Sydney Writers' Festival - Early Sessions

The 2019 Sydney Writers' Festival has begun!  I will be sharing my festival experiences on Twitter (@inaguddle) and blog about them here as I have done in the past (SWF2018, SWF2016,  SWF2015)

Unable to take time off work to attend weekday sessions, I am making the most of my evenings and have an action-packed weekend scheduled. My festival companion and I have chosen a wide array of sessions - some together, some apart - selecting topics of interest and some new authors with whom I am not familiar.

Over the course of SWF2019 I will be hearing from some amazing writers like Gillian Triggs, Oyinkan Braithwaite, Rachel Kushner, Daisy Johnson, John Purcell, Gabbie Stroud, Kerry O'Brien, Chloe Hooper and Susan Orlean.

So here's a summary of my first few sessions...

Suffragettes, Referenda and Sausages (Thursday 2 May 2019)

This panel session is subtitled 'The History of Democracy in Australia'. Journalist Annabel Crabb sat down with historians Judith Brett and Dr Clare Wright to talk about politics.

I have a keen interest in politics and history and have long admired Wright, author of the Stella Prize winning The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka (2014). Her latest book is You Daughters of Freedom (2018) about the Australian women's suffrage movement. Judith Brett's latest book is From Secret Ballot to Democracy Sausage (2019) about the Australian electoral system.

This session was so interesting and I learned so much about how unique Australia's electoral system is - with the legal requirement to register, compulsory voting, accessible weekend voting, and the independent electoral commission which protects against voter suppression and gerrymandering - all reasons that over 96% of eligible population are enrolled to vote.

What particularly fascinated me was Wright's discussion of women's suffrage and how influential Australian women were in the British suffrage movement, supporting their 'less fortunate British sisters'. Wright shared some stories of the innovative ways women pressed for the right to vote. Both Brett and Wright spoke about our shameful history of denying rights to Aboriginal men and women, sharing excerpts of overtly racist political speeches. Wright reminded today's politicians that 'Historians in one hundred years will judge you on what is recorded in Hansard' - the transcripts from our Parliament.

After the session I purchased Wright's book and spoke to her while she signed it for me. Can't wait to read it - although it may be some time, as the 400+ page hardcover is not a book I will be taking with me on my Moroccan holiday later this month!

Gillian Triggs - Speaking Up (Friday 3 May 2019)

I have huge admiration for Gillian Triggs, former Human Rights Commission President. I have heard her speak previously at events and always found her to be an intelligent,  passionate and empathetic advocate for human rights. My festival friend and I were keen to hear Triggs speak with Dr Clare Wright about her memoir Speaking Up (2018).

Spending her early years in Britain before emigrating with her family to Australia, Triggs was raised with a keen sense of social justice. She spoke about the influence Greer's The Female Eunuch and de Beauvoir's Second Sex had on her as a young woman and how optimistic she was for a positive, equal future in which she could pursue whatever future she had imagined for herself. She shared how she ended up in law, how difficult it was in the late 1960s for women to get into the profession and how she developed her interest in international law.

Triggs then spoke about the fundamental freedoms at the heart of democracy - rights to be free from arbitrary detention, to a fair trial, to freedom of assembly, to be equal before the law, to vote, etc - and how Australia's rights have been eroded and are not protected by a Bill or Charter of Rights. She claims that 2001 was when Australia began to lose its way because of three distinct but linked incidents - the 'children overboard' claim, the Tampa crisis, and 9/11 - which lead to successive governments conflating Islam and asylum seekers with terrorism, and the creation of laws which have diminished the separation of powers and placed human rights at risk.

She spoke about her time as Human Rights Commission President, the intense scrutiny and abuse she endured, and how her resilience was fuelled by her team at the Commission, her anger at the injustice and the overwhelming community support. Triggs ended this empowering session with an optimistic view of the future and encouraged young people to be bold and stand up for what they believe is right.

Insiders Live (Friday 3 May 2019)

One of my favourite events at each Sydney Writers' Festival is Insiders live which I attended with my festival friend (who secured some amazing seats!). With the host of ABC's Insiders program Barrie Cassidy set to leave the show mid-year, this event was particularly special and it started with a bang when James Jeffrey played the Insiders theme on bagpipes as he walked through Town Hall.

