Sinead Stubbins, Stinkbug

 

- This new novel by Australian author Sinead Stubbins is a delightfully comic immersion in a toxic work environment. Suffering and surviving incompetent management, poor HR policies, jealous and unfriendly work colleagues, sexist male behaviour and seriously immature corporate expectations all round - all this defines the experience of working at an advertising agency called Winked.  

- Edith is the main character. Her ex-boyfriend Pete has just been sacked. As the novel progresses we learn a lot more about their relationship, and it's not good. Her boss Danny, who thinks very highly of himself (‘If I say something’s alright, it’s alright’) also features. Her colleague and best work friend is Mo who is ‘extremely talented and extremely terrifying’. Other characters feature in the novel, some good, some bad. We get to know them well, and generally speaking, we get to unlike them quite a lot. 

- Edith had a heart that was eager to please and a face that seemed to say “I think you’re a fucking moron”, which, according to Mo, was the best thing about her. She also shaves her head, which annoys everyone. But it's a statement. Mo thinks ‘everyone is a cliche…no one is original, everything is boring.’ 

- Winked has 300 or so staff and has been bought by a Swedish company. Everyone expects a major restructure and lots of redundancies. The company sends them all on a weekend retreat to undergo 'mind-training' at a camp outside Sydney called Consequi. It's ‘a rehab for workplaces’. A slight spoiler here - it's just awful!

- They're subjected to a range of exercises and highly personal questions that are meant to sort out the best and most productive employees. What's revealed is a highly toxic work environment, and one decidedly in favour of men. Edith is very unliked. Danny lists all her lies and misdemeanours. Una calls her a liar and a ‘stinkbug…your stench will get all over them..’ Thomas says ‘she’s a dobber’. Bruno says ‘she’s a fake’. It’s like a religious exorcism. They all get around in a circle and abuse and slap another person. They cut each other superficially with a dagger to prove they ‘belonged’. 

- There is high drama, which thankfully is very satisfactorily resolved. 

- I absolutely loved this novel. Stubbins is such a talented writer. She is able to address significant work and life issues with wit and vitality, making for a thoroughly engaging read. 

Gail Jones, The Name of the Sister

 

- Gail Jones' new novel is confronting on many levels. She writes in highly poetic prose, frequently using strange and unusual words. ‘Everything claimed a greater propinquity’; ‘This disinhibition, this voluptuary of movement’. It's verbal congestion at times, but rich and provocative as well. 

- The principal focus of the novel is the fragility of relationships. Marriages are difficult. Friendships are more lasting, substantial and necessary, and occasional connections essential. 

- The other focus is the isolated outback town of Broken Hill, formerly a thriving mining town for silver, lead and zinc, but now ghostly, reflecting the dead heart of Australia. I grew up in Broken Hill and my father worked in the mines. I know it well. It had a population of 34,000 then. Now it has only half that, and many houses, halls, schools and churches are abandoned and decaying. 

- Jones reflects the whole dark experience in a crime story that fascinates the nation.  An Unknown Woman, called 'Jane', was found on an isolated road near the town.  There's evidence she’s been subject to strangulation, and has recently given birth. She's also severely malnourished. Although still alive she stares at nothing. 

- Freelance journalist Angie is engrossed by the story as she watches it on TV in Sydney. Detective Beverly Calder is her friend and has been sent to Broken Hill to investigate.  

- Angie's husband is Sam and their relationship is suffering complications. They have no kids and her mother Nora is ordinary. She feels a ‘general sense of incompletion and thwarted love…there was respect here, in this marriage, but also heartache and suppression’. ‘Mundanity’ is the word, a 'failure wholly to connect…this turning away - this is what their marriage had become’. ‘Their conjugal irritation was mutual…His automatic authority. The air of amused lack of interest when she expressed an opinion’.

- She talks to people about Jane’s death, and word spreads on social media. A range of people call and text her claiming they know who Jane is - a missing sister, a missing twin, a missing friend, a missing daughter, a missing lover. Most of them are sad, others are whackos. 

- She travels by train to Broken Hill. She describes the place very accurately, including its streets named after minerals and chemicals. ‘There was a kind of emptiness to the streets, and an inertia that they couldn’t quite explain’. 

- There are small and abandoned mines in the area surrounding the town, particularly surrounding the tiny, mainly abandoned, town of Silverton, a half hour's drive north. There's a small museum there which helps Angie in her quest to uncover what happened to Jane. 

- The story's resolution is very satisfying and meaningful. We are left with death but also with life, hope and community. 

- The novel with stay with you for a long time. 

