself' somehow amid the chaos of Tehran. For me, the characters all lacked the pockmarked emotional skin of real people, people we can love, hate, admire or empathise with. Perhaps only in the first and last stories, both immersed in the intricacies of Vietnamese family life, are we shown the kind of personal poignancy and honesty embedded in Le's own experience. Nam Le it seems has polarised this audience at least. While not as controversial as some previous Sunday Bookclub reviews, The Boat elicited responses ranging from 'brilliant', 'insightful', 'amazing sadness', and 'so believable' to 'unconvincing', 'unlikable', 'hard to read' and 'glad to put it down.' While a few readers argued that Le successfully explores the voice of different cultures and characters in most of his stories, others suggested that through the exploration of so many different emotional, gender and cultural perspectives, he is trying too hard to separate his writerly ability from his own ethnicity. It is almost as if Le is saying 'just because I am a young, male, Vietnamese-Australian, does not mean I cannot capture the voice of a teenage Columbian street gangster or a heartbroken middle aged woman.' A few readers, myself included, were not convinced and simply did not find much that was plausible or compelling. While the cleverness of the writing shows a genuine talent in the making, there is little in the stories themselves that made me feel much, other than a small discomfort that I was watching the writer write, in much the same way, our host on the day inquired 'as one watches Merryl Streep act?' But on balance, many also commented that Le's work is touching, deeply moving and impressive, especially his ability to create haunting cultural overlay onto themes of general human alienation, grief and sadness. And when it comes down to it, as one person so succinctly summed up at the end, 'When I've been trying to write for the past 35 years, and you come across someone so young who is already this good and already published, well in my book that's bloody brilliant.' Camille Manley