Cassidy was joined by journalists Annabel Crabb, Niki Savva, David Marr and Katharine Murphy, with Mike Bowers 'talking pictures' with Jack the Insider and James Jeffrey. Two weeks out from an election, with 16 candidates having had to pull out of the race for various unsavoury reasons, there was much to talk about.

Earlier in the evening there was a televised debate between the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader, which Annabel Crabb summarised. The panelists each spoke about the campaign highlights and lowlights. The general consensus was that Labor is performing well because they are a united team, with solid bench-strength, and they have clearly articulated policies to discuss. On the other hand, the Coalition is more of a one-man show with Morrison doing all the talking in this campaign and having no real policies to speak of.

Talking pictures is always a hoot, with Bowers showing some of the best political cartoons of the campaign and some incredible photographic images. They also showed one of Huw Parkinson's gems - a mashup he did in September 2018 when Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was ousted.

The 2000-strong audience all got to participate in the traditional 'Back to you, Barrie' twice this night, the final one including a thank you for Cassidy's 18 years at the helm of Insiders. The show will not be the same without him. The ever-humble Cassidy sought to escape the stage without much fanfare, but was forced to return for the prolonged standing ovation and there was a touching moment when he was hugged by Katharine Murphy and Mike Bowers at the end of the night. A great event with an amazingly gifted panel.

Looking forward to the next two days of the Sydney Writer's Festival!


I have written about my 2019 Sydney Writers' Festival experiences in three parts. You can access them at the following links:

• SWF2019 - Early Sessions
• SWF2019 - My Big Weekend (part 1)
• SWF2019 - My Big Weekend (part 2)

Women's Prize for Fiction Shortlist

The Women's Prize for Fiction Shortlist has been announced! The Longlist has been whittled down to a handful of titles:

• Pat Barker - The Silence of the Girls (UK)
• Oyinkan Braithwaite - My Sister, the Serial Killer (Nigeria)
• Anna Burns - Milkman (UK)
• Diana Evans - Ordinary People (UK)
• Tayari Jones - An American Marriage (USA)
• Madeline Miller - Circe (USA)

I had expected Burns to make the list, after her Booker win for Milkman, but was surprised to see Sally Rooney's Normal People cut.

I was a bit perplexed by the shortlist, in that there are novels with similar themes together  - such as Miller and Barker who both write feminist retelling of ancient stories. And I was disappointed that Greenberg-Jephcott's Swan Song was left off the list.

I will be seeing Braithwaite this week at the Sydney Writer's Festival, so at the moment she has my vote to win.

The Winner will be announced on 5 June 2019.

Stella Prize 2019

The winner of the Stella Prize was announced this week with Vicki Laveau-Harvie being awarded the prize for her memoir The Eratics.

The book traces the author's return to Alberta, Canada to care for her estranged parents when her elderly mother breaks her hip. Over a six year period she learns of her mother's narcissistic personality disorder and her father's trauma.

The judges described the book as follows:

The winning book elegantly tramples all over the Stella requirements: it is excellent, engaging and original in spades. It is moving and funny, and as powerful in what it leaves out as it is in what it includes. 

The Erratics is Vicki Laveau-Harvie's debut as a writer. She claims she will use the $50,000 prize money to travel. Which will hopefully inspire her to write more.

An American Marriage

The Sydney Writers' Festival begins in a month's time and I am eagerly trying to read books by many of the writers I will be seeing at the festival. One of the headliners is American writer Meg Wolitzer, bestselling author of The Female Persuasion (2018), The Interestings (2013) and The Wife (2004). I had not read any of her books, but as I was keen to see the recent film version of The Wife, starring the incomparable Glenn Close, I decided to start there.

Joan is the wife of a famous American writer, Joseph Castleman. They are en route to Helsinki where Joseph is due to collect a prestigious literary award for his life's work, when Joan realises that she has had enough and must leave him. Having been married for four decades, she has suppressed her desires and her talents to attend wholly to his needs. She has turned a blind eye to his philandering and quietly suffered his humiliations.

