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Absolutely Revolting

August 2005, no. 273

Kerryn Goldsworthy reviews The Secret River by Kate Grenville
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Kate Grenville is a brave woman. For some years now, the representation of Aboriginal people by white writers has been hedged about by a thicket of post­colonial anxieties, profoundly problematic and important but too often manifested as hostile, holier-than-thou critique, indulging, at its most inept ..
Book 1 Title: The Secret River
Book Author: Kate Grenville
Book 1 Biblio: Text Publishing, $45 pb, 354 pp, 1920885757
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Kate Grenville is a brave woman. For some years now, the representation of Aboriginal people by white writers has been hedged about by a thicket of post­colonial anxieties, profoundly problematic and important but too often manifested as hostile, holier-than-thou critique, indulging, at its most inept, in wilfully skewed readings of the fiction in order to fit the thesis. As if that were not enough, there has also been a bit of a backlash over the last year or two against the writing of any kind of historical fiction, on the grounds that contemporary Australia is quite awful enough to be going on with, and badly needs to be addressed by its artists.

Grenville, aware that one way of confronting the present is to interrogate the past, has forged ahead undaunted with a novel that tells a story of the convict system, Australian contact history, and the depredations of white settlement. She will no doubt be branded a black-armband novelist by one side and a cultural appropriator by the other. And in presenting the emotional complexities and moral dilemmas of all the various players, she will get into trouble with almost everybody. But readers with no predetermined case to prove and no ego investment in any particular critical position will take this novel as it comes and will make up their own minds about it.

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James Ley reviews The Lost Thoughts of Soldiers by Delia Falconer
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It is eight years since Delia Falconer published her successful début novel, The Service of Clouds. Eight years is a long time. It took James Joyce eight years to write Ulysses (1922). Eight years is one year longer than Joseph Heller laboured over Catch-22 (1961) and about six years longer than it took George Eliot to knock out Middlemarch (1871-72).
Book 1 Title: The Lost Thoughts of Soldiers
Book Author: Delia Falconer
Book 1 Biblio: Picador $28 pb, 146 pp, 0330421794
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It is eight years since Delia Falconer published her successful début novel, The Service of Clouds. Eight years is a long time. It took James Joyce eight years to write Ulysses (1922). Eight years is one year longer than Joseph Heller laboured over Catch-22 (1961) and about six years longer than it took George Eliot to knock out Middlemarch (1871-72). Of course, when Falconer’s new novel is set alongside these famous works, one cannot help noticing that The Lost Thoughts of Soldiers is a rather slender volume. To have taken eight years, it must have been written at the rate of about a word a day. True, size isn’t everything, and Falconer has kept busy as an essayist and critic in the meantime, but it is a little anticlimactic, after the best part of a decade has gone by, to be presented with a novella that you finish reading before your coffee goes cold.

I should confess that I was not one of the many people enraptured by The Service of Clouds, a novel in which even the act of vomiting in an alleyway was treated as an occasion for the author to indulge her fondness for mellifluous phrase­making. There is no denying the book was an unusually accomplished début that deserved the attention it received, but it was also earnest to the point of pomposity and so determined to overwhelm with the lushness of its descriptive passages that, for this reader at least, it quickly became insufferable. The Service of Clouds might not have been page after page of twinkling nonsense, but it worked damn hard to give the impression it was.

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Judith Armstrong reviews Grace by Robert Drewe
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The scope of this novel could hardly be more ambitious. It ranges from the landing ten thousand years ago of prehistoric men in primitive rafts on the shores of what would one day be known as the Kimberley, to the apparition of a young asylum seeker off a leaky, sinking boat in roughly the same locality during the present inhospitable times. In other words, it meets the challenge of major issues both immemorial and contemporary.
Book 1 Title: Grace
Book Author: Robert Drewe
Book 1 Biblio: Viking, $45 hb, 415 pp, 0 670 88668 8
Book 1 Author Type: Author
Book 1 Readings Link: booktopia.kh4ffx.net/DPo2d
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The scope of this novel could hardly be more ambitious. It ranges from the landing ten thousand years ago of prehistoric men in primitive rafts on the shores of what would one day be known as the Kimberley, to the apparition of a young asylum seeker off a leaky, sinking boat in roughly the same locality during the present inhospitable times. In other words, it meets the challenge of major issues both immemorial and contemporary.

In a provocative public lecture, anthropologist John Molloy addresses the former: our earliest migrants came not from Africa, as is commonly held, but from Asia. There is only one all-encompassing global species. Evolution, prompted by gene flow, happens everywhere and any time men and women reproduce: ‘You could just as easily say that Man is descended from Australians.’

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Private Prayer at Yasukuni Shrine, a poem by Clive James
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An Oka kamikaze rocket bomb
Sits in the vestibule, its rising sun
Ablaze with pride.
Names of the fallen are on CD-ROM.
The war might have been lost. The peace was won:
A resurrection after suicide.
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An Oka kamikaze rocket bomb
Sits in the vestibule, its rising sun
Ablaze with pride.
Names of the fallen are on CD-ROM.
The war might have been lost. The peace was won:
A resurrection after suicide.

For once I feel the urge to send my thoughts
Your way, as I suppose these people do.
I see the tide
Come in on Papua. Their troop transports,
The beach, our hospital. Over to you:
Why was one little miracle denied?

After they made our nurses wade waist deep
They picked their targets and they shot them all.
The waves ran red.
Somehow this is a memory I keep.
I hear the lost cries of the last to fall
As if I, too, had been among the dead.

Those same troops fought south to the Golden Stairs,
Where they were stopped. They starved, and finally
The last few fed
On corpses. And the victory would be theirs
If I were glad? That’s what you’re telling me?
It would have been in vain that your son bled?

But wasn’t it? What were you thinking when
Our daughters died? You couldn’t interfere,
I hear you say.
That must mean that you never can. Well, then,
At least I know now that no prayers from here
Have ever made much difference either way,

And therefore we weren’t fighting you as well.
Old people here saw the Missouri loom
Out in the bay
And thought the end had come. They couldn’t tell
That the alternative to certain doom
Would be pachinko and the cash to play

A game of chance, all day and every day.
In that bright shrine you really do preside.
What you have said
Comes true. The DOW is down on the Nikkei.
The royal baby takes a buggy ride.
The last war criminal will die in bed.

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Sarah Kanowski reviews The Singing by Stephanie Bishop and The Patron Saint Of Eels by Gregory Day
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The Singing is the inaugural publication in the Varuna Firsts series, a collaboration between the Varuna Writers’ House and Brandl & Schlesinger. Both should be applauded for bringing a distinctive new voice into Australian writing; not to mention the honour due to the prodigious talent of Stephanie Bishop herself. Bishop has written a haunting novel with a seemingly simple story: love gone awry. A woman runs into an ex-lover on the street (neither protagonist is named), and this meeting throws her back into the story of their past. The two narratives – her solitary life now and the tale, mainly, of the relationship’s end – run in parallel. The novel’s energy, however, is ruminative rather than linear, circling around the nature of their love, pressing at the bruises left by its collapse.
Book 1 Title: The Singing
Book Author: Stephanie Bishop
Book 1 Biblio: Brandl & Schlesinger, $26.95 pb, 206 pp, 1 876040 54 8
Book 1 Author Type: Author
Book 2 Title: The Patron Saint Of Eels
Book 2 Author: Gregory Day
Book 2 Biblio: Picador, $22 pb, 181 pp, 0 330 42158 1
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The Singing is the inaugural publication in the Varuna Firsts series, a collaboration between the Varuna Writers’ House and Brandl & Schlesinger. Both should be applauded for bringing a distinctive new voice into Australian writing; not to mention the honour due to the prodigious talent of Stephanie Bishop herself. Bishop has written a haunting novel with a seemingly simple story: love gone awry. A woman runs into an ex-lover on the street (neither protagonist is named), and this meeting throws her back into the story of their past. The two narratives – her solitary life now and the tale, mainly, of the relationship’s end – run in parallel. The novel’s energy, however, is ruminative rather than linear, circling around the nature of their love, pressing at the bruises left by its collapse.