The Lost Books By Suzi McConaghy

To my mind, one of the greatest privileges of being a bookseller is to come across the work of writers unknown to me and then to be able to share this with other readers. So often this occurs with first novelists whose debuts go missing in the deluge of new books released each year. Certainly this was the case with four of my favourite novels of 2008—The Outlander by Gil Adamson, The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff, Mudbound by Hillary Jordan and The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski. If you havn’t yet read these books I urge you to do so, you will not be disappointed. Of course, established writers whose work is known overseas but not widely read here, or who are known only to ‘niche’ markets can also get missed. Think of Richard Yates, of whom many Australian readers had not heard until his resurrection in 2008 thanks to the ABC’s The First Tuesday Book Club (followed by the movie Revolutionary Road.) This fate certainly applies to the authors I’ve chosen this month—US writers, David Ebershoff and Kim Powers. Both have chosen real people and historical events as the basis for their new books, adding to the growing genre of ‘non-fiction novels’—a genre I find most rewarding as it so often sends me on extended ‘related reading’ treks. David Ebershoff has published 3 works of fiction prior to his latest novel The 19th Wife, all of which I had read and enjoyed. But this new novel has taken an altogether different tack. It features dual narratives expertly woven together producing a compelling and thought-provoking book—powerfully written, with characters and themes haunting one long after the last page has been turned. The first narrative is based on the life and work of Ann Eliza Young, known as ‘the nineteenth wife’ of Brigham Young, Prophet and Leader of the early Mormon Church or more properly the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Eliza, after many years of life within that church, bravely chose to leave her husband and begin a crusade exposing the damaging practice of polygamy (then a primary tenet of Mormonism). The second storyline is a contemporary tale, narrated by Jordan Scott, a young gay man who in his early teens had been abandoned by his mother and expelled from his family and religious community—the Firsts—a secretive fundamentalist Mormon offshoot sect still practicing polygamy. He returns home to help his mother after seeing her on the news—another ‘nineteenth wife’, she has been accused of killing her husband. Jordan & Eliza’s stories wind together to create an insightful work of fiction—shocking and gripping, moving and involving—that causes one to question the nature of ‘traditional family values’ and the nature and place of love in human lives. I’d be untruthful if I didn’t say the presence of a couple of well-charactised canines in the narrative didn’t add to my enjoyment of the text. The novel is rigorously researched, often incorporating the words of Ann Eliza Young herself, as well as relying heavily on the books written by and about members of the Mormon Church— the extensive bibliography at the end of the book inspired me to dig further into these sources. As a result of Ebershoff’s book, I am now reading Ann Eliza’s books as well as her biographies and those of her husband. I’ve also been told the HBO series, Big Love, is a good addition to this exploration. I have strongly resisted Big Love, having felt it to both idealise and trivialise the negative impacts of plural marriage, but the Gleaner editor, having also read Ebershoff, assures me that it raises the same concerns as The 19th Wife and does so with considerable skill. Now to Kim Powers and his fantastic novel Capote in Kansas—A Ghost Story. I had not encountered Powers’ work before, but now I’ve also read his memoir The History of Swimming—a remarkable book detailing ‘a lost weekend’ spent travelling around the USA in search of his missing, desperately alcoholic twin brother Tim—met with critical acclaim in the States, but sadly Capote in Kansas, his first novel, has been released here with little fanfare. What a shame! Capote in Kansas has rapidly become a contender for my title of ‘best book of 2009’. Like The 19th Wife it features dual narratives and characters based on real people—in this case Truman Capote and Harper Lee. Best friends in childhood, years later they worked together to create what is arguably one of the most compelling works of non-fiction ever witten, In Cold Blood. Then Lee released the Pulitzer winning To Kill A Mockingbird (a book that still draws close to a million readers each year), and their friendship was ended by a threatened Capote. Powers begins his novel with Capote calling Lee in the middle of the night, more than twenty years after he had abandoned her, whispering ‘She’s back. She’s after me.’ He is haunted by the ghosts of In Cold Blood’s Clutter family and their killers, and has reached out to the only person he believes can help him—Nelle Harper Lee. Powers blends fact and fiction to create a gripping picture of these two great authors—in childhood, in Kansas and many years on, both haunted by the ghosts of people living & dead, and the ghosts of their published works and of the books they didn’t or perhaps couldn’t go on to create. It is audacious work, taking on such giants, but he succeeds brilliantly—adding another dimension to their lives and the mysteries that surround them. This novel, again like Ebershoff’s, leads one onto or back to other books. Of course, the endlessly rewarding re-reads of In Cold Blood and To Kill a Mockingbird themselves to Mockingbird—Charles J. Shields’ unique character study of Lee. Then onto the biographies of Capote by Gerald Clarke and George Plimpton and (in between episodes of Big Love) re-viewings of the biopics Capote and Infamous and the film adaptations of Capote and Lee’s books... All of this from a book that not enough people will read, a book that illustrates what literature at its best can provoke and inspire, a book that compels one to again champion the cause of ‘the novel’ in the face of what so many see as its demise.