Hugh White (QE): Hard New World: Our Post-American Future

 

- Once again Hugh White proves he's a must read on defence and foreign policy issues. He brings a clear, deep and wide perspective on all the issues confronting Australia now and into the future. He's a refreshing voice because he's not trapped in the dated, cringing, predictable views of most of the commentary coming out of the defence industry and its conservative think tank arse lickers in Canberra. 

- This Quarterly Essay is on many levels a confronting read. We live now in a new nuclear age. Although White doesn't shrink away from demolishing Trump (‘…a lack of common humanity that is, in truth, sociopathic’) he recognises that ‘Trump’s willingness to see America take its place in a multipolar order is something to be grateful for’. The old America-dominated unipolar world that's existed since the fall of the Soviet Union in the late 1980's is now over. ‘A version of isolationism now makes much more sense than the post-cold war vision of US global primacy...The imperatives that drove US strategic commitments in Europe and Asia in the twentieth century are far weaker today.’

- The key changes are the rise of China and India. As China rapidly increases its nuclear capability, the return of nuclear weapons is now centre-stage in power politics. Taiwan has now become the prime focus. What will really happen if China invades Taiwan to restore its ancient identity as a Chinese province? The Australian political establishment, both Labor and the Coalition, keep parroting the line that Australia would support an American response by joining an attack on China, but this is nonsense. ‘It is unthinkable that Australia would join America in a war that America need not fight, that it cannot win and that would quite possibly become a nuclear war...We should tell Washington that we will not go to war over Taiwan’. 

- China’s military strength in Asia has overturned America’s. ‘…there is now no serious chance that America can defend Taiwan from China’. China is quickly building a lot more nuclear weapons. White reminds us that in power conflicts the West constantly overestimates then underestimates. We blunder into a needless conflict then realise we can't win: look at Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. In Asia now it ‘could be catastrophic’.

- China wants to push America out of East Asia. In fact Trump ‘has often dismissed the idea that America should defend Taiwan’. But he must know that ‘…if it abandons Taiwan, its entire position in East Asia will be severely, and perhaps fatally, damaged.’ White argues that's inevitable, pivotal, and acceptable. It's the emerging multi-polar order. The ‘balance of power’ strategy is protective. The multipolar order is the future. Small and middle powers will pay a price however, such as Ukraine and Taiwan.

- White is excellent on Ukraine, but realistic. While the first year of the war was successful for Ukraine it now seems it will not decisively defeat Russia, despite average US and EU support. Conceding will of course leave Ukraine forever under Russia’s thumb, but Russia’s nuclear weapons are a real barrier to a Ukrainian victory. America is afraid of Russia employing its nuclear option, so ultimately America cannot defend Ukraine. Trump gets that. Unfortunately Russia’s ambitions will likely not be satisfied just by a settlement of the Ukraine war.

- So we come to NATO. White, although he doesn't predict an end to NATO, does admit that ‘Europe will now have to defend itself, regardless of NATO'. He reminds us that the EU’s combined GDP is as much as ten times Russia’s and has many more tanks and aircraft. (Personally I've long believed that NATO should be dissolved for three reasons: 1. The cold war has ended. 2. The Soviet Union has ended. 3. The EU has been created. Ukraine should apply not to join a dated NATO but to join the European Union). Europe would of course have to create an effective nuclear deterrent. 

- White is refreshingly merciless on the Quad: ‘there is nothing to it but a series of meetings’, and of course the ridiculous AUKUS. (As looks increasingly obvious, even Trump will dump AUKUS). And as for ANZUS delusions ‘…a new, beneficial post-alliance relationship can evolve’. Singapore is an example. ‘It is unthinkable that Australia would join America in a war that America need not fight, that it cannot win and that would quite possibly become a nuclear war...We should tell Washington that we will not go to war over Taiwan’. 

- He's also clear on Japan and Korea. The US alliance would crumble. Japan will have to go its own way without American protection, as will South Korea. Given China's and North Korea's increasing nuclear capabilities, Japan and South Korea might need to ramp up nuclear capability.  

- Australia has yet to confront the new reality, that our future does not rely on the American alliance. Trump is puncturing this complacent optimism, and Biden’s  delusions are gone. We do not have a great and powerful friend any more.

- As for our weapons? They won't be nuclear subs, nor surface warships, nor F-35 fighter jets. Uncrewed drones are the future. 

- Finally, do you think Albanese and Marles are anywhere near this level of thinking? Oh please. 

Henry Gee, The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire

 

- This new book by Henry Gee, the celebrated British paleontologist and senior editor of the prestigious scientific journal Nature, is well worth reading. 

- Gee has the ability, rare for academics, to write exceptionally clear and rhythmic sentences. His prose sucks you in. (A bit like Paul Krugman on economics). His early chapters in Part One describe in detail the history of Homo Sapiens since its emergence around 315,000 years ago, and its very likely demise in only 10,000 years time. 

