John Hersey, Hiroshima.

 

- I finally got around to reading this extraordinary book by American journalist John Hersey.

- Hersey visited Hiroshima one year after the atom bomb was dropped in August 1945, and spent a month walking around and talking to residents. He details the impact on six people in particular who survived the experience. 

- The long 30,000 word article was published in The New Yorker in August 1946. The editors considered it so powerful they gave the whole issue over to it.

- Hersey soberly depicts the excruciating pain, the crushed limbs, the severe burns, the shedding of skin, the total destruction of houses and other buildings, and the fierce fires everywhere. Those residents who were not killed instantly died slowly and in agony. And they didn’t know what sort of bomb it was, or even whether it was a bomb at all. It was horrific.

- And then a strange ‘radiation sickness’ appeared, killing many more and affecting the survivors for decades to come.

- In all, 60,000 people were killed and 100,000 injured, and almost the whole of a great seaport, a city of 250,000 inhabitants, was destroyed by blast or by fire. 

- The New Yorker Publisher's Note: 

Many accounts have been published telling - so far as security considerations allow - how the atom bomb works. But here, for the first time, is not a description of scientific triumphs, of intricate machines, new elements, and mathematical formulas, but an account of what the bomb does - seen through the eyes of some of those to whom it did it: of those who endured one of the world's most catastrophic experiences, and lived. 

Richard Denniss, Big: The Role of the State in the Modern Economy. Jo Dyer, Burning Down the House: Reconstructing Modern Politics.

 

- Virtually every title in In The National Interest series is worth a read, and these two by Richard Denniss and Jo Dyer are no exception. (The series editor is Louise Adler and the publisher Monash University Publishing).

- This contribution by economist Richard Denniss is well argued and very clearly written. I initially thought the first third a little lame, though thankfully it got a lot better and more focussed as it proceeded. Banging on about the deficits under the Liberals since Whitlam means little, and blaming Frydenberg for the Covid-induced effect on it is facile. I was desperate for some tables and statistics comparing Australia to other countries when it comes to tax/expenditure to GDP percentages. And what about the ‘cost’ of debt? Do higher taxes really mean less spending and lower growth? 

- These important macro economic issues thankfully become Denniss's focus about halfway through and become his central argument. The comparison to the Nordic countries is excellent, and numbers given.

- He's also persuasive when he addresses the issues around education: the massive expenditure on elite private schools, high university fees, no free childcare, etc. And he's insightful about our need for public housing investment, construction and ownership by the government, just like we provide for defence personnel.  

- When he expands on the subject of taxation his passions get aroused: Virtually everything Australians have been told about their tax system is nonsense.

- Denniss disliked the neo-liberal reforms of the 80's and 90’s - privatisation, competition regulations, and deregulation. Which is perhaps why he never mentions, let alone praises, Paul Keating. He misses the positives that neo-liberalism let loose on a conservative, backwards Australia at that time. Sure, there were negatives that subsequently emerged, and now need addressing. But that's the way history works.  

- But, in the end, this impassioned 86 page argument is well worth reading. 

- I enjoyed Jo Dyer's booklet very much. In fact, it is wonderful. She's a clear writer with a firm grasp of our current political malaise. She lashes out at the litany of the Morrison government’s ills: corrupt, incompetent, in the pocket of fossil fuel mates, treating the downtrodden with contempt (for example suddenly ending the JobSeeker Coronavirus Supplement); the cruelty of Robodebt; the appalling treatment of the Biloela family; the continuing flagrant racism initiated by Howard and his hatred of ‘boat people’; the Covid vaccine 'strollout’; the persecution of Julian Assange; Morrison’s Trumpist lies and his 'singular antipathy to transparency’. There are many more.

- Dyer also condemns Labor's lack of vision, and eviscerates the incompetent and malevolent Rudd. Shorten doesn't get off lightly either. ...targeted and equitable reforms informed a massive Morrison scare campaign that Labor seemed incapable of rebuffing - the 'death tax' scare proved impressively cold revenge for the Mediscare of 2013.