Children's Books

FOR THE NEW LITTLE ONES     The Baby’s Catalogue by Janet & Allan Ahlberg The creators of this wonderful book noticed that their own baby’s favourite reading matter was catalogues, so they decided to make their own. Filled with small, detailed pictures of lots of different babies, their parents, and the amazing array of paraphernalia that seems to accompany all small people, this book is a great visual treat. Another classic picture book, Each Peach Pear Plum, is my favourite Ahlberg book, and I’ll buy that one when this baby turns two. ($12.95, BD)     The Toolbox by Anne Rockwell, Ill. Harlow Rockwell This little board book is a true classic. Each page is illustrated with a simple image of a tool found in a toolbox. The watercolour illustrations have been painted with great skill, and the quiet conviction of the value of tools for the hand shines through the book. ($14, BD)     Are You My Mother? by P. D. Eastman This old favourite is still available in its traditional book format, but I love the new soft fabric book version. Like the rag books of old, this is fully washable, with a padded cover, and a plush baby bird on a ribbon, which makes the droll journey of the little bird an interactive experience as he meets various animals and asks the eponymous question. ($26, Plush Coth)     Orange Pear Apple Bear by Emily Gravett The most minimal text accompanies the joyful illustrations of a bear, an orange, an apple and a pear. Great fun to read aloud, this book is perfect for starting the reading voyage of the youngest baby. Lots of white page has been left in the illustrations, enhancing the clarity of the cheerful bear, and emphasising the feeling of movement and airiness. This is a most appealing book. ($12.95, PB)     FICTION     Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree by Lauren Tarshis For a 12-year-old Emma-Jean Lazarus is conspicuously mature, introspective and solitary—none of which traits endear her to her peers. Others don’t understand her and this is mutual as she observes them with academic, almost anthropological detachment. One day she succumbs to wrenching sympathy for Colleen, a distraught classmate, sparking an avalanche of changes in the lives of both girls. In her own hyper-logical way, guided as always by Poincare’s philosophy, Emma-Jean starts to engage with others in a well-meaning attempt to help Colleen, resulting in interactions both messy and stimulating. No longer the analytical bystander, Emma-Jean discovers that taking risks can lead to joy in humanity. Touching, humorous, with an earnest and eccentric young heroine, this book is a delight, bringing hope to others bewildered by their peers. (Until I read this I was unaware that the poem inscribed on the Statue of Liberty was written by Emma Lazarus.) Lynndy Bennett ($12, PB)     TEEN FICTION     Where the Streets Had a Name by Randa Abel-Fattah When her grandmother falls ill, 13-year-old Hayaat decides she will go to their native Jerusalem for a jar full of soil, believing it will help restore her health. She enlists her rambunctious friend Samy and soon discovers that without the right paperwork it is a dangerous journey for two young ‘west bankers’ to take. But on their way they meet interesting characters who will help them in different ways. I was so charmed by the characterisation, particularly Hayaat’s family, who are raucous and hilarious. They suffer each other in a tiny two bedroom apartment; having been removed from their home and restricted by constant curfews placed on them. Despite their idiosyncrasies they all manage to show such love, integrity and honesty. The confusing political and religious goings on in the area are subtly woven through the narrator’s (Hayaat’s) experience of them, making it not nearly as overwhelming to the reader as it could be. The author isn’t preaching—‘this is how it is and it’s wrong!’ it’s more ‘this is one young girl’s experience of it, and how it affects her family.’ I really loved this book—it’s a quest story with a heart, and is bound to satisfy thoughtful readers who enjoy Melinda Marchetta or Irini Savvides. James Paull ($20, PB)     Paper Towns by John Green I confess to a tremendous respect and fondness for John Green’s novels, and this is the one most likely to garner him a new audience. Quentin (Q) and Margo have known each other forever, which is exactly how long smart, well-adjusted Q has loved the unattainable rebel Margo, but since a bizarre experience they shared as 9-year-olds their paths have scarcely crossed. Now it is three weeks before they graduate high school, and Margo turns up one night to enlist Q’s help in her (absolutely ingenious!) 11-stage revenge plan to right miscellaneous wrongs. Then she enigmatically vanishes. Assuming this disappearance is no different from when she had run away in the past, Q and his friends search for typically cryptic clues to decipher Margo’s whereabouts in this latest exploit. In unravelling the mystery of Margo’s absence Q finds his life and beliefs unravelling equally, forcing him to question whether there is a meeting point between perception and truth; and what responsibilities knowledge brings. Thoughtful, wistful, this novel is permeated with the lassitude of the Florida heat and humidity in which it’s set, warmed by the obvious caring between friends, and enlivened by delicious witty humour. Intelligent writing highly recommended. Lynndy Bennett ($16, PB)     REFERENCE     A Story of Natural Numbers by David Demant An introduction to the amazing natural numbers—0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9. You will have already met them. Without them your life would be very different. You wouldn’t be able to tell the time, send a letter or use a telephone. Imagine—no computers, no TVs and no birthdays. But there was a time when they didn’t exist. Natural numbers have a long and fascinating history. Whet your appetite for numbers by reading A Story of Natural Numbers, which will grip you all the way from mysterious zero to the wonderful nine. (Arresting design + a lively approach = an intriguing new view of an overlooked subject, sure to grip readers of beyond the age of 9. LB) ($25, PB)

