Steven Carroll, The Afterlife of Harry Playford

 

- This novel is the second in Steven Carroll's series featuring Detective Stephen Minter, and it is remarkably good. 

- Carroll takes us well beyond the standard crime novel, exploring human character and frailty with literary precision and sensitivity. A famous politician has gone missing, presumably drowned. His clothes were found on a beach in Queenscliff, Victoria. The year is 1951, and the world is still recovering from the horrors of World War Two. 

- The politician, Harry Playford, is highly popular and talented and is considered the obvious successor to Robert Menzies, the current Prime Minister. He's a complex person however, and his marriage to Olga is basically a sham. He has a mistress, Caro Martin, a lecturer in French Literature. 

- DS Minter, aged only 32, has a girlfriend, Brigid Delaney. They're 'Ten Pound Poms', having immigrated under the government scheme to encourage British citizens to make a new home in Australia which was desperate for more workers and professionals to fill available jobs. Minter is charged with investigating the disappearance of the politician. 

- Brigid is a government agent looking for Russian spies. She explores Playford's official files and uncovers facts about his pre-war past that could be extremely damaging to his career if exposed. He was a Jew hater in awe of Fascism. Even Bob Menzies, in a speech in July 1939 praised Hitler as 'one of the really great men of the century'.     

- Playford is becoming deeply unhappy and depressed. He reflects on parliament's Question Time: 'frogs, toads, ferrets, stoats and all manner of field and riverbank life jump and squeal in either support or derision'. Without answering a question asked of him he gets up and leaves the chamber. And takes the train back to Melbourne. He was never seen or heard from again. 

- The novel's resolution is mysterious but very satisfying. 

- Read this remarkably good novel. It's such a pleasure.

George Saunders, Vigil

 

- I've long been a fan of the celebrated American author George Saunders so this new novel was a must read. 

- Much like his previous novel Lincoln In The Bardo which won the Man Booker Prize, it's a fantasy, with ghosts at the centre. We're asked to see such ghosts as real. They've been sent, presumably by God, to assist selected individuals who are dying with their transition to the afterlife.  

- There are two ghosts in this tale, Jill 'Doll' Blaine and a Frenchman. They are invisible and 'whisk' their way into any place, object or person without being noticed. 

- Their job currently is to help a very wealthy man who is dying make a peaceful transition. The man is a powerful oil tycoon K.J.Boone. The ghosts are aware of his enormous impact on climate change, and his consistent denial and cynicism about global warming 'belief'. To this day, on his deathbed, he is still refusing to recognise the reality of it. 

- The ghosts, however, put him under severe pressure, bombarding him with all sorts of evidence as to how humanity in every county is suffering - rising sea levels, fires, destroyed economies, millions of deaths through starvation, etc. 

- Plenty of other visitors come to say goodbye too, many angry at his denial, including former corporate colleagues. They are clamouring for a reckoning. The interactions between the characters are very engaging, despite some family dramas being ugly. 

- What is absolutely entrancing about the novel as it proceeds is not so much the ghosts and the characters but the brilliant, thrilling and electric prose. It bristles with humour and sparkling descriptions, and we're absorbed in the witty conversations.  

- Australian novelist James Bradley in today's The Saturday Paper gives the book a negative review, accusing it of not offering any depth to its analysis of contemporary crises and horrors. 'The novel's fixation on the drama of individual morality obscures the structural nature of the violence that lurks behind it...Instead it gives us soft, exculpatory blandishments that are better suited to the kind of inspirational posters found in workplace bathrooms...In a world on fire, we need art that meets our moment with love and fury, that is capacious and transformative - art that understands why kindness is a radical act and summons joy in the face of grief and loss. Vigil does none of these things.'

- But there is a place for both personal and structural critiques. Saunders manages to enliven the personal while also painting a wider vision of a destroyed world. Culpability is clearly his focus. 

- It's a short book of only 172 pages and a challenging, thrilling read. 

Kate Mildenhall, The Hiding Place

 

- This novel is loaded with annoying characters who mean little. City dwelling adults and their kids on a weekend break in the bush. They’ve bought a property, imposing themselves on locals who have memories. 

- City types with no respect don't belong. The bush is not meant for them. It's owned by people bonded to their land and its harshness. Integral are guns, wild animals, memories and resentments.

- An old man Jacob is their neighbour. He’s unhappy with the new fence they’ve erected. They’ve taken two or so metres of his property. He’s also unhappy they’re trying to involve lawyers to fix the problem. So, late at night, he rams the fence with his tractor but falls off it after one of the new arrivals, Ness, jumps on the tractor and tries to stop him. It tips and he’s impaled. Tom and Ness debate whether to call the ambulance and police. They decide to hide the body instead and drive the tractor back to the old man's dilapidated house. It's a stupid decision. 

- Various things happen that illustrate the naivety of the new arrivals in their new and trendy locale. Phil thinks, for example, that killing a lamb by cutting its throat and skinning it would make a good meal. He stuffs the whole thing up. 

- There are Death Cap mushrooms on the property. The kids have been warned to stay away from them. But they can come in handy when needed. 