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Martin Ball reviews The Somme by Robin Prior and Trevor Wilson
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The Somme – it is a name that still strikes dread in the ears for its carnage, ineptitude and sheer waste of life. For the English-speaking world at least, the battle of the Somme has come to symbolise all that was bad about the Great War in general, and the Western Front in particular. The 141-day battle cost the British Army alone more than 400,000 casualties, including 150,000 men killed. The first day (1 July 1916) saw the death of 20,000 soldiers – the single bloodiest day in the history of the British Army. It wasn’t quite as bad as the savage slaughter at Towton on 29 March 1461, where about 30,000 Englishmen perished in the vicious quarrel between York and Lancaster, but on the Somme the bloodshed kept going, day after day for four and a half months, and no one seemed to know how to stop it.
Book 1 Title: The Somme
Book Author: Robin Prior and Trevor Wilson
Book 1 Biblio: UNSW Press, $49.95 hb, 358 pp, 0868409774
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The Somme – it is a name that still strikes dread in the ears for its carnage, ineptitude and sheer waste of life. For the English-speaking world at least, the battle of the Somme has come to symbolise all that was bad about the Great War in general, and the Western Front in particular.

The 141-day battle cost the British Army alone more than 400,000 casualties, including 150,000 men killed. The first day (1 July 1916) saw the death of 20,000 soldiers – the single bloodiest day in the history of the British Army. It wasn’t quite as bad as the savage slaughter at Towton on 29 March 1461, where about 30,000 Englishmen perished in the vicious quarrel between York and Lancaster, but on the Somme the bloodshed kept going, day after day for four and a half months, and no one seemed to know how to stop it.

There have been many books about the Somme. The earliest played up the discipline and bravery of the troops as they marched confidently into waves of machine guns. Later accounts cast increasingly critical eyes on the command decisions that cost the lives of an appalling number of men. The end result is that writing about the Somme tends to be characterised by a romantic-heroic elegy for doomed youth, combined with an undisguised sardonicism about the mental abilities of the command, especially Douglas Haig.

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Émile Zola by Brian Nelson
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Unlike Flaubert, the ‘hermit of Croisset’, who turned away from his age in an attitude of ironic detachment, Émile Zola (1840–1902) embraced his century in a way no French writer had done since Balzac. Zola’s ambition was to emulate Balzac by writing a comprehensive history of contemporary society. Through the fortunes of his Rougon-Macquart family, he examined methodically the social, sexual, and moral landscape of the late nineteenth century along with its political, financial, and artistic contexts. Zola is the quintessential novelist of modernity, understood in terms of an overwhelming sense of tumultuous change.
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Unlike Flaubert, the ‘hermit of Croisset’, who turned away from his age in an attitude of ironic detachment, Émile Zola (1840–1902) embraced his century in a way no French writer had done since Balzac. Zola’s ambition was to emulate Balzac by writing a comprehensive history of contemporary society. Through the fortunes of his Rougon-Macquart family, he examined methodically the social, sexual, and moral landscape of the late nineteenth century along with its political, financial, and artistic contexts. Zola is the quintessential novelist of modernity, understood in terms of an overwhelming sense of tumultuous change.

The motor of change was the rapid expansion of capitalism, with all that that entailed in terms of the altered shapes of the city, new forms of social practice and economic organisation, and heightened political pressures. Zola was fascinated by change, specifically by the emergence of a new, mass society. Henry James noted Zola’s ability to ‘make his characters swarm’, arguing that it was both the ‘fortune’ and ‘doom’ of the Rougon-Macquart cycle to ‘deal with things almost always in gregarious forms, to be a picture of numbers, of classes, crowds, confusions, movements, industries’. Industrialisation brought with it urban poverty and prostitution, class conflict, the rise of mass movements, the birth of a consumer culture, and the struggle between the forces of secularism and religion. As Erich Auerbach commented in Mimesis, his classic study of the representation of reality in Western literature, Zola ‘is one of the very few authors of the century who created their work out of the great problems of the age’.

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The importance of reverie by Mary Eagle
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The traits women are encouraged to develop nowadays, such as outwardness, attitude, assertiveness, and professionalism, did not characterise Grace Cossington Smith (1892–1984). Family snapshots showed the young woman with tousled hair, guileless face, and buck-toothed smile: a neat-figured, long-skirted Edwardian tomboy after the style of Australian heroines in novels by Ethel Turner and Mary Grant Bruce. The older woman in family photographs still had the tomboy grin; conversely, when she showed a public face, the mouth was closed and the eyes steady behind glasses.
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The traits women are encouraged to develop nowadays, such as outwardness, attitude, assertiveness, and professionalism, did not characterise Grace Cossington Smith (1892–1984). Family snapshots showed the young woman with tousled hair, guileless face, and buck-toothed smile: a neat-figured, long-skirted Edwardian tomboy after the style of Australian heroines in novels by Ethel Turner and Mary Grant Bruce. The older woman in family photographs still had the tomboy grin; conversely, when she showed a public face, the mouth was closed and the eyes steady behind glasses.

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La Trobe University Essay | Copyright, Guns and Money: Copyright and Culture in the Digital Age by Colin Golvan
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In the teaching of copyright, it is usually said that copyright is an economic right. In Arnhem Land, they think otherwise. In 1990, I attended a meeting of Aboriginal artists in Maningrida. These artists had been involved in a copyright infringement case concerning the unauthorised reproduction of works of art on T-shirts. The case had settled, and the purpose of the meeting was to discuss the division of the spoils. The case involved a number of artists and different infringements by the same infringer.
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In the teaching of copyright, it is usually said that copyright is an economic right. In Arnhem Land, they think otherwise. In 1990, I attended a meeting of Aboriginal artists in Maningrida. These artists had been involved in a copyright infringement case concerning the unauthorised reproduction of works of art on T-shirts. The case had settled, and the purpose of the meeting was to discuss the division of the spoils. The case involved a number of artists and different infringements by the same infringer.

As counsel on behalf of the artists, I suggested to those present that the best way to divide up the settlement monies was on a pro rata basis: that is, the artist whose work had been copied the most would get the most money, and so on. This advice was noted, and I was asked to leave the room. This was not a direction that I was accustomed to receiving from my own clients. They said they wanted to discuss the matter without any professional input or intrusion. Some time later, I was called back into the meeting and informed that my suggestion of a pro rata share would not be adopted as it was culturally inappropriate, i.e. Western bullshit. Instead, each artist would share equally, no matter how extensive or otherwise the infringement of their work. I was told that this was desirable from an Aboriginal perspective because everyone had been harmed equally.

Occasionally – probably all too rarely (from a copyright perspective) – one is reminded of the cultural aspects of copyright.

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Matthew Lamb reviews ‘Seeking Racial Justice’ by Jack Horner and ‘Black and White Together’ by Sue Taffe
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Article Title: A shaky foundation
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The Federal Council for the Advancement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders (FCAATSI) was a national organisation that existed, in one form or another, from 1958 to 1978. For the main part, it drew its members from a network of both black and white groups, from active citizens and from those who wanted to be counted as such.

