Memoir
Dancing on his own
Carmel Bird
Reaching One Thousand: A Story of Love, Motherhood and Autism
by Rachel Robertson
Black Inc., $29.95 pb, 240 pp, 9781836955553
At some stage in every workshop on the art of memoir somebody raises the question of ethic ...
Donata Carrazza reviews 'Bite Your Tongue' by Francesca Rendle-Short
In writing Bite Your Tongue, Francesca Rendle-Short, who is director of Creative Writing at RMIT University, has chosen a thorny tale. She dedicates the book to her mother, Angel, who is clearly a formidable personality: Northern Irish; medical doctor; mother of six daughters; Christian activist; ‘book burner’. Early on, we are told that ‘some stories are hard to tell, they bite ...
Memoir, it seems, is proliferating ever more furiously in Australia, filling bookshelves and review pages like bacteria in still water. We are insatiable in our appetite to read and write memoir, to feel the ‘real’. As a memoirist myself, I am all too aware of my hypocrisy in feeling uneasy about this rage for introspection. But memoir is most successfu ...
Infinitely cooler
Alex O’Brien
HipsterMattic
by Matt Granfield
Allen & Unwin, $24.99 pb, 320 pp, 9781742377858
In the past, a twenty-something could exemplify le dernier cri without having to dispense with his bicycle gears, reflecto ...
For a book featuring a lot of sex, The Romantic – whose title could be ironic, acerbic, or hopeful – disgust is not the most obvious predominant motif readers might expect...
... (read more)Balancing act
Sue Ebury
FINAL PROOF: MEMOIRS OF A PUBLISHER
by Peter Ryan
Quadrant Books, $44.95 hb, 210 pp, 9780980677836
‘Thank God I have done with him!’ – the words uttered by Dr Johnson’s publisher when he received the final proofs of ...
Leaving Vienna, city of windows
Evelyn Juers
GOOD LIVING STREET: THE FORTUNES OF MY VIENNESE FAMILY
by Tim Bonyhady
Allen & Unwin, $35 pb, 464 pp, 9781742371467
Would it be indulgent to invoke Leonard Cohen? It’s just that his song ‘Take Th ...
Not shutting up
Jo Case
When Horse Became Saw: A Family’s Journey through Autism
by Anthony Macris
Viking, $32.95 pb, 307 pp, 9780670074655
In January this year the New York Times ran a controversial review article titled ‘The Problem ...
‘Who do you think you are?’ an eminent paediatrician once thundered at me across a child’s cot during his weekly grand ward round. ‘Anton Chekhov?’
... (read more)An historian’s journey into the past
John Rickard
Not Dark Yet: A Personal History
by David Walker
Giramondo, $32.95 pb, 336 pp, 9781920882655
It is perhaps not surprising that historians, as they edge towards retirement, should consider the poss ...