THE DEAD LANDS
Benjamin Percy
Hachette Australia, April 2015, R.R.P. $29.99
It seemed fitting to be reading post-apocalyptic event fiction about a parched city as we move officially into an El Niño event. Thankfully we will have a couple of months of respite thanks to the Indian Ocean Dipole. Not so in the Sanctuary, a fortified city once known as St. Louis. Here water is precious, the city’s wells are guarded and the contents rationed.
In this rather depressing future, most of humanity has been wiped out by what began as a rather vicious strain of influenza and ended in a nuclear missile volleying match. Continue reading
If you’d like to (I’m not your real mom, I can’t make you), this video I’ve attached seems thematically appropriate. The song, a cover of Wishful Thinking’s Hiroshima by German band Puhdys–though it is of course about the wrong city–ran through my head a number of times as I read Burnt Shadows. Because this book is, amongst other things, about a nuclear world, the Cold War, and the constant two minutes to midnight. I’ve provided an original, literal and probably poor translation of the German lyrics, which are themselves a more poetic translation of the original English lyrics, below the video.
Only a shadow remains of him*, in Hiroshima
Silent as fire
But nobody knows, in Hiroshima,
Stone becomes a scream.
And it cries, “Remember well,
Or you will bring the embers** like here.”
Fly, my song, to Hiroshima
Fly to the shadow stones
And promise the man in Hiroshima
That it will never happen again
Because the world remembers*** well —
Or they will bring embers like Hiroshima****.
*This may also be “it”, ie, “the bomb”, which is a feminine noun, but changes in its dative form.
**The original word, “Glut” has a number of possible appropriate meanings, including “blaze”, “glow” or “fervour” as well.
***It’s possible there’s an imperative attached to the word “remember” that I’ve missed.
****The delivery of this line suggests a pun on here/Hiroshima.
Burnt Shadows, by Kamila Shamsie is a story about the world’s unluckiest woman. Hiroko Tanaka is caught up in the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. After recovering from her injuries and accepting her grief, she finds her way after the war to an India on the cusp of Independence and Partition. Later, as the blurb reveals–so no spoilers here–she spends some time in Pakistan before managing to be present in New York in time for September 11. Crikey. Yet she survives it all and, truth be told, the story is not at all as melodramatic or contrived as it might sound.
COMRADES AT ODDS: A TALE FROM THE LEGEND OF DRIZZT
Ice-T (narrator; Audible Studios, August 2014, ASIN: B00MN1NAYC)
Ice-T is a creative force that I’ve enjoyed throughout all his endeavors. Drizzt is a fictional character that I’ve enjoyed throughout his existence. So when I first learned of Ice-T’s narration of a chapter from “A Tale from The Legend of Drizzt” on his podcast, I was excited. But the realist in me prepared to enjoy the product not as advertised.
As a tale, Comrades at Odds is more than serviceable. It deals with the titular’s character’s guilt in dealing with the Continue reading
Harlan Coben’s book, The Stranger, drops us into the world of a middle class family whose biggest priority is a sports scholarship for their kids. The reader soon discovers that this perfect world of soccer moms and white picket fences is a veneer, when the Stranger reveals a secret to Adam, the main character of the story.
THE INVISIBLE GORILLA: AND OTHER WAYS OUR INTUITION DECEIVES US Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons
First published 2010
If you’re the kind of person who tends to think you’re always right, then this is the book for you. The Invisible Gorilla takes us bit by bit through faulty processes within the mind. Think in terms of optical illusions, but instead of our perception of an object being distorted, it’s our perception of everyday experience that gets twisted through the activity of being interpreted into thought.
MELBOURNE AND METROPOLITAN TRAMWAYS BOARD RULES AND REGULATIONS 1957 – Relating to Employees Concerned in any Aspect of Fare Collection, Ticket Issues, and Monies in Connection Therewith
Issued by Order of The Board, HA Warner, Secretary (No publishing information)
Back in 1994 I emerged fresh from uni, with an honours degree in science in my pocket, bright eyed and ready to take on my first real job. It wasn’t until 1996, due to a small thing you might have heard of called ‘The Recession’ – that I got my first job (after nearly two years of 40-job-applications a week unemployment) – as a tram conductor at Glen Huntley Tramways Depot.
They’d made all the connies redundant when the new ticket machines came in – two years later were still hiring part time contractor connies as the machines were not operational and the tickets did not yet sell themselves. I had a green uniform and a leather bag from probably 1957 and into the Melbourne winter I traveled on Z1s (all the heaters were broken).
