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Absolutely Revolting

December 2008–January 2009, no. 307

Welcome to the December 2008–January 2009 issue of Australian Book Review.

Stephanie Owen Reeder reviews The Art of Graeme Base by Julie Watts
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Contents Category: Picture Books
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Article Title: Visually resplendent puzzles
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When Graeme Base’s first picture book, My Grandma Lived in Gooligulch, was published in 1983, his exuberant illustrations and rollicking text produced a frisson. However, it was the incomparable ‘alphabet’ book Animalia (1986) that really launched Base’s career as a picture-book author–illustrator, and made him a publishing phenomenon in both Australia and the United States. In celebration of twenty-five years of Graeme Base picture books, his publisher, Penguin, has produced a glossy retrospective look at his work. Written by Julie Watts, a former editor and publisher at Penguin Books, The Art of Graeme Base is lavishly illustrated and engagingly written. The first chapter documents Base’s idyllic childhood in Britain and his migration to Australia with his family. The second charts his early adult life as a struggling graphic designer, aspiring rock star and budding illustrator. These chapters introduce the many talents, enthusiasms, influences and mentors that have shaped the Graeme Base ‘brand’. The next twelve chapters are devoted to in-depth revelations about the evolution and production of each of Base’s twelve books, including his most recent title, Enigma (2008). Many chapters also have a ‘Beyond the Book’ section, which explores the other formats that the indefatigable Base has ventured into as spin-offs from his books: television series, board books, dioramas, exhibitions and stage plays.
Book 1 Title: The Art of Graeme Base
Book Author: Julie Watts
Book 1 Biblio: Viking, $79.95 hb, 230 pp
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When Graeme Base’s first picture book, My Grandma Lived in Gooligulch, was published in 1983, his exuberant illustrations and rollicking text produced a frisson. However, it was the incomparable ‘alphabet’ book Animalia (1986) that really launched Base’s career as a picture-book author–illustrator, and made him a publishing phenomenon in both Australia and the United States. In celebration of twenty-five years of Graeme Base picture books, his publisher, Penguin, has produced a glossy retrospective look at his work. Written by Julie Watts, a former editor and publisher at Penguin Books, The Art of Graeme Base is lavishly illustrated and engagingly written. The first chapter documents Base’s idyllic childhood in Britain and his migration to Australia with his family. The second charts his early adult life as a struggling graphic designer, aspiring rock star and budding illustrator. These chapters introduce the many talents, enthusiasms, influences and mentors that have shaped the Graeme Base ‘brand’. The next twelve chapters are devoted to in-depth revelations about the evolution and production of each of Base’s twelve books, including his most recent title, Enigma (2008). Many chapters also have a ‘Beyond the Book’ section, which explores the other formats that the indefatigable Base has ventured into as spin-offs from his books: television series, board books, dioramas, exhibitions and stage plays.

Read more: Stephanie Owen Reeder reviews 'The Art of Graeme Base' by Julie Watts

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Contents Category: Poem
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Article Title: Nocturnal
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It’s midnight now and sounds like midnight then,
The words like distant stars that faintly grace
       The all-pervading dark of space,
       But not meant for the world of men.
                    It’s not what we forget
But what was never known we most regret
Discovery of. Checking one last cassette
Among my old unlabelled discards, few
Of which reward the playing, I find you.
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It’s midnight now and sounds like midnight then,
The words like distant stars that faintly grace
       The all-pervading dark of space,
       But not meant for the world of men.
                    It’s not what we forget
But what was never known we most regret
Discovery of. Checking one last cassette
Among my old unlabelled discards, few
Of which reward the playing, I find you.