From The Theatre

SYDNEY DANCE COMPANY - SYDNEY DANCE COMPANY Sometimes there's just no need to say anything else. For over 30 years the SDC has EXISTED!—creating it’s own audience and it’s own permanent place in our cultural life. In addition to its work within Australia, the company has undertaken over 25 international tours—to Asia, North America, South America and Europe—performing to audiences in over 100 cities in over 20 countries. Now for the first time they are appearing at The Sydney Theatre with previews from 27th March and a season running until 11th March. Their newly appointed Artistic Director, Spanish born Rafael Bonachela, is set to create his second major work following the huge success of 360º—Bonachela’s premiere work for Sydney Dance Company in 2008—which introduced its choreographer to Australian audiences. The new work, entitled We Unfold, is set to a new symphony—Oceans for Orchestra and Solo Cello—by the Italian composer Ezio Bosso. 'When I heard this new symphony I was completely swept away. I could immediately see my new work arising out of it. Through his music, Ezio creates tensions that take me to a very emotional place. When I hear it I feel, then I see. Movement for me is no longer a pure physicality but an instinctual and emotional response to Ezio's incredible composition. This new symphony is quite simply breathtaking.' . . . and the dance work itself? —'It's about blossoming and opening up … rebirth . . . about our desires and needs as people to reveal ourselves to others.' Bonachela says: 'My aim is to build a strong company with a singular identity and aesthetic, informed by my enthusiasm to create new work. I will continue to commission international artists and build upon Australian choreographic talent through a diverse programme, leading the Company towards an exciting future. Out of this vision will emerge a unique signature through work that does not belong to anyone else but us, dance at its highest quality, dance that is synonymous with Sydney Dance Company.' 'His dance is like a spray of bullets that hit their target…'—The Times, London 'It is modern art engraved in steel; thrilling in its newness…. Rafael Bonachela is of the moment..' —Dance Europe 'Bonachela delivers a work that is breathtakingly, almost painfully beautiful.'—Daily Telegraph, Sydney For Bookings Phone (02) 9250 1999. For further information: www.sydneydancecompany.com At the Sydney Theatre Shop we stock an extensive range of Dance and Ballet DVDs with always something new to browse. Here are two new and two best selling Modern Dance/Ballet DVDs from our collection. The Hard Nut—Mark Morris Dance Company, Region 1 DVD $45: Mark Morris’ 1960’s comic-book version of The Nutcracker from 1993. Last Dance, Region 1 DVD $54: Mirra Banks’ award winning documentary follows the collaboration between Maurice Sendak and Pilobolus Dance Theatre on “A Selection”—a piece concerned with the children of the Holocaust. Nutcracker, DVD $29.95: Graham Murphy’s ground breaking production for the Australian Ballet filmed in 1994. Baryshnikov Dances Sinatra, Region 1 DVD $54: Baryshnikov dances Twyla Tharpe! Filmed at American Ballet Theatre in 1977.

