RoundAbout Views

on rambling through #AWW2013

[roundaboutview]

8 Femme

After the excitement and productivity that was book discovery and digital launch it was a bit of a shock to find myself suddenly engulfed in a sense of dread when that bedtime hour that heralded the opening of my first book was suddenly upon me. Dread as I contemplated the realisation that my reading schedule would be, on average, one book a month with a one month buffer.

This is even tighter and more optimistic than my usual over-pitching. Clearly I will have no difficultly bearing out the “challenge” element of this venture.

So, to bring a little more order to things I set to planning my reading schedule.

Deciding the order of things, however, turned out to be quite a complicated process. Complicated largely because I tried to thwart history and ensure completion of this challenge (read: task general) by securing an ‘order of analysis’ that would keep the flame of my interest burning. Such is my habit of looking to an external force to bring to account my internal failings.

Not knowing anything more about my new friends than their perfunctory dust jacket comments expounded, I now see that this attempt was doomed from the start. Thankfully the accompanying viognier made the time I took coming to this realisation not so much wasted as thoroughly enjoyed.

The winning method I turned to for compiling the order was purely, simply, and distressingly unoriginally alphabetical – though on a first name basis (well, I did say we were friends). There is, however, one exception to this fool proof plan – Nikki Gemmell’s Pleasure. This appears first on the list as it is not a novel but more a collection of thoughts from the author and others. As such, it lends itself well to being a particularly good warm up text for the slightly daunted.

The Line Up

#1 Pleasure - An Almanac for the Heart

#2 The Philosopher’s Doll

#3 Foal’s Bread

#4 The Secret River

#5 Naked – Confessions of Adultery and Infidelity

#6 The Hamilton Case

#7 Childhood at Brindabella

#8 Serpent’s Delight

[roundaboutview]

No matter how busy you may think you are, you must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance.

Confucius

[roundaboutview]

Going Solo

Despite my initial enthusiasm for all things Australian Women Writers Challenge 2013 when Housemate suggested a starting book I am afraid I got lost in the day-to-day and just didn’t reply. Don’t get me wrong, full engagement has been front and centre on my To Do Listfor the past three months. It is just that I don’t often look at my To Do List and when I did my uncertainty about what to choose or where to start with The Challenge resulted more in wistful sighing than fervent action.

And so it was that on an unusual day off with said To Do List staring at me lazing on my couch from its ivory fridge tower I snapped. I threw Housemate and my original combined reading/ reviewing plans to the wind and just installed myself in the local second-hand bookshop. Fuelled by the regular hand delivered soy lattes in rifling-friendly take away cups I decided to create my list from the little shop’s offerings and start The Challenge there and then.

First, I simply walked up and down the aisles. There was no Australian authors section and so after a quick discussion with the proprietor of the pros and cons of such a delimitation of titles I followed his direction and ducked my head in and out of a couple of Australian author reference books. Having some names to hunt I continued my walking and supplemented it with information from my portable electronic knowledge device.

Soon enough, books started to trigger memories or recent experiences and my bundle started to grow. The result: quite the bounty of qualifying books ready to fill my bedside table’s book nook.

So, drumroll please…behold The Bounty:

[roundaboutview]

Because the subject seemed entirely in theme with 2013 being 'The Year of Yes' I have proclaimed it to be.

A celebration of women, friendship and all things fabulous in life... Pleasure is a book Nikki Gemmell says she looked for as a present for a cherished friend - and never found. So she decided to write it herself.

[roundaboutview]

Because I had recently read Geordie Williamson’s review of her novel The Morality of Gentlemen but it was not available at the bookstore of my proximity.

What happens when one partner in a relationship wants to have a child and the other doesn't? Lindsay Eynon, a philosophy lecturer, isn't ready to start a family yet; he has other plans. But Kirsten's biological clock is ticking and she sees the world differently. As their arguments intensify, so does the probability of the unexpected!

[roundaboutview]

Because as I recalled my fierce childhood love of Playing Beattie Bow the synopsis made me think of my more recent obsession with HBO’s Girls.

When Geraldine, youngest of the good - looking Pond sisters, announces that she has had a vision of the Blessed Virgin, her family is shot from its mundane middle - class existence into the glare of publicity. The once peaceful, closely knit family is suddenly full of mistrust and tensions. Serpent's Delight, a story of five women, each determined to get her own way, is a tender and perceptive study that highlights the irony of the human condition.

[roundaboutview]

Because its synopsis brought back memories of the incredibly moving experience that was the National Theatre’s stage production of War Horse at the Arts Centre Melbourne.

Set in hardscrabble farming country and around the country show high-jumping circuit that prevailed in rural New South Wales prior to the Second World War, Foal's Bread tells the story of two generations of the Nancarrow family and their fortunes as dictated by the vicissitudes of the land. It is a love story of impossible beauty and sadness, a chronicle of dreams 'turned inside out', and miracles that never last, framed against a world both tender and unspeakably hard. With luminous prose and an aching affinity for the landscape, Foal's Bread is the work of a born writer at the height of her considerable powers. It is a novel of remarkable originality and virtuosity, one which confirms Gillian Mears' reputation as one of Australia’s most exciting and acclaimed authors.

