Accessibility Tools

  • Content scaling 100%
  • Font size 100%
  • Line height 100%
  • Letter spacing 100%
Skip to main content
Absolutely Revolting

March 2014, no. 359

Welcome to the March issue! Morag Fraser continues her series of annual Letters from America about politics in the United States. Shane Carmody tackles Senator Bernardi’s revolutionary tract. Gideon Haigh writes about the strange torpor among investigative journalists prior to the GFC. Lisa Gorton surveys David Malouf’s poetic oeuvre with particular reference to his new collection, Earth Hour. We also review new films Tracks and Dallas Buyers Club, and Michael Gow’s new play at Belvoir, Once in Royal David’s City; while Patrick McCaughey writes about the majestically restored Rijksmuseum. All this and much more in your ABR!

Free Article: No
Contents Category: Children's Fiction
Review Article: Yes
Show Author Link: Yes
Show Byline: Yes
Article Title: Sequelitis
Article Subtitle: Ruth Starke reviews new titles in children's fiction
Online Only: No
Custom Highlight Text:

On the back of John Marsden’s new novel there is this warning: ‘This book is not a fantasy. It contains no superheroes, wizards, dragons, time-travel, aliens or magic.’ If it had also said, ‘and it is not part of a series’, I would have cheered even louder. At least I hope The Year My Life Broke (Pan Macmillan, $12.99 pb, 171 pp, 9781742613352) is a stand-alone and won’t rapidly be followed by The Year My Something-Else Broke. In junior fiction, the possibilities for sequels are endless.
Non-review Thumbnail:
Display Review Rating: No

On the back of John Marsden’s new novel there is this warning: ‘This book is not a fantasy. It contains no superheroes, wizards, dragons, time-travel, aliens or magic.’ If it had also said, ‘and it is not part of a series’, I would have cheered even louder. At least I hope The Year My Life Broke (Pan Macmillan, $12.99 pb, 171 pp, 9781742613352) is a stand-alone and won’t rapidly be followed by The Year My Something-Else Broke. In junior fiction, the possibilities for sequels are endless.

Read more: Ruth Starke reviews new titles in children's fiction

Write comment (0 Comments)
William Heyward reviews The Garden of Eros: The story of the Paris expatriates and the post-war literary scene by John Calder
Free Article: No
Contents Category: Literary Studies
Review Article: Yes
Show Author Link: Yes
Show Byline: Yes
Article Title: Publishing without limits
Online Only: No
Custom Highlight Text:

Great publishers seem to be scarcer than great writers, possibly because people grow up dreaming of being the next Hunter S. Thompson or Simone de Beauvoir rather than Sonny Mehta or Beatriz de Moura. Writers probably need publishers, but publishers definitely need writers. Such a fact has never seemed more tangible to me than as I read The Garden of Eros, John Calder’s account of the major literary events of his lifetime, which focuses on Maurice Girodias of Olympia Press, Barney Rosset of Grove Press, and Calder’s own Calder Publications. Between them they published dozens of the most important writers of the twentieth century: Marguerite Duras, Samuel Beckett, Vladimir Nabokov, Eugène Ionesco, Alexander Trocchi, William S. Burroughs, Claude Simon, Henry Miller … the list goes on. Calder himself published eighteen Nobel Prize winners.
Book 1 Title: The Garden of Eros
Book Author: John Calder
Book 1 Biblio: Calder Publications, $49.95 pb, 360 pp, 9780957452206
Book 1 Author Type: Author
Display Review Rating: No

Great publishers seem to be scarcer than great writers, possibly because people grow up dreaming of being the next Hunter S. Thompson or Simone de Beauvoir rather than Sonny Mehta or Beatriz de Moura. Writers probably need publishers, but publishers definitely need writers. Such a fact has never seemed more tangible to me than as I read The Garden of Eros, John Calder’s account of the major literary events of his lifetime, which focuses on Maurice Girodias of Olympia Press, Barney Rosset of Grove Press, and Calder’s own Calder Publications. Between them they published dozens of the most important writers of the twentieth century: Marguerite Duras, Samuel Beckett, Vladimir Nabokov, Eugène Ionesco, Alexander Trocchi, William S. Burroughs, Claude Simon, Henry Miller … the list goes on. Calder himself published eighteen Nobel Prize winners.

Read more: William Heyward reviews 'The Garden of Eros: The story of the Paris expatriates and the post-war...

