I don't know what to make of this. I'll think on it. Tentatively give this 3 stars. This has a feel of The Brothers Karamazov about it. It made me wonI don't know what to make of this. I'll think on it. Tentatively give this 3 stars. This has a feel of The Brothers Karamazov about it. It made me wonder how much Dostoyevsky towers over Russian literature....more
Bryan Brown, 'The Drowning' review Set on the New South Wales North Coast near Coffs Harbour. The story is well researched. The writing style reads liBryan Brown, 'The Drowning' review Set on the New South Wales North Coast near Coffs Harbour. The story is well researched. The writing style reads like a screenplay draft, no-frills, economic, blunt as an instructional manual. Classic crime-fiction, told in the third person in the vernacular of one of the characters. Vernacular Aussie blokey narrator. The writing is as if one of the characters is telling you the story instead of reading it oneself. Close to texting style. Would be easy to storyboard. That could be the intention. I can see the author playing the role of Sergeant Tommy Gallagher. The international popularity of crime fiction seems insatiable, not that it appeals to me. I wouldn't have read the novel but for the author being Bryan Brown. I nearly bailed on it at half-way through, gets tiring by chapter 22, at 115 pages in. "What are they telling us? Not a lot, Leila reckoned. Just a jumble of knowings crashing together looking to make sense." Pretty much like this novel at half way point. The second half tightens up and comes together nicely. This is crime fiction as showcase Australian tourism, layed on with a trowel. Realistic, naturalist, almost French Nouveau Roman 'New Novel' style. The French New Wave style in Literature and film was influenced by American crime-noir fiction and film, that sparse style influence trying to write like Hemingway. This should be a natural fit for Australian simplicity, particularly with the narrow constraints of the genre of crime fiction....more
The sarcasm is so strong and relentless I find it hard to distinguish fact from satire. I have shelved it to come back to and finish later when in a mThe sarcasm is so strong and relentless I find it hard to distinguish fact from satire. I have shelved it to come back to and finish later when in a more receptive frame of mind. I was reading it whilst reading two writer autobiographies, one straight non-fiction and one written as thinly disguised fiction, both sincere and illuminating, without any sarcasm. Old Masters star rating on completion to be fair....more
Misunderstanding in Moscow, written in the 1960s but not published in French until 1992, six years after her death. Set in summer in the mid 1960s, SiMisunderstanding in Moscow, written in the 1960s but not published in French until 1992, six years after her death. Set in summer in the mid 1960s, Simone de Beauvoir wrote this novella in her fifties. A simple story told plainly of a long married bourgeois sixty-year-old French couple on holiday in Moscow. Deceptively simple story that has depth. Confronting approaching old age, that takes a different environment with a different language and culture to reevaluate oneself and marriage partner objectively, both of them....more
I read an English translation with the title Evasion, translated by Elfreda Powell. This edition is 201 pages. A favourite story scenario of a group ofI read an English translation with the title Evasion, translated by Elfreda Powell. This edition is 201 pages. A favourite story scenario of a group of very different people come together under extraordinary circumstances, in this case two groups, wealthy sophisticated Parisians and rural French peasant farmers. And within each group a diverse collection of characters. What I love the most is the positivity of the characters embracing the other. Françoise Sagan never disappoints....more
Magnificent. Australian literature. Malouf's first novel, though one wouldn't know it. "Maybe in the end, even the lies we tell define us."Magnificent. Australian literature. Malouf's first novel, though one wouldn't know it. "Maybe in the end, even the lies we tell define us."...more
As I read towards the last page of The Reprieve, the timing has echoes of the present machinations in Europe. Europe is historically a bad neighbourhoAs I read towards the last page of The Reprieve, the timing has echoes of the present machinations in Europe. Europe is historically a bad neighbourhood. They can't smell their own bad breath.
