Born in 1903 Kyiv to a wealthy Jewish banker, Irène had a very privileged upbringing which ended abruptly when her family had to flee the Russian Revolution in 1918. They settled in France, where she became a bestselling novelist, publishing nine novels and a biography on Chekhov. When the Nazis occupied France, Irène left Paris with her husband, Michel Epstein, and two small daughters for the perceived safety of the small village of Issy-l’Évêque (in German occupied territory). This is where she penned Suite Française, before being deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp, where she died in 1942. Michel was transported to Auschwitz a few months later and consigned immediately to the gas chamber.
Her daughter, Denise, realising that her mother had been writing constantly in a leather-bound notebook, kept the booklet for fifty years, before taking courage to read its content. Realising that she held two complete novellas, she sent the manuscript to a publisher. The resulting book Suite Française became a bestseller in 2004 and was made into a movie in 2014 with its eponymous title.
Reading Irène’s notes, it becomes evident, that she had planned to write a suite in five parts, of which the first two, ‘Storm in June’ and ‘Dolce’, were printed in the book Suite Française. The film is based on ‘Dolce’.
‘Storm in June,’ describes the collective panic of a mix of people in 1940, who are fleeing Paris from the impending German occupation. It opens with: “Hot, thought the Parisians. The warm air of spring. It was night, they were at war and there was an air raid. But dawn was near and the war far away.” (3)
Amongst widespread chaos, damaged railroads, bombed tracks, increasing shortage of food and gasoline, people flee: a mother with her four children and an invalid father-in-law, a successful but self-centred writer with his mistress, a middle-aged working couple, their boss, a banker, and the couple’s wounded son, recuperating in a farmhouse after a bombardment. While seemingly unrelated, all share the common bond of displacement. After news of the armistice spreads, those who survived find their way back to a cold Parisian winter.
In ‘Dolce’ Germans have occupied France and settled in the village of Bussy. Most local men of fighting age are absent, only old people, women and children remain. They greet the conquerors with sullen apprehension. Yet, their young and disciplined approach soften the villagers resolve. Young Lucile (Michelle Williams in the movie), lives with her stern mother-in-law (Kristin Scott-Thomas), in the best house of the village. Lucile’s husband is imprisoned in a German camp. He has a mistress, but his mother adores him. Into this mix the German officer Bruno von Falk (Matthias Schoenaerts) is billeted to stay with the two ladies. Adopting her mother-in-law’s icy attitude towards the intruder, Lucile eventually warms to Bruno. They share a love for the piano and literature. Both are attracted to each other and are prepared to take the next step. However, when a local farmer kills another German officer, Lucile is put into a position of having to hide the farmer under the nose of Bruno. The farmer’s deed jeopardises what could have blossomed into a problematic love affair between conqueror and conquered.
The novella ends in 1941, with the occupying troops leaving to join the assault on the Soviet Union: “Soon the road was empty. All that remained of the German regiment was a little cloud of dust.” (436)
ps I am in the process of purchasing more books by this significant writer.
How to Kill a Client by Joanna Jenkins, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest: 2023
Set in a milieu of law firms and high
finance, this sleek thriller is well-written and captivating. Who killed Gavin
Jones? Everyone wanted him dead, but who did it? I enjoyed this fast-paced and amusing
narrative.
Hugo returns to his home in an abandoned Italian village to find Elisa claiming possession of his family cottage. His three eccentric aunts and domineering grandmother fight Elisa's claim. However, the revelation of family secrets dating back to the Second World War shines a different light on his grandfather's actions and the claimant. What terrible crime was committed by a person still living close by?
The narrative, while well-written, could have been condensed. I enjoyed the book, especially since some critiques compared my sepia to Kelly Rimmer’s writing.
This was the first time all Book Club members, about 14, agreed no one liked the book. What more can I say?
The
Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christ Lefteri, Bonnier, 2020
Nineteen-year-old Paul Bäumer and other school friends leave high school to unwittingly enlist in the First World War. Instead of a brief heroic adventure, the young boys experience the horror and cruelty of warfare. The narrative is insightful, touching and shocking.
First published in 1928, the impact of this timeless account of the horrors of modern combat resulted in film versions being made in 1930 (American), 1979 (British-American) and 2022 (German).
This is a Book Club choice. Connell and Marianne grow up in a small town in the west of Ireland. She comes from a privileged but cold and uncaring background, while his loving mother makes Connell’s impoverished upbringing bearable. Their social circle roles reverse in adulthood: Marianne is now popular, and he becomes a loner. Their fascination for each other repeatedly draws them together, but their insecurities manifest inhibitions that push them apart. Accepting the improbability of becoming an item, they appreciate how their friendship enriches their lives: she has gained a feeling of self-worth, while a myriad of possibilities is open to him.
I'm afraid I have to disagree with the Daily Telegraph, 'The most enjoyable novel of the year'; I felt slightly frustrated with their bitter-sweet on/off romance. Still, I guess their behaviour constitutes human behaviour and the narrative ends on a positive note.
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Another Städel purchase inspired by a former academic colleague whose expertise includes the author Irmgard Keun (1905 to 1982). Before the Nazis confiscated her books, Gilgi and Das kunstseidene Mädchen, were sensational bestsellers in Germany.
‘The war: that was as far as our young protagonist’s understanding would reach in the aftermath moment, and it would not be until years later, when he heard on the news about the Australian man who shot and killed his own teenage children after their mother left him, that he began to comprehend that some men kill their own young with the very aim to inflict precise and maximum pain on the mother of those young, and that in this we are surely worse than all the other creatures of the earth over whom we claim ourselves supreme.’ (417)
Long it is, but making total sense and very thought-provoking.
Another dare to the establishment is her technique in the lower quarter of page 70, which consists of the line Laura, Laura, Laura, nine times across the page, seven lines down and then the whole of page 71, comprising of ‘Laura’ only. It leaves no doubt who is on the protagonist’s mind.
The plot itself: after being dumped by his girlfriend, you guessed it, Laura, Will arrives in America attempting to overcome the breakup and forget his pedestrian parents. He gets involved in Paul’s New York circle of high-living; drinking, sniffing, and partying, resulting in many hangover mornings. Escaping from that environment, he hires a car and plans to travel across the States. On route, he visits an Australian school friend Tamsyn, who now lives in Littleproud, Ohio. Through her husband J.T. he meets Wayne, who offers Will a few days’ work on his rundown farm, where he keeps a menagerie of lions, tigers, brown bears, wolves, leopards, a panther and primates. An encounter Will can deal with. Wayne is a Vietnam war veteran, unsurprisingly with issues. As Will is drawn into Wayne’s world, he faces challenges, culminating in an unsurprising ending. To me, the last sentence before the ‘Coda’ was so sublime: ‘And only the dead would not continue to move heartless and inexorable onwards, for the place to which all moved was the very place at which they had already, and at last, arrived.’ (415). This sentence reminds me of James Joyce’s ‘The Dead’.
I loved Bitto’s writing so much that I purchased her first book ‘the strays’.
The German Wife by Kelly Rimmer, Hachette, Sydney: 2022
I enjoyed this book before reading BookLife’s Reviewer, who compared my writing to Kelly Rimmer 😊
Honeybee by Craig Silvey
While the issue of gender change is topical in current media outlets, perhaps the milieu surrounding Sam, the protagonist, is not the most common.
