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Absolutely Revolting

December 1989–January 1990, no. 117

Welcome to the December 1989-January 1990 issue of Australian Book Review!

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Veronica Brady reviews Towards Asmara by Thomas Keneally
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Contents Category: Fiction
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Tom Keneally used to be a fashionable writer, but not anymore, at least not with the critics, though readers continue to read him. Critical concern today is with aesthetics rather than ethics, theory rather than practice. Towards Asmara is therefore not likely to get a great deal of serious attention. This is a pity because it raises some weighty issues, and the loss is the critics’!
Book 1 Title: Towards Asmara
Book Author: Thomas Keneally
Book 1 Biblio: Hodder & Stoughton, 272 pp, $29.95 hb
Book 1 Author Type: Author
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Tom Keneally used to be a fashionable writer, but not anymore, at least not with the critics, though readers continue to read him. Critical concern today is with aesthetics rather than ethics, theory rather than practice. Towards Asmara is therefore not likely to get a great deal of serious attention. This is a pity because it raises some weighty issues, and the loss is the critics’!

Read more: Veronica Brady reviews 'Towards Asmara' by Thomas Keneally

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Michael Sturma reviews Dispossession: Black Australians and white invaders by Henry Reynolds
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Contents Category: History
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Anyone interested in Aboriginal history or race relations will probably be familiar with the work of Henry Reynolds. His books include The Other Side of the Frontier (1982), Frontier (1987), and The Law of the Land (1987). This latest book is a collection of documents, ones that provided much of the source material for Reynolds’s earlier works. In this book, he tell us in the preface, ‘our forebears speak for themselves and speak in many voices’.
Book 1 Title: Dispossession
Book 1 Subtitle: Black Australians and white invaders
Book Author: Henry Reynolds
Book 1 Biblio: Allen & Unwin, $17.95 pb, 226 pp
Book 1 Author Type: Author
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Anyone interested in Aboriginal history or race relations will probably be familiar with the work of Henry Reynolds. His books include The Other Side of the Frontier (1982), Frontier (1987), and The Law of the Land (1987). This latest book is a collection of documents, ones that provided much of the source material for Reynolds’s earlier works. In this book, he tell us in the preface, ‘our forebears speak for themselves and speak in many voices’.

Dispossession is organised into seven chapters, which deal with black–white relations thematically. Although the readings span both centuries of European settlement, there is a distinct nineteenth-century bias. Each chapter title poses a question which, one can assume, is in some cases rhetorical: ‘The Frontier: Peaceful settlement or brutal conquest?’. But the selections reveal a wide range of different attitudes towards Aboriginals, white settlement, and official policy.

Read more: Michael Sturma reviews 'Dispossession: Black Australians and white invaders' by Henry Reynolds

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Bruce Pascoe reviews Rough Wallaby by Roger McDonald
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Contents Category: Fiction
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McDonald’s latest novel, Rough Wallaby, carves out a fascinating position in contemporary literature: an intricately constructed, fast paced yam drawing its narrative from a contemporary Australian myth, the Fine Cotton race horse switch. The intriguing aspect of Wallaby is that it makes no pretence at anything but a great big yam. The yam in Australia is in a position of disgrace, not among readers, but in the academic-critical club. The story is no longer literature, it seems. There have to be other surreptitious elements recognized and codified by the literary fraternity.
Book 1 Title: Rough Wallaby
Book Author: Roger McDonald
Book 1 Biblio: Bantam, 25 pp, $16.95 pb
Book 1 Author Type: Author
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McDonald’s latest novel, Rough Wallaby, carves out a fascinating position in contemporary literature: an intricately constructed, fast paced yam drawing its narrative from a contemporary Australian myth, the Fine Cotton race horse switch.

The intriguing aspect of Wallaby is that it makes no pretence at anything but a great big yam. The yam in Australia is in a position of disgrace, not among readers, but in the academic-critical club. The story is no longer literature, it seems. There have to be other surreptitious elements recognized and codified by the literary fraternity.

Unfortunately, this encourages the lesser writers to ruin what would have been very good stories by laying a trail of baits for the savour of the fashionable critic.

Read more: Bruce Pascoe reviews 'Rough Wallaby' by Roger McDonald

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Peter Thompson reviews A Secret Country by John Pilger
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Contents Category: Australian History
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The morning ABC radio program AM is not a book program. But occasionally we’re pleased to take the opportunity to broadcast the story of a new book, particularly when it comments on Australian public affairs. When John Pilger’s A Secret Country was published, AM ran an interview with the author which was unusually long for us, some five or six minutes. The response was remarkable. In my two years as presenter of the program, I can’t recall as much listener interest in any item, judging by the number of telephone enquiries about the book we received in subsequent days.
Book 1 Title: A Secret Country
Book Author: John Pilger
Book 1 Biblio: Jonathon Cape, 298 pp, $29.95 hb
Book 1 Author Type: Author
Book 1 Readings Link: booktopia.kh4ffx.net/J79Me
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The morning ABC radio program AM is not a book program. But occasionally we’re pleased to take the opportunity to broadcast the story of a new book, particularly when it comments on Australian public affairs. When John Pilger’s A Secret Country was published, AM ran an interview with the author which was unusually long for us, some five or six minutes. The response was remarkable. In my two years as presenter of the program, I can’t recall as much listener interest in any item, judging by the number of telephone enquiries about the book we received in subsequent days.

John Pilger strikes a chord with many Australians and infuriates others. My response to his style of journalism is a mixture of both sympathy and infuriation.

Read more: Peter Thompson reviews 'A Secret Country' by John Pilger

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Deborah Bird Rose reviews Encounters in Place: Outsiders and Aboriginal Australians by D.J. Mulvaney
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Contents Category: Australian History
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Professor Mulvaney’s thematic history of encounters between outsiders and Aboriginal Australians is developed through a discussion of events located in specific places. He has selected places which are in the Register of the National Estate (many of which he initially nominated) or are being considered for inclusion. The places, then, are by definition part of Australia’s cultural heritage, and an important focus of the book is to illuminate some of the types of events which have shaped Australian society.
Book 1 Title: Encounters in Place
Book 1 Subtitle: Outsiders and Aboriginal Australians
Book Author: D.J. Mulvaney
Book 1 Biblio: UQP, 263 pp, $44.95 hb
Book 1 Author Type: Author
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Professor Mulvaney’s thematic history of encounters between outsiders and Aboriginal Australians is developed through a discussion of events located in specific places. He has selected places which are in the Register of the National Estate (many of which he initially nominated) or are being considered for inclusion. The places, then, are by definition part of Australia’s cultural heritage, and an important focus of the book is to illuminate some of the types of events which have shaped Australian society.

The first of the thirty-two chapters deals with the protocol of Aboriginal encounters. It is an excellent summation of a diffuse and complex body of information. Each of the remaining chapters deals with a particular place and associated events, and includes a map and photos.

The range is prodigious: early explorers such as Willem Jansz at Cape Kerweer in 1606; Macassan trepangers and traders in the Gulf of Carpentaria; the grave and memo column of the cricketer Jo Mullagh; Hermansburg mission; the Moree Baths; and Uluru are among the thirty-one encounter places.

Read more: Deborah Bird Rose reviews 'Encounters in Place: Outsiders and Aboriginal Australians' by D.J....

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