Living Things: City of Trees by Sophie CunninghamWith an incremental power, this collection of essays invites us to be present absolutely to ourselves, our environments, our histories and our world. City of Trees is a deeply ethical and thoughtful call to consciousness, a call to see and feel be...2 July. 2019
The Speed of Life: Georgia Blain’s The Museum of WordsBlain was able to write only under the most stringent circumstances. In the morning, assisted by meditation, steroids and two strong coffees, she could carve out an hour to find and assemble the appropriate words. As she edits the previous day’s w...8 Mar. 2018
Return Voyage: Regions of Thick-Ribbed Ice by Helen Garner‘In Antarctica, Garner harbours a deep anxiety. “Forgive me”, she states, “I’m not here for the wildlife.” She has come on this journey in search of blankness, or at the very least a blank canvas on which to project her moods and emotions. She wan...27 Oct. 2015
A soulful longing: A Short History of Richard KlineOn the cover, A Short History of Richard Kline is identified as a ‘pilgrim’s progress for the here and now’. For Lohrey, the here and now demands an easily accessible realist narrative rather than Bunyan’s choice of allegory. That may be the right...7 Apr. 2015
Mostly private letters: Moving Among Strangers by Gabrielle CareyOne of the most intriguing – and largely unanswered – questions posed by Carey in Moving Among Strangers is: ‘Why did my mother correspond with a young man, an adolescent, thirteen years her junior, who wasn’t even a relation?’ Perhaps, she muses,...3 Dec. 2013
Moods and mirrors: Street to Street by Brian CastroIn Street to Street, Brian Castro resurrects Christopher Brennan in all his defensive, creative brilliance and personal and professional failure.12 Feb. 2013
‘Careful Archaeology’A biographer is tasked, after all, with interpreting a life, yet Mears deliberately did so much of this interpretation, and re-interpretation, herself. And she did so with an increasing knowledge, it seems, that her own interpretations were partia...31 Jan. 2022
Love and Rhetoric: A Writing LifeI also had the sensation of ‘growing up’ as a result of reading Brennan’s book. This statement expects no flabbergasted reaction. Many of us know that books have tracked our lives – and with Garner, it is from inner-city, communal living in Monkey...11 Aug. 2017