- Most readers will skim these chapters unless they're fascinated by paleontology and space. But in Part Two Gee turns to our current times and where the human race is likely to be in only 200 years time. They are fascinating chapters. 

- We learn about the rapid growth of the world’s human population over the last century particularly, and the rapid decline that awaits us over the next two centuries. (And after ten thousand years homo sapiens will be wiped from the face of the earth all together).

- I virtually underlined every second sentence of these chapters. Here are some amazing numbers:

World population in 1964: 3.267 billion. Population now: 8.2 billion. Likely population in 2100: 6.29 billion. (China: 1.412 billion now; 732 million by 2100). Likely population by 2200: between 2.6 and 5.6 billion. By 2300: between 0.9 and 3.2 billion. 

Countries with increasing populations: Nigeria: 200 million now but 791 million by 2100. Many countries will see a substantial increase in population by 2100, including Australia, because of substantial African immigration, and Israel's population will grow from 9.5 million now to 24 million in 2100 because of its higher fertility rate.

Why is the human population on the cusp of steep decline? Lower birth rates due to the educational empowerment of women and the increasing take-up of contraception. Also, for reasons nobody can quite fathom, human sperm count has fallen, both markedly and recently. 

Climate change: Up to 200 million people (3% of all humans) live in coastal cities that will be below mean high tide by 2100. If the temperature rise gets as far as 4% above pre-industrial levels, a billion people could be flooded out. Cities such as New York could be two metres underwater by the end of this century.

Extreme heat could depopulate large areas of the Middle East, where the current inhabitants will have to move or die. Deadly heatwaves of up to 55 degrees will be an everyday reality. A huge migration of refugees from Africa into Eurasia will take place. 

Edward St Aubyn, Parallel Lines

 

- The only reason to read this new novel from the celebrated British writer Edward St Aubyn is to luxuriate in his prose. It's glitzy and electric with a brilliant comic edge, and the dialogue snappy and quip-loaded. It's so upper-class English. Utterly delightful.

- Sebastian is young man suffering from a mental health issue. His psychotherapist, Martin, who considers Sebastian one of his most difficult patients, labels it ‘delusional omnipotence’. Sebastian’s road to recovery is central to the novel. 

- Also central is the lifelong after-effects of mothers putting their newborns up for adoption. Especially if the babies are twins and adopted by separate couples, and are never aware of their intimate relationship till decades later. 

- Sebastian is told by a young mother he meets, Olivia, that she's his bio-sis, something she's just found out from her birth mother. 'Un-fucking-believable' he screams and abruptly leaves. Olivia was adopted at birth but Sebastian, after two years, was sent to an institution. Olivia labels it the ‘Preferential Twin Adoption Syndrome’. She reflects on Sebastian. Was he the sacrificial twin?

- After months of intense treatment Sebastian comes to accept his predicament and recognises 'we can be vulnerable and strong'. 

- Olivia is a podcaster and is working on a series focussed on the world's disasters - climate change, inequality, environmental destruction, etc. 

- Aubyn litters the novel with fabulous denigrations of American and British politics. Here's an example:

...isn’t this sort of national decline just what happens when we have Etonian prime ministers? Eden and Macmillan gave us the Suez Canal and the Profumo affair; Cameron and Johnson have given us Brexit and Partygate.....the international fuck-ups were based on the same arrogance and exaggeration of Britain's autonomy and the scandals on the same combination of self-indulgence and mendacity.

- There is much more to this novel than my brief description can cover. It's not an easy read and can sometimes get tedious, nevertheless is definitely worth staying with. It's so invigorating. 

 

John Lyons, A Bunker in Kyiv

 

- Acclaimed journalist and Global Affairs Editor at the ABC, John Lyons, with help from his wife Sylvie Le Clezio, a documentary filmmaker, has written an absorbing story of the Ukrainian people's defence of their nation against Russia's aggression for over three years now. 

- As with his previous book, the fascinating Balcony Over Jerusalem, Lyons' ability to write clear, lucid prose totally engages the reader. He delves deep into the lives of ordinary citizens and their courage and dedication to saving their nation. They are living relatively normal lives despite the bombing, but they are volunteering for all sorts of jobs and activities to aid the war effort. What we are witnessing is 'the rebirth of the Ukrainian identity' as one woman says. And as a Sydney academic says ‘Whether formal or informal, volunteering contributes to the creation of new norms and values of citizenship in Ukraine…strengthening the social fabric’. 

- We're immersed in the richness of Ukrainian culture, society and economy. Surrogacy is a big industry in Ukraine, and was severely disrupted by Russia's relentless aggression. As were medical operations such as cancer treatment. Electricity and gas were out and hospitals bombed. Prosthetics availability ended and mental health programs brought to an end.  