DVDs

The Tulse Luper Suitcases, dir. Peter Greenaway ($64.95) This set contains 3 movies, The Moab Story, Vaux to the Sea & From Sark to the Finish, which tell the life of Tulse Luper as the film looks through the 92 suitcases that he has left at his death. Tulse considers the 20th century to be the century of uranium hence the 92 suitcases (92 being the atomic weight of uranium). As usual with Greenaway films, it is complex & beautiful. A must for the many Greenaway fans out there. The Norman Wisdom Collection ($37.95) This set includes Trouble in Store, Up In The World, On The Beat—Three of Wisdom’s popular slapstick comedies. Wisdom is the loveable victim of his own clumsiness, whether it be working as a window dresser, cleaning windows or working for the police. I guess you could say he was an early version of Michael Crawford’s Frank Spencer. Classic British comedy. Scorsese: My Voyage Through Italian Cinema ($75) This is a really great packaging idea. You get Martin Scorsese’s documentary My Voyage To Italy where he looks at the post War Italian films that he loved & influenced him as a director, plus 5 of those films: La Terra Trema, dir. Luchino Visconti; I Vitelloni, dir. Federico Fellini; The Bicycle Thief, dir. Vittorio De Sica; L’Avventura, dir. Michelangelo Antonioni; and 8 ½, dir. Frderico Fellini—a great way to start your Italian Collection. (My 2 favourites in this collection are The Bicycle Thief & L’Avventura). Man on Wire ($31.95) A wonderful documentary about a very charismatic man doing very dangerous things. In August 1974 Philippe Petit stretched a wire between the World Trade Centre towers and strolled between the towers on the wire. The documentary traces his previous walks at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris and the northern pylons of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. I found myself at times thinking he was a self-centered, publicity seeking, friend-using scoundrel, & at other times crying at the beauty of what he was doing. Make sure you watch the short film of the Sydney Harbour Bridge crossing which is one of the extras on the disc. The Long Firm ($42.95) A 4 part series originally made in 2004, it was shown last year on the ABC. Harry Starks is a Jewish, homosexual criminal in London in the early 60s. He’s a thug & quite possibly mad but somehow rather likable. The series tells Jimmy’s story from the early 60s to the early 80s through the eyes of 4 of his associates. Each story is one episode. I missed the TV viewing & caught up with it on the DVD. This is much better viewing as you can watch it over 2 nights rather than 4 weeks. Highly recommended. Rape of Europa ($54, Region 1) Apart from anything else, World War 2 was the biggest & best organised art robbery ever executed. The Nazis stole tens of thousands of Europe’s greatest art works from both public & private collections. Thousands are still missing. Once in a while one will crop up at auction. Some are in public or private collections where there are long on-going legal battles over ownership. Occasionally one will find its way back to its original, pre-Nazi owner. Rape Of Europa is based on the best selling book by Lynn Nicholas. Hitler seemed to start his conquering with a massive cultural hit list. Grabbing art works that he wanted & destroying those works he felt were inferior. The documentary also brings to light the work of the Allies’ ‘Monument Men’ whose job it was to minimise damage done by advancing armies and to track stolen works of art. Lord of the Flies ($37.95) One of my favourite films based on one of my favourite books. A group of school boys find themselves on a deserted island after a plane crash. After awhile their civilised exterior melts away to expose the savage inside. Extras include audio commentary & an interview with director, Peter Brook. DVD TOP TEN As It Is In Heaven First Australians Keating! The Musical Annie Leibowitz: Life Through a Lens The Lives of Others In the Shadow of the Moon The Counterfeiters Escape From New York Pan’s Labyrinth Girl in the Mirror