Told in flashback, we explore their meeting at college when he was a young teacher and she was his student and a burgeoning talent.  They began an affair, ran off to New York and his literary career began while she cared for their three children.

It is easy to despise Joe Castleman. He is an odious hack who uses his wife terribly. A 'master of the universe' with adoring young fans, who lacks any sense of self-awareness or shame. But it is also hard to fully comprehend Joan and her willingness to put up with the one-sided arrangement she made with Joe. Throughout reading I had to keep reminding myself that she is a woman of a different era, married in the 1950s when expectations were different and women had fewer options. She gave up her studies, her career ambitions to became his doormat. Her fear of being 'small and ordinary' lead her to hitch her wagon to his star, even though he is wholly unworthy.

I really appreciate Wolitzer's writing. She manages to create a real sense of place and being. I laughed aloud at some of her prose, for example, when she described how the excitement of an international flight fades: 'The air, once so antiseptic, was now home to a million farts and corn chips and moist towelettes'. What I particularly enjoyed was Wolitzer's sharp feminist critique of the place of female writers - how they are dismissed and diminished in the literary world. In one scene  novelist Elaine Mozell is talking with Joan about how women's voices are silenced and that females have more success as short story writers 'as if maybe women are somehow more acceptable in miniature'.

My introduction to Meg Wolitzer was extremely gratifying and I look forward to exploring some of her other works.

The Wife - Film Adaptation
Late last year a film adaptation of The Wife was released, starring Glenn Close as Joan Castleman and Jonathan Pryce as her husband Joseph. Jane Anderson adapted Wolitzer's novel for the film and Bjorn Runge directed it.

I watched the film a few days after reading the book and I really enjoyed it. There are a few changes from the novel, but it is a largely faithful adaptation.

Glenn Close is brilliant in all things, and was nominated for pretty much every acting award for this performance, winning the Golden Globe. Beneath the cool exterior are layers of emotion, and the camera often focuses on Close's face so we can see the depth of her feeling. Pryce is also excellent, and the key scene between them on the night of the award gala is an acting master class by both leads.   It is well worth watching for this scene alone.

Hungry for more

Rachel Samstat is seven months pregnant with her second child when she learns that her husband Mark has been having an affair. This is not the first time he has cheated during their eight year relationship, but this is one that burns because Mark announces he is in love with the other woman. Rachel flees Washington for New York to decide whether or not to give up on their marriage. She attends therapy, meets friends and muses about how mashed potatoes are the ideal comfort food.

Ephron's novel Heartburn (1983) is autobiographical and would have been quite scandalous when released as it based on her second marriage to journalist Carl Bernstein, of Watergate fame. Indeed in her introduction to the book she shares how angry Bernstein was at her for writing it. As she writes, 'what did he think was going to happen?' - she is a writer after all.

The main character is a cookbook writer, so throughout Heartburn Rachel shares recipes for cheesecakes and vinaigrette, as well as casual asides about food ('the truth is that any dish with capers in it tastes better with capers not in it'). She also has some great lines about relationships like 'I think I was so entranced with being a couple that I didn't even notice that the person I thought I was a couple with thought he was a couple with someone else.'

I really wanted to like this book as I am a fan of Ephron's screenwriting and have always thought of her as a smart and sassy woman. But I am afraid this book didn't work for me. It was kind of like hearing an overlong stand-up comedy set which isn't terribly funny. The recipes were unnecessary and distracting, and many of the scenes were over the top and unbelievable.  I guess what I was searching for was a bit more depth, given the seriousness of the subject, and this was a light as a soufflé.

This is the second book in a row that I have read on marriage and relationships, having finished Meg Woitzer's The Wife earlier this week. Both were about marriage, unfaithfulness, division of domestic labour and settling. If anything, these two novels made me thankful for my own relationship and grateful that I live in a different time.

Heartburn was made into a film in 1986 starring Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson, directed by Mike Nichols. Nora Ephron penned the screenplay.

It Ain't Over Yet

I am a great admirer of Clive James - Australian essayist and poet.  A few years ago I purchased his Collected Poems 1958-2015, a weighty 500+ page tome, and have enjoyed returning to this collection to admire his verse time and again. 

