Reading Matters

How I tweeted my way through Kate Grenville's book launch at Australia House last week

One thing I was taught in journalism school all those years ago was to make sure I didn't leave home without a pen and notebook, because you just didn't know when you might just stumble on the biggest news story of your life.

So when I went to Australia House last Tuesday night, courtesy of an invitation from Canongate, to attend the launch of Kate Grenville's latest novel, Sarah Thornhill, I was mortified to discover I'd remembered the pen, but I'd forgotten the paper!

Thank goodness, then, for my trusty little BlackBerry. Initially I planned to take notes, for my own reference, on the phone's MemoPad application. But then, in a fit of inspiration, I thought I'd try tweeting my way through the evening. And this is what followed (sadly, I wasn't organised enough to think of a hashtag so that others could follow the event, and do excuse the odd spelling mistake and grammatical error):

[I think I did: I haven't heard so many Australian accents in the one place since... well... last time I was in Australia. Oh, and Australia House is just gorgeous, all marble staircases and pillars, Corinthian columns, gleaming mahogony walls and doors, sky blue ceilings and gold leaf detailing everywhere.]

[Ah yes, took me ages to craft that line.]

[He made quite a lovely speech, actually, and put Kate's work into a kind of academic context.]

[This is something that came out of Dr Henderson's introduction. He said this quote was something that Kate had told him earlier. I think it resonated with a lot of people at the launch, but also by those who saw this tweet and retweeted it.]

[Now, if only she had had a BlackBerry, a phone signal and access to Twitter...but of course it wouldn't look as good waving around a Smartphone at readings instead of a paper bag, would it?]

[She said she felt compelled to write down what she could hear in her head that day on the volcano. She described it as "oogie boogie" or some such, by which I think she meant it sounds a bit surreal and stupid to claim you can hear a character's voice come out of nowhere, but when inspiration strikes you have to go with it!]

[This elicited quite a few laughs from the audience. It seems most of the characters in the book are based on real people, as are many of the incidents that occur. Although she is quick to point out that the book is a novel, not history.]

[There are a few sex scenes in the book...]

[She names Austen, Woolf and Eliot as examples, before inviting the audience to disprove her 'theory'. A few mention that Elizabeth Gaskell had children.]

[Now this caught my attention, because I do about 50 drafts of anything I write, even measley little blog posts like this one, and I still don't ever feel I get it right and then I find stupid errors weeks later! I don't think Kate was exaggerating either — this was a real figure. Just goes to prove that the writing that looks the most effortless takes a lot of effort! Budding authors take note.]

[Something else for budding writers to take note of. How many times do we read scenes and dialogue that feels false? Or meet characters that don't ring true?]

 

After her reading and speech, there were questions from the floor — Diana Athill, sitting in the front row next to Jamie Byng, was the first to put up her hand — and then it was time to grab a glass of wine, mingle with others and queue up to get your book signed.

I ended up having a lovely chat with her about all kinds of things, including the cost of books in Australia, whether men read her novels and the importance of social media and blogging to promote books.

She is one of the most down-to-earth and approachable writers I've ever met — and so genuinely interested in the people who read her work. I could have chatted to her all night! [Apologies to the people in the queue behind me; they must have been cursing me for being such a time-hog.]

Thanks to Anna Frame at Canongate for the invitation. It was lovely to meet you and the perfect way to conclude my Australian Literature Month.

And yes, dear readers, I'll get that review of Sarah Thornhill written very soon. Now where's my notebook... unless you want me to review it via Twitter? :-)

An Australian reading list: the 49 Oz Lit books reviewed last month

Here's a list of all the books that were reviewed during Australian Literature Month. It's quite an eclectic list and includes everything from classics to chick lit, crime fiction to literary fiction, poetry to non-fiction.

