In This Issue
June 2005 in brief
Chloe Hooper in Young Libs in the Chocolate Factory.Charles Firth in "Over Here, Over-Fed, Over-Funded".Nicholas Shakespeare in "Oh My God...
More ...The Nation Reviewed
Comment
Richard Bourke
I am a capital defence lawyer in the deep south of the United States. What that means is I help defend people who have been accused or...
More ...The Nation Reviewed
Chilli Boo in Biker Boots
Katie Cohen
Chey Miles is a T-shirt designer. He would have to be really, dressed as he is in the edgiest of faded black garments, sleeves torn off at...
More ...The Nation Reviewed
Punishing Lauren
Helen Garner
One Tuesday morning in August last year, Lauren Curnow, a 17-year-old student at Ballarat Secondary College, told her parents that she felt...
More ...The Nation Reviewed
Conversation with Mrs Nitschke
Kerryn Goldsworthy
In a quiet Adelaide suburb on a sunny autumn day, Gwen Nitschke is sitting at her kitchen table. She is talking about her son, Philip, who...
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Stop the Pigeons
John Harms
In The Meaning of Liff, Douglas Adams’s book of words that should exist but don’t, he proposed the term “sheppy”: the closest distance,...
More ...The Monthly Essays
Young Libs in the Chocolate Factory: Tomorrow's Liberal leaders have issues with gays, greenies, young mums, Malcolm Fraser - and each other
Chloe Hooper
James Stevens, however, stands back, hands on hips. He is the 21-year-old president of the South Australian Young Liberals, a tanned,...
More ...The Monthly Essays
"Oh My God. He's Done it Again": Dobbing on Dr Raad
Nicholas Shakespeare
It was a late April morning in 2001 and my wife had taken our seven-month-old son to the Swansea surgery for a routine jab – the final set...
More ...The Monthly Essays
Over Here, Over Fed, Over-Funded: As destitute universities count their pennies, students at one Australian institution count their blessings
Charles Firth
It is seven years since I finished up at the University of Sydney, where there were 30 times the number of students ADFA has and yet no...
More ...Books
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...
More ...Story
Blind Date
Janette Turner ...
Though Peter, who is Lachlan’s best friend, is incensed by the special arrangements for the wedding, Lachlan himself does not care. All...
More ...Books
Brown Skin Black Hearts. Two trail-spotting postcards from two different Australias: 'Kayang & Me' by Kim Scott and Hazel Brown; 'Balanda' by Mary Ellen Jordan
Inga Clendinnen
A few years back Kim Scott wrote a novel about being of mixed descent in a racially divided society.Benang: From the Heart was a stunning...
More ...The Monthly Essays, Art
Boy's in a Hood: Ricky Swallow goes to Venice
Justin Clemens
An overturned bucket of fish, their jaws gaping with a death-rictus, pours out onto the tabletop. A crustacean on a plate is contorted, all...
More ...Film
No Screaming: Kore-eda Hirokazu's 'Nobody Knows'
Helen Garner
One fine day a young woman, Keiko, presents herself plausibly to the landlord of a Tokyo apartment as the mother of a studious-looking 12-...
More ...The Nation Reviewed, Music
Day of the Skinny Insect. Ballads, blues, babes and a man still expressing himself: 'B-sides and Rarities' by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Robert Forster
Nick Cave is the greatest rock artist Australia has produced. No contest. Somewhere in history there may have been a contender who never...
More ...Television, Noted
'Big Brother' Channel Ten
Kerryn Goldsworthy
Tragically, Big Brother is back. As with Australian Idol, this show’s soundtrack of non-stop hysteria is provided by a mob of nine-year-...
More ...Books, Noted
'Selling Sickness' by Ray Moynihan & Alan Cassels
Gail Bell
Ray Moynihan has been pursuing the pharmaceutical giants for more than a decade, first with his TV series and book Too Much Medicine? and...
More ...Books, Noted
'Birds of Australia's Top End' by Denise Lawungkurr Goodfellow
James Bradley
Early on in these pages, Denise Goodfellow marks out some territory. Relating her Aboriginal sister’s reaction to a picture of a cassowary...
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