- There's a caravan with a tent too. One of the newbies asks the occupants to move but, tragically, their young daughter had disappeared near the river fifteen years ago, and she's never been found. They refuse to move. 

- There are all sorts of other things that happen, mostly vulgar, like getting high and indulging in sexual infidelity. And one of the young kids goes missing for a while too. She was left alone.  

- The ultimate resolution to all this confounding stuff is satisfying. Sometimes rebellious teens know how to handle things. 

Randa Abdel-Fattah, Discipline

 

- This brilliant and profound novel dives deep into what it means to be a Muslim in Australia in our current traumatic times. Randa Abdel-Fattah brings nuance, clarity, and a high level of emotion to the political and social drama in which we are all currently enmeshed. She brings considerable depth to the story by creating characters that inspire but also challenge us. 

- Hannah is a Muslim journalist at a mainstream newspaper The Chronicle (maybe The Sydney Morning Herald). Her husband Jamal is a PhD student and part time lecturer at Joseph Banks University. His family live in Gaza. Hannah's boss is Peter who believes, or more accurately, is intellectually trapped in, conservative establishment thinking. (I was reminded of the barely readable journalist Peter Hartcher).

- Ashraf (Ash), also Muslim, is a senior academic at the university, and Jamal's PhD supervisor. Jamal wants to email colleagues to support sanctions against Israel, but Ash is hesitant and cautious as usual, and advises him against it. 

- Nabil is a Muslim-Palestinian year 12 student at a Muslim private school who protested on the University grounds wielding a Hamas flag. He was arrested by the police for an act of 'terrorism'. Jamal gives a speech at a pro-Palestinian rally in Sydney, defends Nabil, and is accused of antisemitism by the Israeli lobby. 

- There are tensions within the academic community and also the media. The ‘objectivity, balance and neutrality’ position of a frightened media is in the spotlight. According to Hannah’s media bosses her LinkedIn sharing of pro-Palestinian posts is not ‘impartial’. (Hints of the Antionette Lattouf/ABC issue here). Tensions within the academic community as well are increasing and university administrations are hopelessly confounded.  

- Hannah and Jamal are also the parents of a young child, which adds to their stress. They’re both trapped in the cage of the media and the cage of the university system. But their passion, commitment and courage run deep. Hannah had an ‘irrepressible… insufferable, passion for fairness, for justice’. Being 'vigilant' about what they say and do is not acceptable. 

 - Ash gets funding from the Department of Home Affairs to support creative projects in the immigrant community. He approaches his sister-in-law Fayza, the principal of the Muslim school, to bring students into the program, but she adamantly refuses. 'It’s counter-radicalisation work by another name’ she claims, and accuses him of not ‘standing for anything’. He’s too accommodating. A placid fence-sitter, afraid he’ll upset his University superiors. Yet ‘he felt like he was stuck in a tiny corner in a large structure… they were, and this was so crucial, all victims here’. He knew there was a contrast between activism and abstract analysis. When interviewed by a pro-Israeli ABC journalist about Nabil he was even accused of antisemitism. 

- Jamal is eventually called to a meeting with a senior university administrator regarding formal complaints received in relation to two of his social media posts. He had called for an end to the Zionist State. He was forced to retract and delete his posts and academic identity. Ashraf was happy with that outcome. 

- But Jamal will not cave to insipidity. He'll continue to post on other sites. And Hannah finally determines she'll remain strong and defiant in support of Palestine, despite putting her job at risk. She won't cave.  

- Abdel-Fattah has presented the issues and captured the mood perfectly in all its power and complexity. Her book is a must read. 

Helle Helle, They

 

- Danish academic Helle Helle is one of Scandinavia's most original writers. She's been awarded many literary prizes over her thirty year career. This English translation is published in Australia by the Giramondo Publishing company from the Writing and Society Research Centre at Western Sydney University. I've long been a great fan of their publishing output. Their focus is on quality international literature, with a modernist bent. 

- This new book was first published in Danish in 2018, and translated into English recently by noted translator Martin Aitken. It is written in the present tense, and run-on commas instead of full stops dominate. The accent is the pulse, not the story. 

- The book is a short 147 pages. It focuses on the very ordinary lives of young teenagers and the small town they live in. The principal character is sixteen years old. Her mother has an unfortunate illness and is taken to hospital occasionally for short periods. Their relationship is certainly not what you'd expect. Their love for each other is heartwarming. They laugh a lot, talk a lot, and cook all sorts of foods together despite not having much money. 

- As you'd expect the teens constantly swig beer, indulge in unhealthy food, and smoke. And there's lots and lots of snow most days. Getting to and from school on bikes can be difficult. There are sexual attractions but nothing serious or unwanted. Basically they are all restrained, with minimal physical contact. The daughter feels a loneliness however. She often walks away from her school friends. The possible loss of her mother affects her. 

- The local shopkeepers are a key part of the flavour of the town: a deli, a clothing store, a hairdresser, a bakery. They all know and respect each other, and help out when necessary. It's the shadow over all this that's affecting.  

- It's a story of innocence and optimism, yet sadness. And it will stay with you.