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As I read my way through an assembled list of Australian authors, (that I am constantly updating) I can’t help but be amazed at the writing talent we have in this country. What is it that makes Australians such convincing and confident storytellers? Where do we find the audacity to tackle any subject, plot or setting?
Well … what ever it is, I’m thankful for it, because I believe we churn out some of the best fiction written today!
I had my doubts about Christopher Koch’s The Memory Room. A contemporary political spy theme is not really my scene. But I knew that his writing is held in high regard, so I was willing to give it a shot. And I was not disappointed. James Bond this is not!
The Memory Room sets us up in a triangular relationship with school chums Vincent Austin and Derek Bradley and the strange but alluring neighbourhood girl, Erika Lange. The three grow up together in the ‘backwater’ (author’s reference) of Tasmania, but never seem to honestly know one another. Austin is unreadable from the beginning and Koch does a brilliant job of building his character. He is born spy material and the secrecy surrounding his relationship with Erika creates an atmosphere of intrigue, and something withheld that will surprise, if not shock. The story is seen through the eyes of Derek Bradley as he reads through his friend’s notes and diaries after Austin has disappeared. So the story is mostly told in retrospective terms.
Moving from Tasmania to Canberra, China and back again our three protagonists muddle their human way through the world of Foreign Affairs and Secret Intelligence during the heights of the Cold War, never showing a sign of super-human, secret agent panache. Just a realistic melding of personal and political situations that come to need solutions.
Koch manages to draw some memorable narrative moments – even given the theme. His description of Canberra in chapter two is perfect. Even a Canberran would have to agree.
And the landscape of small town Tasmania viewed by two young men waiting for their lives to begin is simply inspiring to anyone who loves good writing … “Only wood-smoke from the swarms of suburban bungalows veiled the thin air, and on cloudless nights the stars were brilliant, filling the two friends with that huge exultancy of youth whose intensity is never repeated.”
So, if you are once again on the look out for something stimulating and enjoyable to read that has not been written before, try this one. You don’t get Australian fiction much better.
Close to two years ago I wrote a post on listening to audio books (Listen to This – Oct 2006)expounding the merits of listening to a quality reading of books by professional actors and readers. And without a doubt I have seen the popularity of recorded books increase with library members in that time. We all seem to be adjusting to the idea of machines doing more and more for us … it was only a matter of time before they took over the more leisurely pursuits!
Well, the newest of audio books has arrived, and popular does not describe what we have here. Playaways are a recorded book pre-loaded to an MP3 player no bigger than the old cassette tapes some of us no doubt remember. They are simplicity in itself – operating includes power button, start/pause, FF, back, volume and speed, that’s it. An AAA battery, earbuds and you away you go, you can listen pretty well anywhere other than underwater. They are the ultimate personal listening machine and I was very excited when I heard about them. I go for long walks and although music is great company, there are many times when I want more. And these little gems are perfect … not just for the sight impaired but for commuters, exercisers and all of us who have those brain numbing tasks that just can’t be avoided.
Our library started with just a few hundred, but they are walking out the door, and I’m sure will soon out strip the disc audio books in demand. They can so easily go anywhere you go, the pause button leaves the narration where you stop it, and picks it up again at that point, and you can choose from three speeds of narration. Slow (long pauses), moderate (shorter pauses) and fast (no pauses). Fantastic! you can adjust the reading to your mood! They really have covered those all important bases for audio listeners.
I’m listening to Robert Goddard’s Out of the Sun at the moment, an entertaining British mystery read by Paul Shelley. As with most audio readers today, Shelley has an acting background and knows how to deliver narration. I have listened to audio books where the voice-over has not been to my liking and it then becomes an annoyance. But when you find someone with a real talent for delivery you’ll know it, and listening to a book will be every bit as rewarding as reading it yourself.
So check out your local library. If they don’t already have Playaways, make a suggestion that they purchase a selection. Not only will the library thank you, so will their audio borrowers.
I hope I never see the day MP3s completely replace books, but I’m all for expanding the formats of literature. For in reality, isn’t the printed word simply the written voice?
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Inspiration is not always forthcoming at the conclusion of a novel … and I have struck out on the last two I’ve read. A Million Little Pieces by James Frey was an addiction memoir taken to its tedious limit. It is an unusual approach to writing such experiences, I’ll admit that, but I was over it after the first 100 pages. I was ready to give him some crack myself! Just to relief my own suffering!
Don’t get me wrong, I have all the sympathy in the world for addicts. I watched as my brother fell into that hell. And he never made it out, so I have plenty of empathy there. But if I’m going to read about someone’s struggle to freedom I’m afraid I need more than just repetitive phrases when things get really tough.