[roundaboutview]

Because I was appalled to recall that I have never read her work and because it’s my Capital's centenary.

Miles Franklin wrote Childhood at Brindabella, an autobiography, in 1952-3, but it wasn't published until after her death in 1954. It is a story of an idyllic time, spent in the hills of Brindabella near present-day Canberra, and full of sunshine, sweet ripe fruit and interesting relations. This is a timely new edition of a significant work by one of Australia's best-loved authors. Miles Franklin (1879-1954) spent her first ten years at Brindabella, near Canberra, before the family moved to a property near Goulburn, the setting for her autobiographical novel, My Brilliant Career. Miles Franklin was a feminist and a socialist, working in America with Alice Henry in the National Women's Trade Union League.

[roundaboutview]

Because I had recently been discussing with a friend my intense discomfort with the subject and had committed to treating it like my former phobia of snakes – forcing myself to get up close and personal with it whenever it was on offer in a ‘safe environment’.

'It's one of the oldest stories in the world. It's in Shakepeare, the Bible, literature of every age and nation; it's in the gossip mags and the agony pages. Boy meets girl, but sometimes, a little while later, boy meets another girl. Or girl marries boy but finds herself drawn to someone else. Does she stay or does she go - resist or give in?'

Pretty much anyone who's been in a relationship has been tempted to stray at some time or another. Or perhaps found themselves the ones being strayed from. Naked is the ultimate confessional: a collection of anonymous confessions of infidelity and adultery, exploring all sides of the equation and from a variety of perspectives: male/female; gay/straight; the cheating, wronged and third parties; friends or children embroiled in the situation; even those who got no further than temptation.

Call it what you like, aspirational erotica, pure voyeurism, living vicariously, cheap thrills or projecting, there is no doubt that this topic has been hot since Helen took off on Menelaus and launched 1,000 ships and a world of pain. It's a universal topic that is now universally discussed. affairs; even by those who got no further than temptation. 

Searing confessions from the unrepentant, the guilt-stricken, the bewildered, the forgiven, the abandoned and the damned, Naked is a breathtaking, enthralling and painfully honest glimpse into the heart at its most vulnerable, by writers both published and unknown, all anonymous.

[roundaboutview]

Because her new book Questions on Travel had just been announced as shortlisted for the ridiculously on point Stella Prize. 

A haunting and acclaimed novel of thwarted ambition, corruption, murder and family secrets by the author of the acclaimed bestseller The Rose Grower.

[roundaboutview]

Because it is on everyone’s lips and I failed to get tickets.

In 1806 William Thornhill, an illiterate English bargeman and a man of quick temper but deep compassion, steals a load of wood and, as a part of his lenient sentence, is deported, along with his beloved wife, Sal, to the New South Wales colony in what would become Australia. The Secret River is the tale of William and Sal’s deep love for their small, exotic corner of the new world, and William’s gradual realization that if he wants to make a home for his family, he must forcibly take the land from the people who came before him. Acclaimed around the world, The Secret River is a magnificent, transporting work of historical fiction.

[roundaboutview]

Prologue

In December last year Housemate and I spent an evening eating, drinking and talking books.  This was quite the feat as Housemate currently calls Paris home whereas I remain true to the Peter Allen original. Thankfully, family Christmas plans made it possible and it is because of this that I find myself here, passively communicating with an unseen, unknown and potentially limitless audience and very much outside of my comfort zone.

  We had two books, and some seriously oaked chardonnay, on our agenda – Tim Winton’s Breath and Yann Mertel’s Beatrice and Virgil. I had sent these to Housemate in a care package over a year earlier. I had not provided any commentary on the books other than to say “when you have finished them, let’s talk”.

  Both books had been imposed upon me by different book clubs, without which I know I would never have picked them up. I found both consuming, moving, confronting and, most of all, surprising. Even more surprising, however, was the fact that I found myself quite alone in my reactions, even amongst fellow bookclubbers. I was left wanting, no needing, someone to talk to; the opinions of others had been so polar from mine that very unusually I found myself needing validation.

  It was not hard to know whom I needed to ask to read with me. Housemate has always been more of an experiential soul mate, a relationship that is quite hard to revel in across oceans. So I packed the books off along with other treats and waited.

  I cannot overstate the excitement I felt when, as we were planning catching up, Housemate said “we need to talk about those books”. And so we found ourselves perched up at a restaurant bar, drinking safe in the knowledge of taxi-transportation home, talking and gesticulating about books. And we were on the same page.

  Our opinions were not identical; our highlights, descriptions and language were, as always, very different but our instincts were on the same page and we understood each other. It was as if the nuance came from a landscape viewed through different lens’ from the same perspective. It was invigorating.

  After Housemate had returned ‘home’ she emailed me with a suggestion – we sign up for The Australian Women Writer’s Challenge and continue our dialogue.  I couldn’t have been more excited and registered almost instantaneously and established a purpose-built twitter account.

  The rest is history in the making.