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. 

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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. 

Omar El Akkad, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This

 

- This is an extraordinarily powerful book. Omar El Akkad is an author and journalist. He was born in Egypt, grew up in Qatar, moved to Canada as a teenager and now lives as a US citizen in the United States. His debut novel, American War, was named by the BBC as one of one hundred novels that shaped our world. 

- It is beautifully written in often poetic prose. He focuses on the abject racism and colonialism of the West. His prime focus is today's genocide taking place in Gaza, but he also digs deep into the many issues over the last few decades that have defined the anti-Arab character of much of what the West, led by the US, has done. The invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan and the disgrace that is Guantanamo Bay are central.

- The concept of 'terrorism' is examined in depth. As an Arab he feels the abject racism constantly. The supposition is that if you're an Arab then you're probably a terrorist. 'Terrorism as a societal designation...is applied almost exclusively to Brown people.'

- One aspect of the book that impressed me was his hatred of the centrist Democrats, led by Biden, who continued to support Israel at every level as the genocide proceeded. Their vetoing of the UN resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire for example, their continued funding, the deliberate withholding of aid and destruction of infrastructure, the ordering of residents into 'safe zones' and then wiped out there. The same framing is always used: 'The barbarians instigate and the civilised are forced to respond. The starting point of history can always be shifted'. 

- Continuing to support the Democrats when they continue to support Israel’s genocide is morally wrong. It doesn't matter that the Republicans might be worse. What matters is who you vote for. 'There is something stomach-churning about watching a parade of Biden administration press secretaries offer sincere expressions of concern for Palestinians as the same administration bankrolls their butcher'. 

- He condemns the media and their management for demanding that 'the journalist cannot be an activist, must remain allegiant to a self-erasing neutrality. Yet journalism at its core is one the most activist endeavors there is. A journalist is supposed to agitate against power, against privilege. Against the slimy wall of press releases and PR nothingspeak that has come to protect every major business and government boardroom ever since Watergate. A reporter is supposed to agitate against silence...So instead, the coverage shifts to a flattened mode, listing claim and counterclaim, measuring the impact on poll numbers...Listing one position and then the other and letting the reader make up their own mind fails entirely..' 

- El Akkad's chapters on the cascade of institutional gutlessness in the arts and higher education worlds are superb. The same thing is happening in Australia, as we know. 'There are young people all over the West  risking expulsion and defamation, risking their livelihoods, their entire careers, to protest the killing. There are Jews being arrested on the streets of Frankfurt, blocking Grand Central Station in New York, fighting for peace. There are indigenous communities who have suffered the Western World's most unspeakable atrocities and still find the will to stand up for an occupied land on the other side of the planet, who recognise a thing for what it is.'   

- An honest, personal, radical assessment of the Western world's sick and violent behaviour over the generations. An essential and inspiring read. 

Diana Reid, Signs of Damage

 

- Prize-winning Australian author Diana Reid's third novel once again focuses on personal and family relationships and their intricate dynamics. She takes a microscope to her main characters and is relentless at examining them in detail. In this novel she explores the legacies of broken families, abandoned children, and sexual abuse. She digs deep but does it with extreme subtlety and compassion. 

- The book becomes, as it proceeds, more of a murder mystery than anything else. An intriguing one, right to the end. If 'end' is the appropriate word.  

- The chapters alternate between what happened in 2008, and what's happening now in 2024. Abuse in France in 2008 and the longterm effects still felt in 2024. 

- The main character Cass was trapped in an old icehouse on the grounds of a large villa in France when she was thirteen. The door closed after her and she was imprisoned in the small dark place for three hours. Later in life she started to suffer frequent seizures, which could have been epilepsy, or something else, perhaps a neurological reaction to abuse. Psychosomatic, in other words. 

- The other main character is Anika, Cass's long time friend. She was also groped in the icehouse during the same holiday in 2008. She's a delightful character, rebellious but a thinker. 