The portrayal of Sam did not always convince me. I felt his insecurities were a tad overdone, diminishing his character’s credibility. I also wondered if the mother could be both, so caring and so callous.
An easy read, raising issues presently debated with Sam navigating his way towards a positive future.
For me the initial
enjoyment of well written prose got spoiled by the aggrandising egotistical role of
the protagonist. You got to feel some kind of empathy with the main character –
surely?
Written in the style of a tale from the Arabian Nights, we follow the dystopian journey of Nadia and Saeed. As fighting militants gain a firm stronghold over their home city, the two protagonists flee through one of the ‘doors’ to the once beautiful island of Mykonos, which is now overrun by refugees. There they exist pitifully in a cardboard city until they enter another ‘door’ and find themselves in London. Originally occupying the empty houses of Kensington, they and other refugees eventually end up in another makeshift ghetto. After some time, another ‘door’ leads them to yet another shanty existence in Marin, located in the hills overlooking San Francisco.
They eventually part ways to meet up again in the town of their birth fifty years later. There young people live their lives oblivious to the hardship that confronted Nadia and Saeed in their youth.
In a sub-plot Nadia navigates the determination of her own sexuality in a culturally constricting environment.
Interspersed in the narrative are occasional short chapters of seemingly disconnected characters in other parts of the world. Perhaps I should read the book again to understand its meaning, but I am not going to. The overwhelming themes are very topical today, I am thinking of the overcrowding by refugees on the island of Lesbos or the city of Calais. I don’t know what the answer is, life is unbearable in the refugees’ home country, and for the citizens of the cities that bear the brunt of their arrival. Perhaps the answer lies in the last chapter of Exit West, where fifty years later life just goes on in the once war-torn city.
While I said from the outset the narrative style is like an Arabic tale, the lull of succumbing to such a mindset is contrasted by depressive realism.
To start with, it is two books in one, that is, pp 3 – 153 ‘Lili’, and if you turn the book over pp 3 – 153 ‘Lyle’.
‘Lili’, written in first person, describes the young protagonist’s time spent in Montpellier, where she taught at a high school. She meets and associates with various characters, some - very individualistic and some - not. It reads well, and entertains if, as an Australian you intend to spend some time in a smallish town in France. Being of Armenian descent the heroine encounters some racism that she overcomes with the aid of her Australian passport.
‘Lyle’, also written in first person, satirically chronicles the lives of a family from another country who decided to call Australia home. They do all sorts of things to acclimatise, some seemingly extreme. In an endeavour to keep up with the Joneses they persuade the grandmother Ivy to voluntarily euthanise. This enables them to move to an upmarket apartment that has no room for her. But her resources will make it possible to finance this project.
Seventy-year-old Ella embarks on a journey away from familiar grounds, having been pushed aside by the daughter-in-law from hell. Her three children are more concerned with getting their hands on her money than her mental wellbeing.
In unfamiliar surroundings she teams up with the itinerant Angie, and the initially hostile police officer Zach. Finding her feet and confidence, Ella gains the courage to start afresh, make new friends and spend the rest of her life in her new abode. Her children come to accept their mother’s new life.
A tale of courage and hope for those of us who might think
ourselves too old for new ventures.
The first third of the book elaborates on the main protagonist Miriam adjusting to life without her husband. She feels grieved, abandoned and annoyed by his sudden death.
The rapid marriage of her second daughter Ally to Nick, their relocation to a country town and the birth of two children within one year sends warning signs without tangible reason. Then one day, Ally arrives on Miriam’s doorstep with her children, a victim of long-term psychological and recent physical abuse.
Miriam witnesses the threats against Ally and the children, who now live with her. Police protection cannot act effectively on Nick’s continuing and increasing menaces. The premise to plan the killing of Nick to save the life of her daughter and grandchildren is chillingly real.
The media constantly reports of women and children being murdered by their violent ex-partners. It seems that law enforcers are unable to offer protection on intimidation and suspicion only. Sadly, by the time they have the proof, it is often too late. Caro’s book calls for action to address the distressingly prevailing issue of domestic violence.
I am disturbed that Australia is undecided whether the continent was settled or invaded, that an Aboriginal or Islander must tick a box to say so, and that Australia is not celebrating the existence of its more than 80,000-year-old inhabitants. This should be acknowledged in the wording of the national anthem. Having a didgeridoo in a new musical version would be really fantastic.
I am aghast at the segregation, particularly in sectors like education, health, and rehabilitation of law offenders.
Stan first published this book in 2016, I am saddened, disturbed and aghast that as of March 2022 little has changed to create a platform of equality for all Australian citizens. Last week a petrol station in Australia felt entitled to refuse service to two indigenous academics.
Stan’s topic of how we as a society have to resolve and abolish the human inequality that exists in Australia needs top prioritisation. His book should be on the school curriculum to create awareness, discussion, and result—to quote a favourite Australian idiom—in a fair go for all.
I really enjoyed this book. I like Morton’s sophisticated style of writing. She evokes images of scenery and the mood of the atmosphere.
Set between Cornwall in the early 1930s and London in 2003, this page-turner had me up in the early hours of the morning, following the mysteries surrounding the inhabitants of Loeanneth, a magic place in Cornwall. Whatever happened to baby Theo in 1933? Did his war-damaged father Anthony harm him? Did Theo’s crime-writing older sister Alice organise his abduction? Was Rose, the nanny involved? Why did Theo’s mother Eleanor do yearly pilgrimages to Loeanneth?
Is Sadie, the crime investigator of 2003, misguided in her pursuit of suspecting foul play involving a missing woman? How are the characters connected, Sadie’s grandfather Bertie and octogenarian crime writer Alice? All the mysteries unravel as you turn the pages. Just when you think you know what happened to Theo, another possibility is offered. You just got to read it.
At the End of the Day by Liz Byrski, Macmillan, 2021
Bookshop owner Mim meets author Mathias at Dona airport. They have instant rapport and become friends. So much that Mathias sells his home in Melbourne and moves to Fremantle. Mim’s sister Alice finally has the courage to visit from England. She too aspires a permanent move to Freemantle. As the title suggests, it is possible form a new and deep friendship at a very mature stage of one’s life. That is fiction, how about real life? Nonetheless, Fremantle is depicted enticingly.
Thursdays at Orange Blossom House by Sophie Green, Hachette,
Sydney: 2021
Easy read, but should have been more condensed, and hence became boring.
Set in Cairns between 1993 – 1995, the theme involves overcoming conventions and restrictions of the time.
Three women form a friendship: Grace Maud 74, retired farmer, set in her ways, Patricia 47, school teacher, hesitant to overcome conventions, and Dorothy a young woman intend on having a baby. They attend yoga classes given by Sandrine, who imparts life affirmation messages.
Non-traditional style of writing, eg no quotation marks for speech – I got used to it after a while.
Theme is an ode to life in the guise of a love-story about Florence. A cast of many characters from England are living in a Florentine boarding house, reminding me of the film ‘The Best Marigold Hotel’.
Before the end of the second World War Ulysses was a soldier in and around Florence where he met art restorer Evelyn. He saved the life of a man ready to jump off the roof of his apartment block.
After the war Ulysses and a host of other English people including a parrot live, work, and are patrons of an English pub in London. Ulysses inherits two apartments and cash in Florence after the death of the man whose life he had saved. Eventually his English friends visit him casually or permanently. He becomes a pseudo-father for his ex-wife’s daughter and eventually meets up again with Evelyn.