It has been arranged in alphabetical order according to author's surname:

• Tirra Lirra by the River by Jessica Anderson (Kinna Reads)

• Empire Day by Diane Armstrong (Book'd Out)

• Drylands by Thea Astley (Booklog for Charlotte)

• The Chemistry of Tears by Peter Carey (ANZLitLovers)

• Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey (Lizzy's Literary Life)
  Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey (Gaskella)

• The True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey (366 days, 366 books)

• (For the Term of) His Natural Life by Marcus Clarke (ANZLitlovers)

• Comeback by Peter Corris (Book'd Out)

• Riding the Black Cockatoo by John Damalis (Farm Lane Books Blog)

• Call Me Cruel by Michael Duffy (Book'd Out)

• Death of a River Guide by Richard Flanagan (Reading Matters)

• Wanting by Richard Flanagan (Ardent Reader)

• All That I Am by Anna Funder (The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader)

• The Bachelor and Spinster Ball by Janet Glover (Cathy Powell)

• Maestro by Peter Goldsworthy (Stuck in a Book)

• The Lieutenant by Kate Grenville (Reading Matters)

• The Idea of Perfection by Kate Grenville (Booklog for Charlotte)

• Stella Makes Good by Lisa Heidke (Book'd Out)

• The Girl in the Steel-Capped Boots by Loretta Hill (Book'd Out)

• The Mystery of a Hansom Cab by Fergus W. Hume (Whispering Gums)

• Kinglake-350 by Adrian Hyland (Petrona)

• The Book of My Enemy has been Remaindered by Clive James (Lizzy's Literary Life)

• The Newspaper of Claremont Street by Elizabeth Jolley (To Be Read)

• My Brother Jack by George Johnston (Booklog for Charlotte)

• Berlin Syndrome by Melanie Joosten (Reading Matters)

• Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay (Booklog for Charlotte)

• Sister Ships and Other Stories by Joan London (Read, Ramble)

• Gilgamesh by Joan London (Tony's Book World)

• Under the Influence by Jacqueline Lunn (Book'd Out)

• Remembering Babylon by David Malouf (Words and Peace)

• David Malouf's Fly Away Peter (Reading Matters)

• Foal's Bread by Gillian Mears (Reading Matters)

• Taller When Prone by Les Murray (Read, Ramble)

• Me of the Never Never by Fiona O'Loughlin (Book'd Out)

• I Came to Say Goodbye by Caroline Overington (Sam Still Reading)

• Past the Shallows by Favel Parrett (ANZLitLovers)

• The Street Sweeper by Elliot Perlman (Sam Still Reading)

• Seven Types of Ambiguity by Elliot Perlman (KevinfromCanada)

• Bite Your Tongue by Francesca Rendle-Short (Whispering Gums)

• The Last Thread by Michael Sala (Whispering Gums)

• Truth by Peter Temple (Reading Matters)

• Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living by Carrie Tiffany (Tony's Reading List)

• Mateship of Birds by Carrie Tiffany (ANZLitLovers)

• Loaded by Christos Tsiolkas (Reading Matters)  

• The Freudian Slip by Marion Von Adlerstein (Sam Still Reading)

• Tim Winton's Breath (Reading Matters)

• Bereft by Chris Womersley (Savidge Reads)
  Bereft by Chris Womersley (Lizzy's Literary Life)
  Bereft by Chris Womersley (The Black Sheep Dances)

• The Children by Charlotte Wood (Reading Matters)

• Carpentaria by Alexis Wright (Tony's Reading List)

Thanks to everyone for your enthusiasm in reading Australian literature and contributing so many great reviews over the past month. There are plenty more Australian reviews to come from me over the next few months. In the meantime I trust the above list provides some inspiration for those wanting to dip their toes in the wonderful world of Oz Lit.

Australian Literature Month: final round-up

Can you believe it? It only seemed like the other day that we were ushering in a new year and the start of Australian Literature Month. But now January is drawing to a close and my month-long reading project is over. Here's my final wrap-up...

The books read

This week I've travelled to some very dark places.

First, I felt overwhelmed by several murders and high-level corruption in Melbourne, courtesy of Peter Temple's award-winning Truth.

