tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post4323211130172835483..comments2023-12-15T02:38:55.020+10:30Comments on Still Life With Cat: Miles Franklin and the Mystery of Talent, or, Don't Mention the WarKerryn Goldsworthyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11270814460793882309noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-87123704707809606522009-04-22T21:42:00.000+09:302009-04-22T21:42:00.000+09:30yes Pav as they roll off the press - I picked up (...yes Pav as they roll off the press - I picked up (and finished) Garry Disher's latest before it was reviewed or I knew it was out!<br /><br />Usually it's weeks after review that the book is available.Francis Xavier Holdenhttp://landownunder.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-87331378421835039342009-04-22T13:19:00.000+09:302009-04-22T13:19:00.000+09:30What I really love about this comments thread is t...What I really love about this comments thread is that is shows me how many people are powering through Australian fiction pretty much as it rolls off the presses.<br /><br />I don't want to harp on this point or anything, but the longlist for the Orange Prize for 2009 (a prestigious international prize for the best novel by a woman) contains Michelle de Krester's <I>The Lost Dog</I> (completely ignored by the MF judges last year) and Debra Adelaide's <I>The Household Guide to Dying</I>, ditto either last year or this year, not sure which period it fits, but if it's this year then you can add it to the list of inexplicably unmentioned women's novels for this year. <br /><br />The Orange Prize shortlist of six is due to be announced later today. I'm tipping that <I>The Lost Dog</I> will be on it, and would really, really love to see it win, though it is up against some extremely heavy hitters and veterans. By and large Michelle de Kretser has consistently had a better critical response internationally than in Australia. I wish I wasn't so depressed by this.Kerryn Goldsworthyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11270814460793882309noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-20813386818306234502009-04-22T12:40:00.000+09:302009-04-22T12:40:00.000+09:30FXH, not sure about Reading Lists for Da Slap, but...FXH, not sure about Reading Lists for Da Slap, but I reckon it's well on its way to being a "phenomenon" book. <br /><br />Finishing it off on the tram last month, I saw two other women reading it as well - it does stand out being all big and green. I haven't seen that many people reading the same book since Harry Potter!<br /><br />I enjoyed Breath a lot, thought The Spare Room could easily have been an essay, and felt short-changed as a result. Not sure what parameters are from one prize to another, but I reckon The Good Parents should stand very tall in any kind of best of 2008 list.via collinsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-57405883698919587122009-04-21T21:12:00.000+09:302009-04-21T21:12:00.000+09:30I don't like the shortlist much and think The Good...I don't like the shortlist much and think The Good Parents, Breath and The Spare Room were excellent books. Addition was fun, but not in the same class. But neither do I think the shortlist should be chosen on the basis of gender; if they happened to choose books that were all written by men, why should they change what they believed to be a merit-based list in order to include women writers? The whole affair just shows what a subjective and politically compromised exercise book competitions can be. The Slap is a good read, but Christos' dark, instinct-driven view of the world is pretty idiosyncratic. That awful, over-weening female character is pretty extreme isn't she, but the Christos-style character whose story he focuses on at the end is the most sympathetically written.sigmund marxnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-57679948044105836302009-04-20T20:40:00.000+09:302009-04-20T20:40:00.000+09:30Lost Dog was a great read, Breathe I easily put do...Lost Dog was a great read, Breathe I easily put down before I finished it, Slap should be on the compulsory High School reading list or whatever it is that makes kids and their parents read relevant stuff.Francis Xavier Holdenhttp://landownunder.