- The Ukrainians are very concerned about their children. Eight year old Yegor wrote a diary. It is full of sadness, gentleness and generosity. The Russian soldiers would kidnap the children and try to indoctrinate them. Others were maimed and killed. Witnessing this Lyons virtually screams ‘Russia is the aggressor. Russia invaded Ukraine. Russia continues to launch attacks. Ukraine is the victim’. Russia now holds nearly 20% of Ukraine's territory.

- Ukraine has strengths though. For instance The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) are experts at resistance to Russian cyber attacks. Cyber security is the new space race, and Ukraine is leading the way. Drones (as we saw just a few days ago) are constructed by dedicated engineers and volunteers working day and night, and they are critical to its defence.

- Lyons tells the story of Volodymyr Zelensky, a former actor and comedian. From playing the president in a TV series to being elected as the real one. Although his first two years as a politician were ordinary and disorganised, he eventually emerged as the leader of the moment, and has virtually total support from the Ukrainian people. His communication and oratorical skills are helping enormously. 

- As for Vladimir Putin, ‘...a system of permanent lies permeates all levels of power’ in the Russia he has created, as one academic says. 'Through his propaganda, political power and physical property, Putin has made himself untouchable'. According to him 'Ukraine is not a real country'.  

- As Lyons reflects on Trump's 'contribution' he can't help but be pessimistic, and concludes that Ukraine is slowly losing this war. ‘…the US has gone deliberately slow on delivery of weapons’. Biden also slowed support, ‘…more scared of a Russian defeat than a Ukrainian defeat’. What we are witnessing is a major strategic failure by America and NATO. They are not providing enough weapons systems such as missiles, tanks and aircraft (as EU leaders recently recognised). This has to change, and dramatically, to turn the tide in Ukraine's favour. As for the nuclear threat, Putin knows NATO would respond dramatically, so is obviously hesitant to pursue that option. 

- Lyons closes the book on a more optimistic level. He meets a young man in Lithuania who proclaims that despite the fact that Russia has become a ruthless, brutal machine, the people of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are now supportive of NATO. ‘NATO is what stands between us and torture’. 

- John Lyons has written a clearly argued and frequently passionate treatise on Ukraine's dramatic predicament. I found it very persuasive indeed. It's a must read. 

James Bradley, Landfall

- Celebrated Australian literary author James Bradley has written a highly dramatic and very intense story about a police investigation into a missing child in Sydney, a city days away from being hit by a huge cyclone, the third in four years. 

- It's set decades into the future when the climate catastrophe is upending societies around the world. And as Bradley makes clear, disastrous weather events are not the only dimension to this crisis. Social cohesion is also being ripped apart. Anger, resentment, and the hatred of authority are dominant and destructive. 

- Sea levels have risen dramatically and have destroyed densely populated coastal areas. Houses, apartment blocks, shops, schools - all are in ruins. The wealthy can move into safer areas but the majority are stranded and unemployed, and are finding it difficult to cope with the dilapidation all around them. The heat is unrelenting, day and night. Daytime temperatures are frequently in the late forties and early fifties. The aged, in particular, are very vulnerable.  

- Bradley also addresses the refugee issue. The weather has become unbearable in many nations. Australia is seen as an attractive destination. Interestingly most names of the main characters in the novel are Indian, Indonesian, or Middle Eastern. Sadiya Azad, the leading detective on the case to find the missing young girl, Casey, is of Bangladeshi origin. 

- One Indonesian teenager's 'boat people' trip to Australia is described in horrific detail. Many of the refugees die on the way and their bodies are tossed overboard without ceremony. Abusive and contemptible border force officers with guns confront them on the beach when they land and they’re herded into camps. The teenager eventually escapes and becomes central to the story's resolution. 

- Digital technology is also at the forefront. AI ‘assistants’ are as common as smartphones. Unfortunately CCTV is not everywhere and videos still frequently lack sufficient clarity and quality.  

- The police investigation into the missing girl is described in rich detail. There are suspects and they are questioned relentlessly, including corrupt real estate developers, convicted child molesters, and low level desperates. Bradley portrays all these characters vividly, as he does the two police detectives leading the investigation. They are dedicated and work day and night, despite family issues. 

- When the cyclone hits Bradley provides a stunning description of it. He is a writer of extraordinary talent, and his deep understanding of the climate catastrophe we face has enabled him to write this ambitious and powerful novel. 

Dominic Amerena, I Want Everything

 

- Amerena's debut novel is written in punchy, lively, colourful prose, and has a delightful comic edge. It's absolutely captivating. 

