”Do you think because I am poor, obscure, plain and little, I am souless and heartless? You think wrong! I have as much soul as you, and full as much heart. And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, […]
Latest Reviews
Joe Cinque’s Consolation by Helen Garner
When Helen Garner sees accused murderer Anu Singh, she writes that Singh “raised my girl hackles in a bristle.” That is Garner’s writing in a nutshell; succinct, sincere, spare. We’ve all felt that sensation without ever voicing it, and we all know exactly what she means. In 1997 Singh murdered her boyfriend Joe Cinque in […]
Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle
I love everything about this 1994 novel, but mostly I love how Doyle demonstrates that simple writing can be so profound. Told from the perspective of 10 year old Irish Catholic Paddy Doyle, watching his parents’ marriage slowly disintegrate while he tries to make sense of school and church and other kids, this book is […]
Only Daughter by Anna Snoekstra
Lovely to read a novel set in my home town of Canberra. Only Daughter concerns an unnamed imposter pretending to be Bec Winter, a teenager who disappeared eleven years ago. Her return ‘home’ is deeply unsettling; the responses of her family are far from what one would expect. The ending is quite awesome and overall it’s […]
The Red Parts by Maggie Nelson
Maggie Nelson’s aunt Jane was murdered before Nelson was born. This is Nelson’s account of the murder trial that followed, 35 years after the crime. The parts of the books about the murder trial and the reactions of Nelson and her family to it are quite riveting, but overall this book suffers from Nelson’s habit of over […]
Scrublands by Chris Hammer
There’s only so many ways you can say a town is hot and dry without becoming boring, but Chris Hammers just about manages it. A priest shoots five men dead out of the front of his church; he is then shot dead by police. Journalist Martin Scarsden comes to town to explore the motivation behind […]
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Homeyman
Books with the title in cursive writing on the front cover scream CHICK LIT, a genre I studiously avoid. The off putting thing about chick lit is that you know what’s going to happen in chick lit before you go to the trouble of reading it. The main character will start off somehow not fully […]
A Guide to Being Born by Ramona Ausubel
This one is dead quirky, but in a fascinating way. It deserves a place in the Top Five on the strength of the first story alone, written by a dead grandmother. Unforgettable.