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August 2006, no. 283

Welcome to the August 2006 issue of Australian Book Review.

Jonathan Pearlman reviews ‘Beyond Chutzpah: On the misuse of anti-semitism and the abuse of history’ by Norman G. Finkelstein and ‘Israel’s Holocaust and the Politics of Nationhood’ by Idith Zertal
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Contents Category: Non-fiction
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Article Title: ‘A beautiful shoah’
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Beyond chutzpah is a long, tedious and barely readable rant, known less for its content than for the childless controversy it succeeded in provoking. Despite the promise of its subtitle, the book makes no meaningful attempt to describe or to understand the misuses of anti-Semitism. It is, instead, an obsessive assault on another book, The Case For Israel (2003), by the Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, who has gained prominence for defending O.J. Simpson, Mike Tyson, Klaus von Bülow and, more recently, Israel.

Book 1 Title: Beyond Chutzpah
Book 1 Subtitle: On the misuse of anti-semitism and the abuse of history
Book Author: Norman G. Finkelstein
Book 1 Biblio: Verso, $35 hb, 332 pp
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Book 2 Title: Israel’s Holocaust and the Politics of Nationhood
Book 2 Author: Idith Zertal
Book 2 Biblio: CUP, $59.95 hb, 236 pp
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Beyond chutzpah is a long, tedious and barely readable rant, known less for its content than for the childless controversy it succeeded in provoking. Despite the promise of its subtitle, the book makes no meaningful attempt to describe or to understand the misuses of anti-Semitism. It is, instead, an obsessive assault on another book, The Case For Israel (2003), by the Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, who has gained prominence for defending O.J. Simpson, Mike Tyson, Klaus von Bülow and, more recently, Israel.

Read more: Jonathan Pearlman reviews ‘Beyond Chutzpah: On the misuse of anti-semitism and the abuse of...

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Dennis Altman reviews On Holidays: A history of getting away in Australia by Richard White and The Cities Book: A journey through the best cities in the world
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Contents Category: Non-fiction
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Article Title: On the upswing
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Despite the rhetoric of globalisation, it is impossible to buy an airline ticket online in the United States with a credit card issued abroad. When I needed a ticket from Boston to Washington last year, and after numerous unsuccessful arguments with airline websites and 1800 numbers, I dropped into the local Harvard travel agency. There was a welcome familiarity in discovering that it was a branch of STA, one of more than 400 branches operated around the world by the Australian-based company.

Book 1 Title: On Holidays
Book 1 Subtitle: A history of getting away in Australia
Book Author: Richard White
Book 1 Biblio: Pluto Press, $32.95 pb, 250 pp
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Book 2 Title: The Cities Book
Book 2 Subtitle: A journey through the best cities in the world
Book 2 Author: Lonely Planet
Book 2 Biblio: Lonely Planet, $79.95 hb, 428 pp
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Despite the rhetoric of globalisation, it is impossible to buy an airline ticket online in the United States with a credit card issued abroad. When I needed a ticket from Boston to Washington last year, and after numerous unsuccessful arguments with airline websites and 1800 numbers, I dropped into the local Harvard travel agency. There was a welcome familiarity in discovering that it was a branch of STA, one of more than 400 branches operated around the world by the Australian-based company.

Read more: Dennis Altman reviews 'On Holidays: A history of getting away in Australia' by Richard White and...

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Free Article: No
Contents Category: Journals
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Article Title: The company you keep
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St Augustine suggests that it is impossible to love something until we know it. Yet desire, he continues, prefigures the amount of love we will have for it once it is known. With an alluring collection of new writing, and the support of a prestigious advisory board, Wet Ink has made its début in the market of print journals, and it clearly intends to woo.

Book 1 Title: Wet Ink, Issue 1
Book 1 Subtitle: Summer 2005
Book Author: Phillip Edmonds and Dominique Wilson
Book 1 Biblio: $14.95 pb
Book 2 Title: Wet Ink, Issue 2
Book 2 Subtitle: Autumn 2006
Book 2 Author: Phillip Edmonds and Dominique Wilson
Book 2 Biblio: $14.95 pb
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St Augustine suggests that it is impossible to love something until we know it. Yet desire, he continues, prefigures the amount of love we will have for it once it is known. With an alluring collection of new writing, and the support of a prestigious advisory board, Wet Ink has made its début in the market of print journals, and it clearly intends to woo.

Read more: Lisa Bennett reviews 'Wet Ink, Issue 1: Summer 2005' and 'Wet Ink, Issue 2: Autumn 2006' edited by...

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Emily Ballou reviews Careless by Deborah Robertson and Madonna of the Eucalypts by Karen Sparnon
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Contents Category: Fiction
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Article Title: The wages of dying
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The first thing about Deborah Robertson’s first novel, Careless, that strikes the reader is the way that her prose style cuts like sand. The story of three individuals united by the murder of six children is compelling, but what impresses is Robertson’s love of language, the precision of her sentences, as well as her gentle philosophical imagination and the deeper questions her book seeks to answer.

Book 1 Title: Careless
Book Author: Deborah Robertson
Book 1 Biblio: Picador, $32.95 pb, 293 pp
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Book 2 Title: Madonna of the Eucalypts
Book 2 Author: Karen Sparnon
Book 2 Biblio: Text, $22.95 pb, 261 pp
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The first thing about Deborah Robertson’s first novel, Careless, that strikes the reader is the way that her prose style cuts like sand. The story of three individuals united by the murder of six children is compelling, but what impresses is Robertson’s love of language, the precision of her sentences, as well as her gentle philosophical imagination and the deeper questions her book seeks to answer.

Read more: Emily Ballou reviews 'Careless' by Deborah Robertson and 'Madonna of the Eucalypts' by Karen Sparnon

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Rachel Buchanan reviews Great Writers Great Loves: The reinvention of love in the twentieth century by Ann-Marie Priest
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Contents Category: Non-fiction
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Article Title: Making the bed
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If this is love, then we are all in trouble. Addiction, infidelity, cruelty, violence, obsession, depression, repression, jealousy, impotence, the neglect of children and a whole lot of hysterical personal correspondence are features of the love affairs conducted by the eight writers who are the subject of this disconcerting book.

Book 1 Title: Great Writers Great Loves
Book 1 Subtitle: The reinvention of love in the twentieth century
Book Author: Ann-Marie Priest
Book 1 Biblio: Black Inc., $29.95 pb, 298 pp
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If this is love, then we are all in trouble. Addiction, infidelity, cruelty, violence, obsession, depression, repression, jealousy, impotence, the neglect of children and a whole lot of hysterical personal correspondence are features of the love affairs conducted by the eight writers who are the subject of this disconcerting book.

Read more: Rachel Buchanan reviews 'Great Writers Great Loves: The reinvention of love in the twentieth...

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