Two recent books examine the impact and legacy of this organisation. Black and White Together, by Sue Taffe, provides a detailed overview of the organisation from an historian’s perspective, while Seeking Racial Justice is an ‘insider’s memoir’, written by one of its non-indigenous members, Jack Horner. Both books tell this story in the context of the political shift from segregation to assimilation policies (1938–61), from assimilation to integration (1959–67), and from integration to self-determination (1968–78).
Book 1 Title: Seeking Racial Justice
Book 1 Subtitle: An insider’s memoir of the movement for aboriginal advancement, 1938–1978
Book Author: Jack Horner
Book 1 Biblio: Aboriginal Studies Press, $34.95 pb, 237 pp
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Book 2 Title: Black and White Together
Book 2 Subtitle: FCAATSI: The Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders 1958–1973
Book 2 Author: Sue Taffe
Book 2 Biblio: UQP, $24.95 pb, 408 pp
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The Federal Council for the Advancement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders (FCAATSI) was a national organisation that existed, in one form or another, from 1958 to 1978. For the main part, it drew its members from a network of both black and white groups, from active citizens and from those who wanted to be counted as such.

Two recent books examine the impact and legacy of this organisation. Black and White Together, by Sue Taffe, provides a detailed overview of the organisation from an historian’s perspective, while Seeking Racial Justice is an ‘insider’s memoir’, written by one of its non-indigenous members, Jack Horner. Both books tell this story in the context of the political shift from segregation to assimilation policies (1938–61), from assimilation to integration (1959–67), and from integration to self-determination (1968–78).

Read more: Matthew Lamb reviews ‘Seeking Racial Justice’ by Jack Horner and ‘Black and White Together’ by Sue...

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Pamela Bone reviews ‘God’s Willing Workers: Women and religion in Australia’ by Anne O’Brien
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Article Title: No mercy
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For Germaine Greer, the nuns at the Star of the Sea Convent in Melbourne provided ‘a terrific education’. ‘They really loved us,’ said Greer. Not so Amanda Lohrey. Her experience of a working-class convent school in Tasmania so scarred her that still today, visiting a church in Europe, she feels a ‘physical revulsion’ for ‘the naked martyrs, staked out, flayed alive, crumpled, bleeding’. For former Catholic schoolgirls, a reunion is a chance to laugh together over some of the more outrageous things taught to them by nuns. But Lohrey can look back only with bitterness, in particular on the nuns’ ‘intense but evasive’ preoccupation with sex. ‘Boys are after only one thing, girls. They’ll suck you dry like an orange,’ she was told. She cannot laugh.
Book 1 Title: God’s Willing Workers
Book 1 Subtitle: Women and religion in Australia
Book Author: Anne O'Brien
Book 1 Biblio: UNSW Press, $49.95 pb, 314 pp
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For Germaine Greer, the nuns at the Star of the Sea Convent in Melbourne provided ‘a terrific education’. ‘They really loved us,’ said Greer. Not so Amanda Lohrey. Her experience of a working-class convent school in Tasmania so scarred her that still today, visiting a church in Europe, she feels a ‘physical revulsion’ for ‘the naked martyrs, staked out, flayed alive, crumpled, bleeding’. For former Catholic schoolgirls, a reunion is a chance to laugh together over some of the more outrageous things taught to them by nuns. But Lohrey can look back only with bitterness, in particular on the nuns’ ‘intense but evasive’ preoccupation with sex. ‘Boys are after only one thing, girls. They’ll suck you dry like an orange,’ she was told. She cannot laugh.

Read more: Pamela Bone reviews ‘God’s Willing Workers: Women and religion in Australia’ by Anne O’Brien

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Contents Category: Poem
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High, bright winter’s morning: the tenements’ bare tree-antlers clattering

on each corner and the stepping black spines smooth and glossy

as mirages; framed, the scene shines as if transported to a desert, and never
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Peter McLennan reviews ‘The End of Oil: The decline of the petroleum economy and the rise of a new energy order’ by Paul Roberts and ‘Crude: The story of oil’ by Sonia Shah
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The experts may prognosticate, but reality makes fools of them, too. Paul Roberts, in The End of Oil: The Decline of the Petroleum Economy and the Rise of a New Energy Order, reviews several scenarios for the future of oil that were advanced in late 2002 by the US National Intelligence Council. The two most bleak ones had the price of oil reaching US$50 a barrel, the first sometime between 2010 and 2015, the second somewhat earlier, following convulsions in the Middle East. As we know, US$50 was reached only a few months after The End of Oil was published in the US; at the time of writing, the price is around US$60 a barrel. Reading these two books confirms the certainty, speed and completeness of change. The unknowable for oil is: when?
Book 1 Title: The End of Oil
Book 1 Subtitle: The decline of the petroleum economy and the rise of a new energy order
Book Author: Paul Roberts
Book 1 Biblio: Bloomsbury, $35 pb, 389 pp
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Book 2 Title: Crude
Book 2 Subtitle: The story of oil
Book 2 Author: Sonia Shah
Book 2 Biblio: Allen & Unwin, $24.95 pb, 231 pp
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The experts may prognosticate, but reality makes fools of them, too. Paul Roberts, in The End of Oil: The Decline of the Petroleum Economy and the Rise of a New Energy Order, reviews several scenarios for the future of oil that were advanced in late 2002 by the US National Intelligence Council. The two most bleak ones had the price of oil reaching US$50 a barrel, the first sometime between 2010 and 2015, the second somewhat earlier, following convulsions in the Middle East. As we know, US$50 was reached only a few months after The End of Oil was published in the US; at the time of writing, the price is around US$60 a barrel. Reading these two books confirms the certainty, speed and completeness of change. The unknowable for oil is: when?

Read more: Peter McLennan reviews ‘The End of Oil: The decline of the petroleum economy and the rise of a new...

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Peter Pierce reviews ‘Russian Anzacs in Australian History’ by Elena Govor
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In earlier works, Russian-born historian Elena Govor has written of changing Russian perceptions of Australia between 1770 and 1919 and – in My Dark Brother (2000) – of a Russian-Aboriginal family. In her latest book, Russian Anzacs in Australian History, the canvas is broader. She investigates the third largest national group (after the British and Irish) to enlist in the First AIF. Her indefatigable and imaginative research has taken her on a ‘quest for the thousand Russian Anzacs’ who comprised ‘a virtual battalion’. More exactly, they amounted to one in every four male Russians who were in Australia at the outbreak of the Great War.
Book 1 Title: Russian Anzacs in Australian History
Book Author: Elena Govor
Book 1 Biblio: UNSW Press, $44.95 pb, 310 pp
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In earlier works, Russian-born historian Elena Govor has written of changing Russian perceptions of Australia between 1770 and 1919 and – in My Dark Brother (2000) – of a Russian-Aboriginal family. In her latest book, Russian Anzacs in Australian History, the canvas is broader. She investigates the third largest national group (after the British and Irish) to enlist in the First AIF. Her indefatigable and imaginative research has taken her on a ‘quest for the thousand Russian Anzacs’ who comprised ‘a virtual battalion’. More exactly, they amounted to one in every four male Russians who were in Australia at the outbreak of the Great War.