Page turner, sharp, witty, easy read.
Themes involve, family dynamics, sibling rivalry, domestic violence, child abuse, redemption, revenge.
A tennis driven couple Joy and Stan receive a stray houseguest Savannah, who is intend on revenging deeds done during her childhood. This involves the couple’s four grown up children: Amy, a drop out, Logan, a teacher of communication, Troy, a stockbroker and Brooke, a physiotherapist.
The ending seemed a bit incoherent with the Savannah episode like an add-on.
My dear friend Deborah passes her UK platinum magazines
onto me after she’s read them. When I came across the May edition’s ‘The books
that made me’ section and read Polly Samson’s choices, I was extremely touched
to find that the book that changed her life was Charmaine Clift’s Peel Me A
Lotus. Polly, like I, felt a deep connection with the author. Polly, like
I, went to the Greek island of Hydra, in search of Charmian. Indeed, there, I remember
asking the Historical Archives Museum’s attendant where the Johnston’s house
was located. He did not know George Johnston or Charmian Clift but offered to
point out the location of Leonard Cohen’s abode. Perhaps Polly was more
successful in her search. Indeed, a quick search on the net now shows a picture
of George and Charmian’s home. I simply have to visit this magical island again
whenever that will be possible.
Re-reading Peel Me A Lotus gives me as much joy as when
I last read it. Charmian’s narration of her and her family settling down to
life on the island of Hydra is insightful, informative, charming, but tinged with
sadness by the knowledge of which tragic events were to unfold in Australia.
Nonetheless, Charmian’s observations are as relevant today
as on the day she wrote them:
‘I felt sad and guilty at the same time, but I could not put
the thought away. Damn nationalism, I thought. Damn all flags, damn all
slogans, damn passports and permits and visas and dossiers which arbitrarily
label one Friend and another Enemy, one Black and one White, and without which
one no longer has any legal right to exist at all. Damn my own naiveté too in
believing for a minute that one was going to doge labels and categories even on
this small grey rock in the Mediterranean. I thought of my son, who had stood
up behind his desk at school in all the eight-year-old’s agony of tears and conspicuousness
to refute his teacher’s assertion that the English were beasts and bloody
butchers. I thought of my wild little daughter whooping through the lanes with her
yellow hair flying, playing at revolutions. I though of my baby, born a
stranger in a strange land who would probably have to learn his mother tongue
as a foreign language.
I thought of the safe anonymity of the office desk, the
furnished flat, the monthly salary cheque, the insurance policy, the hot, stale
smell of the herd and the will-less, witless way one had shambled along in the
middle of it. It had seemed a glad thing to declare against all that; to declare
for individuality, for risks instead of safety, for living instead of existing,
for faith in one’s own ability to build a good rich life from the raw materials
of the man, the woman, the children, and the talents we could muster up between
us. “We will go and live in the sun,” we had said, and George had got up from
his desk and walked out whistling.
Casting up accounts I came to the conclusion that we had
done better than we had any right to expect. We had increased ourselves by one,
we had provided a home for our little tribe; a contract just arrived from our
publishers assured us that we had succeeded in guaranteeing ourselves food for
the best part of the next year. With a bit of luck and enough hard work it even
seemed possible that before long we might even be able to indulge ourselves in
a few luxuries.
But would we be left alone to do it? Was there really any
room in the world for people who did not fit neatly into the filing system?
Perhaps one would be forced to take sides, declaring For or Against… or perhaps
one was going to be filed away without any choice at all.’ (pp 68-69)
How fitting are these musings and observations in present, indeed, in all times?
28 September
The Labyrinth by Amanda Lohrey, textpublishing, Melbourne: 2020
The Miles Franklin Literary Award Winner 2021 is well written, clinical, academic, and to a certain extent engaging. While the protagonist Erica is not endearing, nor are any of the other characters; her behaviour is credible but I cannot relate to it or her. No doubt people like that do exist but do I want to read about them? No, not really.
27 September
The Craftsman by Sharon Bolton, Trapeze, London: 2018
A book club choice. Suspenseful, well written, with a not so surprising ending.
29 August
It is a beautiful coming of age story of Alice, who lives in a forest with her parents. There she befriends a lyrebird with whom she forms a very special friendship. This lyrebird is also friends with her neighbour Mr Brown. Alice’s discovery of a possible fossilised lyrebird feather in the nearby creek creates a chain of events that will change her life.
Gary’s narrative is
lyrical, inspiring, and engaging. The stunning woodcut illustrations by Julian
Laffan enhance the mood and quality of the book.
I read the book and was absolutely enchanted. Interweaving the narrative of numerous factual documents, and the classics ranging from Dickens to Shakespeare to Tennyson, the sixteen-year-old orphaned protagonist Jack Ireland takes us in 1833 on an adventurous journey from the northern to the southern hemisphere. His sailing boat ‘Charles Eaton’ is shipwrecked off the Queensland coast and Jack finds himself at the mercy of head-hunters who do not take too kindly to the privileged white skinned invaders. How is he going to get out of this? And he will, because we know that he lived to tell the tale. Not only that, referring to the writing of J Goodman from the year 2005 must mean that he was still around not so long ago. Intriguing? You bet. Can’t wait to get the response from my son’s girls.
I finished reading Louis De Bernières third book of the Daniel Pitt trilogy ‘The Autumn of the Ace’ and loved every bit of it.
The quote from Scotsman, that I ‘will read it straight through forgetting whatever it was I should have been doing instead of reading’ aptly describes my current modus operandi.
My reading of the first two novels ‘The Dust that Falls from Dreams’ and ‘So Much Life Left Over’ was done in the same fashion. No doubt, that, plus the fact that I drag out reading the last few pages because I don’t want the book to end, is a sure sign of good writing and narrative. I adore it. Louis is one of my absolute favourite writers.
Bernière is a master in weaving a tapestry of human nature and society. I relish his style, eg ‘The cult of respectability had introduced a blessed order into people’s lives, and at the same time opened the door for marvellous hypocrisy’ (3).
When I Hit You by Meena Kandasamy, Atlantic, London: 2017
While the issue of violence in marriage is totally unacceptable, I do not want to read about it, but I do want to have laws enforced that banish it. The topic of marital rape, immemorial in existence, has only in the last twenty years or so been openly discussed. Though I did examine it in my PhD on the writing of two female German writers in the 1840s.
In this book the protagonist refers to herself as a feminist. To me feminism means equality and respect between all human beings regardless of gender and ethnicity. She lived in a country and society that is perhaps less imbued with those qualities than some other populations. With this she is already disadvantaged. Sadly the despicable act that she was subjected to exists all over the world. As a society we must instill values that are based on equality and respect towards all human beings. Perhaps with greater female representation in governmental seats, laws will be implemented and as a result behaviour will be achieved to abolish such inhumane behaviour.
My friend Deborah lent me this book. Colette’s preamble ‘You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm.’ says it all. In 2010 New York City Angela receives a letter from the daughter of a male friend asking the protagonist what her deceased father had meant to her.
I enjoyed the book; it is an easy read that interweaves interesting historical events.
The moral of the story is not only if you end up with what you set your heart on at all cost the price you have to pay might negate that. It is also the adherence of the old man's dignity and his young friend in the face of extreme challenges.