- Who was the perpetrator? 

- Reid tells the story in sometimes dense prose, and too frequently bogs the reader down in psychological analysis, nevertheless we're totally sucked in. So as it proceeds the novel becomes unputdownable. 

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Jeremy Cooper, Brian

 

- This is a delightful story of a sad, lonely, middle-aged man who gets hooked on movies. He sees a movie every night at the British Film Institute. His favourite movies are Japanese, but as the years progress he becomes an expert on quality films, their directors, producers and actors. He joins a small group of film buffs who talk each night about the movies they've seen, and becomes friendly with Jack, another isolated man living alone. Jack is fascinated by musical scores.  

- Northern Irish by birth, Brian has lived and worked in London all his adult life, and has always been estranged from his family. His father died when Brian was a baby and his mother abandoned him. He's never been in an intimate relationship, and has never had sex. He works as a clerk at the local council, and doesn't like any of his co-workers, and they return the favour. Apart from his boss who sees him as a dedicated worker.  

- He goes to a local Italian restaurant each day for lunch and always has the pasta special. Lorenzo, the owner, and his wife and family treasure him as a customer and he is attracted to them. 

- One thing I really loved about this novel is the dozens of familiar movies that are dissected by Brian and the buffs each night. I've seen most of them over the years and agreed with most of their insights. French, Italian and German directors, as well as Japanese, are a prime focus. 

- And there's this: The buffs...were driven to neurotic distraction by the mid-film munch of a Mars Bar or, worst of all, the maddening crinkle-crunch of a packet of crisps. My pet peeve too!

- Jeremy Cooper has written a wonderful book. It's only 180 pages long but it's packed with insight and beautifully written. 

- I must end with this:

The principle of good behaviour had always mattered to Brian. Certain conduct he condemned as bad manners, thoughtless. Like being any more than a minute or two late for an appointment. Brian incessantly worried about failing to arrive on time, for anything, anywhere, and for safety's sake wore a watch on either wrist in case one went wrong - though the benefit, he admitted, was marginal as he had no means of knowing, if they differed, which of them was accurate. One of the few things which made him demonstrably angry was a latecomer to the cinema pushing by and blocking his view of crucial early shots of a movie. He had been known to refuse to get to his feet to let people pass and had twice written to the Chief Executive of the BFI to plead for the cinema's doors to be barred from entry once a film was in progress.

Han Kang, We Do Not Part

- This newly translated novel by 2024 Nobel prizewinner Han Kang is a frequently strange but in the end mesmerising tale of death, vulnerability, and the savagery of war. I'm a great fan of Kang, having read two of her previous novels The Vegetarian and Greek Lessons. She's a savage critic of South Korea, her home country, laying bare its misogyny, social conservatism, and ugly political history. 

- Under Japanese occupation until 1945, and then torn apart by the war between America and Russian-supported North Korean communists from 1950-1953, the scars run so deep in so many citizens that the effects are still profoundly felt decades later. Hundreds of thousands of citizens were brutalised and executed by the police and military forces of Japan, America and North Korea. 

- Kyungha, a writer, lives alone. She was a former journalist but now she barely survives in a non air-conditioned, dilapidated apartment. She's isolated and lonely, and eats little. Any meaning in her life seems to have evaporated. We soon learn why. She suffers from vivid dreams and nightmares, as well as harsh migraines.

- She has one real friend Inseon, who was a photojournalist and is now a carpenter. She made documentaries, one featuring an old woman who fought the Japanese in the 1940’s, and escaped a shower of bullets. Inseon also lives alone in the island of Jeju, south of the mainland, with only two budgies to keep her company. When Kyungha visits Jeju on her friend's request to look after her surviving budgie for a month she finds the bird dead. 

- It's winter and it's constantly snowing and bitterly cold. Snow buries, an apt metaphor for a land of ugly secrets. There are black tree stumps littering the landscape. Also suggestive of the dead.  

