Welcome to the December issue! Highlights include:
- Marguerite Johnson on Picnic at Hanging Rock, fifty years on
- Shaun Crowe reviews two books on Pauline Hanson and One Nation
- ABR’s 2017 Books of the Year
- Peter Rose on the results of the marriage equality survey
- Kevin Foster on Peter Greste’s new memoir
- Richard Walsh on a new book of interviews with Bob Hawke
- Beejay Silcox on Gerald Murnane’s new novel
December 2017, no. 397
2017 Books of the Year
To celebrate the best books of 2017 Australian Book Review invited nearly forty contributors to nominate their favourite titles. Contributors include Michelle de Kretser, Susan Wyndham, James Ley, Geordie Williamson, Jane Sullivan, Tom Griffiths, Mark Edele, and Brenda Niall.
'Picnic at Hanging Rock fifty years on' by Marguerite Johnson
Far from being a flimsy, frilly story for women full of antique charm and middle-class manners, Joan Lindsay’s Picnic at Hanging Rock is a novel of sharp social observations and nuanced critique; subtle and sometimes latent sensuality; and layered, intricate allegory. The ‘shimmering summer morning warm and still’ brings the opposite to what it promises ...
'Victory for Equality' by Peter Rose
Australian Book Review – like millions of Australians and thousands of organisations – is a strong supporter of same-sex marriage. We welcome the endorsement of marriage equality by the overwhelming majority of Australians in the postal survey.
Shaun Crowe reviews 'Please Explain: The rise, fall and rise again of Pauline Hanson' by Anna Broinowksi and 'Rogue Nation: Dispatches from Australia’s populist uprisings and outsider politics' by Royce Kurmelovs
More than any other political party in Australia, One Nation represents a puzzle for commentators. When trying to explain its support – which has hovered around ten per cent since its revival in 2016 – the temptation is to look for subtext, something deeper, beneath the surface. Could the party’s cultural pitch really be a code for ...