Nature creates viruses. But people and politics create pandemics. And pandemics create new politics. In the 1980s, the toxic politics of the response to HIV/AIDS turned a serious but manageable viral threat into a global pandemic that took the lives of 32 million people and brought illness and suffering to millions more. In 2020, COVID-19 emerged into a world where many governments had failed to heed the lessons of the past, and so they were unprepared and unable to stop its global spread. But some countries had learned the harsh lessons of HIV/AIDS, and had contained SARS1, Ebola, Zika and MERS. When coronavirus hit, they knew what to do to save their people from avoidable infections and deaths.
In Unmasked: the Politics of Pandemics, Bill Bowtell draws on his four decades of experience in the global and local politics of public health to examine why some countries got it right with coronavirus while others collapsed into misery and chaos. He looks closely at the critical weeks when poor planning brought Australia to the brink of disaster, until the Australian people forced their governments to put public health before politics. Unmasked reveals how and why our politicians failed us during the greatest public health crisis of this century to date.
Dawn works as a death doula, a person who provides end of
live care. She survives a plane crash and decides not to return to husband
Brian and daughter Meret but to revisit her past life and lover Wayne in Egypt.
There she had worked fifteen years ago towards a PhD in Egyptology. When her mother
had only a few months left to live, Dawn returned to Boston, where she met
Brian in the palliative care unit.
They get married and dote on their daughter. After a random
DNA test, it turns out that Brian is not Meret’s biological father.
On her return trip to Egypt, she and Wayne declare their
love and she advised him of paternity. Together they fly to Boston. On the way
they are involved in an air crash, from which she sustained injuries.
In Boston Meret and Wayne meet and appreciate their
biological similarities. The ending is open ended, she is about to tell her
daughter about her decision and that is where it ends.
I had never heard of a death doula, so that was something
new. But overall I found the book a bit tedious, while the information about Egyptology
is interesting, I would have appreciated smaller doses. I also found the character
of Dawn to be too self-indulgent.
After the accident, Sam--a thirteen-year old synesthete with an IQ of 144 and an appetite for science fiction--waits by his father's bedside every day. There he meets Eddie Tomlin, a woman forced to confront her love for Henri after all these years, and twelve-year old Madelyn Zeidler, a coma patient like Henri and the sole survivor of a traffic accident that killed her family. As these four very different individuals fight--for hope, for patience, for life--they are bound together inextricably, facing the ravages of loss and first love side by side.
A revelatory, urgently human story that examines what we consider serious and painful alongside light and whimsy, The Book of Dreams is a tender meditation on memory, liminality, and empathy, asking with grace and gravitas what we will truly find meaningful in our lives once we are gone.
Manhattan, Paris, 1942: When Jessica May’s successful modelling career is abruptly cut short, she is assigned to the war in Europe as a photojournalist for Vogue. But when she arrives the army men make her life as difficult as possible. Three friendships change that: journalist Martha Gellhorn encourages Jess to bend the rules, paratrooper Dan Hallworth takes her to places to shoot pictures and write stories that matter, and a little girl, Victorine, who has grown up in a field hospital, show her love. But success comes at a price.
France, 2005: Australian curator D’Arcy Hallworth arrives at a beautiful chateau to manage a famous collection of photographs. What begins as just another job becomes far more disquieting as D’Arcy uncovers the true identity of the mysterious photographer — and realises that she is connected to D’Arcy’s own mother, Victorine.
In A Secret Australia, eighteen prominent Australians discuss what Australia has learnt about itself from the WikiLeaks revelations – revelations about a secret Australia of hidden rules and loyalty to hidden agendas. However Australians may perceive their nation’s place in the world – as battling sports stars, dependable ally or good international citizen – WikiLeaks has shown us a startlingly different story.
This is an Australia that officials do not want us to see, where the Australian Defence Force’s ‘information operations’ are deployed to maintain public support for our foreign war contributions, where media-wide super injunctions are issued by the government to keep politicians’ and major corporations’ corruption scandals secret, where the US Embassy prepares profiles of Australian politicians to fine-tune its lobbying and ensure support for the ‘right’ policies.
The revelations flowing from the releases of millions of secret and confidential official documents by WikiLeaks have helped Australians to better understand why the world is not at peace, why corruption continues to flourish, and why democracy is faltering. This greatest ever leaking of hidden government documents in world history yields knowledge that is essential if Australia, and the rest of the world, is to grapple with the consequences of covert, unaccountable and unfettered power.
When a young woman is found murdered prejudices and long-held secrets surface.
They are drawn into the world of post-war illegal activities and start to neglect their schooling. Years later Nathanial revisits the house and pieces together some of the missing information.
It is professionally written.
I like Kate Grenville’s style of writing and read it probably more for that than the contents. Grenville’s concept is interesting, juxtaposing the story of one Joan against those of historical figure Joans who inhabited Australia since the 1770s.
The book was first published in 1988, there have been changes with regards to women’s rights and equality since.
I enjoyed Haddon’s style of writing to start with but got a bit annoyed with the dysfunctional family of George and Jean and their children Katie and Jamie. I found George’s depicted mental state unconvincing. Could anybody really be as obnoxious as Katie? I don’t believe that Ray would have put up with it and married her.
The nicest people are the outsiders, Ray and Tony.
Not one of my favourite books.
Nine professionally written short stories. While the topics are anything but cheerful, Haddon’s descriptive ability make it a page turner in a fable like manner. The flaws and foibles of some characters are graphic enough to make you reflective about humankind.
The Pier Falls – On 23 July 1970, the pier at an English seaside resort collapses. Snippets of people and incidents are vividly described.
The Island – A princess
is marooned on a Greek island far away from civilisation. She struggles to
survive and ends up gaining immortality as Corona Borealis.
Bunny – a grossly
overweight man takes in a girl, who promises to marry him and then facilitates
his death and ends his dilemma.
Wodwo – Christmas dinner with the family. Two sons and their sister arrive. A stranger knocks on the window to be let in from the cold. A scuffle enfolds, a shot is fired by Gavin, into whose lap everything falls and who is extremely sure of himself. The stranger gets up and leaves the house with the prediction that he will return next Christmas. From there on Gavin’s life goes into downward spiral. He loses marriage, job, friends, house and lives like a hobo in parks and under bridges. When he is ready to end his life, the stranger saves him. Gavin returns to his parents’ home and knocks on the same window as predicted by the stranger. A fable with a message not to consider yourself to be too mighty.
The Gun – two boys get together. One produces a gun that he had found in his brother’s cupboard. They go into the woods and end up shooting a deer. They take it back, where the brother chastises the boy for taking his gun but happily dissects and skins the deer.
The Woodpecker and the Wolf – A crew are in a capsule on Mars waiting for a rescue crew. One after the other they die. One woman and her baby are barely alive when the new crew arrive. She makes it back to earth with her baby and - as concluding German fairytales - if they didn't die they are still living now.
Breathe – Carol, a physicist arrives from America back in England to visit her mother. She lives in squalor but does not want it to change. Carol’s sister is upset that she is trying to interfere in her mother’s routine. The mother is then institutionalised. Carol cleans the house and start a bonfire to burn all the rubbish. She has a strong Vodka, falls asleep and awakes in a trance with someone telling her to – breathe.
The Boys who left home to learn Fear – A group of boys travel in search of a cave in a jungle. There they hope to solve the puzzle of the missing Carlyle boy and his party. One after the other they die. The few survivors do find skulls and bones of Carlyle’s group and his ring. The narrator, suffering from a poisonous bite, is left behind by his companion.
