Welcome to the November issue of Australian Book Review – our first Performing Arts issue and one of the highlights of our publishing year. Highlights are many and varied. They include Melbourne theatre critic Andrew Fuhrmann’s long article ‘A Theatre of His Own: The Problematic Plays of Patrick White’ – the fruit of his ABR Ian Potter Foundation Fellowship. It’s a huge time for fiction publishing in Australia, and Brian Matthews finds much to admire in Tim Winton’s new novel, Eyrie, while Rosemary Sorensen reviews Christos Tsiolkas’s Barracuda. Steven Carroll tackles a biography of the man who lived with and edited T.S. Eliot. We also name the winner of this year’s Jolley Prize.
November 2013, no. 356
Brian Matthews reviews 'Eyrie' by Tim Winton
In a notable month for major new Australian fiction, Tim Winton’s Eyrie stands out. Brian Matthews reviews this darkly funny novel – ‘a scarifying assessment of the way we live now’
Patrick White: A theatre of his own
Andrew Fuhrmann’s acclaimed Fellowship essay on the theatre of Patrick White closely examines these brilliant, problematic plays and draws on interview material with key directors closely associated with White.
Jan McGuinness reviews 'Killing Fairfax' by Pamela Williams and 'Rupert Murdoch' by David McKnight
With James Packer and Lachlan Murdoch grinning smugly on its cover, Killing Fairfax: Packer, Murdoch and the Ultimate Revenge projects a strong message that they are indeed the company’s smiling assassins. Pamela Williams mounts a case that these scions of Australia’s traditional media families ...
Rosemary Sorensen reviews 'Barracuda' by Christos Tsiolkas
Rosemary Sorensen review Christos Tsolkas’s new novel, Barracuda, another bracing study of masculinity, this time focusing on an ambitious and conflicted young swimmer at a Melbourne private school.