Consultations By Daniel Brass

The Anatomist: A True Story of Gray’s Anatomy by Bill Hayes ($32.95, PB) Gray’s Anatomy: The Classic 1860 Edition ($29.95, PB) Gray’s Anatomy, as Bill Hayes remarks, is the one medical textbook known outside medicine. The magisterial fortieth edition was recently released at the modest price of $299, and I confess I did succumb and buy it to assist me in exam preparation at the end of last year. It is still the standard work on anatomy, although the text of Henry Gray and the illustrations of Henry Carter have been supplanted by more modern versions. Somehow, though, the later editions with their more sophisticated understanding, lack the romance of the earlier—and the two books I’m reviewing this month capture and communicate a great deal of that romance. The recently-published facsimile of the 1860 Gray’s (the first edition was in 1858) has the great advantage of being written for an audience which was far less specialised than the modern medical profession. In 1860, the word ‘scientist’ had been around for less than twenty years and medicine had scarcely escaped from the quackery which George Eliot so vividly depicts holding sway in Middlemarch. The early editions of Gray’s, therefore, are written in a style which can still be enlightening today. Indeed, having trouble with anatomy late last year, I turned up to a meeting with an anatomy professor clutching the 1860 edition. ‘I can understand this,’ I said. ‘It makes perfect sense. Can I work from this rather than the new one? Will it all be wrong?’ Apart from a warning that some of the details of the nervous system might be subtly different, he said it should be fine. ‘That’s part of the beauty of anatomy: it has scarcely changed in four centuries.’ Bill Hayes was obviously infected with this beauty. His captivating preface to The Anatomist describes plucking anatomy and pathology books from the shelves of his friends’ parents as a teenager and poring over the irksome pictures with a grotesque fascination. One of these books, needless to say, was Gray’s Anatomy and over time he became almost obsessed with pursuing the story of the two men who created this astonishing work. What is most enthralling about Hayes’ book is the extent of his personal engagement with the material. In trying to understand the world of Gray and Carter, he dons gown and gloves and enters the dissecting room to dismantle a cadaver. He describes his reactions—rarely squeamish and always calm—to this breaking down of the body into its component parts, identifying ‘the inner architecture of the human form’ and finding the underlying order. Reading Gray’s Anatomy and The Anatomist in tandem is a rewarding experience. The former fills the gaping lacunae in popular knowledge of what’s going on within and beneath our skin. The latter describes the background to Gray and Carter, as well as the modern anatomist’s way of seeing. What both books share is an almost spiritual fascination with the world of the dead. Humanity is, quite literally, laid bare, and in learning about our physical bodies, something profound is revealed of the mind and spirit, just as in focusing on the dead, we are compelled to think about life as well. Daniel

Rocks Of Ages Or When Dinosaurs Ruled Blackheath By Stephen Reid

I adapted the sub-heading for this month’s ramble from the cult film classic When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1971). Alright, I admit it. I’m a fan of Hollywood dinosaur movies. I’ve seen ‘em all: Godzilla (1956), The Land That Time Forgot (1975), The Lost World (1960) and—particularly when they feature shapely cavewomen such as Raquel Welch —One Million Years B.C. (1966). Ahem. Anyway… this month both geology and dinosaurs combine to do justice to a rare volume of 19th century Australian science, unearthed (sorry) from our Blackheath book cave. Particulars as follows: Rev. J. Milne Curran, Geology of Sydney and the Blue Mountain: A Popular Introduction to the Study of Geology. (Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1898) Hardcover. 391pp. References, Glossary, Index, 83 Illustrations. Rebound spine. Gilt title on Original front green boards. Corners somewhat scuffed and worn. Previous owner’s address stamp on free front endpaper. Bookseller’s sticker on front pastedown. Pencil underlinings and marginalia on several pages. Otherwise very clean and in good condition. Copy of the scarce First Edition. $120.00. When Charles Darwin (whose bicentennial we celebrate this year) visited the Blue Mountains in January 1836 he was more than a little impressed with the view from Jamison Valley: ‘About a mile & (a) half from this place there is a view, exceedingly well worth visiting. Following down a little valley & its tiny rill of water, suddenly & without any preparation, through the trees, which border the pathway, an immense gulf is seen at the depth of perhaps 1500 ft beneath ones feet. Walking a few yards farther, one stands on the brink of a great precipice. Below is the grand bay or gulf, for I know not what other name to give it, thickly covered with forest. The point of view is situated as it were at the head of the Bay, for the line of cliff diverges away on each side, showing headland, behind headland, as on a bold Sea coast.... The class of view was to me quite novel & certainly magnificent.’ Then he arrived at Blackheath: “Very early in the morning, I walked about 3 miles to see Govett’s Leap; a view of a similar, but even perhaps more stupendous, character…” Darwin speculated (incorrectly) that such valleys were formed by the underwater action of waves when the plateaus were submerged. Had he lived to read Curran’s little book it would have given him the correct cause: erosion—over the vast geological time scale of some 180 million years. The author, John Milne Curran (1859–1928) was born in Ireland and immigrated to Australia in 1875. After his ordination in 1881 he was posted to Dubbo and made School Inspector of the Bathurst Diocese. He combined an active pastoral life and a career as a noted geologist. In 1897 Curran was appointed Lecturer of Geology at Sydney Technical College. His book—the result of nearly two decade’s private study—appeared the following year and became a standard work. Incidentally, a 16 page supplement at the end of the volume lists numerous current and forthcoming titles by Angus & Robertson publishers and carries a wonderful period charm. It includes descriptions of works by Henry Lawson, A.B. Paterson, Edward Dyson’s Rhymes from the Mines and Louise Mack’s Teens: A Story of Australian Schoolgirls as well as The Australian Copy Book—‘approved by the Chief Inspector of Catholic Schools’, and The Australian Progressive Songster—for Junior Classes. And the Dinosaurs? Well, there are plates throughout the book illustrating various fossil finds and imaginative reconstructions. The ones reproduced here (on pp. 111 and 159) depicting Blackheath residents of the Triassic Period—some 200 million years ago—caught my eye. COMPETITION! And what might that primeval Blackheath world have seemed like to a modern traveller? In keeping with our theme—and this is a first—a prize of a DVD of One Million Years B.C. is on offer to the first of my vast number of readers out there who can identify which famous adventure novel the following passage is taken from. In it, our intrepid explorers set out to climb a vast, mysterious, fog- shrouded plateau (Hint—a careful re-reading of the article supplies the answer): ‘Many times we were up to our waists in the slime of an old semi-tropical swamp….the cliffs along the farther side being chocolate brown in colour, the vegetation was more scattered along the top of them…for the last fifty feet we were clinging with our fingers and toes to crevices…The whole plain seemed to lie beneath us, extending far and away until it ended in dim blue mists…gradually the vegetation increased until it formed a huge forest which extended as far as the eye could reach.’ Answers to: stephen@gleebooks.com.au. The judge’s decision is final, etc. Until next time. Stephen Reid.

