Category: Book Reviews

Book Reviews

A Review of Helen Garner’s The Feel of Steel

Mastering a new sport, a musical instrument, having a grandchild, going through a divorce, or even taking a big trip, are all common scenarios in most people’s lives. These are ordinary moments, and that is why they are so wonderful.…

A review of Karen Sedaitis’ Soul Dark Soil

Humus-rich Food for the Soul: Karen Sedaitis’ Soul Dark Soil  Sedaitis’ work gets under the reader’s skin; goes deeper than the details of her stories, and even when she is describing something ugly, like dismemberment, rot, abduction, physical, or emotional…

A Review of Richard Flanagan’s Gould’s Book of Fish

 In its gorgeous use of language, its extraordinary structure, its ambitiously realised depths, and above all, the magic it works on its reader, Gould’s Book of Fish is a masterpiece. Read it for the interesting story, and find yourself, like Hammett, lost…

A Review of Poems by Lily Brett

Poems by Lily Brett includes two recently published collections, In Her Strapless Dresses, published in 1994, and Mud in My Tears, published in 1997. As with Brett’s fiction, both of the poetry books concentrate on the Holocaust, both Brett’s own experiences of fascination and obsession – the daughter of Holocaust survivors, and her parent’s firsthand experiences. There are also poems about love, death, parenting, growing up, vanity, and pain.

The Harry Potter Novels

There have been books that appealed to all ages. There have been books meant for adults that have become, often in an edited form, classics for children. Within the genre of fantasy there have been a few books that have…

A review of Tom Keneally’s Bettany’s Book

 Bettany’s Book has just been released in paperback. The generosity of Bettany’s Book leads us to not only follow the strivings of the Bettany family and those whose paths they cross, such as Sharif and Felix, the “Europeanised, educated natives”,…

A Review of The Romantics by Pankaj Mishra

 Mishra oversimplifies his characters till they remain nothing but poorly illustrated cardboard cutouts. Samar’s character emerges slowly and painfully from the murky undergrowth of the meagre plot. And most of his personality remains obscured by the slime he insists on…

A Review of Louis de Bernieres’ Red Dog

The cute little red book has 15 sweet and poignant stories based on the real life of a well known dog whose bronze statue appears in Karratha, a Western Australia mining town. Aside from the evil wind which Red Dog…

A Review of Nadine Gordimer’s The Pickup

Nadine Gordimer has written over 25 books, and has won the Booker and Nobel Prizes. The Pickup is her 13th novel, and perhaps, at 77 years of age, she no longer feels the need to pander to an audience. The Pickup certainly raises questions…

A Review of E M Forster’s A Room With A View

I found A Room with a View to be, if not in the absolute top rank, nevertheless a very worthwhile piece of literature. Aside from being a sensitive study of a woman who often doesn’t know herself well enough, it is a…