- She pens for Albo an election speech, full of vision and policy detail. It's inspiring and well written and would be absolutely loved by rusted on Labor supporters. A campaign of vision she contends, refuting the adopted ‘safe’ strategy, would be 'the lesser of two evils’. Unfortunately, as the party well knows, it would end up proving a real disaster. (Anyway, it's a good speech!)

- There have been positives over the last year: the courage of Grace Tame, Brittany Higgins, and her raped university friend Kate Thornton, and particularly the emergence of The Community Independents movement inspired by former member for Indi Cathy McGowan. Dyer herself is standing as an Independent for the Adelaide seat of Boothby.

- She looks forward to a minority government in Canberra after the forthcoming election. In her opinion we are more than likely headed for that. Such governments are productive, effective and commonplace all over the world. 

Domenico Starnone's three short novels: Ties, Trick, Trust.

 - Ties is the first little novel in this group of three. It was published in 2017, followed by Trick in 2018 and Trust in 2019. The author Domenico Starnone was born in Naples and lives in Rome, and is regarded by many literary scholars as being the real Elena Ferrante, or at least a co-author (see below). He's one of Italy's most highly regarded literary authors, and has won numerous prestigious awards. The books are translated into English by noted author Jhumpa Lahiri.

- Ties is in three parts:

- Book One: The husband Aldo and his wife Vanda have been married for twelve years. They have two children, Sandro and Anna. Unfortunately he hooks up with a girl he meets, Lidia. His wife kicks him out and secures custody of the children. 

- Book Two: Aldo and Vanda, obviously reconciled, have been married for fifty-two years now, and are in their mid seventies. Their relationship, however, is like walking through a minefield. Their grown up children, Sandro and Anna, detest each other and never see each other, and also detest their parents. What a fun family! The parents, Aldo and Vanda, go for a week’s holiday and return to a trashed house. Their pet cat Labes is also missing. They don't know who trashed their house and belongings, but suspect a disgruntled neighbour. 

- As Aldo sorts through his old photos, books, and memories while cleaning up, he notices that the old photos of Lidia that he keeps hidden are missing. 

- Book Three: This is the daughter Anna’s story. She indulges in a rant to her brother Sandro blasting parenthood and children. ‘Our parents destroyed us’ she rails. The kids are burning with hate for their parents. They see clearly the nature of the marriage and the lies it's built upon. 

- There is an interesting twist at the end. Very satisfying. 

 

- Jhumpa Lahiri’s Introduction to Trick is excellent. It focuses on Henry James and Kafka and the intermeshing at play in Starnone's novel.

- Betta, Daniele Mallarico’s daughter, and her husband Saverio, both academics, need to attend a mathematics conference for a few days and ask Daniele to babysit their four year old son Mario in his old family home In Naples. He lives in Milan, is a successful illustrator, and is 75 years old. Obviously it's going to be a challenge.

- Betta and Saverio are having huge relationship problems. Betta, according to Saverio, has become attracted to the new director of the maths department. The couple snipe in front of Daniele. Typically of Neapolitans they exhibit little inhibition or class. Starnone renders them as pretty ugly types of humans. They're always arguing and things are always contentious. It's passion out of control.

- All human features, emotions and processes, are described by Starnone with exquisite precision. He builds an intensity into the seemingly quotidian.

- Daniele's anxiety about the ageing process and its debilitating consequences is front and centre. His publisher calls him as he's minding the kid to say he's not happy with his illustrations for the forthcoming deluxe edition of the Henry James book The Jolly Corner, a ghost story published in 1908, and he urgently needs him to re-do them.

- But the grandkid Mario is demanding and needs constant attention. Their playing together gets a little tedious and it goes on and on. At one point Mario locks him on the balcony. He's isolated for hours out there during a fierce storm so he gets cold and drenched. ‘Locked out’ being his old man situation in life.