Winton

David Grossman is an Israeli author and a vocal peace activist who writes compellingly about the intractable position Israel finds itself in today. His latest book of essays, Writing in the Dark is an eloquent plea for making the effort to negotiate for peace primary—if ‘any Arab leader sends signals of peace, even the slightest and most hesitant ones [the Israeli Prime Minister] must respond .’ And respond to peace as a priority, with the same quickness & vehemence as leaping into battle. Grossman lost his son in the 2006 Israel/Lebanon conflict and, ‘as someone whose longstanding covenant with the country has become, tragically, a covenant of blood’, his love of Israel is ‘difficult and complicated, but nonetheless unequivocal’. So his criticism of Israeli policy in the Middle East comes from a deep desire for a resolution in which everyone gets to live with understanding and respect for the other. As a reader new to Grossman, the first essay in the collection, ‘Books That Have Read Me’ was a perfect introduction. He writes of his childhood in Israel ‘like most children in the neighborhood, I worked tirelessly to expose Arab spies and spent days in physical training so that I could either make it onto the Israeli team that would defeat the evil Germans or get into paratroopers’. But between the ages of eight & ten he was also a double agent from ‘here’ (Israel) to ‘Over There’—the world of his father’s childhood in the Galician shtetl of Dynow as depicted in Sholem Aleichem’s short stories. His description of the secret world of childhood reading is wholly captivating—although he doesn’t completely understand the world of Aleichem’s shtetl, ‘I read like someone entering a completely foreign world that was, at the same time, a promised land...And it all worked its magic on me in a muddled way: the worlds with the biblical ring, the characters, the customs, the ways of life, and the fact that the page numbers were marked with letters rather than numbers’. He captures that wonderful, private world of childhood reading, even taking you parenthetically into children’s reading today, and the way children’s books are now generally written to the ‘reader’s eye level and ear level—whereas for Grossman’s generation: ‘In the early 1960s we read books in archaic and poetic Hebrew that did not employ our daily language at all...but in the course of reading, I would fill in linguistic gaps and unwittingly acquire a large and rich vocabulary, learning to view language as an entity with a life of its own.’ I was relaxing into this lovely musing on reading and thinking I must reread Sholem Aleichem’s stories when suddenly ‘In the midst of a Holocaust Remembrance Day, it struck me all at once. The six million, the murdered, the victims, the ‘Holocaust martyrs’. They were Mottel and Tevye and Shimele Soroker and Chavaleh.’ The ten year old Grossman then rereads his beloved books for the last time—‘with care and gravity (I was very careful not to laugh in the places that always made me laugh)...Each encounter with the text brought home to me again the enormity of the loss.’ The essay then segues into the writings of Bruno Schultz and Grossman’s own written attempts to articulate the contradictory nature of living in Israel, and before you know it the ‘injustices of the Occupation’ and the manipulation of language by the Occupier to disguise the incongruity between Israel’s founding values and its political circumstances is the end of the thread that leads from Grossman’s childhood epiphany about the extermination of the shtetl. It is a marvellously complex piece of writing, one to which I hope the new leaders of Israel lend more than an eye. Winton

