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CURRENT ISSUE December 2008-January 2009 No. 307 $9.95

CONTENTS

ADVANCES
The latest literary news from the Editor's desk.

LETTERS
Thomas Ryan, Peter Rose

COMMENTARY
'Ten Weeks in America' Morag Fraser
'Hope Was in the Air' Stuart Macintyre
'Literary Resurrectionism' Graham Tulloch

BIOGRAPHY
Graham Freudenberg: Churchill and Australia Geoffrey Blainey
David Day: Andrew Fisher Nicholas Brown
Anna Bemrose: Robert Helpmann Ian Britain
Greg Growden: Jack Fingleton Brian Stoddart
Sue Ebury: The Many Lives of Kenneth Myer Brenda Niall

POEMS
Stephen Edgar
David Brooks
Brendan Ryan

HISTORY
Richard Holmes: The Age of Wonder John Hay

BEST BOOKS OF 2008

UNITED STATES
Simon Schama: The American Future Glyn Davis

INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
Ahmed Rashid: Descent into Chaos Riaz Hassan

ANTHOLOGY
Delia Falconer (ed.): The Best Australian Stories 2008 Jeffrey Poacher
Barry Oakley (ed.): Families Christina Hill
David Brooks (ed.): The Best Australian Poetry 2008
Peter Rose (ed.): The Best Australian Poems 2008 Anthony Lynch
`
FICTION
Morris Lurie: To Light Attained Peter Pierce
Margo Lanagan: Tender Morsels Kate McFadyen
George Papaellinas: The Trip Jay Daniel Thompson

CRIME FICTION
Tom Gilling: Dreamland Carmel Shute

FICTION IN BRIEF
Garth Nix: The Keys to the Kingdom Benjamin Chandler
Matt Howard: Taking Off Hannah Kent
Kate Morton: The Forgotten Garden Lisa Bennett
language Bruce Moore: Speaking Our Language Sarah Ogilvie

CULTURAL STUDIES
Matthew Fishburn: Burning Books Ian Morrison
Ann Stephen, Philip Goad and Andrew McNamara (eds): Modern Times Sarah Scott

SOCIETY
Gideon Haigh: The Racket Lisa Featherstone

POLITICS
Robert Phiddian and Haydon Manning (eds): Comic Commentators Iain Topliss

ART
Julie Watts: The Art of Graeme Base Stephanie Owen Reeder

ARCHITECTURE
Peter Bishop: Bridge Luke Morgan

POETRY
John Jenkins: Growing up with Mr Menzies Geoff Page
Sandy Fitts: View from the Lucky Hotel Lyn McCredden
Brook Emery: Uncommon Light Elizabeth Campbell
Chris Wallace-Crabbe: Telling a Hawk from a Handsaw Gregory Kratzmann

TRAVEL
Marisa Raoul: Ma Folie Française (My French Folly) Rebecca Starford
Fiona McGregor: Strange Museums Claudia Hyles

INDIGENOUS STUDIES
Chris Healy: Forgetting Aborigines Anthony Moran

NON-FICTION IN BRIEF
Marian Sawer: Making Women Count Kate Goldsworthy
Lucy Neave, James Connor and Amanda Crawford (eds): Arts of Publication Jay Daniel Thompson
Scott Millwood: Whatever Happened to Brenda Hean? Jay Daniel Thompson

YOUNG ADULT FICTION
Randa Abdel-Fattah: Where the Streets Had a Name Yossi Klein

CONTRIBUTORS

 

  

Reviews from ABR NOVEMBER 2008

'A change election'
Don DeBats on the US presidential campaign
Don DeBats - Professor of American Studies at Flinders University and prominent commentator - reviews the remarkable US election of 2008: a contest between the politics of honour and of empathy.

'A furious moralist'
James Ley on Christos Tsiolkas's The Slap
A new novel by Christos Tsiolkas is never a tame affair. Melbourne critic James Ley reviews his lastest novel, that
'acknowledges [hatred's] primal allure, its negative validation; his characters often experience a surge of excitement when they allow themselves to think a vicious or bigoted thought'.

'Crucible for happenings'
Geordie Williamson on Richard Flanagan's Wanting
A new novel by Richard Flanagan usually proves to be controversial. Sydney critic Geordie Williamson finds that
'while the superstructure of this superbly sleek, confident and persuasive novel may be based on a questionable blurring of
fact and fiction, this wicked and exhilarating dance [...] is a local tragedy that only a novelist could raise to the level of universal fable'.

'Behind the mask'
Stuart Macintyre on Manning Clark
One of Australia's premier historians reviews Brian Matthews's long-awaited biography of Manning Clark, one of the most
contested figures in Australian historiography.

'Panic merchants'
Peter Rose on The Henson Case
'In this enthralling little book, David Marr is less spiky than usual. He is too worried to be mordant. He has reason to be. More was endangered after May 22 than a few contentious photographs. Wowserism, philistinism, censoriousness - never far below the surface in Australia - were given new life.'

'Biography: The past has a great future'
The great Romantic biographer Richard Holmes delivers the 2008 HRC Seymour Lecture
Richard Holmes offers a lively, generous, discursive account
of world biography, with specific referenc to the Australian school, predicting 'a golden age of Australian biography'.
 

 

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