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Philip Clark reviews ‘Rivkin Unauthorised: The meteoric rise and tragic fall of an unorthodox money man’ by Andrew Main
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Rene Rivkin was one of those unorthodox characters who was irresistible to the Sydney media – and the feeling was mutual. ‘I never feel really alive unless I am in the newspapers,’ he remarked to one journalist at the peak of his fame.

Rivkin loved being rich, and he loved talking about it. His father’s generation may have regarded it as deeply improper to talk about one’s money, but to Rene it was a reason for being. Why not flaunt it. At a speech night in 1988 for his alma mater, Sydney Boys’ High, he was invited to talk about the lessons he had learned at school. Instead of taking the usual path of exhorting the boys about the merits of thrift, hard work and selflessness, Rene extolled the virtues of being rich. It was a message that endeared him to the wallets of many during his time as the nation’s most famous stockbroker. He not only loved making money, he loved spending it as well. He was generous to his friends. He had dozens of expensive cars, a sumptuous residence in London, a $10 million house in Sydney, and a luxury motor yacht. He once bought an employee a $20,000 Harley Davidson motorcycle as a reward for the man kissing his feet.
Book 1 Title: Rivkin Unauthorised
Book 1 Subtitle: The meteoric rise and tragic fall of an unorthodox money man
Book Author: Andrew Main
Book 1 Biblio: HarperCollins, $29.95 pb, 292 pp
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Rene Rivkin was one of those unorthodox characters who was irresistible to the Sydney media – and the feeling was mutual. ‘I never feel really alive unless I am in the newspapers,’ he remarked to one journalist at the peak of his fame.

Rivkin loved being rich, and he loved talking about it. His father’s generation may have regarded it as deeply improper to talk about one’s money, but to Rene it was a reason for being. Why not flaunt it. At a speech night in 1988 for his alma mater, Sydney Boys’ High, he was invited to talk about the lessons he had learned at school. Instead of taking the usual path of exhorting the boys about the merits of thrift, hard work and selflessness, Rene extolled the virtues of being rich. It was a message that endeared him to the wallets of many during his time as the nation’s most famous stockbroker. He not only loved making money, he loved spending it as well. He was generous to his friends. He had dozens of expensive cars, a sumptuous residence in London, a $10 million house in Sydney, and a luxury motor yacht. He once bought an employee a $20,000 Harley Davidson motorcycle as a reward for the man kissing his feet.

Read more: Philip Clark reviews ‘Rivkin Unauthorised: The meteoric rise and tragic fall of an unorthodox...

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Richard Walsh reviews ‘Bubble Man: Alan Greenspan and the missing 7 trillion dollars’ by Peter Hartcher
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Peter Hartcher has written a terrific book. It is that rarity in Australian publishing: an account of a significant economic event written in language that is totally comprehensible to the non-economist. It is shaped like a true-crime psychological thriller.

The scene of the carnage is the American dotcom bubble, which began to gather pace in 1996 and in time became ‘the mightiest mania in the four centuries of financial capitalism’. When it finally imploded in March 2000, it had wiped out US$7.8 trillion in shareholder wealth, and in the ensuing recession 2.3 million people were thrown out of work. Hartcher accuses the soon-to-retire chairman of the US Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, of being one of the principal culprits in this debacle, and his book seeks to justify that verdict and to explore how it came about.
Book 1 Title: Bubble Man
Book 1 Subtitle: Alan Greenspan and the missing 7 trillion dollars
Book Author: Peter Hartcher
Book 1 Biblio: Black Inc., $27.95 pb, 201 pp
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Peter Hartcher has written a terrific book. It is that rarity in Australian publishing: an account of a significant economic event written in language that is totally comprehensible to the non-economist. It is shaped like a true-crime psychological thriller.

The scene of the carnage is the American dotcom bubble, which began to gather pace in 1996 and in time became ‘the mightiest mania in the four centuries of financial capitalism’. When it finally imploded in March 2000, it had wiped out US$7.8 trillion in shareholder wealth, and in the ensuing recession 2.3 million people were thrown out of work. Hartcher accuses the soon-to-retire chairman of the US Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, of being one of the principal culprits in this debacle, and his book seeks to justify that verdict and to explore how it came about.

Read more: Richard Walsh reviews ‘Bubble Man: Alan Greenspan and the missing 7 trillion dollars’ by Peter...

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Samina Yasmeen reviews ‘Modern Afghanistan: A history of struggle and survival’ by Amin Saikal
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Modern Afghanistan provides a nuanced understanding of developments in a country that has attracted the attention of academics and analysts for more than two decades. A number of good books have appeared dealing with politics in and around Afghanistan since the early 1980s. Amin Saikal’s recent book benefits from these accounts, but differs in one way: it is an insider’s account, with objectivity instilled by distance and academic training. As an Australian of Afghan origin, and as an expert on the politics of West and Central Asia, he draws upon a wealth of printed, oral, political and sociological research to delve into the creation and problems of Afghanistan.
Book 1 Title: Modern Afghanistan
Book 1 Subtitle: A history of struggle and survival
Book Author: Amin Saikal
Book 1 Biblio: I.B. Tauris, $59.95 hb, 342 pp
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Modern Afghanistan provides a nuanced understanding of developments in a country that has attracted the attention of academics and analysts for more than two decades. A number of good books have appeared dealing with politics in and around Afghanistan since the early 1980s. Amin Saikal’s recent book benefits from these accounts, but differs in one way: it is an insider’s account, with objectivity instilled by distance and academic training. As an Australian of Afghan origin, and as an expert on the politics of West and Central Asia, he draws upon a wealth of printed, oral, political and sociological research to delve into the creation and problems of Afghanistan.

Read more: Samina Yasmeen reviews ‘Modern Afghanistan: A history of struggle and survival’ by Amin Saikal

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Travis Cutler reviews ‘Balanda: My year in Arnhem land’ by Mary Ellen Jordan
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The first time Mary Ellen Jordan’s name appeared in ABR (June 2001), it was followed by a brief, heated exchange. Bruce Pascoe responded to her ‘Letter from Maningrida’ mixing accusations of betrayal with a series of familiar analogies, in a stern warning that this kind of fearless journalism was not wanted. Melissa Mackey moved to Jordan’s defence. She had read courage, not fearless journalism, and, in open frustration, ended her reply by simply asking: ‘then what can we say?’ I read Balanda: My Year in Arnhem Land as part answer, part re-examination of that question.
Book 1 Title: Balanda
Book 1 Subtitle: My year in Arnhem Land
Book Author: Mary Ellen Jordan
Book 1 Biblio: Allen & Unwin, $24.95 pb, 240 pp
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The first time Mary Ellen Jordan’s name appeared in ABR (June 2001), it was followed by a brief, heated exchange. Bruce Pascoe responded to her ‘Letter from Maningrida’ mixing accusations of betrayal with a series of familiar analogies, in a stern warning that this kind of fearless journalism was not wanted. Melissa Mackey moved to Jordan’s defence. She had read courage, not fearless journalism, and, in open frustration, ended her reply by simply asking: ‘then what can we say?’ I read Balanda: My Year in Arnhem Land as part answer, part re-examination of that question.

The opening lines guide our entry to Maningrida. Here, ‘beyond the town, past the fire tower’, the Aboriginal world begins – here tarmac, Centrelink and corrugated iron meet ceremony, the Dreaming and hunting. We step awkwardly onto the land of the Dkurridji; it is a place where familiarities are blurred with differences, differences blurred with familiarities. In Maningrida, ‘language and culture are transformed, reinterpreted – it’s a place where everything is changing shape’.