What We're Reading

James—The Spare Room, Helen Garner. I was a bit cranky at the start of this book; it’s narrated by a writer named Helen who is preparing her spare room for an ill friend. I wanted to scream “If you’re going to write a memoir don’t call it a novel!” It only took about five pages for me to get over myself and fall heart-first for this amazing story. I felt so deeply for not only the cancer ridden Nicola who is taking alternative treatments believing it will heal her, but for the frustrated narrator who is torn between her own logical mind and love for a friend. There is nothing extraneous about Garner’s prose, so rarely am I treated to such honest awe-inspiring writing. It’s a wonderful story of friendship, illness, illusion, disillusion and death. Jack—Try to Tell the Story: A Memoir, David Thomson A lifetime spent in the dark, as cinema’s finest critic, produces powerful illumination: “I was breastfed, I know, and later I asked my mother whether the milk in her breasts was not nervous or afraid sometimes, waiting for the air raid warning. I wondered whether she had to tell her own milk to be still and calm—I feel something like that sometimes when I write, as if the orderly vision, or its quiet, rhythmic tale, could save me.” Alan: Just re-read Mrs Dalloway - simply put, the most extraordinary book in my experience—fifth time reading it in a decade and still so startling in its emotional power that the thought of reading it again becomes a reason for being alive. As a “cure” for Virginia Woolf I picked up a couple of fast selling specials. Oscar Wilde and the Candlelight Murders by Gyles Brandreth looked interesting but also possibly tacky and exploitive? It proved to be well written and impeccably researched—its improbabilities well within the style of an old fashioned “English” murder mystery. A bigger surprise was Kate Westbrook’s Guardian Angel, the first of her Moneypenny Diaries series. Do not be fooled by the HIDEOUS chicklit cover, this is compulsive stuff—a world within a world of not only Fleming/Bond, but the real political landscape of the cold war. Morgan: Decided to find out why the Steig Larsson books, Girl with a Dragon Tattoo and The Girl who Played with Fire are such worldwide hits and discovered original, engaging characters, complex and interesting plotting and fine writing. Perfect for those hot sleepless nights. Continuing with the crime jag have picked up The Other Half Lives by British crime writer Sophie Hannah. Not quite in the same class as Larsson but well written and half way through, gripping enough to really want to know what the hell is happening. Is this girl mad? Is there a conspiracy? Is her boyfriend a killer? And why have the engaged cops involved in the case never had it off?

And Another Thing

With not much space to work with here, I close the March Gleaner reading a book I picked up in a browse through the shop. A Place in The Rocks, published by the Historic Houses Trust is a beautifully presented pictorial and oral history centred around ‘Susannah Place’ on Gloucester Street in the Rocks. And after I’ve handed this to the printer I think I may just have to wander down to this ‘living museum’. Viki