The Weir – A 53-year-old man rescues a 23-year-old woman from a weir. They strike an unusual friendship borne out of loneliness.
This book was the UQ Book Club choice for this month and I had the pleasure of seeing Laura on zoom in conversation with Assoc Prof Stephen Carleton last Thursday. It is a collection of short stories inspired by female Nobel Prize winners. The first being Marie Curie in 1903 and the last Frances H Arnold in 2018. I adore Laura's style of writing and sentence structure; her prose is gold. Here is the last paragraph of the short story 'Stockholm'.
One million dollars has been promised by an internet billionaire for the answer to the question, why everything that is, is good, and yet, we can still improve upon it. Richard Kraft, a professor of rhetoric in Tübingen, unhappily married and financially battered, could use the prize money well. He thus arrives in Californian Silicon Valley with a mission.
This is a verbal exchange between the character of Ducavalier and Kraft:
"Ducavalier said, he would therefore, take on the task to explain why almost everything that is, be bad.
A rather simple task, he adds and provides a brief overview about the approaching apocalypse: the threatening disintegration of the European Union, the return to nationalism, the new respectability of racism and bigotry, the democratically elected despots, who with the consent of the population transform their countries into dictatorships – a process that is bound to let you doubt the meaningfulness of democracy -, the encompassing anti-intellectualism, for which the intellectuals themselves are responsible, and with this, the accompanying legitimation of ignorance, the openly voiced nostalgia for strong leaders, the moral bankruptcy of the economic elites, who behave like the most slimy used car dealers, the next threatening economic crises, which the central banks will be unable to combat, because they cannot make money any cheaper, and consequently have already shot their quiver’s last arrow, the free trade politics in combination with a protectionist subsidy system, which propels millions of the Southern poor (asylum seekers) to the North, the stagnation of economic growth, in spite of the digital revolution, the lack of alternatives of capitalism, even though this inevitably leads to an ever steeper wealth gap, which will in the near future remove the legs from the system, the millions of abundant young men in China and India, badly educated, sexually frustrated and without hope for a future, a problem, that one can solve most elegantly with a great aggressive war; and all this, would he, even though he is naturally aware, that this be an inadmissible, however, all the more effective simplification, theoretically and narratively underfeed with a cyclic history philosophy, so that he, in the end could conjure up a return to the conditions of the Weimar Republic, and the Third World War would inevitably hover over the assembly. Et voilà.., says Bertrand, … everything is bad.
Kraft plucks on a lettuce leaf of his bitten sliced ham bread. You forgot climate change, he said, facing Ducavalier.
Eighteen minutes, my dear Kraft, with that you must limit yourself. Eighteen minutes, that is not long enough, to describe the depravity of the world in its entirety." (pp 226-227)
Where the Crawdads sing by Delia Owens, Hachette, London: 2019
The protagonist Kya grows up in the 1960s on the North Carolina coast marshland. Abandoned by her siblings and mother she is left to fend for herself in a makeshift hut that she shares with her mostly drunken and abusive father.
Let down by the folks of the nearest town and subjected to their ignorance and local prejudices she learns to read and write with the help of local and kind boy Tate. Finely attuned to her natural surroundings she becomes an expert of the flora and fauna and eventually makes a name for herself by publishing her detailed drawings of hitherto undiscovered wildlife.
Enter leader of the pack Chase who becomes romatically involved with Kya and ends up murdered in the marshland. The subtle world of her tranquil surroundings changes to that of a prison cell and courtroom drama. Did she do it or not? The climax ends with her being found not guilty.
She spends peaceful years with Tate and eventually dies. When Tate removes the wood off the floor underneath the hut's old stove we find out what really happened on that day in the marshland so many years ago. I did not see that coming.
A great read full of natural beauty, human behaviour, suspense and mystery.
The Dressmaker's Secret by Rosalie Ham, Picador, Sydney: 2020
17 October
This book was chosen by the Writers' Centre Book Club for October. Because it is huge, 525 small font pages, I decided to replicate the contents to help me remember the storyline. The Book consists of seven chapters focussing on a particular character.
Chapter 1- Meggie 1915-1917
On 8/12/1915 Meggie
Cleary has her 4th birthday. Her mother Fee is dour woman who barely
smiles. He father Paddy is a hard worker of the land. Frank is the oldest
brother who has a special bond with his mother. There are other brothers Bob, Hughie
and Jack. They live in New Zealand and barely make ends meet. All are working
extremely hard. There is tension between Paddy and Frank. We learn later that
Frank is the son of Fee before her marriage to Paddy. Paddy adores his mother.
Frank is angry with Paddy because she has one baby after another. Paddy came to
NZ from Ireland.
Fee was the daughter of the first white and wealthy landowner in NZ. Her father was sent to the penal colony in Australia but survived all torture and eventually broke out of prison in Tasmania with other prisoners. Two survived and arrived in NZ. It seems they survived the journey through cannibalism. Fee had been well educated and possessed a few precious items like an escritoire, and a Persian carpet, which was totally out of place in their very modest abode.
Chapter 2 - Ralph 1921-1928
Mary Carson lives in Australia
on a huge property named Drogheda. She came to Australia with the aim of
finding a wealthy husband. She figured there would not be too many women
around. She is now an extremely wealthy widow and likes to keep Father Ralph de
Bricassart around her. She indulges him in excesses and luxuries, like a fine
horse and the latest Rolls Royce. Mary’s only child died long ago. She is getting
on and invites her brother Paddy with his family and in particular his many
sons, to come and run the station. She intends to leave the property to him
because he is family.
Irish Ralph has fallen out of favour with his superiors at the Church, he is extremely driven and ambitious. He wants to be a Cardinal in Rome. He is very handsome and knows it. There is banter between him and Mary, she rewards him well and he likes to be spoiled.
Ralph and Meggie are attracted to each other. When Meggie tells him that she is going to die of cancer because she is bleeding from her bottom, he tells her about the natural cycle of menstruation. He is truly angry with Fee for not taking any interest in her daughter as it is her job to guide and educate her.
Mary can see the attraction between Meggie and Ralph, both are exceptionally beautiful to look at. She is jealous and aware of her old body. For her 72nd birthday she is having a huge party and landowners from far away attend. Before the festivities, she makes a new will. At midnight she asks Ralph to escort her to her bedroom. She tells him that she loves him and that she is going to die that night. She gives him an envelope to open once he has seen her dead body. She tells him she knows what decision he will make upon opening the envelope.
Sure enough they find her dead the next day, dressed in her a white wedding like gown from the party. Her body rotted incredible quickly and everybody who came near puked. Ralph opens the letter. She left all her wealth, 13 million pounds that she had invested in mines and minerals to the Church with Ralph as executor. Her brother Paddy and his sons, but not Frank, could live and manage Drogheda forever, but the bulk of her wealth is to go to the Church under Ralph’s management. Ironically just before her death she and Ralph agreed that neither believe in god.
Ralph could tear the new testament up because the solicitor has the will that nominated Paddy and his family as heirs to Mary’s fortune. He is tempted but sees the advancement to his course with the Church and produces Mary’s new will. The solicitor is quite upset and wants Paddy to contest it, but Paddy says if that is what Mary wanted so shall it be. Fee and his sons agree. Ralph leaves the district and moves to Sydney as undersecretary to his superior, the Italian Vittorio Scarbanza, Cardinal di Contini-Verchese.