- The Appendix: Offers us Daniele’s reflections on his life, his art, his obsessions, his family, Henry James’ story and its characters. It's rather unfocused and foggy, but it's honest and we see his illustrations and how ghost-like they are, and why the publisher might well see them as problematic.

 

- Teresa is twenty-three and Pietro thirty. She was his former and brilliant student in high school and she 'fell in love' with him. A few years later they become involved and decide to live together. But it's a highly dramatic and destructive relationship. Teresa in particular is hyper-intense and subject to sudden mood swings. Teresa contained a surplus of vital energy, and when she over-flowed nothing could hold her back. (Shades of My Brilliant Friend?)

- Teresa insists at one point that, to bind them forever, they disclose a deep secret about each other, one that each of them keeps hidden because it shames them. ‘The despicable part of me’ thinks Pietro. The disclosures are serious enough to undermine their relationship and they soon split up. But they never forget the vulnerability they've incurred, and the power each of them hold over the other.  

- Pietro soon meets Nadia, seduces her and marries her. She's the exact opposite of Teresa - small and quiet, but also quite beautiful. The marriage, despite its ups and downs, lasts and they have three children. 

- Pietro becomes a very successful essayist and author of books that are highly critical of Italy's public school system. He's constantly invited to give speeches and sit on panels, and he quickly learns the art of persuasive argumentation, creating slogans, phrases, and statements with appeal. He enjoys his celebrity life but Nadia resents his absences, and resents the fact she had to give up her promising academic career. 

- Over the years Pietro and his former lover Teresa keep in touch by letter writing, until one day she suddenly stops. She has moved to the US and become a highly regarded scientist and professor at MIT. 

- The final two sections of the novel are narrated by Emma, Pietro's daughter, and Teresa, now in her early seventies. Pietro is to be given a prestigious national prize for his life's work and Teresa has been invited to speak at the occasion. So the ending is a bit ominous. 

- Jhumpa Lahiri, the translator, summarises Trust and the prior two novels very nicely: It is not the final instalment of a trilogy, but certainly the third side of a triangle. All three books feature diverse first-person narrators, tense marriages, fraught relationships between parent and child. Running themes include a quest for liberty, the collision of past and present, building a career, fear, aging, anger, mediocrity, talent, and competition.

(The author of the books published under the pseudonym Elena Ferrante might be Italian author Domenico Starnone, Literary Hub reports.

In an article for the website, comparative literature scholar Elisa Sotgiu considers stylometric studies conducted by academics searching for Ferrante’s true identity. Stylometry is the analysis of literary works, using vocabulary, syntax, and other features, to try to match a text with its author.

Sotgiu concludes, “[T]hat Starnone, either alone or in partnership with his wife [translator Anita Raja], sat down and typed the novels that were published under the name of Elena Ferrante seems to be almost beyond doubt.”

Ferrante is a worldwide publishing sensation, best known for her Neapolitan Novels. The books have sold millions of copies and formed the basis for the HBO series My Brilliant Friend.

In 2016, Claudio Gatti concluded that Raja was the author behind the books, but a study by scholars last year found that Starnone, author of Ties and Trick, was most likely responsible for Ferrante’s oeuvre.

Sotgiu writes that the outcome of the studies is something of a mixed blessing but concludes, “Elena Ferrante is still a pleasure to read. And she is also the greatest literary mystery of our time.”)

Jessica Au, Cold Enough For Snow

 

- I was utterly blown away by this small, beautiful novel. It is very meditative, reflective and insightful, and a sheer joy to read. 

- The narrator and her mother travel to Japan for a holiday. They are not named, and there are no street names, train station names, hotel or restaurant names divulged. There is no localisation at all. At one point she refers to the busy Shibuya crossing, but that's it. Keeping all things hazy is the point. We know, however, that the mother is Asian, and grew up in Hong Kong, and her daughter was born in Australia. The husband/father is never mentioned. 