I then travelled to Berlin with an Australian tourist, who falls in love with a German boy and gets caught up in a dangerous pyschological game, courtesy of Melanie Joosten's Berlin Syndrome.

And finally, I sailed to an island off the Western Australian coast during the 1920s where I witnessed a husband and wife keep a baby that wasn't theirs, courtesy of M.L. Stedman's Light Between Oceans, which is due to be published in the UK this April.

The giveaways

I hosted three giveaways this past week. 

The first, to win one of two copies of Tim Winton's Cloudstreet, was sponsored by Picador, and I'm happy to report that copies will soon be winging their way to Janet in Lincolnshire and Glynis in Spain.

The second, to win one of three sets of Kate Grenville's "colonial trilogy", was sponsored by Canongate. These wonderful books will be shipped to Philip in England and Zbyszekspir in Poland. I still haven't heard from Sdav, so not quite sure which part of the world the third set will be shipped to.

And the third, to win a copy of Peter Carey's Illywhacker, was sponsored by Faber and Faber. A copy of this doorstep of a book — it's 600-plus pages — will soon be delivered to Nadine Nys.

The books reviewed

This week I reviewed the following:

• The Lieutenant by Kate Grenville

• The Children by Charlotte Wood

• Death of a River Guide by Richard Flanagan

• Truth by Peter Temple

• Berlin Syndrome by Melanie Joosten

That's FIVE reviews! No wonder I am officially exhausted!

Other bloggers have been hard at work too. I'm so impressed with this week's list — spot the Peter Carey and Carrie Tiffany fest!:

• My Brother Jack by George Johnston (Booklog for Charlotte)

• Drylands by Thea Astley (Booklog for Charlotte)

• Me of the Never Never by Fiona O'Loughlin (Book'd Out)

• I Came to Say Goodbye by Caroline Overington (Sam Still Reading)

• The Freudian Slip by Marion Von Adlerstein (Sam Still Reading)

• Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living by Carrie Tiffany (Tony's Reading List)

• Mateship of Birds by Carrie Tiffany (ANZLitLovers)

• The Chemistry of Tears by Peter Carey (ANZLitLovers)

• Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey (Lizzy's Literary Life)

• The True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey (366 days, 366 books)

• Bereft by Chris Womersley (Savidge Reads)

• Riding the Black Cockatoo by John Damalis (Farm Lane Books Blog)

• Maestro by Peter Goldsworthy (Stuck in a Book)

• The Mystery of a Hansom Cab by Fergus W. Hume (Whispering Gums)

• Sister Ships and Other Stories by Joan London (Read, Ramble)

• Remembering Babylon by David Malouf (Words and Peace)

• Tirra Lirra by the River by Jessica Anderson (Kinna Reads)

• The Book of My Enemy has been Remaindered by Clive James (Lizzy's Literary Life)

• The Last Thread by Michael Sala (Whispering Gums)

• Bereft by Chris Womersley (The Black Sheep Dances)

What next?

Well, just because Australian Literature Month is over, it doesn't mean I'm suddenly going to stop reading and reviewing Australian fiction. I've really enjoyed discovering so many interesting and varied books over the past month, and I'm determined to keep working my way through my Aussie pile to see what other gems I may unearth.

Of course, I've still got a few more reviews to write (The World Beneath, Sarah Thornhill and The Light Between Oceans), so do keep coming back to see my thoughts on those novels. My book group is also reading Helen Garner's Monkey Grip, so that will be posted here some time next week.

And tonight, thanks to a kind invite from Canongate, I'm off to Australia House, where Kate Grenville will be launching her new novel, Sarah Thornhill, so I'll be writing about that at some point, too.

Finally, thanks to everyone — publishers, bloggers and readers alike — for your support of, and participation in, Australian Literature Month. It's been fun having you all along for the ride!

Did I miss your Australian book review or your post about Australian Literature Month? Let me know and I’ll add it in.

