October 2009
The Other Biography: Jacqueline Kent's "The Making of Julia Gillard"
Christine Wallace
If attention from biographers augurs well for a politician’s career, then Julia Gillard looks good for the Lodge when Kevin Rudd’s day is...
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SOCIETY
Frank Sinatra & Bob Hawke
“A funny thing happened in Australia,” Frank Sinatra told a New York audience. “I made a mistake and got off the plane.”The plane in...
More ...SOCIETY
"Barley Patch" by Gerald Murnane: Giramondo Publishing, 320pp; $27.95
Louis Nowra
There are times at the end of an author’s career when a book review is almost a redundant exercise. This holds equally true for bestselling...
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"Piano Lessons" by Anna Goldsworthy: Black Inc., 224 pp; $27.95
Zora Simic
At first glance, Anna Goldsworthy’s memoir, Piano Lessons, appears rather modest: she revisits her childhood and adolescence in comfortably...
More ...SOCIETY
Tasmanian Devils: Jonathan auf der Heide's "Van Diemen's Land"
Luke Davies
“There’s nothing to a piece of man,” intones the mellifluous voice-over (in Gaelic, with subtitles) late in Jonathan auf der Heide’s...
More ...SOCIETY
Beautiful Waste: The Poetry of David McComb
Robert Forster
David McComb, who passed away in 1999 at the age of 36, was the lead singer and songwriter of The Triffids. The band began their career in...
More ...SOCIETY
Feral Howl: Arundhati Roy's "Listening to Grasshoppers"
Tim Soutphommasane
As a schoolboy in Sydney, I found that my summertime lessons would inevitably be drowned out by the clicking of cicadas. Many find the...
More ...SOCIETY
C'est la vie: Edmund Capon's "I Blame Duchamp"
Sebastian Smee
No one ever seems surprised by Edmund Capon’s success, for he is charm incarnate. He has led one of Australia’s most visited art galleries...
More ...CULTURE
Curtain Call: Joan Sutherland
Peter Conrad
With the connivance of an airline official, her husband Richard Bonynge had caught the first flight out to London; the diva was left behind...
More ...SOCIETY
In Retreat: Gentlemen's Clubs
Malcolm Knox
Invited to speak at The Australian Club in Sydney a couple of years ago, I felt reticent about telling, say, my wife where I was going....
More ...SOCIETY
Mash-up: A Short History of the Media Future
John Birmingham
The formal library, in contrast, has none of this. Occupying the centre of the original house, its one nod to modernity is a rather groovy...
More ...POLITICS
The Insider: Paul Kelly's "The March of Patriots"
Robert Manne
We have known for several years that Paul Kelly was preparing to publish the sequel to The End of Certainty. Last month it finally appeared...
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SOCIETY
Bad Behaviour
Gay Bilson
My daughter, who is in her thirties, was doing the dishes. I began to dry. You can’t have a conversation with a dishwashing machine. We...
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SOCIETY
Death Notice
Benjamin Law
The story goes like this: Ernest Hemingway, master of literary economy, is challenged to write a narrative in 10 words or less. Hemingway,...
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SOCIETY
Dance With Me, Baby
Clare Press
It’s a sparkling Sunday afternoon, and three grimacing youths are loitering in the bile-green doorway of Off Ya Tree, that marvellously...
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SOCIETY
Socratic Dialogues
Alan Saunders
“My idea of heaven is sitting in my garden with the sun on my back, a cup of tea and someone I love,” says a woman at the back of the room...
More ...Purgatory
Leigh Sales
Nicola has the sunken face of a long-term junkie. She looks about 50 but is probably much younger. She is painfully skinny in tight jeans...
More ...Comment: Parrallel Imports
Elliot Perlman
Dear Prime Minister,In the February Monthly you wrote that “the great neo-liberal experiment of the past 30 years has failed … and the free...
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POLITICS
Comment: Afghanistan
Hugh White
Few of us are pacifists, so most of us accept that these strategic decisions must sometimes be made. But, in Australia, we have not faced...
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7 February 2012
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