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Absolutely Revolting

May 1996, no. 180

Welcome to the May 1996 issue of Australian Book Review!

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Geoffrey Bolton reviews Hunters and Collectors: The antiquarian imagination in Australia by Tom Griffiths
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Article Title: Trafficking in the Past
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Six weeks after the First Fleet sailed for New South Wales Edward Gibbon completed The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Probably the finest example of the Western tradition of history as chronological and sequential, Gibbon’s work provided the Europe of his time with a panoramic background against which the achievements of modern civilization could be measured.
Book 1 Title: Hunters and Collectors
Book 1 Subtitle: The antiquarian imagination in Australia
Book Author: Tom Griffiths
Book 1 Biblio: Cambridge University Press, $34.95 pb, 416 pp
Book 1 Author Type: Author
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Six weeks after the First Fleet sailed for New South Wales Edward Gibbon completed The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Probably the finest example of the Western tradition of history as chronological and sequential, Gibbon’s work provided the Europe of his time with a panoramic background against which the achievements of modern civilization could be measured.

Read more: Geoffrey Bolton reviews 'Hunters and Collectors: The antiquarian imagination in Australia' by Tom...

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Contents Category: Interview
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Ramona Koval: I would like to begin by talking about the differences between writing fiction and non-fiction. You write about birth and youth, sex, illness, death, sisters ... the big things in life. How does that differ for writing fiction and non-fiction, if at all?

Helen Garner: I find that the subjects for non-fiction that I write about seem to present themselves from outside myself, whereas the fictional ones are much more some little thing that’s been worming away at me that I’ve become conscious of. The fiction kind of worms its way out and the non-fiction worms its way in, I suppose you could say it that way.
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Ramona Koval talks to Helen Garner about True Stories, a collection of her non-fiction work over twenty-five years.

 

Ramona Koval: I would like to begin by talking about the differences between writing fiction and non-fiction. You write about birth and youth, sex, illness, death, sisters ... the big things in life. How does that differ for writing fiction and non-fiction, if at all?

Helen Garner: I find that the subjects for non-fiction that I write about seem to present themselves from outside myself, whereas the fictional ones are much more some little thing that’s been worming away at me that I’ve become conscious of. The fiction kind of worms its way out and the non-fiction worms its way in, I suppose you could say it that way.

Read more: Ramona Koval interviews Helen Garner about 'True Stories'

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Gerard Henderson reviews Hayden: An autobiography by Bill Hayden
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Contents Category: Memoir
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Article Title: Hayden’s Memoirs
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Hayden: An autobiography is a fine book – one of the best political memoirs written by an Australian. It’s also a valuable historical work by a former politician who, thank God, doesn’t take himself too seriously.

Bill Hayden clearly made good use of his time as governor–general (1989–96) to undertake extensive research. In the acknowledgments section, the author gives generous thanks to librarians and archivists who assisted his endeavours. But it is clear that much of the detailed work was undertaken by Hayden himself.
Book 1 Title: Hayden
Book 1 Subtitle: An autobiography
Book Author: Bill Hayden
Book 1 Biblio: HarperCollins $39.95 hb, 610 pp
Book 1 Author Type: Author
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Hayden: An autobiography is a fine book – one of the best political memoirs written by an Australian. It’s also a valuable historical work by a former politician who, thank God, doesn’t take himself too seriously.

Bill Hayden clearly made good use of his time as governor–general (1989–96) to undertake extensive research. In the acknowledgments section, the author gives generous thanks to librarians and archivists who assisted his endeavours. But it is clear that much of the detailed work was undertaken by Hayden himself.

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Peter Pierce reviews Tom Roberts by Humphrey McQueen
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Contents Category: Biography
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Almost at the end of his very long biography, Tom Roberts, Humphrey McQueen wonders why – if Australian landscape painting had so much need of a father – ‘no-one thought to install Margaret Preston as the mother’ of the genre? He has a suggestive answer to a question which needed to be posed:
Book 1 Title: Tom Roberts
Book Author: Humphrey McQueen
Book 1 Biblio: Macmillan, $60.00 hb, 784 pp
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Almost at the end of his very long biography, Tom Roberts, Humphrey McQueen wonders why – if Australian landscape painting had so much need of a father – ‘no-one thought to install Margaret Preston as the mother’ of the genre? He has a suggestive answer to a question which needed to be posed:

That landscape art should seek a father when our culture describes nature and the earth as mothers is not a contradiction. We distinguish the given as feminine from the created as masculine. Nurturing is perceived as a passive bearing whereas men transform nature by their activities, whether ringbarking or painting.

Read more: Peter Pierce reviews 'Tom Roberts' by Humphrey McQueen

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