Kate Grenville in the 'Metro'

With just one day left of Australian Literature Month, I was hoping to post my five-star review of Kate Grenville's latest novel, Sarah Thornhill, tonight. But alas, real life has got in the way.

Thank goodness, then, that the author is currently in the UK. This means you can read an interview with her published in today's Metro.

I suspect more interviews will pop up in the British press over the next couple of days — her  book is being launched in the UK at Australia House tomorrow night (I'm delighted to have received an invite!) and she'll be doing a reading at Festival Hall on Wednesday night. I'll post links if I spot anything published online.

The 'Illywhacker' winner

Thank-you to everyone who entered the final Australian Literature Month competition to win a copy of Peter Carey's Illywhacker, courtesy of Faber and Faber.

I used a random integer generator to choose one lucky winner out of the 14 who put their name in the hat.

Here are your random numbers:

9

Timestamp: 2012-01-30 21:40:39 UTC

That means the winner is Nadine Nys. Congratulations! I'll be in touch shortly to arrange delivery of your book.

Commiserations to those who missed out, but when I get around to reading this book I'll give you some advanced warning and maybe you can join me on the journey.

'Berlin Syndrome' by Melanie Joosten

Fiction - paperback; Scribe Publications; 256 pages; 2011. Review copy courtesy of the publisher.

Melanie Joosten's debut novel, Berlin Syndrome, is one of the best psychological thrillers I've read in quite a while. Think Emma Donahue's Room crossed with John Fowles' The Collector with a smidgen of the paranoia present in Nicci French's work and you'll have a good idea of what to expect.

Set in Berlin

The book is set in Berlin, Germany, and is divided into two parts.

The first reveals how Clare, an architectural photographer from Australia, meets Andi, an English teacher from Germany, in a foreign city far from home. There is an immediate, if somewhat mysterious, attraction between the pair, and before Clare realises it, her one-night stand has turned into something unexpectedly tender and romantic.

The second explores how their shared love story morphs into a bittersweet nightmare in which Andi keeps Clare captive against her will.

Stockholm syndrome

As the title might suggest, Clare develops a kind of Stockholm syndrome in which she can't quite find it within herself to hate Andi.

Her days and nights feel more real than any have before. Here, in Andi's apartment, she is living a distillation of her former life. She is, for the first time, living in the present because there is nowhere else to be. Her past and future are far from her reach; she is free from their obligations.

This closely observed psychological drama is a real page turner. It's creepy and sexy and thought-provoking, too. How did this romance turn into such a dangerous symbiotic relationship? Is Clare really as naive and good-natured as she seems? Will Andi see the error of his ways and let his lover go? Will Clare ever manage to escape?

Of course, you'll have to read the book to find out.

Drip feed of information

What I particularly liked about Berlin Syndrome is the way in which Joosten offers a drip feed of information that reveals new aspects to each character. I found myself constantly reassessing my views of both Andi and Clare the deeper I got into the story. There were times when I wasn't sure who was the more pathetic of the two, and my sympathy — and allegiances — switched from character to character depending on what I discovered about them.

I also appreciated the pacing of the story. While it's told in the third person, Joosten expertly flips between presenting Clare's side of the story with Andi's and she does it in such a seamless way that you barely notice the joins. This allows you to see Clare and Andi's complicated relationship from both perspectives without any loss of momentum — or suspense.

And finally, the choice of Berlin setting is a good one, particularly as the city holds very many secrets of its own.

Berlin Syndrome is a fast-paced, eerie read. It's part horror story, part sexy romance, but ultimately it's a mesmirising tale above love, obsession, trust, secrecy and truth.

UPDATE 30/1/2012: I've received a few emails today from people wanting to know where they can get a copy of this book. There is a Kindle version available on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com (but be warned, it's not cheap). Non-Kindle eBooks can be bought from the Australian bookshop Readings. Paperback versions can also be bought from Readings.

