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May 2013, no. 351

The May issue contains many highlights. Distinguished author-critic Kerryn Goldsworthy, in a long article titled ‘Everyone’s a Critic’, surveys the current state of book reviewing, both in print and online. Comments by senior critics and literary editors make this essential reading for anyone interested in the health of our critical culture. Andrew Fuhrmann rips into the new production of A Clockwork Orange. We review major new novels by Andrea Goldsmith and Ashley Hay, and Melinda Harvey reviews Alice Munro’s latest valedictory collection of stories. Thanks to the generosity of our Patrons, we also advertise the new ABR Patrons’ Editorial Internship, worth $20,000.

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Contents Category: Children's Fiction
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Article Title: Fine friends
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Animals and friends are a perennial subject in children’s literature, and the junior novels and series books reviewed here highlight those interests. Most of these titles, however, are also notable because they are told with humour, even whilst exposing the anxieties of children.

Fog a Dox (Magabala Books, $19.95 pb, 111 pp, 9781921248559) is a new novel for primary-aged children by esteemed Indigenous writer Bruce Pascoe. The intriguing title springs from fox cub Fog, one of three pups rescued by ‘tree feller’ Albert Cutts and reared by his dingo-cross dog, Brim. Fog’s vixen sisters leave when they are old enough to survive on their own, but Fog stays, balancing his fox instincts with learned dog behaviour; Albert describes him as a ‘dox’.

Book 1 Title: Fog a Dox
Book Author: Bruce Pascoe
Book 1 Biblio: Magabala Books, $19.95 pb, 111 pp
Book 1 Author Type: Author
Book 2 Title: Figaro and Rumba and the Crocodile Cafe
Book 2 Author: Anna Fienberg
Book 2 Biblio: Allen & Unwin, $19.99 hb, 96 pp
Book 2 Author Type: Author
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Animals and friends are a perennial subject in children’s literature, and the junior novels and series books reviewed here highlight those interests. Most of these titles, however, are also notable because they are told with humour, even whilst exposing the anxieties of children.

Fog a Dox (Magabala Books, $19.95 pb, 111 pp, 9781921248559) is a new novel for primary-aged children by esteemed Indigenous writer Bruce Pascoe. The intriguing title springs from fox cub Fog, one of three pups rescued by ‘tree feller’ Albert Cutts and reared by his dingo-cross dog, Brim. Fog’s vixen sisters leave when they are old enough to survive on their own, but Fog stays, balancing his fox instincts with learned dog behaviour; Albert describes him as a ‘dox’.

Read more: Joy Lawn reviews 'Fog a Dox' Bruce Pascoe, 'Figaro and Rumba and the Crocodile Cafe' Anna...

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Angela E. Andrewes reviews We Are Not The Same Anymore by Chris Somerville
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Contents Category: Fiction
Custom Article Title: Angela E. Andrewes reviews 'We Are Not The Same Anymore' by Chris Somerville
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Article Title: Chris Somerville We Are Not the Same Anymore
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Finishing Chris Somerville’s début story collection, We Are Not the Same Anymore, I felt a sense of alienation and ennui. Somerville writes with a stylistic sparseness that is deceptively simple but that repays rereading. Passages of awkwardness and deep introspection are punctuated by moments of humour, warmth, and vulnerability. Embedded within this stark territory, these moments make the journey more enjoyable.

 

Book 1 Title: We Are Not The Same Anymore: Stories
Book Author: Chris Somerville
Book 1 Biblio: University of Queensland Press, $19.95 pb, 185 pp
Book 1 Author Type: Author
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Finishing Chris Somerville’s début story collection, We Are Not the Same Anymore, I felt a sense of alienation and ennui. Somerville writes with a stylistic sparseness that is deceptively simple but that repays rereading. Passages of awkwardness and deep introspection are punctuated by moments of humour, warmth, and vulnerability. Embedded within this stark territory, these moments make the journey more enjoyable.

