
- Free Article: No
- Contents Category: Journal
- Custom Article Title: Cassandra Atherton reviews 'Island: issue 132', edited by Rachel Edwards and Matthew Lamb
- Review Article: Yes
- Article Title: Island 132
- Online Only: No
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The Kantian epigraph to this issue of Island points to an exploration of the island as ‘the land of truth’, with the ocean around it as ‘the native home of illusion’. In this way, the translation of experience, both real and imagined, is navigated in clever and topical ways. The emphasis on ‘island’ as a micro-metonym for Tasmania demonstrates that while there are changes afoot at Island, the new editors, Matthew Lamb and Rachel Edwards, have remained steadfastly loyal to its ‘Tasmanian-ness’. Issue 132 showcases the new A4 format. The content is as rigorous and engaging as ever, but the design and layout have more in common with the sinking Cartela on its cover. While the larger format has increased the content, it is at the cost of a rather gauche and cheap-looking publication. (Indeed, pages are falling out of my copy.) Tom O’Hern’s artwork adorns whole pages, and though his huge black-and-white illustrations of skulls and decomposition are repetitive and predictable, his double-paged industrial ‘Behemoth’ demonstrates his flair.
- Book 1 Title: Island 132
- Book 1 Biblio: Island Magazine, $19.99 pb, 96 pp, 9780987471901
Two of the best essays are the ones that Lamb is concerned might seem ‘disconnected’. Julianne Schultz’s ‘Towards a National Cultural Policy’ and Briony Kidd’s ‘The Life and Times of Geoff and Liz Dean’ are fascinating investigations into ‘cultural value’. Furthermore, Daniel Hahn’s ‘Translation Is?’, Geordie Williamson’s profile of Amanda Lohrey, and John Kinsella’s ‘On the Use and Abuse of Poetry’ are compulsive reading.
Of the fiction and poetry, Kit Kelen’s triptych of poems about death is a standout (‘when / your date’s set in stone / on the far side / of a hyphen’), and fiction by Carmel Bird and Carmen Cromer is memorable. However, it is Ryan O’Neill who pulls focus with his brilliantly witty narrative ‘Auntie’s Story’. His notes to the reader are reminiscent of Italo Calvino and Dave Eggers. Island ’s strength is its commitment to the ‘voyage of discovery’ between its pages.
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