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I read this book as part of Australian Literature Month, which runs throughout January 2012. The idea is to simply read as many novels as I can by writers from my homeland and to encourage others to do the same. Anyone can take part. All you need to do is read an Australian book or two, post about Australian literature on your own blog or simply engage in the conversation on this blog. If you don't have a blog, don't worry — you just need to be willing to read something by an Australian writer and maybe comment on other people's posts. You can find out more here.

Australian Literature Month: win a copy of Peter Carey's 'Illywhacker'

So, here's where I confess I have a love/hate relationship with Peter Carey, arguably Australia's most famous novelist. There are books of his that I love — Oscar and Lucinda and Jack Maggs in particular — and books I've not got on with at all, including his 1985 doorstep of a novel, Illywhacker.

But later this year I'm going to have a go at tackling Illywhacker again — last time I was in the throes of writing a masters thesis, so my mind wasn't really on the job (well, that's my excuse anyway) — and it would be great to have some company when I tackle 568 pages of very dense prose. So who's up for it?

This is what the story is about:

"Illywhacker is a dazzling comic narrative, from the lips of the 139-year-old Herbert Badgery, the 'illywhacker' or confidence trickster of the title. Overflowing with magic, jokes and inventions, peopled with aviators, car salesmen, Chinamen and impresarios, Peter Carey's novel is a contemporary classic."

Faber and Faber have very kindly offered a brand spanking new copy reissued as part of its Secrets and Lies modern classics series.

To be in with a chance of winning this book simply leave a comment below telling me why you want to read this book. But hurry — entries close at 20.00 GMT tomorrow, Monday January 30, 2012.

I'll then choose the winner based on an online random number generator (or some such).

The competition is open to anyone, regardless of where you live, but you can only enter once. And do note, I cannot accept email entries. Good luck.

Please note, my final wrap-up of Australian Literature Month will be published on Tuesday.

Announcing the Kate Grenville trilogy winners

What do the fictional character Sir Les Patterson, the Polish explorer Paweł Edmund Strzelecki and the world's former number one tennis player John Newcombe have in common?

Out of all the many things people said came to mind when they thought of Australia — as part of my competition to win one of three sets of Kate Grenville's "colonial trilogy" — these were the answers that caught my eye.

Les Patterson, because, well, frankly, he's hilarious despite his bad manners, his lecherous ways and his obnoxious outdated attitudes.

Strzelecki, because I grew up in the Strzelecki Ranges, named after the man who led an expedition through this region in the 1840s.

And John Newcombe, because when he was winning grand slams in the late 1960s and early 1970s he looked a lot like my dad!

That means copies of The Secret River, The Lieutenant and Sarah Thornhill will be going to Philip, Zbyszekspir and Sdav. Congratulations. I will be in touch shortly to arrange shipment of your prize.

I must admit it was hard to select the winners out of the 41 who entered, so commiserations if you missed out — it was interesting to see what things people associate with Australia. The Sydney Opera House was a clear winner!

I have one more giveway planned for Australian Literature Month, so do pop you name in the hat when it goes live later tonight.

'Truth' by Peter Temple

Fiction - paperback; Quercus Publishing; 400 pages; 2010.

When I reviewed Peter Temple's The Broken Shore in 2007 I described it as a "refreshing take on crime fiction, both in setting and style". So when his follow up to that novel, Truth, won the Miles Franklin Award in 2009 I wasn't too caught up in the hype about it being the first crime novel to win such a prestigious literary prize. I suspected that it probably had strong literary leanings. I was right.

Two killings — are they linked?

Truth is set in Melbourne, Victoria, and focuses on two separate killings — the murder of a young woman in a luxury apartment block and the discovery of three mutilated drug dealers in a warehouse on the other side of the city — which may, or may not, be linked.

But this is not so much a crime novel but an exposé on corruption — of cops, of businessmen, of politicians.

And while it certainly shares characteristics with the detective genre, the book's central focus is less on the gruesome killings that Inspector Stephen Villani, the head of homicide investigates, but more on the ways in which Villani copes with events happening in his personal and professional life.