Read more: Travis Cutler reviews ‘Balanda: My year in Arnhem land’ by Mary Ellen Jordan

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Melinda Harvey reviews ‘Cultural Studies Review: Desecration vol. 11, no. 1’ edited by Chris Healy & Stephen Muecke and ‘Australian Historical Studies vol. 36, no. 125’ edited by Joy Damousi
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Article Title: Evil empire or fellow citizen?
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Evil empire or fellow citizen? It seems to me that the arguments and counterarguments about America’s role in the world today run parallel to the debates concerning cultural studies’ standing in the humanities. It’s a thought that would have Raymond Williams rolling in his grave, of course. As an academic discipline, cultural studies was born Marxist, and reared to champion the local, the underdog, the oppressed. But intervention of all kinds, good and bad, is a form of influence. Act on behalf of others and for every round of applause, there’ll be a competing cry of indignation. Perhaps I should declare my hand? I’ve been in and out of English departments for the last fifteen years. I feel a sense of overwhelming gratitude to cultural studies for loosening literature from New Criticism’s explication de texte. That said, I mourn the loss of a community of readers that the canon – and the existence of English departments, discrete unto themselves – ensured. I also baulk at the idea that readers are mere consumers – that catch-all term – as if curling up with a novel was experientially no different to eating, shopping or watching television.
Book 1 Title: Cultural Studies Review
Book 1 Subtitle: Desecration vol. 11, no. 1
Book Author: Chris Healy & Stephen Muecke
Book 1 Biblio: $25 pb, 232 pp
Book 1 Author Type: Editor
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Book 2 Title: Australian Historical Studies
Book 2 Subtitle: vol. 36, no. 125
Book 2 Author: Joy Damousi
Book 2 Biblio: $30 pb, 189 pp
Book 2 Author Type: Editor
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Evil empire or fellow citizen? It seems to me that the arguments and counterarguments about America’s role in the world today run parallel to the debates concerning cultural studies’ standing in the humanities. It’s a thought that would have Raymond Williams rolling in his grave, of course. As an academic discipline, cultural studies was born Marxist, and reared to champion the local, the underdog, the oppressed. But intervention of all kinds, good and bad, is a form of influence. Act on behalf of others and for every round of applause, there’ll be a competing cry of indignation. Perhaps I should declare my hand? I’ve been in and out of English departments for the last fifteen years. I feel a sense of overwhelming gratitude to cultural studies for loosening literature from New Criticism’s explication de texte. That said, I mourn the loss of a community of readers that the canon – and the existence of English departments, discrete unto themselves – ensured. I also baulk at the idea that readers are mere consumers – that catch-all term – as if curling up with a novel was experientially no different to eating, shopping or watching television.

Read more: Melinda Harvey reviews ‘Cultural Studies Review: Desecration vol. 11, no. 1’ edited by Chris Healy...

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Margaret MacNabb reviews ‘Scarecrow Army: The Anzacs at Gallipoli’ by Leon Davidson and ‘Animal Heroes’ by Anthony Hill and ‘Alexander The Great: Reckless Conqueror’ by Carole Wilkinson
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Article Title: Hollow triumph
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One walks a fine line between patriotism and claptrap when writing about anything to do with war. Especially when writing for young people, one tries to salute the courage of soldiers and to honour the fallen, but also to instil caution in potential young soldiers; to convey that war is hell and that it shows human beings at their worst. Of course, one wants to tell an exciting story, too, with heroes and villains and suspense – with maybe a history lesson or two thrown in. Two of the following books succeed majestically in this task; the third falls far short.
Book 1 Title: Scarecrow Army
Book 1 Subtitle: The Anzacs at Gallipoli
Book Author: Leon Davidson
Book 1 Biblio: Black Dog Books, $16.95 pb, 186 pp
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Book 2 Title: Animal Heroes
Book 2 Author: Anthony Hill
Book 2 Biblio: Penguin, $17.95 pb, 232 pp
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Book 3 Title: Alexander The Great
Book 3 Subtitle: Reckless Conqueror
Book 3 Author: Carole Wilkinson
Book 3 Biblio: Black Dog Books, $16.95 pb, 183 pp
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One walks a fine line between patriotism and claptrap when writing about anything to do with war. Especially when writing for young people, one tries to salute the courage of soldiers and to honour the fallen, but also to instil caution in potential young soldiers; to convey that war is hell and that it shows human beings at their worst. Of course, one wants to tell an exciting story, too, with heroes and villains and suspense – with maybe a history lesson or two thrown in. Two of the following books succeed majestically in this task; the third falls far short.

Read more: Margaret MacNabb reviews ‘Scarecrow Army: The Anzacs at Gallipoli’ by Leon Davidson and ‘Animal...

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Kevin Steinberger reviews ‘The Lace Maker’s Daughter’ by Gary Crew and ‘The Never Boys’ by Scott Monk and ‘The King of Whatever’ by Kirsten Murphy
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Families are curious entities. They are, by simple definition, households of individuals bound by common lineage. But they are also complex organisms, as these three novels show. Families nurture the individual and offer a refuge from the problems of the larger world, yet they can also impede the growth of their youngest members, who seek their own place in the world and attempt to shape their own responses to it.
Book 1 Title: The Lace Maker's Daughter
Book Author: Gary Crew
Book 1 Biblio: Macmillan, $16.95 pb, 249 pp
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Book 2 Title: The Never Boys
Book 2 Author: Scott Monk
Book 2 Biblio: Random House, $16.95 pb, 321 pp
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Book 3 Title: The King of Whatever
Book 3 Author: Kirsten Murphy
Book 3 Biblio: Penguin, $18.95 pb, 287 pp
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Families are curious entities. They are, by simple definition, households of individuals bound by common lineage. But they are also complex organisms, as these three novels show. Families nurture the individual and offer a refuge from the problems of the larger world, yet they can also impede the growth of their youngest members, who seek their own place in the world and attempt to shape their own responses to it.

Read more: Kevin Steinberger reviews ‘The Lace Maker’s Daughter’ by Gary Crew and ‘The Never Boys’ by Scott...

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Katharine England reviews four childrens books
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Reading a handful of primary-school-age historical novels in swift succession underlines the commonality of stratagems for encouraging young readers to engage with the past. First, there is the need to find a credible child role to focus on. Then, since adventure in historical times fell largely to the lot of boys, a female interest has to be introduced, or, with some contrivance and loss of credibility, the main role handed over to a girl in disguise.
Book 1 Title: The Astrolabe
Book 1 Subtitle: Adventure in the southern seas
Book Author: Susan Arnott
Book 1 Biblio: Lothian, $14.95 pb, 176 pp
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Book 2 Title: Our Enemy, My Friend
Book 2 Subtitle: My story
Book 2 Author: Jenny Blackman
Book 2 Biblio: Scholastic, $16.95 pb, 169 pp
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Book 3 Title: All Fall Down
Book 3 Author: Susan Geason
Book 3 Biblio: Little Hare, $14.95 pb, 134 pp
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Reading a handful of primary-school-age historical novels in swift succession underlines the commonality of stratagems for encouraging young readers to engage with the past. First, there is the need to find a credible child role to focus on. Then, since adventure in historical times fell largely to the lot of boys, a female interest has to be introduced, or, with some contrivance and loss of credibility, the main role handed over to a girl in disguise.