Chapter 3 - Paddy 1929-1932
Paddy and his sons
work well. Fee keeps the books meticulously; Meggie looks after the horses. The
attraction between her and Ralph is still strong. They had kissed. Paddy and
Frank had a fall out and Frank left not without a shouting match during which
Meggie found out that Frank had a different father. They later find out that
Frank had killed a man and was in jail. Fee asked Ralph to look after him but
not to let him know that she knows of his imprisonment. Paddy and his family
move to the big homestead after Mary’s death and Fee tastefully redecorates the big room.
There is a bad storm during which lightning strikes and ignites a fire in which Paddy gets caught and perishes. The fire lasts for days and only after the rain starts, a search party is organised. Hugh gets attacked by a boar, who eventually falls on top of him and squashes him dead. Father Ralph is called to do the burial rites. He and Meggie kiss again, but he tells her that he can never love her like a husband because he is married to the Church. Before leaving Ralph asks Fee to look after her daughter and to encourage her to do what young girls do and go to balls. Alas it falls on deaf ears, Fee soon forgets her promise.
Chapter 4 - Luke 1933-1938
Luke is a hard-working stockman. He came from Queensland and has worked all over the place. He reminds Meggie of Ralph. Luke is very handsome, in a different way to Ralph. He is overly ambitious and heard about the money attached to Meggie. He sets out to woe her and takes his time not to put her off. After taking her to many balls all over the district he asks her to marry him.
As soon as they are married, they leave for North Qld where he was positive of getting well-paying jobs as a stockman. He transfers all of Meggie’s money into his name, including her annual allowance. He also takes 100 pound out of her purse, which her brother Bob had given her for the journey.
They spend a rather physically and emotionally painful first wedding night. Then Luke drops Meggie off at a homestead ‘Himmelhoch’ to work as a house maid to an invalid lady Anne and her German origin husband Luddie Mueller. Fortunately, they are kind and possess a huge library and indulge in reading. Meggie’s wages are paid to Luke.
Luke is working all over
the country with his mate Arne, equally good looking and hard working. There
might be a hint of a homosexual relationship.
During the 2 years that Luke and Arne are working all over Qld, Luke only visits Meggie twice, may be thrice. She is very disillusioned but too proud to let her family know, pretending that she is lodging at ‘Himmelhoch’.
Meantime, Ralph had visited Drogheda and found out about Meggie’s marriage. He is a bishop now and accompanies the Italian Vittorio Scarbanza, Cardinal di Contini-Verchese, who is an archbishop at that time, to Athens on a church mission.
Meggie wants to have a baby and arouses Luke enough not to use a condom. She falls pregnant but has an awful time being so. Eventually after many hours of labour she gives birth to a girl, whom she names Justine. The baby is scrawny, and Meggie does not have motherly love for her. Luke does not come to visit but Ralph does. Anne recognises the love between him and Meggie. Meggie is exhausted after the birth and she is angry with Ralph, who leaves. Anne is happy to spend time with Justine who eventually plumps up.
Meggie is not getting better after the birth so Anne organises for her to spend 2 months on Matlock Island on the Barrier Reef. Meggie plans to put her foot down, to get Luke to buy a property and have more babies. Alas, Ralph comes to ‘Himmelhoch’ where Anne tells him the true situation of Meggie and Luke. Ralph comes under the guise of being her husband.
Ralph realises that he had loved Meggie from the moment he met her as a child. He had not come to terms with Meggie growing into womanhood, but she had loved him as a man not as a priest. When she realises this, she wants to run away but he holds her. They fall into each other arms and confess their love for each other. Alas, Ralph is married to the Church as Luke is married to the cane cutting life. After some idyllic and passionate days Ralph leaves.
Meggie returns to ‘Himmelhoch’ and tells Anne that she is pregnant. Meggie says she knows it is a boy, she will love and cherish him. Anne reminds her of the Greek gods, if something gives too much pleasure, they get jealous and destroy. Meggie says she will love the child with the purity of the Virgin Mary. Anne responds that Jesus died young. Meggie says she must go to see Luke, spend a night with him and then tell him that she is leaving him to go to Drogheda and to never see him again. This she does. Luke is happy to join his mate Arne.
Chapter 5 - Fee 1938-1953
Meggie returns home to Drogheda and gives birth to Dane, who looks and acts just like Ralph. She works the land with her brothers while Mrs Smith the housekeeper looks after Justine and Dane. The siblings get on well but Meggie dislikes Justine and finds her hard to accept whereas she feels pure love for Dane.
Ralph confesses his relationship with Meggie to Di Contini-Verchese, who does not seem too perturbed by it. Ralph meets a young German Rainer Moerling Hartheim, who says he will visit him after the war if Ralph prays for his safety.
Fee and Meggie have a heart to heart. Fee confesses that she had loved a prominent politician in NZ, who was married and much older than her. He was well educated and the total opposite to Paddy. Fee’s father asked Paddy to marry Fee and give his name to her son. Fee confronts Meggie with her knowledge that Dane is Ralph’s son. They are in the same situation. Fee warns Meggie that she might lose Dane if she is too attached as she had lost Frank.
Meggie's brothers Jims and Patsy were away during the war first in North Africa and then in New Guinea. Patsy gets blown up by gunshots, but he survives and won’t be able to ever have children. None of the boys are inclined to have girlfriends, they are all too shy.
Ralph comes visiting Drogheda. He does not recognise his son, but Dane is instinctively drawn to him, whereas Justine does not like Ralph. Ralph visits Meggie at night. Ralph brings news of Frank’s release from jail.
Frank comes to Drogheda and eventually fits in with gardening jobs. Fee had a better relationship with Justine than Meggie.
Chapter 6 - Dane 1954-1965
Justine tells Meggie and Fee that she wants to become an actress and that she has been accepted for training in Sydney. Meggie tells her that whatever happens she is always welcome at home. In Sydney Justine sets out to lose her virginity to an older actor.
Dane tells his mother that he wants to follow the priesthood. After the initial shock she tells him that he will be best to go to Rome under the tutelage of Cardinal Ralph. Justine also goes overseas and decides to try her luck as an actress in London.
When Dane is introduced to Cardinal di Contini-Verchese, he recognises immediately the resemblance to Ralph and that Ralph is unaware of being Dane’s father. Di Contini-Verchese suggests, to stop gossiping at the Vatican, that Ralph should be known as Dane’s uncle, since their relationship is obvious. Rainer Moerling Hartheim is also present and included in the circle.
Justine is introduced to the group and Rainer takes her out for dinner. She unwittingly let’s it be known that Ralph is not their uncle.
Justine is a successful actress in London. Rainer is an influential German politician in Rome and see Justine frequently as a friend in London. Dane is being ordained in a lavish ceremony. Meggie refuses to go to Rome for the ceremony, but the brothers do.
Justine and Rainer become sexually involved and Rainer declares his love for her. She had promised to go to Greece with Dane after the ordination but because of an audition as Desdemona in London and wanting to meet with Rainer, Justine does not go with Dane.
Dane travels from Italy in his red sports car via Yugoslavia to Greece. Because of a revolution in Athens he decides to go to Crete. There he is going for a swim. Two English boys warn him about a rift that is not obvious in the crystal-clear waters. Two German girls make eyes at him. He goes out and swims, the current is strong, but he is an expert swimmer. He hears some screaming and sees the two girls in trouble. He swims back and gets both out of the rift. It is a major effort. Then he just drifts to his Lord.