Read more: 'Nocturnal' a poem by Stephen Edgar

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Riaz Hassan reviews Descent into Chaos: How the war against Islamic extremism is being lost in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia by Ahmed Rashid
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Contents Category: Non-fiction
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Article Title: Why Afghanistan?
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Two months ago, I was in Islamabad to address an international conference on suicide terrorism. The Pakistani army was engaged in heavy fighting with the Islamic militants in the Pashtun-dominated northern Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan. The security situation was deteriorating. Senior Pakistani intelligence officers were worried that it would lead to an escalation of suicide attacks. Their assessment was supported by the other government officials, including doctors working in the region, who told me of the widespread perception among Pashtuns that the predominantly Punjabi Pakistan army was committing genocide of the Pashtun nation and was thus turning the population against the army. The aerial bombings by Pakistani helicopter gunships and the US-NATO drones were causing many civilian casualties.
Book 1 Title: Descent into Chaos
Book 1 Subtitle: How the war against Islamic extremism is being lost in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia
Book Author: Ahmed Rashid
Book 1 Biblio: Allen Lane, $65 hb, 484 pp
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Two months ago, I was in Islamabad to address an international conference on suicide terrorism. The Pakistani army was engaged in heavy fighting with the Islamic militants in the Pashtun-dominated northern Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan. The security situation was deteriorating. Senior Pakistani intelligence officers were worried that it would lead to an escalation of suicide attacks. Their assessment was supported by the other government officials, including doctors working in the region, who told me of the widespread perception among Pashtuns that the predominantly Punjabi Pakistan army was committing genocide of the Pashtun nation and was thus turning the population against the army. The aerial bombings by Pakistani helicopter gunships and the US-NATO drones were causing many civilian casualties.

I heard reports of suicide bombings spreading to other cities in the country. Ten days after I left Islamabad, the Marriott Hotel where I had been staying was destroyed by a devastating suicide attack. Since then there has been a marked increase in daily suicide attacks in Pakistan. The news from Afghanistan, where the Australian army is fighting the insurgent Taliban, is becoming bleaker by the day.

Read more: Riaz Hassan reviews 'Descent into Chaos: How the war against Islamic extremism is being lost in...

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Sarah Ogilvie reviews Speaking our Language: The story of Australian English by Bruce Moore
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Contents Category: Language
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Article Title: Biographer of words
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Sir James Murray, the famous editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, believed that the dictionary-maker’s job was to furnish each word with a biography.
Book 1 Title: Speaking our Language
Book 1 Subtitle: The story of Australian English
Book Author: Bruce Moore
Book 1 Biblio: OUP, $29.95 pb, 225 pp
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Sir James Murray, the famous editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, believed that the dictionary-maker’s job was to furnish each word with a biography.

In Speaking Our Language, the Australian lexicographer Bruce Moore has taken Murray’s dictum to its ultimate conclusion: he has furnished a biography of our nation using its words – their pronunciation, meaning and form. The result is a story rooted in fine scholarship and research, told with a skilful lightness of touch.

Read more: Sarah Ogilvie reviews 'Speaking our Language: The story of Australian English' by Bruce Moore

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Rebecca Starford reviews Ma Folie Française by Marisa Raoul
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Contents Category: Memoir
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Article Title: A year in italics
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Marisa Raoul’s memoir recounts the ten years she spent living and working with her husband in France. With French travel memoirs lining bookshop shelves – such as Ellie Nielsen’s Buying a Piece of Paris (2007), Mark Greenside’s I’ll Never Be French (no matter what I do) and Lucy Knisley’s French Milk (both 2008) and, of course, Peter Mayle’s wildly popular A Year in Provence (1991) – Raoul is treading safe, and commercially viable, waters.
Book 1 Title: Ma Folie Française
Book Author: Marisa Raoul
Book 1 Biblio: Transit Lounge, $29.95 pb, 195 pp
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Marisa Raoul’s memoir recounts the ten years she spent living and working with her husband in France. With French travel memoirs lining bookshop shelves – such as Ellie Nielsen’s Buying a Piece of Paris (2007), Mark Greenside’s I’ll Never Be French (no matter what I do) and Lucy Knisley’s French Milk (both 2008) and, of course, Peter Mayle’s wildly popular A Year in Provence (1991) – Raoul is treading safe, and commercially viable, waters.

In the early 1990s Raoul meets her future French husband, Jean (to readers’ chagrin, all French words are italicised in Ma Folie Française), while working as an air hostess. Within hours she knows that Jean is the one (‘He literally charmed the pants off me’), and the pair falls rapturously in love. In between their working holidays in the world’s most exotic locales, they move into a ‘one-bedder’ in Manly.

Read more: Rebecca Starford reviews 'Ma Folie Française' by Marisa Raoul

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