- It's a brilliantly told story of literary liars. It's a damning critique of mothers and men. It's a story of love and devotion. It's a story of desperation and pain. 

- The unnamed narrator (what a cliche that is) tracks down an old woman he recognised at the local pool. He is certain she is Brenda Shales, a brilliant writer of only two highly controversial novels, who has not been seen for decades. She'd become a recluse. Both bestselling novels were a ‘controlled fury…resolutely against men, marriage and the family’. They were published in the early 1970's, at the same time as Germaine Greer's iconic The Female Eunuch.  

- He follows her to an aged care facility, and is mistakenly introduced to her by a nurse as her grandson. He submits to that lie, which becomes a central theme of the novel. 

- Over the course of a few weeks Brenda tells him her life story. She became pregnant when a high school student, and her very conservative parents - so typical of the time - forced her to put the baby up for adoption. She subsequently had numerous low paying jobs including one as a secretary for the Husbands Emancipation League, men who hated Gough Whitlam and his promise to introduce the No Fault Divorce legislation, which would enable women to divorce their abusive husbands without needing to submit to restrictive legal and court processes. Those meetings would inspire her second angry and ferocious novel which would become a worldwide bestseller. 

- There are many twists and turns in this novel, some surprising, but they all add a richness and depth to the tale. What is especially pleasing, and quite shocking really, is the ending. All the threads are brought together in a very surprising but satisfying way.

- This review by Bri Lee captures the book superbly:

This novel is that most exquisite rarity: a brilliant concept, brilliantly executed. Amerena has so precisely rendered and skewered Australian literary culture that I was shrieking with delight while I squirmed in recognition. The tease of a mystery plot had me turning the pages non-stop, but there were real gem-like sentences in here too. And on top of that, he can write women. And on top of that, he can write writing! 

Jens Beckert, How We Sold Our Future: The Failure to Fight Climate Change

 

- This is a depressing read, because it’s profoundly realistic. 

- Let's not kid ourselves. Where the world is now, and where it inevitably will be at the end of this century, despite the Paris Agreement's 1.5 degree target, is almost certainly going to be close to double that. 

- Jens Beckert has been Director at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies and Professor of Sociology in Cologne since 2005. He previously taught in Gottingen, New York, Princeton, Paris and Harvard University. His new book, just published in English, is full of the gritty detail that makes his case utterly credible. It's a persuasive, sobering read. 

- Here's part of the blurb: For decades, we have known about the dangers of global warming. Despite this, greenhouse gas emissions have continued to increase. How can we explain our failure to take the necessary measures to stop climate change? Why are societies, in the face of the mounting threat to ourselves and our children, so reluctant to take action? 

Our apparent inability to implement basic measures to combat climate change is due to the nature of power and incentive structures affecting companies, politicians, voters, and consumers...climate change is an inevitable product of the structures of capitalist modernity which have been developing for the past five hundred years. Our institutional and cultural arrangements are operating at the cost of destroying the natural environment, and attempts to address global warming are almost inevitably bound to fail. Temperatures will continue to rise and social and political conflicts will intensify. 

- The book is only 174 pages long, plus 52 pages of Notes. Unfortunately it's a hardcover and is priced at A$51.95. Nevertheless, save up and buy it. Please. 

Dervla, McTiernan, The Unquiet Grave

 

- McTiernan writes in crispy prose, and her characters are sharply painted. They all have backstories. The novel is absorbing from the first page.

- Their relationships get pretty cosy as the story develops though, and quite sentimental. The book's weakness is the rather strange murders that take place and how the bodies are left. It's unrealistic in the extreme. And the main murderer uncovered in the end is, quite frankly, absurd.  

- The book also leaves a couple of subplots unsatisfactorily resolved. 

- Readers of the first three books in this series would be aware of the main characters’ past relationships and situations. There are obviously enriching backstories suggested. That's frustrating for new readers. 

- The focus on Ireland, mainly Dublin and Galway, is highly enjoyable. Although their annoying ‘grand’ litters the dialogue. 'How are you today?.... 'Grand'. 

Asako Yuzuki, Butter.

 

- This novel gets clotted with so much detail as it progresses you can’t help but be bogged down. It's 452 pages long and 100 pages could have been cut during the editorial process in my opinion. 

- Nevertheless.....it is a fascinating read. The characters, the food, the ingredients, and the portrayal of the glorious city of Tokyo and its trains, shops, eateries and suburbs is simply wonderful. Having lived in Japan for two years as a young man I relished it. 

- It's a deep dive into the plight of women in Japanese society, and how captured they are by traditional social roles. So many men, particularly older men, are worse than useless when it comes to living and governing their own pathetic lives without depending on women to shop, cook, clean and look after them.

