AustLit
Issue Details:
First known date:
2021...
no.
428
January–February
2021
of
Australian Book Review
est. 1961
Australian Book Review
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.
Latest Issues
AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Welcome to our summer issue – the first of 2021. On our cover is Peter Porter, to complement the five poems shortlisted in the 2021 Porter Prize. This year’s shortlist is wonderfully diverse, with poets from Australia, Canada and the United States. Elsewhere, Jon Piccini reviews two very different readings of the Palace Letters. Timothy J. Lynch lauds Barack Obama’s memoirs as the best presidential memoirs since Ulysses S. Grant’s, but notes a certain elephant in the room – Donald Trump and the spectre of Trumpism. Louise Milligan is our Open Page guest this month, and Beejay Silcox reviews Milligan’s new book, Witness, a searing account of the brutal cost of seeking justice in this country – especially for witnesses. Tim Byrne considers the early, rambunctious years of Nick Cave. We also review new novels by Garry Disher, Ceridwen Dovey, Dennis Glover and Anna MacDonald.' (Publication abstract)
Contents
* Contents derived from the 2021 version. Please note that other versions/publications may contain different contents. See the Publication Details.
-
An Endless Tussle with the Past :Two Different Readings of the Palace Letters,
single work
review
— Review of The Palace Letters 2020 single work prose biography ;(p. 9-10)'In April 2011, the landmark High Court victory of four elderly Kenyans revealed a dark episode in British colonial history. Between 1952 and 1960, barbaric practices, including forced removal and torture, were widely employed against ‘Mau Mau’ rebels, real or imagined. Upon the granting of independence in 1963, thousands of files documenting such atrocities were ‘retained’ by the British authorities, eventually coming to rest in the vast, secret Foreign and Commonwealth Office archives at Hanslope Park. Now a small portion of that archive was opened to scrutiny, and a tiny ray of light shone on one of history’s greatest cover-ups.' (Introduction) -
Tjanima’s Story : A Parable of Redemption through Family,
single work
review
— Review of Tjanimaku Tjukurpa : How One Young Man Came Good 2020 single work short story ; (p. 20) -
‘The Rock Who Steadied Us’ : A Leader of Transcendent Warmth,
single work
review
— Review of Lowitja : The Authorised Biography of Lowitja O'Donoghue 2020 single work biography ;(p. 22-23)'In Recollections of a Bleeding Heart (2002), Don Watson wrote that Lowitja O’Donoghue ‘seemed then and has seemed ever since to be a person of such transcendent warmth, if Australians ever got to know her they would want her as their Queen’. Robert Manne, in the first-ever Quarterly Essay (2001), portrayed her as ‘a woman of scrupulous honesty and great beauty of soul’. These qualities gleam in Stuart Rintoul’s handsomely produced biography.' (Introduction) - A Poetics of Fo(u)rgettingi"I forget tradition, a tray of sticky dates passed around the kitchen table, bismillah", single work poetry (p. 25)
-
Bila, a River Cyclei"this is what became of the river",
single work
poetry
(p. 26-27)'this is what became of the river
who rose up
and called them-self human'
-
Immortality on His Mind : A Reductive Study of the Young Nick Cave,
single work
review
— Review of Boy on Fire : The Young Nick Cave 2020 single work biography ; (p. 32-33) -
Swashbuckler and Son : Tim Olsen’s Matey, Meaty Memoir,
single work
review
— Review of Son of the Brush : A Memoir 2020 single work autobiography ; (p. 34) -
Winning the Lottery : Paul Jennings’s Unusual New Memoir,
single work
review
— Review of Untwisted : The Story of My Life 2020 single work autobiography ; (p. 36-37) -
‘Think Global, Act Local’ : Cathy McGowan’s Colourful Political Memoir,
single work
review
— Review of Cathy Goes to Canberra : Doing Politics Differently 2020 single work autobiography ; (p. 37-38) -
Disher Country : A Tale of Rural Gothic,
single work
review
— Review of Consolation 2020 single work novel ; (p. 40) -
The Science of Happiness : A Presidential-term Dream,
single work
review
— Review of Life After Truth 2019 single work novel ; (p. 41) -
Cross Over into Campgrounds : An Original Début by Nardi Simpson,
single work
review
— Review of Song of the Crocodile 2020 single work novel ; (p. 42) -
‘Still and Still Moving’ : Anna MacDonald’s Painterly Eye,
single work
review
— Review of A Jealous Tide 2020 single work novel ; (p. 43) -
Return of the 1940s : Dennis Glover’s Satirical New Novel,
single work
review
— Review of Factory 19 2020 single work novel ; (p. 44) -
Playing with Genre : An Inventive Collection by Eugen Bacon,
single work
review
— Review of The Road to Woop Woop and Other Stories 2020 selected work short story ; (p. 45) -
Ripples of Trauma : A Poetic Weaving of Voices,
single work
review
— Review of Mother Tongue 2020 single work novel ; (p. 45) -
‘The Truth Was More Complex’ : A Finely Honed Novel Tests Limits,
single work
review
— Review of At the Edge of the Solid World 2020 single work novel ; (p. 46) -
The End of the World : Three New Young Adult Novels,
single work
review
— Review of Future Girl 2020 single work novel ; The Other Side of the Sky 2020 single work novel ; Indigo Owl 2020 single work novel ; (p. 47-48) -
Ecstasy and Peril : A Romp through Romance and Sexuality,
single work
review
— Review of Poly 2020 single work novel ; (p. 48) - Critic of the Month with Beejay Silcox, single work interview (p. 49)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Awards
- 2021 shortlisted Peter Porter Poetry Prize
Last amended 4 Jan 2021 10:21:01
