Tag Archives: fiction

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Writers Never Show Their Teeth

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THE STORY OF MY TEETH
Valeria Luiselli, translated by Christina MacSweeney
Granta, $24.99
April 2015

Story of my teeth

Firstly, if clowns and questionable dentistry are not your thing I am just going to warn you that there is a scene in Valeria Luiselli’s The Story of My Teeth containing both creepy clowns and discussion of teeth and dentistry—enough so that you will be falling asleep with your mouth firmly closed and keeping one eye on all large projection screens in the near future. However, do not let that put you off entering the world of Gustavo ‘Highway’ Sánchez, main narrator of The Story of My Teeth and self-proclaimed best auctioneer in the world, who on the first page announces that he wishes to tell the story of his teeth. This tale is also Highway’s life story–and not just for the fact that teeth generally being in one’s mouth throughout one’s life imply that the teeth and the owner of the mouth have the same story.

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A Painted Ship upon a Painted Ocean

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River of Smoke (2)RIVER OF SMOKE
Amitav Ghosh
John Murray, June 2011, RRP $27.95

The second in Amitav Ghosh’s Ibis trilogy, River of Smoke first takes up some 40 or 50 years after the events of Sea of Poppies, to reveal the ultimate fate of several of the characters.  Since the end of the last book left things up in the air*, this choice threw me a bit when I started it.  Perhaps I have a tendency to become complacent when reading certain things, so am particularly confused when shown an unexpected curve ball.  I wondered if, perhaps, this second book took place entirely at this juncture.  Fortunately for my state of mind, the novel does quickly return to the 1830s and the continuing development of the first Opium War.

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Love and Leather… and Vampires

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The ShadowsThe Shadows (Black Dagger Brotherhood Book 13)
J.R. Ward
Piatkus, March 2015, RRP $29.99

I can’t remember if I’ve already outed myself to the MRB readers as a romance genre reader. In real life everyone knows, and are mostly accepting, though I get a few comments about ‘those shirtless dudes’ on the covers.* As a genre, romance is huge, and made up of a multitude of subgenres. Thus finding your way into the genre, let alone into the subgenres can be a really tricky process. One of the large sub-genres that has been extremely popular over the last few years is paranormal romance. Vampires, werewolves, zombies and a whole host of other supernatural creatures have all made their appearance in different iterations.

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‘There was a Ship,’ Quoth He

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sea_of_poppiesSEA OF POPPIES
Amitav Ghosh
First published 2008

Let me tell you about buying this book.  After being provided with a review copy of the third in this Ibis trilogy, I sought the first two books.  I initially purchased them from the Book Depository, since despite its purchase by Amazon, it has served me well in the past, and given the size of the books, time was somewhat of the essence. Unfortunately, my order for the second book was cancelled after a few days and I was refunded.  The first book, though, was ostensibly sent in early March.  By the beginning of April, I had not received it.  So I contacted the Book Depository and received a swift refund for that too.  And I turned to Booktopia, which delivered both books promptly, albeit in rather strange jaffle-style packaging.  Surprise, surprise, John Murray is a trading name of Hachette, with whom Amazon and by extention the Book Depository have been having a well-publicised tiff*.

Book finally in my hands, I expected something of a dour book.  Nominated for the Man Booker Prize, Sea of Poppies is firmly targeted at a literary market.  I feared it would be a worthy†, possibly depressing novel about serious issues. But while this book is certainly about the slightly serious issue of the first Opium War, it is neither dour nor worthy. In fact it is frequently hilarious.

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Action is the Most Dangerous Thing

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THE QUIET AMERICAN
Graham Greene (William Heinemann, 1955; Vintage, 2004) ISBN: 9780099478393the-quiet-american-vintage

So, ah, have you ever started reading a book you thought was about something completely different than it turned out to be?  Because I was under some kind of misapprehension about The Quiet American before I started it.  All I really knew about it was that it was made into a movie some time in the early to mid 2000s starring Michael Caine and Brendan Fraser.  I only know this because I had a cousin involved in the picture, who at the time called his mother to say, “I’ve just met Michael Caine and you’re the only person I can think of who’ll care.”  Because this was back before we all had decided Michael Caine was cool again when he started being Batman’s butler and that sort of thing.

