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CURRENT ISSUE November 2008 No. 306 $8.95

CONTENTS

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

LETTERS
Angus Trumble, Thea Biesheuvel

COMMENTARY
A ‘Change Election’: The US Presidential Campaign Don DeBats
Reflections on a Revival of the Doll Ian Callinan

FICTION
Christos Tsiolkas: The Slap James Ley
Richard Flanagan: Wanting Geordie Williamson
Colleen McCullough: The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet Adrian Mitchell
Louis Nowra: Ice Tim Howard
Peter Goldsworthy: Everything I Knew Christina Hill
Jacinta Halloran: Dissection Jo Case

BIOGRAPHY
Brian Matthews: Manning Clark Stuart Macintyre

POLITICS
Peter Costello (with Peter Coleman): The Costello Memoirs Neal Blewett

INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
Andrew Bacevich: The Limits of Power Brendon O’Connor

ART
David Marr: The Henson Case Peter Rose
Tracey Lock-Weir: Misty Moderns Wendy Walker

SEYMOUR LECTURE
'Biography: The Past Has a Great Future' Richard Holmes

MEDIA
Sandra Hall: Tabloid Man Bridget Griffen-Foley

SOCIETY
Anthony Elliott: Making the Cut
Meredith Jones: Skintight Katie Wright
Michael Bachelard: Behind the Exclusive Brethren Lyndon Megarrity

MEMOIRS
Dmetri Kakmi: Mother Land Patrick Allington

MUSIC
Sara Hardy: Dame Joan Hammond Sylvia Martin
John Deathridge: Wagner Beyond Good and Evil Robert Gibson

ABR REVIEWING COMPETITION
Julian Barnes: Nothing to Be Frightened Of Jonathon Otis

SCIENCE
Marco Iacoboni: Mirroring People
Mark Johnson: The Meaning of the Body
Steven Pinker: The Stuff of Thought
Giacomo Rizzolatti and Corrado Sinigaglia: Mirrors in the Brain Ian Gibbins

FICTION IN BRIEF
Wayne Grogan: Heavy Allies Tim Howard
Serge Liberman: Where I Stand Chad Habel
Kim Westwood: The Daughters of Moab Lisa Bennett

JOURNALS IN BRIEF
Grant Caldwell (ed.): Blue Dog
Sophie Cunningham (ed.): Meanjin
Ivor Indyk (ed.): Heat Maria Takolander

LITERARY STUDIES
Seth Lerer: Children’s Literature Lisa Gorton

NATURAL HISTORY
Stephen Jackson: Koala
Ann Moyal: Koala Peter Menkhorst

POETRY
Robert Adamson: The Golden Bird Gig Ryan
Peter Steele: White Knight with Beebox Paul Hetherington

AUSTRALIAN FICTION
Geoffrey Bolton: Land of Vision and Mirage Jenny Gregory

YOUNG ADULT FICTION
Elizabeth Fensham: Goodbye Jamie Boyd
Julie Gittus: Saltwater Moons
Beth Montgomery: Murderer’s Thumb Ruth Starke


CONTRIBUTORS

 

  

Reviews from ABR OCTOBER 2008

'History versus the novelist'
James Bradley on Kate Grenville's new novel
James Bradley reviews
Kate Grenville's new novel, The Lieutenant.
While praising the flawless construction,
economy and grace of The Lieutenant, Bradley critiques the novel's
the novel's relationship with historical and biographical
sources. It remains mired, Bradley argues, in 'the same mess
of historical pastiche that entraps Eleanor Dark's The
Timeless Land (1941), neither history (with all the restrictions
that implies) nor truly fiction in its own right, but some
unsatisfying amalgam of the two.'

'The great nothingness'
Peter Pierce on The Penguin Book of the Road
'Roads are not places,'
writers Peter Pierce, 'but ways to and from them.'
This anthology includes contributions from
eminent Australian writers, including David Malouf, Robert Hughes, Dorothy Hewett and Clive James. Commending Delia Falconer's astute editorship, Pierce notes that in spite of the metaphor of divergence and flight, the characters from these stories are seeking ways to return home.

'Barefoot on sharp stones'
Chris Wallace-Crabbe on Robert Dessaix
'Who is, or rather who was, Andre Gide?' asks Chris Wallace-Crabbe in his review of Robert Dessaix's Arabesques,
a 'tale of double lives'. Cross-stiching autobiography with
reactions to exotic places and past writers, Dessaix takes his audience sightseeing through Algiers, Northern Italy and
France - much to Wallace-Crabbe's delight: 'Dessaix is never less than a writer of cunningly shaped, seductive narratives.'

'Missing from My Own Life'
Elisabeth Holdsworth - winner of 2007 Calibre Prize
Last year Elisabeth Holdsworth won the inaugural Calibre
Prize for her essay 'An die Nachgeborenen: For Those Who Come After'. Few ABR articles have generated such interest
and emotion. Now she has written a further instalment of her
remarkable life story, and explains the reasons for depicting aspects of it in fiction.

Sharman, shaman, showman
Gay Bilson on Blood &Tinsel
The ever-popular Gay Bilson reviews Jim Sharman's memoirs.
Sharman has kept interesting company in his illustrious career as a theatre and opera director: Rudolf Nureyev's notorious sexual haunts are mentioned; there is an exchanged look with
Andy Warhol. At the heart of the book, however, is Sharman's professional and personal relationship with Patrick White.

 
 

 

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