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Absolutely Revolting

June 1998, no. 201

David Matthews reviews The Tazyrik Year by Alan Gould
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Contents Category: Fiction
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A man waits outside a schoolyard and watches a young girl who, it seems, is his daughter, though she doesn’t know him. What appears to be an internal dialogue between the man and the child’s mother commences, set apart from the main text. It is a self-conscious narrative manoeuvre. The narrator, Jules Pyatt, after all has a thesis in English literature behind him (abandoned). He knows what narrative is all about, and he knows he wants to tell the story of his ‘Tazyrik year’, which belongs to a period several years before, when he was in his late twenties.
Book 1 Title: The Tazyrik Year
Book Author: Alan Gould
Book 1 Biblio: Sceptre, $19.95 pb, 217 pp
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A man waits outside a schoolyard and watches a young girl who, it seems, is his daughter, though she doesn’t know him. What appears to be an internal dialogue between the man and the child’s mother commences, set apart from the main text. It is a self-conscious narrative manoeuvre. The narrator, Jules Pyatt, after all has a thesis in English literature behind him (abandoned). He knows what narrative is all about, and he knows he wants to tell the story of his ‘Tazyrik year’, which belongs to a period several years before, when he was in his late twenties.

Read more: David Matthews reviews 'The Tazyrik Year' by Alan Gould

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Reviewing Space in the Press by Gerard Windsor
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Contents Category: Commentary
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I grew up with The Sydney Morning Herald. In spite of enforced years in Melbourne and Canberra and sojourns overseas, I still regard it as my paper. So my business being writing and Sydney my town, it’s a matter of identity that The Herald’s reviews are the primary ones for me. But my tribal instincts are faltering. The problem is The Herald’s book coverage. My quarrel isn’t with the choice of books nor the quality of the reviews. It’s the prior matter of quantity. Over the three Saturdays of the 11, 18, 25 April, The Herald ran a total of ten full-scale book reviews. The Australian over the same period ran seventeen, and they were generally longer.
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I grew up with The Sydney Morning Herald. In spite of enforced years in Melbourne and Canberra and sojourns overseas, I still regard it as my paper. So my business being writing and Sydney my town, it’s a matter of identity that The Herald’s reviews are the primary ones for me. But my tribal instincts are faltering. The problem is The Herald’s book coverage. My quarrel isn’t with the choice of books nor the quality of the reviews. It’s the prior matter of quantity. Over the three Saturdays of the 11, 18, 25 April, The Herald ran a total of ten full-scale book reviews. The Australian over the same period ran seventeen, and they were generally longer.

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Terri-ann White reviews The Golden Dress by Marion Halligan
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Contents Category: Fiction
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Marion Halligan’s new novel has as its centrepiece, shiny and assertive, flagged by its title, a dress made with loving care but, nonetheless, improvised just so that the fabric will go far enough. A dress that Molly Pellerin wears to a party at the laundry where she works, an event that becomes a defining moment in her life, the dress a legacy, offering an image of Molly as dazzling, beautiful, and loved. The photograph sustains her memory, potently, permanently.
Book 1 Title: The Golden Dress
Book Author: Marion Halligan
Book 1 Biblio: Viking, $19.95 pb, 380 pp, 0 670 87968 1
Book 1 Author Type: Author
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Marion Halligan’s new novel has as its centrepiece, shiny and assertive, flagged by its title, a dress made with loving care but, nonetheless, improvised just so that the fabric will go far enough. A dress that Molly Pellerin wears to a party at the laundry where she works, an event that becomes a defining moment in her life, the dress a legacy, offering an image of Molly as dazzling, beautiful, and loved. The photograph sustains her memory, potently, permanently.

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David Marr reviews The Justice Game by Geoffrey Roberston
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Contents Category: Law
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The memoirs of any barrister still in harness are, by definition, advertising. The mystery of The Justice Game is what on earth Geoffrey Robertson needs to sell. He is much too busy already. A queue of life’s victims wanting his help in court would stretch twice round the Temple. But drumming up business is not what the book is about. Its real purpose, I suspect, is to show that, despite a certain radical reputation, Robertson is a sound man.
Book 1 Title: The Justice Game
Book Author: Geoffrey Roberston
Book 1 Biblio: Chatto & Windus, $35 hb, 415 pp
Book 1 Author Type: Author
Book 1 Readings Link: https://www.booktopia.com.au/the-justice-game-geoffrey-robertson/book/9780099581918.html
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The memoirs of any barrister still in harness are, by definition, advertising. The mystery of The Justice Game is what on earth Geoffrey Robertson needs to sell. He is much too busy already. A queue of life’s victims wanting his help in court would stretch twice round the Temple. But drumming up business is not what the book is about. Its real purpose, I suspect, is to show that, despite a certain radical reputation, Robertson is a sound man.

True he is from Australia, but he reached Oxford in the 1960s on a Rhodes Scholarship, found a toehold at the London Bar and fixed his vowels. Very early on, a chambers’ clerk advised him not to work for the National Council for Civil Liberties if he wanted ‘a career’ in the Law.

Take my Guv’nor’ ‘Lewis Hawser QC.’ ‘He is the best fucking silk there is. And why is he never going to be made a fucking High Court judge? Just answer me that. I will tell you why he is never going to be made a High Court judge. Because when he was a young barrister, he took calls from the National fucking Council for Civil fucking Liberties.

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Michael Sharkey reviews Tommo & Hawk by Bryce Courtenay
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Contents Category: Fiction
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Article Title: The Last Laugh
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I suspect that Bryce Courtenay’s novels about early Tasmania, The Potato Factory and Tommo & Hawk, have introduced countless general readers to aspects of Australian literature which might otherwise remain terra incognita. For this reason, I applaud his enterprise.
Book 1 Title: Tommo & Hawk
Book Author: Bryce Courtenay
Book 1 Biblio: Viking $36.95 hb, 673 pp
Book 1 Author Type: Author
Book 1 Readings Link: https://www.booktopia.com.au/tommo-hawk-bryce-courtenay/book/9780143004578.html
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I suspect that Bryce Courtenay’s novels about early Tasmania, The Potato Factory and Tommo & Hawk, have introduced countless general readers to aspects of Australian literature which might otherwise remain terra incognita. For this reason, I applaud his enterprise.

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