For the past six or seven years, James has been terminally ill with leukaemia, emphysema and kidney failure. His 2015 collection Sentenced to Life was meant to contain his final works, featuring verse about his illness and his reflections on life, all with his razor-sharp wit and intellect. Despite the melancholy backdrop, these poems are full of life. A few of my favourites are 'Japanese Maple', 'Cabin Baggage' and 'Landfall'. Many speak to his illness and imminent death, such as the opening stanza of 'Japanese Maple':

Your death, near now, is of an easy sort. 
So slow a fading out brings no real pain.
Breath growing short
Is just uncomfortable. You feel the drain
Of energy, but thought and sight remain

While Sentenced to Life was expected to be the last collection of Clive James' verse, his illness was prolonged and he continues to make the most of his extra time. James continued writing poems and gathered his work together in the 2017 collection Injury Time. This collection is less sombre as James' health has improved (though the prognosis has not changed). It is almost as if he is using this extra time to score as many goals as he can - to get his affairs in order and say all he needs to say.

The collection begins with the 'Return of the Kogarah Kid' which is an 'inscription for a small bronze plaque at Dawes Point':

Here I began and here I reach the end.
From here my ashes go back to the sea
And take my memories of every friend
And love, and anything still dear to me

Thoughts of death appear again in James 'This coming winter' which begins:
This coming winter I will say goodbye - 
In case I do not live to see the spring - 
To all my loved ones one by one. That way,
Taking my time each time, I need not be 
Besieged at the last hour, with the fine thing
Eluding me that I wished to convey...

But it is not all doom and gloom, there is humour and wisdom throughout. My favourites in this collection 'The Rest is Silence', 'Finch Conference' about a gathering in his garden, 'Edith Piaf on YouTube' a reflection on love,  and the essay 'Letter to a Young Poet'.

Of the two collections, there is an urgency in Sentenced to Life which I feel makes it the more powerful. I sincerely hope that James continues to write and there may be more to come, but if Injury Time is his last, he has left us with a remarkable collection to remember him by.

Women's Prize for Fiction Longlist 2019

This week the Women's Prize for Fiction Longlist was announced. The prize (previously known as the Orange Prize or the Bailey's Prize) is the UK's most prestigious annual book award for female fiction writers and has been since it was founded in 1996.

Like the Stella Prize in Australia, the Women's Prize always introduces me to new authors and titles and I particularly like the way in which it seeks out to recognise diversity.

This year the Longlist titles are:

Pat Barker - The Silence of the Girls (UK)
A feminist retelling of The Iliad, Pat Barker puts women's voices first. Troy is under siege over Helen. Elsewhere Briseis, a queen from a neighbouring kingdom, is awarded to Achilles after her male relatives are all murdered. Briseis finds herself caught between Achilles and Agamemnon, and is a keen observer of the two men who will decide the fate of the ancient world.

Yvonne Battle-Felton  - Remembered (USA)
Set in 1910 in Philadelphia, Spring is tending to her ailing son Edward. He has been charged with committing a crime. but did he? Spring is forced to relive her own past as an emancipated slave in order to lead her son home. This is Battle-Felton's debut novel.

Oyinkan Braithwaite - My Sister, the Serial Killer
Ayoola has a habit of getting rid of her boyfriends and calling on her sister Korede to assist in the clean up. Korede knows she should report Ayoola, but the family ties are strong. However, Korede is conflicted once Ayoola starts dating someone Korede is interested in. Braithwaite hails from Nigeria and was a finalist for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize in 2016.

Melissa Broder - The Pisces (USA)

Lucy has hit rock bottom. She has lost her boyfriend,  she is unable to get an extension on her overdue thesis, and she is spiralling out of control. Her sister offers her a lifeline - come to Los Angeles and house sit while attending therapy.  There, on Venice Beach, she meets a man who loves the ocean. As she becomes drawn to him she discovers her is a merman, but tries to make their relationship work.  Broder is a LA-based poet, essayist and author. This novel is being adapted for film.

Anna Burns - Milkman (UK)

Set in Belfast in the 1970s, during the Troubles, Milkman is a stream of consciousness story narrated by a young woman who is rumoured to be having an affair with a person known only as the Milkman. The novel explores truth and gossip, with a unique writing style. Burns was shortlisted for the Orange prize in 2002 for No Bones and Milkman won the 2018 Booker prize.

