Dear Sibyl
Dear Sibyl
Is she, as her name suggests, an ancient Greek oracle and fount of wisdom, or simply an ironically-named mouthy millennial? Her identity may be veiled but her opinions are anything but. Sibyl is our new literary advice columnist and agony aunt. Each month she will recommend books especially tailored to your conundrum, problem or complaint. Be it a personal pickle, or a political polemic, if literature can’t salve that wound what can? Consult the oracle, framing your question in less than one hundred words, and Sibyl will choose the book for you. If chosen for publication the supplicant will receive a $50 Gleebooks Gift Voucher to spend on their literary improvement. Don’t be shy; Sibyl may not protect your feelings, but will protect your anonymity. Seek Sibyl’s guidance by sending her an email: dearsibyl@gleebooks.com.au
Dear Sibyl,
Despite constant requests to desist, my husband continues to delight in noisily slurping his cup of tea through the gap between his front teeth. He also rolls his socks into a tight ball before they are to be washed. Anyhow. My question is where can one dispose of a body so that it won’t ever be found? Asking for a friend.
Over It. Annandale.
Dear Over It,
Are the Flinders Ranges too remote for you? You patently need the inspiration of our finest crime authors, and who finer than Garry Disher? Readers are desperate for the next ‘big thing’ in rural noir, but many haven’t discovered one of the genre’s finest progenitors. Disher both nails the genre and teases it to its limits with stunning, unflashy prose and crisp delineation of complex and fallible characters. They are books with atmosphere in spades. No pun intended. His newest title is a perfect place to jump in –The Way It Is Now is a beach shack mystery with a fantastic hero on disciplinary leave from his police job, and on permanent leave from his marriage. Or try the Hirsch series, starting with Bitter Wash Road with a brilliant South Australian wheat belt setting. Also just out this month is Agatha Christie: A Very Elusive Woman by Lucy Worsley. Worsley offers a terribly entertaining, clear-eyed, critical, nuanced biography of a complicated, shockingly clever, occasionally monstrous, and mercurial woman.
Good luck with your husband. Xanthippe, wife of Socrates, in addressing domestic malfeasance took a direct approach involving toilet water which you may wish to explore, and which attracts less risk of a custodial sentence.
Sibyl
Dear Sibyl,
My father and I have a combative, prickly, relationship and I always feel like, in his eyes, I am never good enough. How can I give him a subtle hint that our relationship could do with a little work? Mike, Thebes
Dear Mike,
You’re looking to Ancient Greece for advice about fathers?? Honey, some of my colleagues have a reputation for actually eating their wayward children. Happy-Go-Lucky the new collection of essays by David Sedaris, in which he examines the scabrous relationship he had with his father Lou who died with dementia last year, aged 98. Sedaris as always plays this relationship for laughs, but stares unflinchingly into the dark heart of the monstrous old turd. Trust me, your father will come out smelling of roses in comparison. Ransom by David Malouf is a lyrical and heartbreakingly tender story of an elderly father’s mission to retrieve the body of his dead son. Losing Face by George Haddad is a mesmerising portrait of a young man whose life may just be careening out of control, but even in its sexually chaotic and dangerous extremes it is portrayed with an assured and gentle empathy. The relationship between Joey and his fallible father is not the primary focus of this novel – but it is an important one, and painted with confident brush strokes. By the way, I know quite a few people in Thebes. You aren’t related to a yoga instructor called Jocasta, or an Instagram influencer called Laius, are you? Sibyl
Dear Sibyl,
The overturning of the Roe vs Wade ruling in the USA has horrified me, and I am struggling to comprehend how those conservative Supreme Court judges can sleep at night, and make those decisions? How can I find some quietude in my reading? SB, Halifax
Dear SB,
Yes, it is a profoundly upsetting backward step. How do they sleep? Well it is the USA so I imagine with a benzodiazepine cocktail, or in the case of Justice Kavanaugh, perhaps a touch of propofol with a rye whisky chaser? For reading, perhaps try The Heather Blazing by Colm Toibin. It is a quiet and gentle novel; a deeply moving portrait of an emotionally aloof judge who seems unsettlingly comfortable with decisions that fly in the face of the personal morality of his closest family members. It is also an exquisite evocation of a lost childhood, spent in a cliff-side house on the Wexford coast of Ireland. A novel heartbreaking and yet compassionate.
Stay well, Sibyl
Dear Sibyl,
I have just broken up with my partner. Even though I know the break up is for the best, I can’t help but hold onto the past and have been left with feelings of despair, anger, and rejection. How do I contend with a feeling that I may have lost “the one”? And how can I come out of this experience with more self love than I had to begin with?
Recently Dumped
Dear Recently Dumped,
I commend you your maturity and wisdom. I can organise, at a very attractive price, your ex-partner be chained to a rock and have an eagle eat their liver every night for all eternity, should you wish? Failing that I recommend The Pisces by Melissa Broder $20 which follows a woman looking for love in all the wrong places after a particularly bad break up. Brimming with nihilistic dark humour and outrageous wit, Lucy finds herself in one sexual/social mishap after another until she meets a myserious man in the ocean one night. It’s erotic, funny, sad, and life-affirming.
Choose Life! Sibyl
Dear Sibyl,
I recently took a punt on a new role in federal politics. I not only failed in my bid, but have found myself treated most unfairly by all comers. Why are people so cruel and how can I get my message across to people? K.D. Warringah
Dear K D,
One doesn’t need to be an oracle to smell hubris and frankly, madam, the stench of it coming off you is quite something! Your grubby leader’s attempt at dog whistle politics was so hamfisted as to be ludicrous. Perhaps get some tips from five inspiring graziers and learn the science behind muster dog behaviour in Muster Dogsby Aticia Grey $35. If you are capable of an introspective moment you could try a forensic examination of the impacts on vulnerable youth when they are sacrificed on the altar of political opportunism and may wish to visit Benjamin Law’s superb Moral Panic 101: Equality, Acceptance and the Safe Schools Scandal $23. Otherwise, just get in the bin, and stay there.
Sibyl