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Jay Daniel Thompson

Jay Daniel Thompson is a Senior Lecturer in Professional Communication at RMIT University.

Jay Daniel Thompson reviews 'Tolerance, Prejudice and Fear' by Christos Tsiolkas, Gideon Haigh and Alexis Wright

September 2008, no. 304 01 September 2008
Tolerance, Prejudice and Fear comprises a trio of essays commissioned by the Sydney PEN. According to its website, PEN is ‘an association of writers devoted to freedom of expression in Australia’. In this book, three major Australian authors discuss the roles that tolerance, prejudice and fear have played in contemporary Australian society. This is a society in which traditional ideas about na ... (read more)

Jay Daniel Thompson reviews ‘Griffith Review 25: After the crisis’ edited by Julianne Schultz

October 2009, no. 315 01 October 2009
This edition of Griffith Review is one of several local journals to take the ‘global financial crisis’ as its latest theme. A range of writers address this ‘crisis’ and other ‘major recessions’ throughout history. The journal opens with Julianne Schultz’s essay about how the global economy has worsened following the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008. Other contributors in ... (read more)

Jay Daniel Thompson reviews 'The Book of Emmett' by Deborah Forster

May 2009, no. 311 01 May 2009
The Book of Emmett, Melbourne journalist Deborah Forster’s first novel, offers a relentlessly grim but nonetheless engagingly written and often quite moving look at a distinctly dysfunctional family. The novel is set mostly in Footscray, in Melbourne’s inner-west, and focuses on the life and death of the title character. Emmett Brown is extraordinarily contradictory. On the one hand, he is a ... (read more)

Jay Daniel Thompson reviews 'The Best Australian Political Writing 2009' edited by Eric Beecher

May 2009, no. 311 01 May 2009
The Best Australian Political Writing 2009 is a collection of articles about the political climate in Australia over the course of twelve months. In 411 pages, a range of prominent Australian writers analyse the events that made headlines in this country during what editor Eric Beecher describes as a ‘once-in-a-lifetime-year’. The year in question – 2008 – began with the new Labor prime m ... (read more)

Jay Daniel Thompson reviews 'House of Hits' by Jane Albert

May 2010, no. 321 01 May 2010
House of Hits is an historical account of the family whose company helped change Australian music. The book is written by Jane Albert, a former journalist who, while wanting to respect her family’s ‘privacy’, nonetheless felt the Australian public was owed ‘some insight into the people who created such an inspiring business’. ... (read more)

Jay Daniel Thompson reviews 'What’s Right? The future of conservatism in Australia (Quarterly Essay 37)' by Waleed Aly

May 2010, no. 321 01 May 2010
In the latest edition of Quarterly Essay, entitled What’s Right?, Monash University academic Waleed Aly argues that right-wing politics has lost its way in the twenty-first century. Aly’s engaging and sophisticated analysis will appeal to readers from around the political spectrum.    Aly begins by arguing that the terms ‘Left and Right are the hallmark of a political conversa ... (read more)

Jay Daniel Thompson reviews 'Overland 198' edited by Jeff Sparrow

May 2010, no. 321 01 May 2010
The key theme of Overland 198 is upheaval. The contributors explore a range of dramatic changes that have occurred in Australian politics and global culture in recent years. Mungo McCallum contends that asylum seekers have been used as political footballs by both Labor and the Liberals. Raewyn Connell investigates how the left has been affected by what she terms the ‘neoliberal agenda’. Michae ... (read more)

Jay Daniel Thompson reviews 'Griffith Review 28: Still the Lucky Country?' edited by Julianne Schultz

June 2010, issue no. 322 01 June 2010
In his influential book The Lucky Country (1964), Donald Horne argued: ‘The time has come when broad views of change that now seem impractical will seem sensible and to the point.’ This argument is taken up by the contributors to Griffith Review 28. These contributors explore the ways that Australia has reinvented itself in recent years, both economically and culturally. ... (read more)

Jay Daniel Thompson reviews 'Whatever Happened To Brenda Hean?' by Scott Millwood

December 2008–January 2009, no. 307 01 December 2008
Whatever Happened to Brenda Hean? focuses on the unsolved disappearance of the eponymous figure. Hean was an environmental activist who vanished in 1972 while flying to Canberra to campaign against the destruction of Tasmania’s Lake Pedder, which was to be flooded for a hydro-electric scheme. The text is written by documentary film-maker Scott Millwood, who ‘offered a $100,000 reward for infor ... (read more)

Jay Daniel Thompson reviews 'The Trip' by George Papaellinas

December 2008–January 2009, no. 307 01 December 2008
The Trip is what happens when Ancient Greek mythology is mixed with Australian history. In a breezy 175 pages, George Papaellinas provides a rewriting of Homer’s Odyssey. He also revisits various highlights (and lowlights) from our country’s past. The result is an amusing and highly idiosyncratic read. Papaellinas’s novel is narrated by the god Odysseus, or ‘Oddy’, as he is commonly kno ... (read more)