Write comment (0 Comments)
Kevin Brophy reviews Towns in the Great Desert by Peter Boyle
Free Article: No
Contents Category: Poetry
Custom Article Title: Kevin Brophy reviews Peter Boyle's new collection of poetry
Review Article: Yes
Show Author Link: Yes
Show Byline: Yes
Article Title: Millennial dust
Online Only: No
Custom Highlight Text:

Towns in the Great Desert, a New and Selected, may be the collection that defines Peter Boyle. Among Australian poets, Peter Boyle is an exotic, one who is likely to be read far into the future.
Book 1 Title: Towns in the Great Desert
Book Author: Peter Boyle
Book 1 Biblio: Puncher & Wattmann, $29.95 pb, 237 pp, 9781922186393
Book 1 Author Type: Author
Display Review Rating: No

Towns in the Great Desert, a New and Selected, may be the collection that defines Peter Boyle. Among Australian poets, Peter Boyle is an exotic, one who is likely to be read far into the future.

Read more: Kevin Brophy reviews 'Towns in the Great Desert' by Peter Boyle

Write comment (0 Comments)
Andy Lloyd James reviews Unsuitable for Publication: Editing Queen Victoria by Yvonne M. Ward
Free Article: No
Contents Category: Literary Studies
Review Article: Yes
Show Author Link: Yes
Show Byline: Yes
Article Title: Game of thrones
Online Only: No
Custom Highlight Text:

When Queen Victoria died she had ruled the British Empire for sixty-three years. In the same year as her ascent to the throne, the capital of the colony of Victoria was christened Melbourne, after her first prime minister. She died in 1901, soon after Federation. After her death, her real character remained largely unknown for decades (Lytton Strachey’s seminal biography was still twenty years hence). The public regarded Victoria as dour and was oblivious to her remarkable qualities. Any concern for her reputation was then lost beneath the carnage of two world wars and multiple mass conflicts. How this happened is the subject of Unsuitable for Publication.
Book 1 Title: Unsuitable for Publication
Book 1 Subtitle: Editing Queen Victoria
Book Author: Yvonne M. Ward
Book 1 Biblio: Black Inc., $29.99 pb, 288 pp, 9781863955942
Book 1 Author Type: Author
Display Review Rating: No

When Queen Victoria died she had ruled the British Empire for sixty-three years. In the same year as her ascent to the throne, the capital of the colony of Victoria was christened Melbourne, after her first prime minister. She died in 1901, soon after Federation. After her death, her real character remained largely unknown for decades (Lytton Strachey’s seminal biography was still twenty years hence). The public regarded Victoria as dour and was oblivious to her remarkable qualities. Any concern for her reputation was then lost beneath the carnage of two world wars and multiple mass conflicts. How this happened is the subject of Unsuitable for Publication.

Read more: Andy Lloyd James reviews 'Unsuitable for Publication: Editing Queen Victoria' by Yvonne M. Ward

Write comment (0 Comments)
Christopher Menz reviews The Agrarian Kitchen by Rodney Dunn and New Classics by Philippa Sibley
Free Article: No
Contents Category: Food
Custom Article Title: Christopher Menz visits 'The Agrarian Kitchen'
Review Article: Yes
Show Author Link: Yes
Show Byline: Yes
Article Title: Heterodox peas
Online Only: No
Custom Highlight Text:

Two quite different books from two very different chefs illustrate some major trends in cookery writing and publishing in Australia. One is by a city chef who runs a restaurant, and the other by a country chef who runs a cookery school.
Book 1 Title: The Agrarian Kitchen
Book Author: Rodney Dunn
Book 1 Biblio: Lantern, $59.99 hb, 273 pp, 9781921382451
Book 1 Author Type: Author
Book 2 Title: New Classics
Book 2 Author: Philippa Sibley
Book 2 Biblio: Hardie Grant Books, $49.95 hb, 272 pp, 9781742705408
Book 2 Author Type: Author
Book 2 Cover Small (400 x 600):
Book 2 Cover (800 x 1200):
Display Review Rating: No

Two quite different books from two very different chefs illustrate some major trends in cookery writing and publishing in Australia. One is by a city chef who runs a restaurant, and the other by a country chef who runs a cookery school.

Read more: Christopher Menz reviews 'The Agrarian Kitchen' by Rodney Dunn and 'New Classics' by Philippa Sibley

Write comment (0 Comments)

More Articles ...