An American base is nearby. They send a helicopter and locate Dane’s body floating arms spread out. Normally bodies sink to the bottom of the sea. A boat brings his body ashore.
Justine gets a phone call to tell her that her brother is dead. She feels terrible because she was not there to protect her little brother, she feels so guilty that she blames herself and Rainer for Dane’s death. She breaks it off with Rainer and griefs. Meggie flies to Rome and sees Ralph and asks him to bring the body back from Crete. Ralph says he is busy with a conference. She tells him that Dane is his son. He organises the rescue of the body and Dane is flown home and buried at Drogheda.
Chapter 7 - Justine 1965-1969
Rainer goes to Drogheda and sees Meggie. He confesses his feelings for Justine.
Ralph dies and leaves his wealth and the management of Drogheda to Rainer. Meggie and Fee grow old together knitting.
Two years’ later Rainer goes to see Justine. She had terminated her contract with the theatre and dissolved her apartment as she has decided to go back home to Drogheda. Two days before leaving she receives a letter from Meggie telling her that she need not come home, her place is overseas, and that Rainer is a good man.
Justine rushes to see Rainer. Meggie gets a telegram announcing the marriage of Justine and Rainer. Rainer will buy a house in Pall Mall and Justine will continue with her career.
The book ends with a beautiful paragraph, Meggie coming to terms with her life and the reference back to the Thornbirds:
“Time for Drogheda to stop. Yes, more than time. Let the cycle renew itself with unknown people. I did it all to myself. I have no one else to blame. And I cannot regret one single moment of it.
The bird with the thorn in its breast, it follows an immutable law; it is driven by it knows not what to impale itself, and die singing. At the very instant the thorn enters there is no awareness in it of the dying to come; it simply sings and sings until there is not the life left to utter another note. But we, when we put the thorns in our breasts, we know. We understand. And still we do it. Still we do it.” (525)
My reaction:
I loved the book. A sweeping saga of three generations, the characters and the narrative got under my skin. The major themes of greed, pride, and unattainable love form its basis. Faust sold his soul to the devil, Ralph sold his to greed based on ambition. Fee's and Meggie's love for a man they could not have evoked a pride that made them into hard and apparently insensitive women. Paddy and his sons display a pride that prevents them for fighting what they were entitled to.
Fee and Meggie – each can’t have the man they love, each has a love child, each does not show much love her daughter.
Frank and Dane – Franks ends up in jail, a broken man. Dane dies happy with his Lord.
Ralph and Luke – involved with Meggie. Ralph loves her but not enough to fully commit. Luke uses her for personal gain. Ralph is married to Church; Luke is married to his job.
Brothers are all alike – hard working, shy, not involved with women - they are just one common 'unc'.
I am not sure how blind Ralph could be not recognising his own son. He is usually very perceptive of everything around him.
Also, the rise of Rainer from returned penniless soldier to high ranking government minister seems a little farfetched despite him marrying a rich widow during his younger years.
I enjoyed the description of the land around Drogheda and North Qld and overseas. Colleen McCullough is a great researcher, and I am surprised that she spelled the German noun Herzchen in lower case, but that does not detract from a good tale.
Yesterday I saw parts of the film on youtube. It is very American and seems to focus on Ralph and Meggie as a love story almost to the point of being unbelievable. I found the book less focussed on that issue. Apart from Bryan Brown, Barbara Stanwyck, Jean Simmons, and young Meggie, the main characters are not as I would envisage them. I would love to see what Baz Luhrmann would do with the storyline.
A Room Made of Leaves by Kate Grenville, Text Publishing: Melbourne, 2020
I enjoyed reading this book. The premise is that Mrs Elizabeth Macarthur’s memoirs were found in a hidden place at Elizabeth Farm in Sydney.
Elizabeth was born in 1766 in Devon. She married the soldier John Macarthur in 1788 and arrived in Australia in 1790 where she died in 1850.
I have read several books about Isabelle Eberhardt and
recently stumbled across Mackworth in one of my bookshelves whilst looking for
something other than this. My interest in Isabelle Eberhardt stems from the
days when she was one of the women writers I had studied for my PhD. As it
turned out the two female writers for my thesis are Countess Ida von Hahn-Hahn and
Luise Mühlbach.
Nonetheless I have since been fascinated by the nomad Isabelle. Mackworth provides
an account of this remarkable women’s life.
Isabelle’s German born mother Nathalie Eberhardt had left
Russia with the tutor Trophimovsky who had been engaged to teach her three
children by a Russian nobleman. They settled in a Geneva villa where another
son was born before Isabelle’s birth in 1877. Trophimovsky of Armenian origin
was a scholar who had studied philosophy, and knew several languages: Latin,
Greek, Turkish, Arabic, German and Russian. Life at the villa was harsh, the
children were not allowed outside the grounds and Isabelle was taught to
physically work like her brothers. While Trophimovsky never acknowledged paternity,
he reared Isabelle like a daughter and educated her instilling a love for literature,
the Arabic language, and North Africa. She writes in one of her early poems: ‘My
body is in the West, And my heart is in the East’ (33).
Isabelle made her first trip to Algeria in 1897 with her
mother. She dressed in local male attire and seemed to be have been accepted by
the indigenous tribes. After her mother passed away, Isabelle joined a group of
Sufis and became a scholar of their traditions and customs. She was admitted
into the Sufi brotherhood. Because of her extensive knowledge of the Arabic language
and culture, the French army found Isabelle extremely useful in their
negotiations with the various tribal chiefs. Likewise, she would often earn
some income by writing or translating documents for the locals.
Isabelle wrote short stories and essays which she sent to a
Paris publisher. She travelled between Europe and Africa several times before
being granted French citizenship by marriage which entitled her to stay in her
beloved Algeria. Life in the desert was hard, especially for a woman who lived
and travelled with men. Restless and tormented Isabelle soon indulged in
excessive drinking and smoking hash. Her health suffered which was exacerbated
by recurrent bouts of malaria. After releasing herself from treatment in the
French military hospital at Ain-Sefra, Isabelle was killed in a flash flood in
1904 aged only 27. `
Isabelle was always writing and some of her writing was published
posthumously. Mackworth sums up Isabelle’s life which: ‘was based on a fantastic
dream of liberty. At least she had the courage to live that dream to the full,
accepting the misery and degradation that its realization entailed, and proudly
accepting death.’ She was a ‘warm human being who could pardon every offence,
who thought ill of no one, who loved the humblest and most disinherited of
humanity and hated only that which was false and pretentious.’ (228)
What a woman. A film was made about her and there are periodical writings about this remarkable individual.
My writing buddies Kelly and Eva suggested I read this book to get a better understanding of how to write from the perspective of a young boy. They strongly recommended having a tissue box at hand. I remember that a film was made by the same name, which I did not see.
From the first paragraph when I met nine-year-old Bruno in 1943 Berlin I was captivated. I followed Bruno’s experiences with explanations that were logical to his young and unindoctrinated mind. While his twelve-year-old sister Gretel, the ‘Hopeless Case’ (10), was more endowed with political awareness, Bruno was blissfully ignorant, obeying the ‘Out of Bounds At All Times and No Exceptions’ command of his Commandant father.