 - The book was inspired by a real case of a convicted Japanese con woman and serial killer a few decades previously. She sucked in three old rich men by feeding them delicious meals. They became obsessed with her and over a three month period they all eventually died of various 'accidents'.  

- The main characters in the novel are Rika, a magazine journalist, and her friend Reiko, formerly in PR. The accused killer is Kajii, currently held in a detention centre. Rika and Reiko both had bad relationships with their fathers. And Reiko was always a good cook. Riko decides to email Kajii to ask her about her recipe for her famous 'beef stew'. A relationship develops between them.

- Besides being a scammer and a criminal, Kajii is overweight. She's obsessed with butter, and insists that only high quality European brands be used. She's also bombastic. As she proclaims to Riko during one of their meetings '...there are two things I simply cannot tolerate: feminists and margarine'. And 'There is nothing in this world so pathetic, so moronic, so meaningless as dieting'. And 'You have to understand that women can never hope to rival men's power'. 

- Obviously Kajii is full of herself. She has her opinions and doesn't listen to anyone else's. Strangely, Rika finds that rather attractive. 

- The novel is far richer than this rather simple story. Yuzuki explores the personal relationships of the women, their partners, their parents and their work colleagues, in depth. There are problems at every turn which intrude into their seemingly comfortable lives. She digs deep and leaves no stone unturned. 

- She also drowns us in the dynamism and rhythms of Tokyo and some other smaller communities in Japan. The restaurants, cafes, retail stores, clubs, subway stations, and of course the food. Many of the Japanese ingredients won't be familiar to many readers but the descriptions of the cooking process are always given in tasty detail. 

- The novel ends with Rika preparing and cooking a large turkey for a group of ten friends and family. It's salivating! 

David Szalay, Flesh

 

- This novel by Booker Prize-shortlisted author David Szalay (pronounced So-LOY) was highly recommended by well-regarded literary critic Peter Craven in The Saturday Paper (April 12). I was persuaded to buy it and am so glad I did. It's magnificent on every level. 

- Fundamentally it's a story about Istvan, a frustrated loner from Hungary who, after three years in a young offenders institution, joins the army and is sent to Iraq for five years. He then moves to London to try to get on with his life.

- Szalay tells this simple story in plain, fact-based, logical prose, without posture or any modernist pretence, which is refreshing. The dialogue between the characters is real and basic. Short utterances and short repeat questions characterise it: 'So', he says. 'What now?' 'I don't know. What do you want to do?' she asks. 'Do?' He's lighting a cigarette. 'Yes'. 'What am I here to do?' he asks. 

- We're absorbed in Istvan’s life and career - his family relationships, his sex life, his marriage, the work opportunities that come his way, his failures, and his eventual depression. And, importantly, there's immense tragedy, sadness and death. In the end, despite his good looks, his compassion and honesty, and his commitment to his career, it all adds up to nothing. 

- This defining incident is central: after two years in London, working as a bouncer at a strip club, he sees an old man in an alley being assaulted by two thieves. He attends to him and calls an ambulance. Later the man calls him and invites him to dinner. He owns a private security agency and offers Istvan a job as a bodyguard to celebrities and wealthy people. He accepts. 

- He is then offered a full time job as a security driver for the very rich Karl and Helen Nyman and their teenage son Thomas. She is forty and attracted to Istvan and they start having sex. It’s ‘intense and exciting’. Not so long afterwards Karl dies of cancer and Istvan and Helen marry. Thomas, however, 'hates him' and is angry.  ‘I think he just married her for her money’. 

- Importantly, Thomas has been left everything by his father. He will inherit it all when he’s 25. A lawyer has oversight. However, as Istvan's career as a property investor develops, he and Helen often extract money from the Trust without Thomas's approval. He eventually finds out and sues them, and it doesn't end well.  

- The marriage survives but a when a tragic, heart-breaking accident occurs, Istvan falls into a state of severe depression. 

- This is a thoroughly absorbing story from a master of the craft. I can't recommend it highly enough. 

ReplyForward Add reaction

Robert Lukins, Somebody Down There Likes Me

 

- It’s 1996. The wealthy Gulch family live in a mansion in the very up-market enclave of Belle Haven in Connecticut. 

- The successful corporation the family owns has secrets that are about to be exposed by the authorities and the media. For years they've been running a enterprise riddled with fraud and criminality. The real brains behind it all is Honey, the wife of Fax, the actual inheritor. She's the ultimate schemer, whereas Fax is barely cognisant of it, living in his own world of art, literature and music. He's a dedicated student of the cultures of the world…yet in reality an old, sick dunce in the eyes of many. Fax and his books. He never gets to the burdensome task of actually reading them. 