Read more: Katharine England reviews four children's books

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John Lack reviews ‘The Long, Slow Death of White Australia’ by Gwenda Tavan
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‘Little more than a hundred years ago,’ Alfred Deakin wrote in 1901, ‘Australia was a Dark Continent [without] a white man within its borders. Its sparse native population was black as ebony. There are now some sixty thousand of their descendants remaining and about eighty thousand coloured aliens added. In another century,’ he confidently predicted, ‘Australia will be a White Continent with not a black or even dark skin among its inhabitants.’ Deakin was, of course, celebrating the White Australia Policy, not only as embodied in the Immigration Restriction and Pacific Island Labourers Acts (designed, respectively, to prohibit Asian immigration and to expel the Melanesians indentured to work in tropical agriculture) but also as expressed in widespread complacence with the disappearance of the indigenous Australians.
Book 1 Title: The Long, Slow Death of White Australia
Book Author: Gwenda Tavan
Book 1 Biblio: Scribe, $32.95 pb, 298 pp
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‘Little more than a hundred years ago,’ Alfred Deakin wrote in 1901, ‘Australia was a Dark Continent [without] a white man within its borders. Its sparse native population was black as ebony. There are now some sixty thousand of their descendants remaining and about eighty thousand coloured aliens added. In another century,’ he confidently predicted, ‘Australia will be a White Continent with not a black or even dark skin among its inhabitants.’ Deakin was, of course, celebrating the White Australia Policy, not only as embodied in the Immigration Restriction and Pacific Island Labourers Acts (designed, respectively, to prohibit Asian immigration and to expel the Melanesians indentured to work in tropical agriculture) but also as expressed in widespread complacence with the disappearance of the indigenous Australians. ‘White Australia’, a term never used in legislation, was always more than the dictation test employed to exclude undesirables, the clauses used to identify and expel Melanesian labourers and their families, or the wish that Aborigines die out or become assimilated. ‘White Australia’ embodied fundamentally racist assumptions about the connectedness of racial appearance, and culture and values.

Read more: John Lack reviews ‘The Long, Slow Death of White Australia’ by Gwenda Tavan

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Judith Brett reviews ‘Howard’s Second and Third Governments: Australian Commonwealth Administration 1998–2004’ edited by Chris Aulich and Roger Wettenhall
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Article Title: A blander shade of grey
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A flurry of books have been produced about the cultural aspects of John Howard’s governments: for example, Andrew Markus’s Race: John Howard and the Remaking of Australia (2001), Stuart Macintyre and Anna Clark’s The History Wars (2003) and Carol Johnson’s Governing Change: From Keating to Howard (2000). Useful edited collections have also been produced on each of the elections of 1996, 1998 and 2001, and on the republic referendum. In 2004 Robert Manne published an edited collection called The Howard Years, which was wider ranging than the cultural agenda, but generally critical in its tenor. But nine years since Howard defeated Paul Keating, there is still not a great deal of analysis.
Book 1 Title: Howard's Second and Third Governments
Book 1 Subtitle: Australian Commonwealth Administration 1998–2004
Book Author: Chris Aulich and Roger Wettenhall
Book 1 Biblio: UNSW Press, $39.95 pb, 269 pp
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A flurry of books have been produced about the cultural aspects of John Howard’s governments: for example, Andrew Markus’s Race: John Howard and the Remaking of Australia (2001), Stuart Macintyre and Anna Clark’s The History Wars (2003) and Carol Johnson’s Governing Change: From Keating to Howard (2000). Useful edited collections have also been produced on each of the elections of 1996, 1998 and 2001, and on the republic referendum. In 2004 Robert Manne published an edited collection called The Howard Years, which was wider ranging than the cultural agenda, but generally critical in its tenor. But nine years since Howard defeated Paul Keating, there is still not a great deal of analysis.

Read more: Judith Brett reviews ‘Howard’s Second and Third Governments: Australian Commonwealth...

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Kate Darian-Smith reviews ‘Tattoo: Bodies, art and exchange in the Pacific and the West’ edited by Nicholas Thomas, Anna Cole and Bronwen Douglas
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Only a few decades ago, in the developed countries of the West, tattoos were a relatively uncommon sight, and were generally associated with marginalised groups: soldiers, sailors, gangs and criminals. Since the 1980s, tattoos have become a mainstream form of bodily adornment for the young and socially edgy. This tattooing renaissance has both driven and been influenced by an increased interest in ‘traditional’ tattoo designs from the Pacific. Within Pacific societies themselves, traditional tattooing is seen as an assertion of cultural endurance and value. On the international scene, where tattoos are aligned with individualised desires, Pacific tattooing practices are prized for their strong patterns and ‘neo-tribal’ qualities.
Book 1 Title: Tattoo
Book 1 Subtitle: Bodies, art and exchange in the Pacific and the West
Book Author: Nicholas Thomas, Anna Cole and Bronwen Douglas
Book 1 Biblio: Reaktion Books, $39.95 pb, 252 pp
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Only a few decades ago, in the developed countries of the West, tattoos were a relatively uncommon sight, and were generally associated with marginalised groups: soldiers, sailors, gangs and criminals. Since the 1980s, tattoos have become a mainstream form of bodily adornment for the young and socially edgy. This tattooing renaissance has both driven and been influenced by an increased interest in ‘traditional’ tattoo designs from the Pacific. Within Pacific societies themselves, traditional tattooing is seen as an assertion of cultural endurance and value. On the international scene, where tattoos are aligned with individualised desires, Pacific tattooing practices are prized for their strong patterns and ‘neo-tribal’ qualities.

Read more: Kate Darian-Smith reviews ‘Tattoo: Bodies, art and exchange in the Pacific and the West’ edited by...

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Free Article: No
Contents Category: Letters
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Article Title: Letters - August 2005
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ABR welcomes letters from our readers. Correspondents should note that letters may be edited. Letters and emails must reach us by the middle of the current month, and must include a telephone number for verification.
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ABR welcomes letters from our readers. Correspondents should note that letters may be edited. Letters and emails must reach us by the middle of the current month, and must include a telephone number for verification.

Read more: Letters - August 2005

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Contents Category: Advances
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Article Title: Advances - August 2005
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In a country famously saturated with prizes, the ABR Reviewing Competition is unique. It is widely regarded as one of the most constructive and needed awards, which is why we have brought forward the third competition from the advertised date of 2006. Announcing the winners of last year’s competition in the December 2004–January 2005 issue, ‘Advances’ reported that 100 new and experienced reviewers had entered, in three categories: fiction, non-fiction (including poetry) and children’s/young adult books. Our winners were Maya Linden, Vivienne Kelly and Stephanie Owen Reeder, respectively, all of whom (in addition to having their winning review published in the February 2005 issue of ABR) have gone on to write for the Review (Dr Reeder, indeed, has just become an editorial adviser). ABR looks forward to a similarly rich crop this year.
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It’s on again!

In a country famously saturated with prizes, the ABR Reviewing Competition is unique. It is widely regarded as one of the most constructive and needed awards, which is why we have brought forward the third competition from the advertised date of 2006. Announcing the winners of last year’s competition in the December 2004–January 2005 issue, ‘Advances’ reported that 100 new and experienced reviewers had entered, in three categories: fiction, non-fiction (including poetry) and children’s/young adult books. Our winners were Maya Linden, Vivienne Kelly and Stephanie Owen Reeder, respectively, all of whom (in addition to having their winning review published in the February 2005 issue of ABR) have gone on to write for the Review (Dr Reeder, indeed, has just become an editorial adviser). ABR looks forward to a similarly rich crop this year. The purpose of the ABR Reviewing Competition is to reward good critical writing and to replenish the ranks of critics. Full details of this year’s competition are published on page 8 of this issue. Entries close on September 30.

