The book is an easy, compelling novel – the kind of book you can take to the beach, or read on a long flight, without unduly straining yourself. In short, it is a good story, albeit not one which lends…
Tag: fiction
A review of Joan London’s Gilgamesh
It is 1939, just prior to the outbreak of World War 2. A young Australian woman and her baby make the near impossible journey to Armenia to find the baby’s father. It is a journey based on love, and romantic…
A Review of The Empty Cafe by Michael Hoffman
All Hoffman’s stories show events occurring on a plane different from the one that we occupy. And they concern truths that have their own imperatives. However much this demands of the reader, this strange world is in the hands of…
A Review of Billie’s Ghost by Chad Hautmann
Chad Hautmann has chosen a difficult subject for this book. A story of the pain and heartache at the loss of someone we love and the long road back to life among the living. He does this with gut-wrenching descriptions…
A Review of Abaza by Louis Nowra
This approach frees the narrative from the mainstream pattern of beginning, middle and end. In some ways this is no different from the controlled narrative disclosures of such books as John Banville’s Eclipse or Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being. But there is in the case…
A Review of Seducing Mr Maclean by Loubna Haikal
educing Mr Maclean is full of lush descriptions about Lebanese culture, dancing, music, and in particular, food (you’ll be craving hummous, baclava, and halva for weeks after reading it). It is an enjoyable and funny read which touches on an important…
A Review of Haverleigh by James Cumes
Haverleigh is a well written and engaging story which moves smoothly between the front lines, and the quiet town of Haverleigh, between war at its face, and the impact of war on those left at home. The work is also…
A Review of A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
You are never told exactly where in India this novel unfolds, but the city has the feel of Calcutta. It is fascinating to see the main character, Dina, move through disgust at the men who are working for her, tailors,…
A Review of Julian Barnes’ Something to Declare
A Small Flaubertian Moment: A Review of Julian Barnes’ Something to Declare Barnes’ latest work, Something to Declare is non-fiction, a series of eighteen essays collected over twenty years, covering a range of (mainly gallic) subjects from Richard Cobb’s love and disappointment…
A review of Elizabeth Jolley’s An Innocent Gentleman
Is this Nothing: Elizabeth Jolley’s An Innocent Gentleman As a comedy of manners, An Innocent Gentleman makes for a mildly humorous, and easy to read novel; a brief play which is a kind of light farce. As a commentary on…