- Kick is their daughter and Lincoln their son. Lincoln has corporate ambitions of his own. 

- Lukins certainly has a talent for rich, whimsical prose. Honey has just convinced her bowels into motion as Sam answers her call. He's constructed a story of secrets. The characters are wealthy but weak. They are entitled and arrogant but quintessentially boring. They're constantly drinking and drug taking, and basically loathe one another. And they have silly names. It seems wealth doesn't redeem, it condemns. 

- When Kick was in her final year of high school she had two good friends Presley and Mouse. But Mouse went missing on the day of graduation and has never been seen since, ten years later. Lincoln thinks his father was fucking her. 

- Unfortunately the major storyline never resolves in the end. Who ends up a winning or losing business-wise. What the corporate crimes really were. If this were a TV show, viewers would be screaming for a second series. 

- So in a substantial way this novel fails to satisfy. It's an enjoyable read but also frustrating. It's missing real depth. 

Andrea Goldsmith, The Buried Life.

 

- Australian author Andrea Goldsmith has written an extraordinary novel. It's a microscopic examination of love, literature, religion and abuse. She probes deep and is so perceptive, as her characters grapple with their past, their personal weaknesses, and their likely futures. 

- The novel is full of illuminating quotations from ancient and modern writers and philosophers, which add a layer of depth to her story. 

- There are four main characters - Adrian, an academic whose obsession is death and its meaning; his young friend Kezi, a creative paper manufacturer and artist; Laura, a town planner; and Tony, also an academic and her husband.

- The novel is also a love letter to inner city Melbourne, and to its cafes, parks, gardens, flowers and birds. And it's a demolition of the current state of our universities, how they're being so seriously underfunded and mismanaged. 

- Adrian is now forty-three and alone. After ten years his wife Irene dumped him because he was boring. Both his parents died when he was a young child, and he was brought up by his grandparents. He's now finding it difficult to adjust to changes in his life. His interest in death came from his exposure to religion for the first time at university. ‘Life after life? It was an absurdity’. He's recently become a great fan of classical music, particularly Gustav Mahler's third symphony. It comforts him. As does Beethoven and Strauss. He's hooked on YouTube. 

-Kezi (Keziah) is twenty-eight and a lesbian. She is funny, warm and determined but with ‘an undertow of sadness'. She was raised in a weird Pentecostal community called Crossroads, founded by her parents. None of it made sense to Kezi. She became completely alienated from them and has had no contact with them for years. She remembers her parents refused to attend her high school graduation ceremony because she didn’t denounce her lesbianism. 

- She does miss the sense of community though - the comfort, the belonging, the love, the sanctuary. She quotes the bible often, and misses the church hymns and music. 

- Laura is fifty-seven, and a highly regarded urban development planner. She's a tall, elegant Jewish woman. Her husband is Tony, an entitled prick and humanities scholar who thinks he's a genius. Laura was an excellent student at Melbourne Uni, but she considered Tony a cut above with a ‘passion for the cerebral’. Their marriage has lasted for over thirty years, and they are still very much in love, or so it seems. ‘He held her together…Tony meant life to her, Tony gave her life’. But Laura would never get over not having children. Apparently Tony didn't want them. 

- Tony meets Adrian at a party and concludes ‘he’s a fuckwit’. Adrian had never liked Tony, considering him contrived and calculating, always laughing at the expense of others. 'He's arrogant and full of bombast...a third-rate academic...a cardboard cutout intellectual'. 

- Adrian, on seeing Laura for the first time at the party, becomes seriously attracted to her. They meet up for dinner in Carlton (near Readings, by the way!) and talk about books about death. They meet a number of times subsequently. She feels free talking to him. They enliven each other and begin to have frequent sex. 

- She also starts to realize who her husband really was. An abuser and controller, who demanded she obey or be damned. And she also discovers the big lie he's been telling her all along. 

- Kezi, having felt ill for some months, is diagnosed with leukaemia, and has not long to live. She was much loved in life, and is much loved in death. 

- The ending is profound and heart-breaking. There could have been other resolutions to the story, but Goldsmith has chosen brilliantly. 

- I can't recommend this book highly enough. It is a must read, which I predict will win many awards both in Australia and internationally. 

Peter Beinart, Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza

 

- This is a superb, thoroughly enlightening read. Beinart, in this short book, digs deep into the Israel-Palestine conflict and clarifies every contentious issue in lucid, clear prose. 

- He is a professor of journalism and political science at the City University of New York. And he is Jewish. He's frequently under attack by the Jewish lobby in the US, but refuses to be silent. 