I think I had the book confused with The English Patient and possibly some other book that doesn’t exist.  Essentially, I knew the plot involved two men in love* with the same woman, but for some reason I believed it involved either a hospital or POWs.  This is what a hazy memory for pop culture does to a person.  I recommend you all study hard on what the Kardashians and real housewives are up to right now, for it may be tested later.

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Upside Down Miss Jane

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MR. SQUIGGLE AND FRIENDSsquig

Dir. Virginia Lumsden Perf. Norman Hetherington. Australian Broadcasting Corporation 1959-1999. Television.

Down near the bottom of my resume, it reads:

“November 1979: Contributing television graphic artist, Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)” Continue reading

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Murder Cabinet

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THE FILING CABINET OF DOOMdoomcabinet

Swan, Madeleine (Burning Bulb Publishing, July 2013, ISBN 9780692245200)

I got the Murder Cabinet at Vincent Raux Second-hand Furniture on Clayton Road. Inside the shop it looked like any other sheet metal filing cabinet. It had four working drawers, less rust than the Carpentaria, and smelled no worse than the shop itself. They kept it against a wall. That should’ve tipped me off. I didn’t behold the stain until I got it home.

A wide, blotchy stain streaked down the back. Thickest and blackest at the bottom, it thinned into a carmine cracklature at the top. As Colin expressed it, you could never quite convince yourself you looked at something other than blood. From another room you could laugh that your imagination must’ve got the better of you, that next time when you looked, you would just see brown paint. But when you got there, you couldn’t shake the impression that you saw blood. Continue reading

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Cold Comfort Farm

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COLD COMFORT FARMcoldcomfort

Gibbons, Stella (Important Books, reprint July 2013, ISBN 978-8087830628)

For some reason anything written in the era of the Jazz age kind of reads like a light hearted romp that could have been written in the 1980s. I suspect both eras were famously of unfettered youth getting their stockings off and dancing until dawn. Both eras had a bright, vibrant, selfish youth culture – when there was a lot, then suddenly, no, money around. Their books tend to be a bit similar, though there are more hard drugs in books from the 80s.

I was at both primary and high school in the 1980s and thus the only vaguely adult thing I did was drink a small bottle West Coast cooler at a birthday party. It made me feel roguish and all grown-up while the soles of my mesh shoes melted, pointed at the bonfire. Continue reading

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Knight’s Errand

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THE SONG OF ROLANDdorothy

Sayers, Dorothy L. (translator; Penguin, reprint December 1957, ISBN 978014044075)

On the phone, she‘d told me that she’d driven the car on to a raised section of the concrete, where she’d had to leave it. It took the security guard and me half an hour to find it. I’d enlisted his help at the parking garage near the haematology building. I thought of him as the squire. Without his help, I’d never have found it.

“Cooey!” he yelled out. Continue reading

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Diligence and Frugality

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THE FOUR BOOKS

Yan Lianke (Text, 2015) ISBN: 9781922184487, RRP AU$29.99 The Four books

It’s been a while since I read a book that left me with the single thought, “what the fuck?”  Strange as it might sound, I don’t mean this in a negative way.  It’s good when a book provokes thought about what just happened and what it all means — to an extent.  The Four Books is one such book.  Set in a re-educational camp along the banks of the Yellow River during China’s Cultural Revolution, it certainly inspires the questions, “what did I just read?  What did the author want me to get from this?” in ways that benefit it.  I like the book more now than I did when I finished it, simply by virtue of having given it some consideration.

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Ingsoc

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NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOURfeliz

Orwell, George (Signet Classic, January 1961, ISBN 9780451524935)

I receive a letter from Centrelink explaining that when I lodge next fortnight’s form I need to “negotiate a new Activity Agreement”.

When I go in that fortnight, they tell me again that we need to negotiate a new Activity Agreement. Continue reading

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Hazel Gambit

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LITTLE ORPHAN MILLIElittleorphanmillie

Kelly, Mick. “Little Orphan Millie.” The Simpsons. Dir. Lance Kramer. Fox Network. November 2007. Television.

Years ago at a wedding reception, after the ramble of speeches, the newlyweds announced a game. Relieved to have escaped at last from the interminable capering of two witless brothers giving the funny speech, we joined in with enthusiasm. We would hurl questions at the bride or groom about their spouse in an attempt to unearth gaps in their knowledge (whose mystery might otherwise have threatened to infect the union with romance).

As questions from the gallery of chortling, larrikin cousins descend into juvenilia, the bride in a lull turns her back on the groom and asks, Continue reading

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