Akwaeke Emezi - Freshwater (Nigeria)
This is the debut novel of Nigerian writer Akwaeke Emezi. Centring around Ada, a young girl who has a fractured self - multiple personalities which have taken root in her mind. When Ada moves to America for college, a traumatic experience causes more personalities to surface. Freshwater has received much praise, including being named as Best Book of the Year by the New Yorker.





Diana Evans - Ordinary People (UK)
Set in London in 2008, against the backdrop of Barack Obama's historic victory, two late-30-something couples have grown dissatisfied with their lives. Sharing housework and childcare responsibilities, their dwindling passions are leading to marital disharmony.  Evans is the author of the bestselling 26a and The Wonder.

Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott - Swan Song (USA)
Without having read a single page, I am in love with this book. First of all, I adore this cover. Second, this is a novel about one of my favourite writers, Truman Capote, and his book Answered Prayers which sensationally spread gossip on a group of high profile women who had gathered round him. Definitely need to get hold of this debut novel!

Tayari Jones - An American Marriage (USA)
Newlyweds Roy and Celestial have everything going for them. She is a talented artist and he is young executive. When he is arrested and imprisoned, Celestial finds herself lost and drawn to their mutual friend Andre. This is a love story which is narrated in alternating chapters by the three characters. I first heard about this novel when Barack Obama named it on his 2018 summer reading list.

Lillian Li - Number One Chinese Restaurant (USA)
In Rockville Maryland there is a famous restaurant, the Beijing Duck House, which has been run by Jimmy Han and his family for generations. When tragedy strikes, the family needs to decide what to, but each person has their own perspective - highlighting intergenerational conflict and cultural differences. This is the debut novel by Lillian Li.

Sophie van Llewyn - Bottled Goods (Romania)
Set in the 1970s in communist Romania, this is a novella blending historical fiction and magical realism. Alina's brother-in-law defects to the West and suddenly she and her husband become the subject of secret service investigations, impacting their careers and relationships.

Valeria Luiselli - Lost Children Archive (Mexico/USA)
This novel is about a family road trip across America, a journey from New York to Arizona. The blended family is falling apart and the siblings are concerned they will lose contact if their parents divorce. Their story is interspersed with those of migrants coming to America, in an indictment of US immigration policies.

Bernice L. McFadden - Praise Song for the Butterflies (USA)
In West Africa, nine-year-old Abeo lives a relatively privileged life with her family. When her father loses his job, Abeo's grandmother convinces her son to sacrifice Abeo as part of the trokosi system in which young virgins are sent to be slaves in atonement for wrongs committed by family members. Her she endures unspeakable trauma. McFadden is the author of nine critically acclaimed novels.

 Madeline Miller - Circe (USA)
Circe is the daughter of Helios, god of the sun, and Perse. She possess a powerful witchcraft that can transform people into beasts. While Circe had a role to play in the Odyssey, this story is told from her point of view. When Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, Circe learns to best use her witchcraft and decides whether to remain with the gods or to chose mortals. Miller previously won the Women's Prize for The Song of Achilles (2012).

Sarah Moss - Ghost Wall (UK)
Silvie and her parets live in a Northumberland hut, where her father tries to recreate life in the Iron Age. A group of archeology students and keen historians have decided to live like Ancient Britons, hunting, trading and foraging as their ancestors would have. Silvie's father is a brutal man but uses the recreation to justify and hide his abuse. Moss has written six novels and is a Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Warwick.

Normal People by Sally Rooney (Ireland)

Connell and Marianne grow up together in a small town in Ireland, but have very different lives. When they both attend Trinity College, Dublin, they realise they have a connection. This is an intimate character study and a love story, with a backdrop critique of class and privilege. Normal People was longlisted for the 2018 Booker Prize.

Of these titles the ones I am most likely to read are Rooney, Braithwaite and Greenberg-Jephcott. I must admit that I am intrigued by the feminist retelling of ancient tales like Circe and The Silence of the Girls.

The Shortlist will be announced on 29 April followed by the reveal of the Winner on 5 June 2019.

