December 2019, no. 417
December 2019, no. 417
Welcome to the December issue of ABR – always our most anticipated edition of the year because of the inclusion of Books of the Year. Thirty-three leading critics and writers nominate their favourite publications of the year. Find out what people like Beejay Silcox, James Ley, Susan Wyndham, Andrea Goldsmith, and Bronwyn Lea most enjoyed reading in 2019. Other highlights include Peter Rose on Helen Garner’s brilliant and defiant diaries; Zora Simic on the legacies of sexual harassment; Angela Woollacott on Margaret Simons’s biography of Penny Wong; and Chris Flynn on Elliot Perlman’s new novel. Elsewhere, legendary journalist Brian Toohey reviews Edward Snowden’s memoirs, Monash historian Christina Twomey laments the ‘terror in extraterritoriality’, and the poet Michael Hofmann contributes a brilliant satire on Donal Dump (aka Donald Trump).
Full contents
Books of the Year
Diaries
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Yellow Notebook: Diaries, Volume I, 1978–1987 by Helen Garner
Reviewed by Peter Rose
Memoir
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Permanent Record by Edward Snowden
Reviewed by Brian Toohey
Fiction
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Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann
Reviewed by Shannon Burns -
Maybe the Horse Will Talk by Elliot Perlman
Reviewed by Chris Flynn -
The Flight of Birds: A novel in twelve stories by Joshua Lobb
Reviewed by Sascha Morrell -
Grand Union: Stories by Zadie Smith
Reviewed by Astrid Edwards -
The Bee and the Orange Tree by Melissa Ashley
Reviewed by Lisa Bennett -
Serotonin by Michel Houellebecq, translated by Shaun Whiteside
Reviewed by David Jack -
Four new Young Adult novels
Reviewed by Emily Gallagher
True Crime
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The Hilton Bombing: Evan Pederick and the Ananda Marga by Imre Salusinszky
Reviewed by Jacqueline Kent
Language
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The Dictionary Wars: The American fight over the English language by Peter Martin
Reviewed by Bruce Moore
History
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Changing Fortunes: A history of the Australian treasury by Paul Tilley
Reviewed by Geoffrey Blainey
Politics
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How to Democratize Europe by Stéphanie Hennette et al.
Reviewed by Paul Muldoon
Calibre Essay
Biography
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The Shelf Life of Zora Cross by Cathy Perkins
Reviewed by Brenda Niall -
Mallee Country: Land, people, history by Richard Broome et al.
Reviewed by Lilian Pearce -
Passionate Spirit: The life of Alma Mahler by Cate Haste
Reviewed by Ian Dickson -
Penny Wong: Passion and principle by Margaret Simons
Reviewed by Angela Woollacott
Interview
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Open Page with Margaret Simons
Reviewed by Australian Book Review
Advances
Society
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She Said by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey & The Education of Brett Kavanaugh by Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly
Reviewed by Zora Simic
Essays
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Coventry: Essays by Rachel Cusk
Reviewed by Johanna Leggatt -
The Best Australian Science Writing 2019 edited by Bianca Nogrady
Reviewed by Robyn Arianrhod -
George Seddon: Selected Writings edited by Andrea Gaynor
Reviewed by Judith Brett
New Zealand
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West Island: Five twentieth-century New Zealanders in Australia by Stephanie Johnson
Reviewed by Brian Matthews
United States
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The Impeachers: The trial of Andrew Johnson and the dream of a just nation by Brenda Wineapple
Reviewed by Samuel Watts
Literary Studies
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Backgazing: Reverse time in Modernist culture by Paul Giles
Reviewed by Philip Mead -
The Innocent Reader by Debra Adelaide & Wild About Books by Michael Wilding
Reviewed by Susan Sheridan