- The novel is written in exquisitely beautiful, clear and simple prose. It is unadorned. And, I must add, superbly designed and produced by publisher Giramondo. There are echoes of Jen Craig’s wonderful Panthers and the Museum of Fire. Time periods are blended, guided by whatever comes to mind, and thoughts dotted with companion reminders '..as I said to my mother..' The mother is less inclined to talk or reflect and the daughter withholds, though in contrast she is a very reflective person. '…I wanted to say…but I found I could not…so I said nothing…'

 - One character who is named is Laurie, her current partner. They holidayed in Japan when they were university students. We don't know what she studied at university, or what university it was. We also don't know what Australian city she grew up in. But we soon come to appreciate that all this detail is irrelevant. 

- The daughter and her mother visit an art gallery in Tokyo. There is a Monet exhibition and the mother is a bit befuddled, showing no enthusiasm at all. But the daughter is entranced. As the holiday proceeds she contemplates the meaning of art and its power. Perhaps, she reflects, this is what separates her from her mother. It isn't just generational. It's the spiritual distance between them. The author seems to be suggesting Ancient Chinese wisdom versus modern Western ‘enlightenment’. But that's probably just my pedestrian view.  

- There are many fascinating and highly meaningful episodes. She was a committed student, approaching her studies like she did every other part of her life. She was hungry to devour every book and play mentioned in her class. But all the same, I felt that there was something else, something fundamental, that I did not understand. She house-sat for her lecturer for two weeks, and when I returned home, I was, for a time, confused. 

- During their short visit to Osaka she hikes on a walk trail in Japan and stays overnight, leaving her mother in a small inn near the Osaka station. Au offers a beautiful paean to the power of nature. The deep lakes and the dangerous rapids unsettle our narrator. Water seems to be everywhere, ominous and unwelcome. It constantly rains over their three week holiday period. The trip occurs in October in Autumn. (Personally I was happy that there was no sentimental gushing about flowers and especially cherry blossoms!). 

- There are many other delightful episodes and musings packed into this 100 page gem. It's a must read.

(A note from the publisher: This book won The Novel Prize which is a biennial award for a book-length work of literary fiction written in English by published and unpublished writers around the world. The prize recognises works which explore and expand the possibilities of the form, and are innovative and imaginative in style....The prize had over 1500 submissions worldwide and Cold Enough for Snow won unanimously.) 

Melissa Manning, Smokehouse.

 

- This is good but it’s not exceptionally good, and no novel that is not exceptionally good should win a major literary prize like the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for fiction as it did, especially given the 2022 shortlist included Jennifer Down's Bodies of Light, a truly magnificent novel.

- Smokehouse is a combination of long and short stories, some strongly linked, others tangentially, and one not at all. Tellingly, in my view, versions of some of the stories have been published previously. 

- The collection is mainly about breakups and divorce and death, the fragility and transience of relationships. It's personal and intimate but it's also very quotidian. There's a profound domesticity about it. The one long story is divided into two parts which bookend the collection. Nora is the main character, and frankly, she's boring. Does she have a life outside her family and small group of friends? No. Does she work? No. Does she have views on the broad spectrum of life and society outside the family home? No. Does she read? No. No wonder she's addicted to biscuits and wine. The author even declines to tell us what year or even decade it is, other than that there's no internet or mobile phones anywhere in sight.

- The men that feature in most of the stories are very male and outdoorsy. Tom, Nora's first husband and the father of her two daughters, is very blokey indeed. He's all pubs, beers, and mates, and basically an ugly piece of shit. He travels from their Tasmanian country town to Sydney all the time ‘on business’ (yeah, right!). Nora is left to suffer the suffocating small town experience.

- Eventually she starts an affair with Ollie, a neighbour and owner of a smokehouse, then tells Tom she wants to leave. Of course Tom, true to form, kicks her out and won’t let her see her daughters at all. Until eventually shared custody is legally granted.

- Most of the other stories are very short and slight, providing a bit of background information on Nora's neighbours. One of the stories, however, Chainsaw, is powerful, and another one, Nao, actually focuses on a major world event. Refreshing.