Russell Brand’s Trickster Tales – THE PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN
Russell Brand, illustrated by Chris Riddell
Published 9th November 2014, Canongate (ISBN: 9781782114567)
Coming off the 2015 UK general election last week, it is no difficult task to read The Pied Piper of Hamelin–the first of Russell Brand’s Trickster Tales–and connect all sorts of dot points. From the nasty Fat Bob who bares a passing resemblance to a chubby David Cameron (or possibly a thin Eric Pickles) to the suspiciously Big Ben-like town clock. Though perhaps I am reading my own interpretations into Chris Riddell’s brilliant illustrations. You’ll recognise them, if not from The Edge Chronicles with Paul Stewart, then from Neil Gaiman’s Graveyard Book and The Sleeper And The Spindle (review coming soon). Continue reading
Jang Jin-Sung’s* memoir of his time in and flight from North Korea is a valuable and urgent glimpse into the secret state around the turn of the millenium. It shines a light on the plight of North Koreans within North Korea, and as refugees living under the threat of forced repatriation in China. Most interestingly, in my opinion, it provides a glimpse into the daily lives of North Koreans through the eyes of a man who was a true loyalist to the Supreme Leader or “General”, Kim Jong-il.
THE FUTURE OF ARCHITECTURE IN 100 BUILDINGS (PART OF TED BOOKS) Marc Kushner
Simon & Schuster, March 2015, RRP $16.99
When you think about it, buildings are a little like clothes, but the kind of clothes you would need if thousands of people stood on each other to create a giant. Buildings reveal the personality of a place. Melbourne wears laneways and fractured architecture like a woman in an upcycled suit and prism necklace; a little pretentious perhaps, but also a fierce seeker of new ideas. We’re drawn to cities as an extension of self, and when the city is transformed by a new construction, we also feel the tug of change.
What we can’t know is what change will be like ahead of time. With advances in building technology and innovations in design occurring at increasing speed, we can only imagine, like the dreams of futuristic cities in science fiction, where we will find ourselves living and how we will fit within those spaces. All we see now is the current playing ground of experimental architecture and creative thinking that might lead to our tantalising future. The Future of Architecture in 100 Buildings provides a glimpse into that possible world.
Tyler, Anne (Random House, reprint July 2012, ISBN:1446426718, 9781446426715)
I don’t know if they still do it like this, but back in the 80s, year 12 English at high school seemed to consist almost entirely of reviewing books for a theme. I was lucky enough to get a theme back in 1989 of ‘The Family’ – lucky because it was in that class that I was introduced to Anne Tyler.
There was dissent in the classroom when we read this book. Out of the 20 odd people in my class, the dissent was pretty unevenly divided: 19 people hated this book with a passion, one person (me) loved it with equal passion. I don’t know why they all hated it – perhaps it’s because it was literature; and literature never rounds up things into a nice bundled happy ending, which is the sort of book most people would have been reading when they are 16 or 17. I recall the dragonlance books were a bit popular in my school at the time. You know who the goodies and the baddies are and you know it’s all going resolve well. However – I’m ok with bittersweet or unspecified endings, your brain fills in the gap and you work it out. I read “Rebecca” in about year seven and that one leaves so much undone that I learned pretty early that was ok in a book. I also like a good, slow, gentle progression of a story, where the change is in the people the story is about – or more tragically, there is very little change in the people the story is about. Continue reading
It’s 1942 and Bernie Gunther, the wisecracking, Nazi-loathing detective continues to survive and maintain a passing acquaintance with his self-respect. The novel follows our German gumshoe through Berlin, Yugoslavia, Switzerland and back again, becoming involved with espionage, psychopathic ex-priests, murderers and movie stars, all while falling in love and trying to stay in Goebbel’s good books.
So far I had only read the first of the series, March Violets, (the next two novels The Pale Criminal and A German Requiem are waiting patiently on my book shelf) so I was very pleased to receive this review copy. It is a mark of Philip Kerr’s skill that in its eleventh book the series is still fresh, still saying interesting things about life on the German home front–a subject rarely touched upon in literature or film. Continue reading
BETWEEN YOU AND ME: CONFESSIONS OF A COMMA QUEEN
Mary Norris
Text Publishing
April 2015
Between you and me, Between You and Me* may well have made it into my top three favourite not dull books on Modern English grammar and punctuation. Now, I’m not saying the Commonwealth of Australia’s Style Manual is dull but it’s not exactly a rollercoaster made of glitter. Between You and Me is not a style manual but Mary Norris’s autobiographical account of life as a copy editor at The New Yorker. Though the reasons for loving it are numerous, it deserves accolades for making me aware of the existence of a pencil sharpener museum and that a pencil party is a thing that can happen.
Before reading this, Mary Norris’s first book, I had a vague notion that someone called the Comma Queen existed†. Of course, being so far removed from any stimulus that might encourage reading of The New Yorker, I have managed to remain unfamiliar with her work. Thus my only attraction to the book was its contents, which promised fabulous giblets of juicy punctuation fun. I have since discovered the Comma Queen has begun a wonderful video series, on The New Yorker’s website, which I will be following from now on. Continue reading
Imagine a world where women are pitted against each other, forced to comply with nigh unattainable standards of beauty and behaviour, and live their lives entirely according to the whims of men who treat them with nothing but contempt. Oh sorry, you don’t need to imagine. That’s our reality*. Louise … Continue reading
THE INVISIBLE GORILLA: AND OTHER WAYS OUR INTUITION DECEIVES US
THE FUTURE OF ARCHITECTURE IN 100 BUILDINGS (PART OF TED BOOKS)
DINNER AT THE HOMESICK RESTAURANT