Read more: Angela E. Andrewes reviews 'We Are Not The Same Anymore' by Chris Somerville

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Bronwyn Lea reviews Burial Rites by Hannah Kent
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Custom Article Title: Bronwyn Lea reviews 'Burial Rites' by Hannah Kent
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Article Title: Ambiguous Agnes
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A novel that can be summarised in a single, captivating sentence is a publisher’s dream. Not that ease of marketing is a reliable measure of excellence. Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse (1927), for instance – which could be described as ‘the story of a mother who dies before taking her son to visit a lighthouse, and later a woman completes a painting’ – achieved classic status despite an unpropitious précis. Woolf’s genius aside, it is difficult to imagine a sentence like that sparking an international bidding war of the kind that erupted last year over Hannah Kent’s first novel. Burial Rites – ‘the story of the last woman to be beheaded in Iceland’ – reportedly netted Kent a considerable advance.

Book 1 Title: Burial Rites
Book Author: Hannah Kent
Book 1 Biblio: Picador, $32.99 pb, 352 pp
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A novel that can be summarised in a single, captivating sentence is a publisher’s dream. Not that ease of marketing is a reliable measure of excellence. Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse (1927), for instance – which could be described as ‘the story of a mother who dies before taking her son to visit a lighthouse, and later a woman completes a painting’ – achieved classic status despite an unpropitious précis. Woolf’s genius aside, it is difficult to imagine a sentence like that sparking an international bidding war of the kind that erupted last year over Hannah Kent’s first novel. Burial Rites – ‘the story of the last woman to be beheaded in Iceland’ – reportedly netted Kent a considerable advance.

Read more: Bronwyn Lea reviews 'Burial Rites' by Hannah Kent

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Milly Main reviews Harmless by Julienne van Loon
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A drunken woman stumbles into a party where people are gathered around a bonfire, determined to give the baby girl under her jacket to its father. When he refuses, she seizes the baby by the foot and throws it into the air above the fire. The child is Amanda and this is her start to a life that will be informed by criminals, harmed people – the crushed, flawed, abused. The image of Amanda as a baby – underweight, ‘wide-eyed’, suspended over the fire – effloresces and settles through this novella by Julienne van Loon.

 

Book 1 Title: Harmless
Book Author: Julienne van Loon
Book 1 Biblio: Fremantle Press, $22.99 pb, 137 pp
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A drunken woman stumbles into a party where people are gathered around a bonfire, determined to give the baby girl under her jacket to its father. When he refuses, she seizes the baby by the foot and throws it into the air above the fire. The child is Amanda and this is her start to a life that will be informed by criminals, harmed people – the crushed, flawed, abused. The image of Amanda as a baby – underweight, ‘wide-eyed’, suspended over the fire – effloresces and settles through this novella by Julienne van Loon.

Read more: Milly Main reviews 'Harmless' by Julienne van Loon

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Jay Daniel Thompson reviews The Passion of Bradley Manning: The story behind the Wikileaks whistleblower by Chase Madar
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Contents Category: Politics
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Article Title: Çhase Madar, 'The Passion of Bradley Manning'
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Bradley Manning is famous for being the US soldier who supplied WikiLeaks with its ‘choicest material’. In The Passion of Bradley Manning, Chase Madar argues that Manning is a national hero who has been wrongfully punished for his actions ...

Book 1 Title: The Passion of Bradley Manning
Book 1 Subtitle: The Story Behind the Wikileaks Whistleblower
Book Author: Chase Madar
Book 1 Biblio: Verso, $19.99 pb, 181 pp
Book 1 Author Type: Author
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Bradley Manning is famous for being the US soldier who supplied WikiLeaks with its ‘choicest material’. In The Passion of Bradley Manning, Chase Madar argues that Manning is a national hero who has been wrongfully punished for his actions.

Read more: Jay Daniel Thompson reviews 'The Passion of Bradley Manning: The story behind the Wikileaks...

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