- This is not an easy novel to read. Structurally, it meanders over time frames, leaving the reader confused, and there's a constant meshing of reality and dreaming. Yet, in a way, this is Kang's point. What is real? Is it the snow, or is it what's underneath? Why hide the ugliness? 

- Like Kang's other novels, We Do Not Part (there is so much meaning in that title) is a powerful whack in the stomach. In today's war-torn world it's an awakening. 

Pankaj Mishra, The World After Gaza

 

- This new book by celebrated Indian political essayist Pankaj Mishra is a masterpiece. It is so incredibly enlightening, thought-provoking and challenging. It's a reflection on Israel’s transition to a right wing, genocidal state over the decades.  

- It's full of quotes from major Jewish activists, politicians, thinkers and writers wrestling with the challenges the Jews faced after the Holocaust. The writings of Primo Levi, Hannah Arendt, Jean Amery, James Baldwin and many others are examined in depth. They convey deep insights into the struggles and debates over the last century after the founding of Israel.  

- The blurb on the dust jacket describes the book well:

The world after Gaza takes the war in the Middle East, and the bitterly polarised reaction to it within as well as outside the West, as the starting point for a broad re-evaluation of two competing narratives of the last century: the West's triumphant account of victory over Nazi and communist totalitarianism, and the spread of liberal capitalism, and the global majority's frequently thwarted vision of racial equality. At a moment when the world's balance of power is shifting and a long-dominant Western minority no longer commands the same authority and credibility, it is critically important to enter the experiences and perspectives of the majority of the world's population.  

As old touchstones and landmarks crumble, only a new history with a sharply different emphasis can reorientate us to the world and worldviews now emerging into the light. In this concise, powerful and pointed treatise, Mishra reckons with the fundamental questions posed by our present crisis - about whether some lives matter more than others, why identity politics built around memories of suffering is being widely embraced and why racial antagonisms are intensifying amid a far-right surge in the West, threatening a global conflagration. The World After Gaza is an indispensable moral guide to our past, present and future. 

Rachel Kushner, Creation

 

- This latest novel by acclaimed British author Rachel Kushner was shortlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize. I had not read any of her previous three novels so was attracted to it. And the back cover blurb was very enticing. Basically it's an ode to social protest and resistance, full of all sorts of whacky outsiders who hate what the government is doing to their rural communities in the provinces of France.

- Does it all add up to a powerful novel? No, not really. But it does have likeable elements, particularly the ending. 

- It's a mishmash of amateurish anthropology, astrology, sociology, philosophy and politics. One local and aging 'primitivist' in particular, who lives in a cave because that's what the Neanderthals did, is the main inspiration to the local communities. He writes long emails about how wrong and anti-human our modern civilisation is. ‘The world ruled by capital would not be dismantled. Instead, it had to be left behind...I deplore violence in all its forms'. 

- The other main person of influence in the commune is an 'activist', not a deep thinker. He has long been the head of a radical farming cooperative who are organising a huge and possibly violent protest against corporate and government plans to modernise the region by building massive dams, tunnels and agricultural operations that would effectively destroy the local communities. Capitalism must be destroyed and governments brought down, 

- The main character, thankfully, is a thirty-four year old American woman. She is a former FBI agent who is now privately contracted and has been instructed to insert herself into the commune to spy on their plans. 

- She gradually develops a real affection for the compound. The farming, the maintenance, the creche, are all impressive, and the people 'real'. ‘There are no politics inside of people.’ 

- There is plenty of drama as the story comes to a climax. It's by far the best part of the book, and the only really absorbing part in my view. 

(Here's an interesting bit: a politician has been invited to open the annual agricultural fair. He is accompanied by a Michel Thomas, a celebrated and mysterious author. Kushner must surely be satirising Michel Houellebecq! ‘Thomas was always at the scene of the crime, a bystander and observer to society’s convulsions….with a talent for washing up on the shores of chaos’).