At his new home in ‘Out-With’ Bruno befriends Shmuel behind a barbed wire fence. Shmuel has the same birthday and year as Bruno but wears striped pyjamas, as do all the people on that side of the fence. The boys enjoy companionship and meet regularly behind the dividing fence. One day Bruno decides to help Shmuel look for his father, who had disappeared without a trace. Bruno takes off his clothes, puts on a set of pyjamas and crawls under the fence paying the ultimate price for his friendship.
It seems unlikely that in real life the son of a high-ranking Nazi officer, who dined at his home with ‘The Fury’, who ‘had big things in mind for him’ (5), was oblivious to the political climate, yet Bruno’s reasoning and point of view were persuasive. Critics have argued that all boys and girls at the time of the action would have belonged to their respective age-related Hitler youth and thus be unlikely not to have been politically inculcated. However, the title of the book is followed by ‘A fable’ and as such the author is entitled to take the liberty of telling a story about the friendship of two boys from the other side of their fence. Experiencing a contentious time in history from Bruno’s innocent and politically unaware perspective adds another dimension to literature so often depicting only the horrors of the Nazi regime and the holocaust. And would not the world be a better place if children could grow up without prejudices. I enjoyed reading this book and intend to pass it onto my granddaughters.
PS I did not need a box of tissues.
14 June
 |
My friend Kim, who had recommended ‘The Eighth Life’, lent me this book. She thought I would enjoy it. And no, I didn’t enjoy it, I absolutely loved it. I adore Towles’ style of writing: wit, wisdom, utter sophistication, spiked with gems of memorable quotes and insightful footnotes makes this one of my favourite reads.
The plot takes place during the historical events of the Russian evolution from the times of the last Czar’s reign until 1954. It is divided into five books.
In 1922 the charming protagonist Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov, aged thirty-three, is sentenced by the Bolsheviks to lifelong house arrest in an attic at the Metropol Hotel in Moscow. There he encounters staff and guests with whom he forms lasting friendships and liaisons of love. Despite his confinement, he takes a lively interest in the world beyond his boundary and proves to be a trusted and valued friend to those close to him. True to his motto “if a man does not master his circumstances then he is bound to be mastered by them” Rostov charges forth with gusto and ingenuity to make the absolute best out of an unfortunate situation.
Because I love this book so much, I ended up buying it so that I can read again and again when in need of cheerful guidance.
14 June
I read this book a few months ago and enjoyed it. It is set in the mid-sixties against the political backdrop of the draft for the Vietnam War and the shabby treatment by Australian bureaucrats towards the Danish architect Jørn Utzon. The narrative moves slowly between the Australian journalist Pearl and the Swedish glass artisan Axel. Pearl had lost her mother at the age of twelve and took on the pseudo-mothering role for her two brothers, Jamie and Will. Both ended up in an orphanage and she was guilt plagued by having lost touch with them due to her career commitments. She pursues her search to find them. Ostracised for her participation in anti-war demonstrations Pearl is delegated from the daily news section to the women affairs department.
Axel had been engaged to create an artwork to complement the magnificent construction of the Opera House. Coming from a country that practised gender equality he has problems adjusting to the Australian way of life and behaviour. This is a time when many men were ‘blokes’, very macho and considered women as second-class citizens. He was also subjected to snide remarks about Sweden’s neutrality during the Second World War.
Pearl and Axel become casual lovers. Culturally worlds apart they develop an understanding and respect for each other. However, an explosion at the harbour will change their relationship considerably.
Before my friend Deborah, who recommended and lent me the book, said that I could keep it, I had written down passages that were meaningful for me:
"Of course, he said, there is a place for pure skill. You must achieve it but then go beyond it. Beyond bland perfection, beyond mere things. These young Australians, individually chosen for their potential, had not initially understood. They had blinked at him, nodding courteously, but in their eyes he could see it: they were constricted by convention. By the pursuit of technical purity at the expenses of freedom. Was it their isolation here, their island mentality, that pushed them towards the utilitarian and prevented free flight? Surely, he thought, it should be the opposite. It wasn’t (125) that they didn’t understand beauty. But there was a sense of being embarrassed by it, that it was an indulgence. The practical was held in such esteem. It made them too polite. (126)
So many here did not see what Axel saw, or pretended they didn’t. The Opera House was their second miracle; he was not sure they deserved it. The new government behaved as if the building was a millstone rather than a monument. A shining symbol of what might be. For months they’d pursued the architect on every point, from his pricing to his planning, humiliated him publicly and privately. Rejected his drawn plans for his own house in Sydney. Utzon’s own family house. The man had emigrated, brought his wife and children here; had designed a house for them to live in. To put (234) down roots. This man who was leading them out of cultural darkness, who had been chosen for that reason. (235)
But in this country, he saw, it was a kind of sport to belittle those with vision, to treat art with disdain. He wasn’t sure what benefit it brought, but it was something to do with this flattening out, this shuffle towards sameness, to a life lived on the surface, without any depth. Was that why people clung so hard to the edges of the country, their backs to its beating red heart? Were they afraid to look in, to hear the old stories, to see what was inscribed on their own hearts and land? (235)
One day, Axel knew, he must see Utzon and tell him: the critics were blind. That the locals had no myths and therefore could not understand him or his building. Some time in the future, they might. When they needed a symbol, a narrative that explained them, that stood for them, they would look at the Opera House and see themselves. When he saw Utzon he would tell him: you cannot give up. (235)
…but she wondered if she’d been drawn to Axel because of the things he wasn’t, rather than those he was. (311)
Mainly: that he wasn’t Australian. Didn’t feel compelled to prove himself, to other men or to women; didn’t regard women as secondary, accessories to the main game. He showed no propensity to violence or to swagger after more than two schnapps; did not shrink from beauty. Did not shrink from the female in himself, the female in general. Did not regard himself as superior; was in fact the opposite of that. How did a man grow to be like this? One who made meaning with his hands, who shaped the world and his place in it with such delicate art. Was it his mother? (311)
Axel stood on warm sand, squinted towards the horizon, watched the tide withdraw. He thought: what the land knows. Knowledge of this place had entered his head incrementally, as water pushed over sand. Whatever had happened here had entered the soil: blood, water, bones – all beneath his feet. Every intention, won or lost. Just as it was at home. He shivered, watching children play in the shallows. Realising (321) that these people had grown from the very dirt they were born to. As he had. Swallowed the air and the water and the minerals in the earth. These people had absorbed sea water and the drift of desert at their backs. Felt the weight of it on their shoulders. The weight of history, of all they had come to and all they had inflicted on this place. Perhaps, he thought suddenly, that weight stopped them welcoming others here. They themselves had been the newcomers once; at a cellular level, they knew what they were capable of.
But no. They were blinded by sun; it meant they didn’t have to look. Where Axel came from, you had to look hard. Work for your visions, your insights. Set free in the immense southern ocean, this country sprawled like a sunbather. Without borders, it imagined its enemies, was free to create them. Looked only at themselves rather than over their shoulders. Found it too easy to be right.
It came to him then, suddenly. That he had approached this place like a child looking for a gift hidden in a wide field. There was something it held for him, something lay waiting, the answer to a question, the exact shape of absence. Had he arrived here expecting to become whole, to grow the missing limb? To feel something numb reawaken to feeling? As if this place might give something back, and he could return home complete. But that meant learning a new language that was (322) not a spoken one, rather one that explained where he was, what he saw and heard and felt.
He turned once more to the sea. Pulled off his shirt." (323)
26 April
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