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Absolutely Revolting

May 1995, no. 170

Margot Hillel reviews Joey by Barry Dickins, Looking Out for Ollie by Sharon Montey, and Ghost Train by Michael Stephens
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Contents Category: Children's and Young Adult Fiction
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Article Title: Tell them a story
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Writers for children have always known this: from the Puritans who thinly disguised their religious teachings under stories of children who lived a pure life and went to heaven, and those who didn’t and went to hell; to modem writers who tell stories to help children cope with difficult aspects of modem life.
Book 1 Title: Looking Out for Ollie
Book Author: Sharon Montey
Book 1 Biblio: UQP, $9.95 pb
Book 1 Author Type: Author
Book 2 Title: Ghost Train
Book 2 Author: Michael Stephens
Book 2 Biblio: Allen & Unwin, $9.95 pb
Book 2 Author Type: Author
Book 2 Cover Small (400 x 600):
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If you want to say something about life to other people, you should tell them a story.

– Manning Clark

 

Writers for children have always known this: from the Puritans who thinly disguised their religious teachings under stories of children who lived a pure life and went to heaven, and those who didn’t and went to hell; to modem writers who tell stories to help children cope with difficult aspects of modem life.

Read more: Margot Hillel reviews 'Joey' by Barry Dickins, 'Looking Out for Ollie' by Sharon Montey, and...

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Contents Category: Fiction
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Article Title: Carl Harrison-Ford reviews three first novels
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How do you get a first novel up and running? Random House has done so with a show of faith unusual amongst Australian publishers ... and faith can move mountains of books. The Last Time I Saw Mother is handsomely produced and has an equally handsome print run of 20,000. It’s been sold into the shops in numbers and its author – Manila-born Sydney-based copywriter, Arlene J. Chai – has had her name linked with Amy Tan and Jung Chang. The back cover has a brisk encomium from Bryce Courtenay, who encouraged her to write. Effective marketing indeed, although one reviewer has commented on an element of cultural cringe.
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the_last_time_I_saw_mother_Chai.jpgThe Last Time I Saw Mother by Arlene J. Chai

Random House Australia, $14.95 pb

How do you get a first novel up and running? Random House has done so with a show of faith unusual amongst Australian publishers ... and faith can move mountains of books. The Last Time I Saw Mother (Random House Australia, $14.95 pb) is handsomely produced and has an equally handsome print run of 20,000. It’s been sold into the shops in numbers and its author – Manila-born Sydney-based copywriter, Arlene J. Chai – has had her name linked with Amy Tan and Jung Chang. The back cover has a brisk encomium from Bryce Courtenay, who encouraged her to write. Effective marketing indeed, although one reviewer has commented on an element of cultural cringe.

Read more: Carl Harrison-Ford reviews 'The Last Time I Saw Mother' by Arlene J. Chai, 'Just A Prostitute' by...

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Contents Category: Memoir
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Article Title: Writing Homeland
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Quite a few years ago, when the future was far more important than the days gone by and the past hadn’t acquired that elusively seductive voice to beckon me with the urgency that it does now, I tended to be rather flippant about the notions of ‘home’ and ‘homeland’. ‘Home’ simply meant where I was at any given time. To an extent such a shallow definition can be attributed to my early experiences of travel and the consequences of the constantly changing landscape which confronted a young backpacker who didn’t feel the necessity of a cultural anchor. I simply moved from one country to another, with the restless compulsion of the Wandering Jew, to satiate a curiosity sparked off by a trip to the exotic wilderness of the Khyber Pass when I was a child.
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Quite a few years ago, when the future was far more important than the days gone by and the past hadn’t acquired that elusively seductive voice to beckon me with the urgency that it does now, I tended to be rather flippant about the notions of ‘home’ and ‘homeland’. ‘Home’ simply meant where I was at any given time. To an extent such a shallow definition can be attributed to my early experiences of travel and the consequences of the constantly changing landscape which confronted a young backpacker who didn’t feel the necessity of a cultural anchor. I simply moved from one country to another, with the restless compulsion of the Wandering Jew, to satiate a curiosity sparked off by a trip to the exotic wilderness of the Khyber Pass when I was a child.

Read more: Writing Homeland by Adib Khan

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Contents Category: Australian Fiction
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Article Title: Shorts
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Australia is not the science-fiction capital of the world; in fact we are probably not even on the map. This unfortunate fact would change if we could produce more writers like Paul Collins.
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GOV-IN-EXILE-COVE.jpegThe Government in Exile by Paul Collins

Sumeria Press, $12.95pb

Australia is not the science-fiction capital of the world; in fact we are probably not even on the map. This unfortunate fact would change if we could produce more writers like Paul Collins.

Read more: Michael Hanrahan reviews 'The Government in Exile' by Paul Collins, 'The Comfort Women: Sex slaves...

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Contents Category: Literary Studies
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Article Title: One more waltz
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When I heard I was on a literary panel called ‘Dialogues with the Past’ I was struck by a very familiar feeling, well beyond déjà vu. The sort of feeling best described by Barry Humphries as having the anticipatory excitement of dancing with your mother. In this country, it seems, the Good Old Past is always trotted out for one more waltz.

There has to be a reason for our having a session called something like ‘Dialogues with the Past’ at every literary festival in Australia. What is it with us and history? We’re always being told we lack confidence in the here and now. How much do we still need the past, preferably the nineteenth century, to confirm for us who we are and why? Do we just think we do? We do seem to have – and I certainly include myself in this – an overriding concern with questions of national identity.
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When I heard I was on a literary panel called ‘Dialogues with the Past’ I was struck by a very familiar feeling, well beyond déjà vu. The sort of feeling best described by Barry Humphries as having the anticipatory excitement of dancing with your mother. In this country, it seems, the Good Old Past is always trotted out for one more waltz.

There has to be a reason for our having a session called something like ‘Dialogues with the Past’ at every literary festival in Australia. What is it with us and history? We’re always being told we lack confidence in the here and now. How much do we still need the past, preferably the nineteenth century, to confirm for us who we are and why? Do we just think we do? We do seem to have – and I certainly include myself in this – an overriding concern with questions of national identity.

Read more: Robert Drewe on 'One More Waltz: Papers from the Canberra Word Festival'

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