Arts & Letters: Books
CULTURE
Randy House: EL James’ 'Fifty Shades of Grey'
Malcolm Knox
When a new book series emerges from the swill of online fan fiction to sell 250,000 copies, dominate the New York Times e-book bestseller...
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SOCIETY
On a Mission: John Strehlow’s 'The Tale of Frieda Keysser'
Peter Sutton
Among a right-thinking crowd you can still get a laugh with a missionary joke. At the 2008 conference of the Association of Social...
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CULTURE
Age of Innocence: Frank Moorhouse’s 'Cold Light'
David Marr
Edith Campbell Berry has crashed to earth in Canberra circa 1950. She is no longer wanted abroad. All her years at the League of Nations...
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Clueless: Michael Lewis’ 'The Big Short'
Kate Jennings
The financial crisis marked its dismal second anniversary in March. In the US, 3 million households are expected to be served with...
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Dead Disturbing. A bloodthirsty tale that plays with the fire of anti-semitism: 'Dead Europe' by Christos Tsiolkas
Robert Manne
When George Orwell was in Burma he asked a young boy he met his nationality. “I am a Joo, sir!” He was no more self-conscious than if he...
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Between a Muddle & a Mystery: Brian Dibble’s 'Doing Life'
Drusilla Modjeska
If, by her own admission, order was not a "strong point" for Elizabeth Jolley, it is a badge of honour for her biographer, Brian Dibble....
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POLITICS
New Labor Dreaming: Troy Bramston’s 'Looking for the Light on the Hill'
Maxine McKew
Coming from New South Wales, a state that has made an artform of decapitating leaders, Bramston doesn’t always follow the logic of his own...
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WORLD
When the Centre Cannot Hold: Joan Didion’s 'Blue Nights'
Inga Clendinnen
Along with many others, I was first drawn to Joan Didion when I read her 1967 essay ‘Slouching towards Bethlehem’. It presented a...
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SOCIETY
Clean As You Go: A Correspondence with Clive James
Paola Totaro
Unfortunately my health is indecent at the moment. I’m in Addenbrooke’s being seen to but I should be back in London next week and I’ll...
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CULTURE
'Her Father’s Daughter' By Alice Pung
Brenda Walker
Alice Pung’s first book, Unpolished Gem (2006), was the work of a young, amusing and astute writer. While Her Father’s Daughter again makes...
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CULTURE
'Sarah Thornhill' By Kate Grenville
Delia Falconer
Each of the three books in Kate Grenville’s loose trilogy – The Secret River (2005), The Lieutenant (2008) and now Sarah Thornhill – is an...
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WORLD
The Magic of Exile: Anna Funder’s 'All That I Am'
David Marr
To those who fled the Nazis in the middle of the 1930s, the British gave only temporary protection. Their visas stipulated “no political...
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SOCIETY
A Grand History: John Hirst on Mark McKenna’s 'An Eye for Eternity'
John Hirst
Mark McKenna’s An Eye for Eternity: The Life of Manning Clark (Miegunyah Press, 816pp; $54.99) is a challenging biography because it will...
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MEDIA
Too Much Information: Andrew Charlton on Lindsay Tanner’s 'Sideshow'
Andrew Charlton
Recently I had dinner with a group of friends including a well-known political journalist. When I told him I was working my way through the...
More ...Case Histories: Hans Keilson’s 'The Death of the Adversary' and 'Comedy in a Minor Key'
Inga Clendinnen
Hans Keilson, a retired psychiatrist of German birth who lives in Amsterdam, was four months away from his one-hundred-and-first birthday...
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WORLD
Parallel Lives: Mark Twain and his Autobiography: Volume 1
Peter Robb
A big book by Mark Twain became a bestseller in the US following its publication last November, a hundred years after its author’s death....
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SOCIETY
'Hand Me Down World' By Lloyd Jones
Delia Falconer
“I was with her at the first hotel on the Arabian Sea. That was for two years. Then at the hotel in Tunisia for three years. At the first...
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SOCIETY
Magical Thinking: Aravind Adiga on VS Naipaul’s 'The Masque of Africa'
Aravind Adiga
For over 40 years now, VS Naipaul has met, interviewed and annoyed people in dozens of countries to produce a body of travel writing that...
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POLITICS
Man of Wood: Robert Manne on John Howard’s 'Lazarus Rising'
Robert Manne
Having wrestled with this long and boring book for six entire days, I was astonished when I finally realised how little I had discovered...
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SOCIETY
Shadow Play: Peter Robb’s 'Street Fight in Naples: A Book of Art and Insurrection'
Sebastian Smee
The first time I read Peter Robb’s Midnight in Sicily was also the first time I travelled around Sicily. The first and only. I remember at...
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