I knew early on this book was not going to keep me coming back (although I did finish it eventually) so I also started reading Magdalena Ball’s (Compulsive Reader) Sleep Before Evening. Her first novel follows the unfortunate downhill slide of 17 year young Marianne after the death of her grandfather and one of her mother’s ‘yet-again’ separations.
Marianne is a promising music student until life’s upheavals send her into the lap of Miles and life on the streets of New York… and the drugs you seem to need to survive it. She gets hooked pretty quickly and although Ball seems to have her finger on the button of youth in turmoil, I found much of the dialogue unworthy of such a graphic and real life expose.
If you really haven’t got a handle on writing authentic dialogue, it is better to cut it back and use narration. Especially when it comes to the young! If it’s not right – it doesn’t work … big time!
So, even after these two attempts, I’ve yet to come across a story laying bare the struggles of drug addiction that beats Augusten Burroughs memoir Dry. The Running With Scissors author throws his extremely quirky sense of humour into the sorrows of wrestling the demons of drugs and alcohol, and Dry becomes a riotous affair of jubilation and despair, a literal roller coaster ride of living with a monkey on one’s back.
Which brings us to one thing that does ring true in the world of addiction survival. To climb out of the depths of despair and survive, one needs a sense of humour. And as I turn over today’s calendar, what quote do I see … ‘There is more wisdom in humour than there is humour in wisdom’ PK Shaw.
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In the past I have reviewed two of Cormac McCarthy’s books on this blog … All the Pretty Horses and just recently The Road. I’m a big fan, finding his sparse-like dialogue quite ingenious. But I had no plans of reading No Country for Old Men simply because its storyline did not really appeal to me. It all sounded a little too “Bang ‘em up outlawish” for me.
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Reading an author’s first novel can really be a celebratory experience for a reader. I can only just imagine what it must be like to finish your first novel. The long hours of research, piecing together events, forming characters and personas, constant rewrites and edits, excruciating doubts and jubilations as it all culminates into a work of fiction bound in glossy ends … ready to be cracked open and devoured by hungry minds.
A bit too theatrical? Maybe … but after finishing The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason, I was left with the massive sense of achievement that this first time novelist must have felt for his work.
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At present, I am personally congratulating myself for finally getting to an author that has been on my list to read for at least 4-5 years. Janette Turner Hospital, from all I’d read and heard is worth the intake and after finishing her latest, Orpheus Lost, I can confidently report on the affirmative … she is good!
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It goes without saying that reading and travel blend together for a truly fulfilling life. For reading will encourage us to travel, (who hasn’t dreamt of visiting far off places after reading a novel set in exotica) but travel also encourages reading … as I discovered recently.
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Before I move on to my next read, I really can't go on without making comment on last night's First Tuesday Book Club on the ABC. The fact that they were discussing the last two books I have reviewed here was enough for me to tune in. I usually lose interest in watching by 9:30, so rarely make it to air time. But I'm pleased I made the effort this month as there are some great points about books and the reading of them that I would like to address.
There were no surprises with Winton's Breath. They all loved it, it's a great book by a great author and we all agree on that score. But when it came to Demons at Dusk, I was disappointed along with Peter Fitzsimons. And my disappointment did not lie in the other readers opinions - we are all entitled (espeically in a book club) to our own point of view. What really got to me was what the others missed in this book. Yes, I'll agree, it was not brilliant creative writing. We can't all be Tim Winton! And I don't believe Peter Stewart ever tried to be. But a great deal of the discussion last night revolved around whether this book made, or was, good fiction ... should it have been written as non-fiction, was the writing good enough to be fiction, how true was ..... etc etc.
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I would have to be the ultimate Tim Winton fan and his latest, Breath is in my view a true masterpiece. With absolute precision Winton has once again laid bare the essence of growing up and growing wiser. Grant it, this is nothing new or ground breaking in fiction, but through Winton’s pen it becomes a kaleidoscope of beautiful visions and emotional turmoil spun into a diary of memories worth recalling again and again. And nobody does it like him!
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Hearing stories in the news today, it is all too easy to assume that, as a society, we have become more violent. Just today I spoke with a colleague about what could possibly be so wrong with us that we find it necessary to inflict pain and suffering on others, simply because we can.
Now, after reading Peter Stewart’s Demons At Dusk I’m not so sure our society has really changed all that much. The Myall Creek massacre has had plenty of attention in the last few years with the establishment of the Myall Creek Memorial and the wonderful reconciliation that took place between locals and the descendants of the Weraerais who were butchered there in 1838.
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Comment by Joanne
on No Country For Old Men
Open Book