- The back cover blurb succinctly describes the essence of the book:

In Peter Beinart's view, one story dominates Jewish communal life: that of persecution and victimhood. It is a story that erases much of the nuance of Jewish religious tradition and warps our understanding of Israel and Palestine. After Gaza, where Jewish texts, history and language have been deployed to justify mass slaughter and starvation, Jews must tell a new story. After this war, whose horror will echo for generations, they must do nothing less than offer a new answer to the question: What does it mean to be a Jew? 

- Beinart explores the origins of the conflict; Jewish beliefs about their ancestry as a 'chosen people'; other examples of racial, religious and colonial divides across the world, such as South Africa, Northern Ireland, and in the US, and how those conflicts were resolved, not totally but as best they could be. His scholarship and wisdom shine through, as does his compassion.

-An essential read. 

Omar El Akkad, American War

 

- This novel by acclaimed journalist Omar El Akkad, who was born in the Middle East and raised in Canada and the US, is an extremely powerful condemnation of the warmongering character of America. His most recent book is the superb non-fiction work One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This (which I reviewed here).

- Set in the future, in the years 2074-2095, it tells the story of the Second Civil War between the 'Blue North' and the 'Red South'. It depicts in graphic detail the ugliness and depravity of the conflict. 

- Its focus throughout is on personal and family relationships, and not on social realities in the future. There is nothing much on technology, no one has phones, there's nothing on the economy or global relationships, no mention of China or India. The only exception is the existence of a new nation in the middle east, a unity of all previous Arab nations. (No mention of Israel).

- But there are a lot of references to climate change. The weather, whatever the season, is unbearably hot with frequent and severe storms. Interestingly, while many US states are mentioned, the state of Florida is not. It's not on the map of the United States we're given in the opening pages of the book. We're to assume it simply disappeared by rising sea levels. 

- The causes of the new war are because the South vigorously resisted the Federal Government's decree to eliminate all ruinous fossil fuel corporations and government operations. All power is solar, including cars and trucks. 

- Ruins and decadence are everywhere, as is extreme poverty. We're confronted with the ugliness of authority and the military. It's also, in a serious way, anti-men. Men need wars because fighting is in their bones, fundamental to their nature. Women, on the other hand, mostly want peace and reconciliation, for the benefit of their children. The author is clear that this could be any war America has fought since its inception. 

- The principal character in the novel is the young woman Sara T. Chestnut, who goes by the name Sarat. She's strong, fierce and determined, and she fights for the South. She's African-American. 

- As the novel progresses we're taken on Sarat's journey and the family members and other characters she befriends during her life. She becomes highly respected in the Southern states and wanted by the North. She's a killer.  

- She is eventually captured and brutally tortured, but she survives and is freed when the war is officially over. But then she takes serious revenge. 

- The novel comes to a very satisfying resolution in the end. But it is still horrific. This is America after all. War is embedded in the national character. 

Colum McCann, Twist

 

- Colum McCann's novels are always worth reading. He tells big stories full of big characters and fills them with ruminations about virtually every dimension of humanity. Twist is no exception.  

- The story is told by Anthony Fennell, an Irish author and journalist who is researching an essay on undersea cables that link the entire world's internet and media communications. Unfortunately the cables are frequently snapped by vessels, debris, eruptions and earthquakes. Specialised boats staffed by a team of mechanics and technicians are always on call to locate and fix the broken cables. 

- A cable has snapped off the Congo in East Africa, downing the internet for virtually the entire African continent. A repair boat departs from Cape Town in South Africa, captained by John Conway, an Irish seaman and expert diver. He is highly respected by his team. But is Conway really who he proclaims to be? That mystery lies at the heart of the novel. 

- We are reminded of the the greed, the mining, and the plunder by the colonialists against the impoverished indigenous tribes of Africa. The discarded wires, for example, left abandoned by the repair boats are always melted down by the villagers to help them buy food. 

- After the Congo expedition is successfully completed Conway suddenly disappears, never to be found again. But we readers join him in Alexandria in Egypt, where he's posing as a local fisherman. He’s training himself in deep diving where he'll be able to hold his breath for long, ten minute or so, periods. He intends to bomb a number of cables using a thermite mixture. 

- And he’s successful. But then he disappears and no body is ever found.

- The media across the world widely covers these 'terrorist bombings', and five months later report that Conway's skeleton has been found washed up on a beach in Northern Libya. 

- There are other dimensions to the story: partners, lovers, and children particularly, that add richness and texture to it. 

- But, in the end, the question most readers will ask is: what on earth is the meaning of all this? What is Colum McCann's point? What, even, was Conway really on about? Why would the temporary destruction of the internet, of worldwide communication systems generally, be anything more than an insane and petty act of revenge? An anti-colonialist gesture? Sure, OK, but...

- An enjoyable tale, but it's just adventure writing. That's about it.