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Absolutely Revolting

September 2013, no. 354

We have a bumper issue for you in September. In Advances the Editor reports on the PM’s Literary Awards ceremony in Brisbane, especially Michelle de Kretser’s electrifying speech. In our lead review Gillard biographer Jacqueline Kent writes about Kerry-Anne Walsh’s heart-on-sleeve account of Gillard’s deposition. It’s great when seasoned critics choose to rhapsodise. Peter Craven does just that in his review of the new Text Classics edition of Kenneth Mackenzie’s 1937 novel The Young Desire It. Also, keep an eye out for information about our events, fellowships, prizes, and performing arts reviews. ABR is so much more than just a magazine!

Maya Linden reviews The Whole of My World by Nicole Hayes
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Contents Category: YA Fiction
Custom Article Title: Maya Linden reviews 'The Whole of My World' by Nicole Hayes
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It’s the early 1980s in Melbourne. Shelley, aged fourteen, is obsessed with football. Discussions of the game are the one point of mutual interest that allows communication between Shelley and her father in the aftermath of the death of her mother.
Book 1 Title: The Whole of My World
Book Author: Nicole Hayes
Book 1 Biblio: Woolshed Press, $18.95 pb, 376 pp, 9781742758602
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It’s the early 1980s in Melbourne. Shelley, aged fourteen, is obsessed with football. Discussions of the game are the one point of mutual interest that allows communication between Shelley and her father in the aftermath of the death of her mother.

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Contents Category: YA Fiction
Custom Article Title: Laura Elvery reviews 'The Mimosa Tree' by Antonella Preto, 'All This Could End' by Steph Bowe, and 'Freya Lockhart's Summer of Awful' by Aimee Said
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Article Title: No picnic
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The relationships between daughters and their mothers provide fascinating, fertile ground for exploration. Mothers in books are sitting ducks, really, and these three new Young Adult books take aim. One mother is a cavalier, emotionally blackmailing bank robber; another is adored, but nosy and old-fashioned; while the third, obsessed with organic food, is diagnosed with cancer. In All This Could End (Text, $19.99 pb, 288 pp, 9781921758447), Steph Bowe challenges the controlling mother trope by portraying one who robs banks. Antonella Preto treads the complex terrain between an Italian migrant mother and her first-generation Australian daughter in The Mimosa Tree (Fremantle Press, $19.99 pb, 376 pp, 9781922089199), while the prospect of losing one’s mother encourages sweet soul-searching in Aimee Said’s new novel Freia Lockhart’s Summer of Awful (Walker Books, $16.95 pb, 288 pp, 9781921977800). If being a mother is tough, being a daughter is no picnic.
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 The relationships between daughters and their mothers provide fascinating, fertile ground for exploration. Mothers in books are sitting ducks, really, and these three new Young Adult books take aim. One mother is a cavalier, emotionally blackmailing bank robber; another is adored, but nosy and old-fashioned; while the third, obsessed with organic food, is diagnosed with cancer. In All This Could End (Text, $19.99 pb, 288 pp, 9781921758447), Steph Bowe challenges the controlling mother trope by portraying one who robs banks. Antonella Preto treads the complex terrain between an Italian migrant mother and her first-generation Australian daughter in The Mimosa Tree (Fremantle Press, $19.99 pb, 376 pp, 9781922089199), while the prospect of losing one’s mother encourages sweet soul-searching in Aimee Said’s new novel Freia Lockhart’s Summer of Awful (Walker Books, $16.95 pb, 288 pp, 9781921977800). If being a mother is tough, being a daughter is no picnic.

Read more: Laura Elvery reviews 'The Mimosa Tree' by Antonella Preto, 'All This Could End' by Steph Bowe, and...

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Peter Kenneally reviews Southerly Vol. 72, No. 3 edited by Elizabeth McMahon
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Contents Category: Journals
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Elizabeth McMahon is afflicted with the love of islands. In editing this issue of Southerly, her introduction tells us, she wanted to explore our fascination with them, in our imaginations and in our reality as an island continent surrounded by island nations.
Book 1 Title: Southerly Vol. 72, No. 3
Book Author: David Brooks and Elizabeth McMahon
Book 1 Biblio: Brandl & Schlesinger, $29.95 pb, 238 pp, 9781921556371
Book 1 Author Type: Editor
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Elizabeth McMahon is afflicted with the love of islands. In editing this issue of Southerly, her introduction tells us, she wanted to explore our fascination with them, in our imaginations and in our reality as an island continent surrounded by island nations.

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Grace Nye reviews Song for a Scarlet Runner by Julie Hunt
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Contents Category: Children's Fiction
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After several picture books and novels for early readers, Tasmanian author Julie Hunt moves into fiction for older readers with this lyrical fantasy adventure. Set in an imaginary world, but drawing on Gaelic and Anglo-Saxon folk-tale motifs, Song for a Scarlet Runner is a charming introduction to fantasy for young readers.
Book 1 Title: Song for a Scarlet Runner
Book Author: Julie Hunt
Book 1 Biblio: Allen & Unwin, $15. 99 pb, 316 pp, 9781743313589
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After several picture books and novels for early readers, Tasmanian author Julie Hunt moves into fiction for older readers with this lyrical fantasy adventure. Set in an imaginary world, but drawing on Gaelic and Anglo-Saxon folk-tale motifs, Song for a Scarlet Runner is a charming introduction to fantasy for young readers.

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Dion Kagan reviews Out of Shape by Mel Campbell
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Contents Category: Fashion
Subheading: Debunking Myths about Fashion and Fit
Custom Article Title: Dion Kagan reviews 'Out of Shape' by Mel Campbell
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Much has been said about our tendency to feel bad about our bodies, but not quite in the way Mel Campbell goes about it. The fit of clothes is a more interesting, if more elusive, cultural story than the predictable outrage over fashion’s ever slimmer bodies or recent storms about ‘plus size’ models. Out of Shape addresses these controversies but also goes to the frontline of fashion and fit: malls, big-brand manufacturers, and their fraught strategies for streamlining a comprehensible – and marketable – logic between clothing size and the heterogeneous human body. Though it is her first full-length work, the book explores a question that Campbell has been pondering in blogs, journalism, and reviews for years: why can finding clothes that fit well feel so torturous?
Book 1 Title: Out of Shape
Book 1 Subtitle: Debunking Myths about Fashion and Fit
Book Author: Mel Campbell
Book 1 Biblio: Affirm Press, $24.95 pb, 228 pp, 9781922213075
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Much has been said about our tendency to feel bad about our bodies, but not quite in the way Mel Campbell goes about it. The fit of clothes is a more interesting, if more elusive, cultural story than the predictable outrage over fashion’s ever slimmer bodies or recent storms about ‘plus size’ models. Out of Shape addresses these controversies but also goes to the frontline of fashion and fit: malls, big-brand manufacturers, and their fraught strategies for streamlining a comprehensible – and marketable – logic between clothing size and the heterogeneous human body. Though it is her first full-length work, the book explores a question that Campbell has been pondering in blogs, journalism, and reviews for years: why can finding clothes that fit well feel so torturous?

Read more: Dion Kagan reviews 'Out of Shape' by Mel Campbell

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