Temple's prose style is also hard to characterise. There are some chapters which move ahead chiefly through dialogue, and these are blunt and snappy, with everyone talking in a staccato rythym. But elsewhere, when he describes the city or the bushfires raging in the state's north-west, he's rather lyrical and poetic.

A hot north-west wind on their faces, another blocking system was idling out in the southern ocean. Two long valleys ran from the north-west towards Selbourne, the main road down one of them. The fire would come as it came to Marysville and Kinglake on that February hell day, come with the terrible thunder of a million hooves, come rolling, flowing, as high as a twenty-storey building, throwing red-hot spears and fireballs hundreds of metres ahead, sucking air from trees, houses, people, animals, sucking air out of everything in the landscape, creating its own howling wind, getting hotter and hotter, a huge blacksmith's reducing fire that melted humans and animals, detonated buildings, turned soft metals to flowing silver liquids and buckled steel.

Unrelentingly grim

But it has to be said that the story is unrelentingly grim. Villani's world view is bleak — he's estranged from his wife but still living in the same house, he is having an affair with a political television journalist, his younger drug-addicted daughter is out on the streets, one of his brothers is about to be struck off as a doctor...

Then there's the complicated relationship he has with his bullish father, a man who is now refusing to leave his property despite the imminent threat of bushfire.

The state of Villani's personal life is only matched by his working life, which is also strained to breaking point. He doesn't feel he's earned the right to be head of homicide — and there are plenty of others in the force who feel the same way — so he's constantly on guard, doing things under the radar or taking risks to get results.

Feels claustrophobic

All this means that the book feels claustrophobic — and depressing. I felt heavy-hearted whenever I picked it up and I was anxious to be rid of it.

Here's but one example of the ugliness that permeates the narrative — this is a description of Melbourne:

Villani remembered when the CBD was still safe enough to walk across on a Friday night. But once the chemicals took over, spread into the suburbs, cops regularly began to see things once rare — teenagers bashing old people, women and children beaten, the punching and kicking and stabbing of neighbours, friends, cab drivers, people on trains, trams, buses, strangers at parties, in pubs and nightclubs, the hacking at people with swords, road-rage attacks, bricks hurled at trams, train drivers.

And 40 pages further, here's what it's like to be a police officer in that city:

In uniform, a full understanding of the job slowly dawned. A life spent dealing with the dishonest, the negligent, the deviant, the devious, the desperate, the cruel, the callous, the vicious, the drunk, the drugged, the temporarily deranged and permanently insane, the sick and sad, the sadists, sex maniacs, child molesters, flashers, exhibitionists, women-beaters, wife-beaters, child-beaters, self-mutilators, the homicidal, matricidal, patricidal, fratricidal, suicidal.

I think it's fair to say that I appreciated Truth — particularly the banter between the cops and the examination of their human failings — but I didn't like it. The novel was too dark, too edgy, too noirish for me. I found the crime investigation difficult to follow and the subsequent resolution slightly far-fetched. But I wouldn't mind seeing the film when it finally gets released.

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I read this book as part of Australian Literature Month, which runs throughout January 2012. The idea is to simply read as many novels as I can by writers from my homeland and to encourage others to do the same. Anyone can take part. All you need to do is read an Australian book or two, post about Australian literature on your own blog or simply engage in the conversation on this blog. If you don't have a blog, don't worry — you just need to be willing to read something by an Australian writer and maybe comment on other people's posts. You can find out more here.

3 ways to keep in touch with Australian literature

Now that Australian Literature Month is drawing to a close, it doesn't mean you have to stop reading or finding out about Oz lit.

Thanks to the wonders of the world wide web there are at least three great ways you can keep in touch with what's being published Down Under. All you need is a computer and an internet connection!

1. You can listen to wonderful interviews with writers on ABC Radio National's The Book Show.

2. You can watch ABC TV's The First Tuesday Book Club.

3. And you can subscribe to Writers Radio Podcast.

Please let me know if I've missed any other radio or video podcasts that focus on Australian literature.