Without A Trace

Last year when the Booker Prize longlist was announced, Belinda Bauer was named for her crime thriller Snap (2018). Before the nomination, I had not heard of Bauer despite her success as a writer of eight crime novels. Upon recommendation of my aunt, I sought it out and have spent the past few days engrossed in this tale.

Eileen Bright's car breaks down on a motorway. She leaves her three young children in the vehicle and goes off in search of an emergency phone and is never seen again. Her disappearance and subsequent murder breaks the Bright family as dad is unable to cope with the loss of his pregnant wife, leaving his eldest child Jack to be assume responsibility for his younger siblings.

Three years later, a spate of house burglaries are frustrating the local police, unable to catch the robber they have named 'Goldilocks'. And one night, pregnant Catherine While disturbs an intruder who leaves her a threatening note. Could this be Goldilocks? Could it be same the perpetrator that killed Eileen?

Enter Detective Marvel and his crew of investigators who, in searching for Goldilocks, may have found the clues to solve the Bright cold case.

Bauer has an insightful, empathetic way of writing about the Bright children and the trauma they experienced. She has crafted a tale that weaves together a string of coincidences to slowly reveal the full picture. There were some parts where credulity is strained - such as Detective Reynolds' frequent bumbling and Catherine's unwillingness to get police involved - but for the most part it is an entertaining read. I wish she had not given a character a surname of While as it occasionally made it confusing to read. But I really enjoyed Snap and will seek out Bauer's other novels.

However, I am surprised that it was nominated for the Booker. Thrillers generally don't get nominated for that literary prize and I am confident that there would be much better representations of the genre published last year (Rankin, Galbraith, Winslow etc).

Stella Prize Shortlist 2019

On International Women's Day, 8 March 2019, the Stella Prize shortlist was announced! The six titles vying for this year's prize are:

• Jenny Ackland - Little Gods
• Enza Gandolfo - The Bridge
• Jamie Marina Lau - Pink Mountain on Locust Island
• Vicki Laveau-Harvie - The Erratics
• Melissa Lucashenko - Too Much Lip
• Maria Tumarkin - Axiomatic

The chair of the judging panel, Louise Swinn, said this of the shortlist:

“The six finalists on the 2019 Stella Prize shortlist explode the myth of the death of the book, and they are a hearty response to the under-representation of women’s work in awards. This is an incredibly diverse knot of books, with broad subjects showing that identity is shaped across many continents and informed by many cultures. Non-fiction and fiction works stray from their formal constraints as authors give authentic voices to those who are otherwise under-represented. The books on this shortlist inform and entertain, and while they speak absolutely to our moment, their insights are timeless."

I was surprised to see the two longlisted titles I have read - Bri Lee's Eggshell Skull and Chloe Hooper's The Arsonist - were bumped. Both were incredible books that have been lauded and awarded in many other awards programs. So these shortlisters had better be good!

For more information about the shortlisted titles, see my post on the Stella Prize longlist.

The winner will be revealed on 9 April 2019. Happy reading!

Me, Us, We

Michelle Robinson Obama's best selling memoir, Becoming (2018) was at the top of my wish list. I have delighted in reading it and come away utterly inspired by its author.

As a young girl, Michelle grew up in Chicago's South Side with her beloved older brother Craig and their devoted parents. Dad Fraser worked maintaining boilers at a water filtration plant who endured his increasingly debilitating multiple sclerosis with quiet grace. Mum Marian was a homemaker who taught her children to be independent thinkers.

Michelle excelled at school, went on to earn a Bachelor degree at Princeton before heading to Harvard Law School. Upon graduation she worked as a IP lawyer for several years before realising she wanted to use her talents in a different way and sought out work in the non-profit sector. She has spent her life as an advocate for those marginalised by race, class, gender and ability.

Meeting Barack Obama was a changing point in her life. His life story was so different to hers. They yinged-and-yanged, balancing each other out. His unrelenting optimism and her self doubt, his leaning in to chaos and her desire for order, his need for solitude and her need for closeness. Their 25 year partnership allowed them to weather the highs and lows of politics and the long absences his job imposed, but also the personal challenges of family illnesses, deaths, miscarriage and infertility.