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-4355934362905238272009-04-19T11:19:00.000+09:302009-04-19T11:19:00.000+09:30Oh yes indeed. Picture the scene. No waratah cup f...Oh yes indeed. Picture the scene. No waratah cup for young Christos, I'll be bound. <br /><br />And yet, Bernice, for the fifteen minutes or so that I was a MF judge in 2004, we gave it to Shirley Hazzard's <I>The Great Fire</I> and as a fairly unhappy dissenter from this majority decision, swayed in the end to accept it by the democratic principle, my own newbie status and Hazzard's unarguable 'literary merit' (the two heart-stopping death scenes, for example), I wondered myself what Miles would have thought of a novel in which stereotyped caricature Australians are represented with disdain if not hatred, and in which the whole point of the heroine is that she is a <I>tabula rasa</I> if not a total cipher (which is apparently being proposed by Hazzard as a large part of her charm), absolutely and utterly the product of training, moulding and ideal-projection by three different men, one of whom is a lover twice her age and all of whose values she accepts without question. <br /><br />Meanwhile, how is it possible that the readers of <I>Breath</I> (which I grant is, like the Hazzard, a novel of great technical achievement and emotional power) seem unable to see what's going on with 'Eva' (!) and her nasty dirty sick twisted destructive life-denying apple-eating ... erm, man-eating sexual allure? Or that they <I>do</I> see it and think that it's correct, right and proper? <br /><br />Go Christos!Kerryn Goldsworthyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11270814460793882309noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-6773632933856375092009-04-19T10:36:00.000+09:302009-04-19T10:36:00.000+09:30Yes well, I don't think Lohrey has collected a gon...Yes well, I don't think Lohrey has collected a gong from anyone yet which is A COMPLETE MYSTERY as far as I am concerned. Repeating myself but if Winton wins, there will be a long night of Bernice head beating at Villa Seedia. Though you gotta wonder what dear Miles would make of The Slap. Pursed lips, a crossin' of the arms, the tappin' of the feet..Bernicenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-85724568886848023672009-04-18T18:59:00.000+09:302009-04-18T18:59:00.000+09:30Yes, Miles would be cross - but given her moniker,...Yes, Miles would be cross - but given her moniker, mebbe it's time we followed suit and collaborated for an Ernestina Malley hoax?naomihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03714706512920191044noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-64576402886905887842009-04-18T15:31:00.000+09:302009-04-18T15:31:00.000+09:30Ah oui -- le salon des refusées!Ah oui -- le salon des refusées!Kerryn Goldsworthyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11270814460793882309noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-19736627298887766652009-04-18T15:27:00.000+09:302009-04-18T15:27:00.000+09:30'Vertigo' was probably too short (big fat novels a...'Vertigo' was probably too short (big fat novels are still prized over elegant, economical novellas). Don't know about the rest. Expect much of the longlist, if not all of the shortlist to suffer from what I regard as the usual failing of the oznovel--falls over in the last quarter of the book, due to insufficient pre-plotting. <br />May even hold a protest hen's night meself. With many gel writers, a waratah cup and the shade of Miles invoked.<br /><br />Lucy SussexAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-57879536879432611822009-04-18T15:20:00.000+09:302009-04-18T15:20:00.000+09:30Next year, I should think.
I can certainly see ho...Next year, I should think.<br /><br />I can certainly see how they got that shortlist out of their longlist. I've read two of the three women's books on the longlist and although Toni Jordan's <I>Addition</I> is delightful it still doesn't stand up to competition with the final five, and the other one I've read has its charm but certainly also couldn't compete. Don't know about the third one. But my real quarrel was with the longlist: how did any of those three and several of the boys' books make it onto the longlist ahead of (and I've read all of these) Lohrey's <I>Vertigo</I>, Garner's <I>The Spare Room</I>, Grenville's <I>The Lieutenant</I> and London's <I>The Good Parents</I>?<br /><br />(Someone was mentioning Michelle de Kretser's <I>The Lost Dog</I>, but that got snubbed <I>last</I> year, also quite inexplicably.)Kerryn Goldsworthyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11270814460793882309noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-68382235024826181382009-04-18T14:24:00.000+09:302009-04-18T14:24:00.000+09:30One day there will be a Miles Franklin hens' night...One day there will be a Miles Franklin hens' night. Wait and see.<br /><br />Lucy SussexAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com