Martha Nussbaum in Adelaide

The influential American scholar Martha Nussbaum will spend a week in Adelaide in late August. Her visit is being organised by the Don Dunstan Foundation in association with other South Australian institutions, including Flinders University. Nussbaum, the Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago, has a full programme, but ABR readers won’t want to miss her major public engagement. On Tuesday, August 23 (7.30 p.m.), Professor Nussbaum will deliver the 2005 Don Dunstan Human Rights Oration, entitled ‘Global Justice and Human Development’. The cost is $20 ($15 for concession holders, or $10 for those under sixteen years). To book call (08) 8303 3364 or email josie.covino@ adelaide.edu.au.

Poetry in translation

Devotees of poetry and the art of literary translation will be drawn to ‘In Other Words’, a three-day festival specialising in bilingual poetry. The organisers have attracted poets from around the world, including Wang Xiaoni from China, Masayo Koike from Japan, and Arjen Duinker from the Netherlands (who will subsequently be a guest at the Melbourne Writers’ Festival). Chris Wallace-Crabbe will open the festival with an address titled ‘A Defence of Poetry’. In Other Words will take place from August 12 to 14 at the Victorian College of the Arts, St Kilda Road, Southbank. To book call (03) 9417 6777.

Melbourne Writers’ Festival

The dates of this year’s festival — Simon Clews’s swansong as director — are August 19 to 28. Readers and students will be able to choose between the usual large array of writers from many countries. Local contributors will include Robert Drewe, Delia Falconer and Kate Grenville, whose new novels, Grace, The Lost Thoughts of Soldiers and The Secret River, are reviewed in this issue. ABR will be well represented throughout the festival: Peter Rose and Aviva Tuffield will take part in a number of sessions.

Future leaders

The Future Leaders Writers’ Prize is intended to recognise and reward young literary talent and to encourage expressive and creative writing about issues in Australian society. Australian secondary schools are invited to submit essays of 800 to 1000 words written by senior students. The first prize is worth $1000; there are two prizes of $500 each. This year’s judges are Larissa Behrendt, Peter Rose and Sophy Williams. For information about Future Leaders, consult www.futureleaders.com.au. Send entries to Dr Helen Sykes at Future Leaders, 5 St Vincent Place, Albert Park, Victoria 3206 or to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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Amanda McLeod reviews ‘Affluenza: When too much is never enough’ by Clive Hamilton and Richard Denniss
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Article Title: Keeping up with the Joneses
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Since the early 1990s Australians have been infected with ‘affluenza’ – a virus of over-consumption that Clive Hamilton and Richard Denniss characterise as ‘the bloated, sluggish and unfulfilled feeling that results from efforts to keep up with the Joneses’, a growth fetish and an ‘epidemic of stress, overwork, waste and indebtedness caused by dogged pursuit of the Australian dream’.
Book 1 Title: Affluenza
Book 1 Subtitle: When too much is never enough
Book Author: Clive Hamilton and Richard Denniss
Book 1 Biblio: Allen & Unwin, $24.95 pb, 224 pp
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Since the early 1990s Australians have been infected with ‘affluenza’ – a virus of over-consumption that Clive Hamilton and Richard Denniss characterise as ‘the bloated, sluggish and unfulfilled feeling that results from efforts to keep up with the Joneses’, a growth fetish and an ‘epidemic of stress, overwork, waste and indebtedness caused by dogged pursuit of the Australian dream’.

Read more: Amanda McLeod reviews ‘Affluenza: When too much is never enough’ by Clive Hamilton and Richard...

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Brian Matthews reviews ‘Immortals: Football people and the evolution of Australian rules’ by Lionel Frost and ‘Keeping the Faith: Collingwood … the pleasure, the pain, the whole damned thing’ by Steve Strevens
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Article Title: Consumed by the game
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Albert Thurgood, whose first season playing for Essendon in 1892 was described by the Leader as ‘in every way phenomenal’, was simply the ‘Brighton junior Thurgood’ when Essendon selected him for the first game of that season, though his all-round athletic prowess at Brighton Grammar School had already marked him as a possible ‘prize’ recruit. Though St Kilda was his nearest club, and though, as Lionel Frost recounts, St Kilda actually selected him for a game in 1891 ‘in the hope that he would join them’, he opted for Essendon, a decision which moved several other clubs to wonder if Essendon had organised a financial inducement. Plus ça change.
Book 1 Title: Immortals
Book 1 Subtitle: Football people and the evolution of Australian rules
Book Author: Lionel Frost
Book 1 Biblio: John Wiley & Sons, $34.95 pb, 312 pp
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Book 2 Title: Keeping the Faith
Book 2 Subtitle: Collingwood ... the pleasure, the pain, the whole damned thing
Book 2 Author: Steve Strevens
Book 2 Biblio: Allen & Unwin, $22.95 pb, 276 pp
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Albert Thurgood, whose first season playing for Essendon in 1892 was described by the Leader as ‘in every way phenomenal’, was simply the ‘Brighton junior Thurgood’ when Essendon selected him for the first game of that season, though his all-round athletic prowess at Brighton Grammar School had already marked him as a possible ‘prize’ recruit. Though St Kilda was his nearest club, and though, as Lionel Frost recounts, St Kilda actually selected him for a game in 1891 ‘in the hope that he would join them’, he opted for Essendon, a decision which moved several other clubs to wonder if Essendon had organised a financial inducement. Plus ça change.

Read more: Brian Matthews reviews ‘Immortals: Football people and the evolution of Australian rules’ by...

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Brian McFarlane reviews ‘Phillip Noyce: Backroads to Hollywood’ by Ingo Petzke
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To start at the beginning (that is, the dust jacket): giving the author’s name as Ingo Petzke is a misnomer. It suggests that he has written a biography of the Australian film-maker Phillip Noyce, when in fact this is neither biography nor autobiography. This indecision about its mode undermines its value. I’ll return to this.
Book 1 Title: Phillip Noyce
Book 1 Subtitle: Backroads to Hollywood
Book Author: Ingo Petzke
Book 1 Biblio: Macmillan, $45 hb, 402 pp
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To start at the beginning (that is, the dust jacket): giving the author’s name as Ingo Petzke is a misnomer. It suggests that he has written a biography of the Australian film-maker Phillip Noyce, when in fact this is neither biography nor autobiography. This indecision about its mode undermines its value. I’ll return to this.

Read more: Brian McFarlane reviews ‘Phillip Noyce: Backroads to Hollywood’ by Ingo Petzke

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Colin Nettelbeck reviews ‘The American Enemy: The history of French anti-Americanism’ by Philippe Roger
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As an eyewitness to the terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre in September 2001, Philippe Roger was sickened when the America-hating Jean Baudrillard announced his ‘prodigious jubilation’ at the event. Sickened, but not surprised. Roger understood that Baudrillard’s crassness was rooted in a long French tradition of anti-American discourse.
Book 1 Title: The American Enemy
Book 1 Subtitle: The history of French anti-Americanism
Book Author: Philippe Roger
Book 1 Biblio: University of Chicago Press, $69.95 hb, 518 pp
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As an eyewitness to the terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre in September 2001, Philippe Roger was sickened when the America-hating Jean Baudrillard announced his ‘prodigious jubilation’ at the event. Sickened, but not surprised. Roger understood that Baudrillard’s crassness was rooted in a long French tradition of anti-American discourse.

Read more: Colin Nettelbeck reviews ‘The American Enemy: The history of French anti-Americanism’ by Philippe...

