What are we reading?

 Books and banter

in 2022

Pat recommends...

Three Books I would recommend:

 1.)      No Friend But The Mountain by Beherouz Boochani:  

        Translated  by Omid Tofighian

Links: https://www.booktopia.com.au :  https://www.dymocks.com.au   

A beautifully written book, but not always an easy read, from both the script and content. The comments by the Translator (page 369) summed it up when he wrote

‘…the development of themes and ideas in Behrouz’s book and the particularities of its Indigenous Kurdish presence. …through a rich oral and literary history of Kurdish folklore he uses to construct and develop this epic chronicle.  He combines this heritage with genres such as journalism, autobiography, philosophy, political commentary, testimony and psychoanalytic inquiry to create a totally unique genre:  Horrific surrealism.’

This is a story of a gentle man, who suffered unimaginable hardship that included starvation, two Smuggler’s boats that sank, almost drowning the second time. When rescued they were taken to Christmas Island and then to another detention center on Manus Island. His description of the prison, the surroundings, the guards and other prisoners (that’s how Manus is seen and described, as a Jail) were in turns both harrowing and poetically beautiful. His physical frailty, and health impacted by malnutrition was never, ever treated by a doctor.  

Every Australian should read this.

 

2.      2.)    Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt:  1997 Pulitzer Prize for Biography

 An emotional journey with a young Frank who returns to Ireland from America as a 4-year-old with his siblings, a drunken father who eventually deserts the family, and a chain-smoking mother who did what she had to do to keep a roof over their heads. To paraphrase McCourt, ‘It was a miserable childhood, worse than that it was a miserable Irish childhood. Even worse than that it was a miserable Irish Catholic childhood.’  A brilliant memoir, told in a way that one could hear the Irish lilt, and enjoy the humour of the writer, that is endearing.  This story is told with McCourt’s wry sense of humour. It is by turn sad and funny, and completely absorbing to the last page.

 3.)  The Lavender Keeper By Fiona McIntosh

  When his German parents are killed, Luc Bonet is adopted by a loving Jewish family in Provence France. The story follows Luc, now a lavender farmer as World War two erupts and Paris is occupied. On returning home with a friend, Luc sees his family being brutally removed by soldiers.

He meets up with Lisette a young woman, sent to France as a spy, to seduce a German officer and relay information back to London. Luc joins the Resistance, and they meet again and fall in love, even knowing of her trysts with Killian, the German Officer. The story follows them, along with a group of German Officers’ plotting to kill Hitler, the French Resistance movement, the price French women paid for colluding with the Germans.  Adventure, passion, courage, romance and treachery is all there.  They survive into Fiona /McIntosh’s sequel, The French Promise, set in what was to become the lavender fields of Tasmania.

 https://www.fionamcintosh.com/books

 

Ivey recommends...

Margot recommends...

Pearl recommends...

The God of Small Things

Arundhati Roy’s work is why I wrote my first novel. If you want to know how families, food, politics, sex and gender play in sub-continental culture, then this book is highly recommended. It won the Booker prize in 1997.

The windows to the story are the eyes of the women and children. The metaphor of the moth representing coldness and detachment is a device I’ve learned to employ in my own writing. Roy’s descriptions make me feel like I am in the India of her experience. There is so much to adore about this work.

 

My Place

I read Sally Morgan’s book over twenty years ago. It is still a must read.

Young Sally is a truth-seeker and fiercely antagonistic to anything that isn’t authentic. But she’s been told a white lie – that she is Indian. This is a deeply moving tale of birth, identity and belonging. It is a tale of First Nations People and their disenfranchisement through colonisation. Most of all, it is a story of the unbreakable bond of love between family that survives all challenges through the years.

You can listen to this work on the ABC Audiobooks.

 

Salt: Selected Stories & Essays

When I read the writing of Bruce Pascoe, I feel like I’ve been invited into an ancient sanctuary. It is a duty of Australians to learn our history. Here is an abstract:

Charles Sturt …was hailed by 400 aborigines…Sturt was aware that if the aborigines had aggressive intent, his whole party was doomed. Instead, the people brought coolamons of water to slake the thirst of the explorers, and then held out those coolamons gingerly, to the horses, creatures they had never seen. The explorers were given food. Tubs of well-water were set beside their accommodation. They were provided with kindling for their fire.

You can listen to this work on the ABC Audiobooks.