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David Gilbey reviews ‘Walking To Point Clear: Poems 1983–2002’ by David Brooks
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Contents Category: Poetry
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Article Title: Love, emptiness
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At first, many of these forty-eight poems from two decades struck me as almost self-indulgent and mundane: short lyrics about family life, eating, drinking, dreaming of Valparaiso, lemons, the Molonglo River; though there was often an underside of premonition, discontent, and a stillness that made me think I hadn’t really understood. In the first group, ‘One Hundred Nights’ bothered me: ‘When will it end / this waking / while others sleep, / this herding out on the ghost fields? / the flesh / whispering / its impossible desires / the bones / murmuring their Kali mantra / love, emptiness / love, emptiness.’ However, on my next reading, some of the second group struck me with autumnal clarity. From ‘Brown Pigeon’: ‘eyes / plucked out, feathers / scattered, / maggots / when I turn it over / writhing in the black mess near the heart’, where the image of the dead bird is an iconic memento mori.
Book 1 Title: Walking to Point Clear
Book 1 Subtitle: Poems 1983-2002
Book Author: David Brooks
Book 1 Biblio: Brandl & Schlesinger, $22.95 pb, 79 pp
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At first, many of these forty-eight poems from two decades struck me as almost self-indulgent and mundane: short lyrics about family life, eating, drinking, dreaming of Valparaiso, lemons, the Molonglo River; though there was often an underside of premonition, discontent, and a stillness that made me think I hadn’t really understood. In the first group, ‘One Hundred Nights’ bothered me: ‘When will it end / this waking / while others sleep, / this herding out on the ghost fields? / the flesh / whispering / its impossible desires / the bones / murmuring their Kali mantra / love, emptiness / love, emptiness.’ However, on my next reading, some of the second group struck me with autumnal clarity. From ‘Brown Pigeon’: ‘eyes / plucked out, feathers / scattered, / maggots / when I turn it over / writhing in the black mess near the heart’, where the image of the dead bird is an iconic memento mori. And in ‘October’:

Read more: David Gilbey reviews ‘Walking To Point Clear: Poems 1983–2002’ by David Brooks

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James Walter reviews ‘Terms of Trust: Arguments over ethics in Australian government’ by John Uhr
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There are two approaches to public affairs. The first assumes that élites ‘have and have always had the same passions’ (Machiavelli): leaders will do whatever it takes to retain power and to attain their objectives, tempered only by knowing that the popular verdict will depend on success. Success is judged by results: resort to devious or ruthless means will be excused if the people see beneficial outcomes. You can expect leaders to be driven by ambition and self-interest, but trust them to do enough to forestall a popular uprising that might bring them down. Machiavelli was not writing about democracy.
Book 1 Title: Terms of Trust
Book 1 Subtitle: Arguments over ethics in Australian government
Book Author: John Uhr
Book 1 Biblio: UNSW Press, $39.95 pb, 237 pp
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There are two approaches to public affairs. The first assumes that élites ‘have and have always had the same passions’ (Machiavelli): leaders will do whatever it takes to retain power and to attain their objectives, tempered only by knowing that the popular verdict will depend on success. Success is judged by results: resort to devious or ruthless means will be excused if the people see beneficial outcomes. You can expect leaders to be driven by ambition and self-interest, but trust them to do enough to forestall a popular uprising that might bring them down. Machiavelli was not writing about democracy.

Read more: James Walter reviews ‘Terms of Trust: Arguments over ethics in Australian government’ by John Uhr

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John Coates reviews ‘Kokoda’ By Paul Ham
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Contents Category: Military History
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Article Title: Catch up to Kokoda
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In Dudley McCarthy’s volume in the Australian official history of World War II, subtitled Kokoda to Wau (1959), there is a wonderfully evocative passage that sets the fighting in Papua New Guinea in context:
Book 1 Title: Kokoda
Book Author: Paul Ham
Book 1 Biblio: HarperCollins, $45 hb, 602 pp
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In Dudley McCarthy’s volume in the Australian official history of World War II, subtitled Kokoda to Wau (1959), there is a wonderfully evocative passage that sets the fighting in Papua New Guinea in context:

Read more: John Coates reviews ‘Kokoda’ By Paul Ham

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Contents Category: Letters
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Article Title: Letter from the Netherlands
Article Subtitle: From Bruegel to Brecht
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I was looking at Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s De Toren van Babel in Rotterdam, where I had gone for the day to escape the low skies and oppressive winds that buffet The Hague in springtime. Bruegel’s masterpiece has an exquisite stillness and delicacy, despite portraying the Tower of Babel in its first stages of busy construction. Ladders and wires are hung from its sides; the harbour on which it is being built throngs with ships unloading cargo and tools and manpower; its workers look as frail as insects perched on its myriad levels, hard at their labour. The tower is depicted such that it appears to be leaning slightly away from the sea, giving the impression that it is volute rather than level, its climb precariously leading to infinity. This impression is heightened by Bruegel’s use of colour: at its base, the tower is the colour of faded, earthy sandstone, but as it spirals into the sky it moves towards a rusted orange, and, at the point where the tower pierces the clouds, it turns a vivid red, as if to represent the wrath that awaits its completion. The clouds are menacing. Far in the distance, well beyond the tower, the skies are clear and fresh, unthreatening; but a gloom casts shadows over the side that faces the harbour where, under the pall, workers are trying to complete their task.
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I was looking at Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s De Toren van Babel in Rotterdam, where I had gone for the day to escape the low skies and oppressive winds that buffet The Hague in springtime. Bruegel’s masterpiece has an exquisite stillness and delicacy, despite portraying the Tower of Babel in its first stages of busy construction. Ladders and wires are hung from its sides; the harbour on which it is being built throngs with ships unloading cargo and tools and manpower; its workers look as frail as insects perched on its myriad levels, hard at their labour. The tower is depicted such that it appears to be leaning slightly away from the sea, giving the impression that it is volute rather than level, its climb precariously leading to infinity. This impression is heightened by Bruegel’s use of colour: at its base, the tower is the colour of faded, earthy sandstone, but as it spirals into the sky it moves towards a rusted orange, and, at the point where the tower pierces the clouds, it turns a vivid red, as if to represent the wrath that awaits its completion. The clouds are menacing. Far in the distance, well beyond the tower, the skies are clear and fresh, unthreatening; but a gloom casts shadows over the side that faces the harbour where, under the pall, workers are trying to complete their task.

Read more: ‘Letter from the Netherlands’ by James Upcher

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Free Article: No
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Article Title: A vision splendid
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Just before she entered the world of Wonderland, Alice asked: what is the use of a book without pictures? A book in which an imaginative narrative is symbiotically supported and augmented by illustrations can play an important part in the development of a child’s verbal and visual literacy skills. However, a picture book is more than just a story with pictures: it is also a cultural artefact that both reflects and transmits the mores of the country in which it is produced. And a good picture book can do more than simply replicate the visual stereotypes often found in popular culture: it can stretch the imagination, excite curiosity, structure meaning and shape cultural identity.
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Just before she entered the world of Wonderland, Alice asked: what is the use of a book without pictures? A book in which an imaginative narrative is symbiotically supported and augmented by illustrations can play an important part in the development of a child’s verbal and visual literacy skills. However, a picture book is more than just a story with pictures: it is also a cultural artefact that both reflects and transmits the mores of the country in which it is produced. And a good picture book can do more than simply replicate the visual stereotypes often found in popular culture: it can stretch the imagination, excite curiosity, structure meaning and shape cultural identity.

Read more: Commentary | A vision splendid by Stephanie Owen Reeder

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