In 2008 the Obamas arrived in the White House. The first African-American President and First Lady were always trailblazers. Michelle sought to use her platform as a means to promote causes she cared for - healthy eating and exercise, supporting military families, educating girls. Her memoir details her efforts on the campaign trail, the criticisms she faced, and meeting with the Queen, Mandela and other world leaders. She also describes the efforts the Obamas took to raise their two young daughters in the most 'normal' way possible despite the extraordinary requirements of their eight years in the White House.

Oftentimes memoirs can feel unauthentic, as if poorly ghostwritten. Becoming is refreshingly candid and reading it felt as though Michelle were sitting down and casually sharing her story with me. I laughed and cried with her, felt her insecurities and doubts, and was uplifted by her optimism and hope. I didn't know too much about Michelle Obama before reading this memoir, but I came away in awe of her impact, her quiet leadership, her intellect and eloquence. I don't know what she will do next, but I know she will continue to inspire.

The Stella Prize Longlist 2019

The Stella Prize longlist has been announced! The annual literary award celebrating women writers of both fiction and non-fiction is named after Australian author Stella Miles Franklin. Past winners include:

Alexis Wright for Tracker (2018)

Heather Rose for The Museum of Modern Love (2017)

Charlotte Wood for The Natural Way of Things (2016)

Emily Bitto for The Strays (2015)

Claire Wright for The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka (2014)

Carrie Tiffany for Mateship with Birds (2013)

I genuinely love the Stella Prize. The longlisted books become my reading list and the winner often ends up as my favourite read of the year.

On 7 February 2019, the longlist for this year's Stella Prize was announced with 12 nominees. I have already read two of the books and loved them, but many of the other books and authors are unknown to me so I look forward to exploring these titles.

The 2019 longlist is as follows:

Jenny Ackland - Little Gods
This novel is set in the 1980s in rural Victoria. Twelve year old Olive is a smart and brave child who discovers a secret about her family and is determined to learn more about what may have happened many years ago. But her curiosity could lead to repercussions she cannot yet imagine. The judges write that 'Ackland perfectly evokes a childhood both sublime and anguished, and the uncertainty of youth is exquisitely depicted throughout'. I have heard great things about Little Gods and so I will add this book to my list.


Stephanie Bishop - Man Out of Time
The judges described Bishop's book as 'an audacious, splendidly accomplished novel, lit by shimmering prose'. Man Out Of Time focuses on the damaged relationship of Stella and her father Leon. In September 2001 Leon disappears, having suffered from debilitating mental illness. Searching for clues on where he might have gone, his wife Frances and daughter Stella reflect on his deterioration over time.

Belinda Castles - Bluebottle
Set on Sydney's northern beaches, the Bright family live in a clifftop beach shack amid the gorgeous, leafy scenery.  Louisa, Jack and Phoebe know their father Charlie can be volatile and moody. A local schoolgirl disappears which has a huge impact on the family as Charlie becomes fixated on the mystery. I am ashamed to say I had not heard of Belinda Castles who won the Vogel Award for her 2006 novel The River Baptists. This is another title to add to my list.


Enza Gandolfo - The Bridge
This novel draws on the true story of the 1970 West Gate Bridge collapse, Australia's worst industrial accident in which 35 construction workers died. Protagonist Antonello was there that day when his colleagues perished and he has to deal with the guilt and grief. Four decades later Jo is finishing high school when a mistake ends in tragedy.  The judges describe The Bridge as 'a sharp and moving portrayal of the strength and resilience that lives in people, and a fascinating look at the effects of gentrification'.  I love books with a strong sense of place and I reckon this novel would bring Melbourne to life.


Chloe Hooper - The Arsonist
I am thrilled that Hooper's book about the Churchill bushfire has made the longlist. This is the story of the arsonist who deliberately lit fire that destroyed homes, burnt over 80,000 hectares of land and killed eleven people. It follows the fire and its aftermath, as well as the investigation, arrest and trial of the perpetrator.  When I read The Arsonist in November 2018 I marvelled at Hooper's investigative skills and her talents as a writer. The judges described this as a 'masterful work of non-fiction'  and I would agree. My review can be found on this blog.


Gail Jones - The Death of Noah Glass

Art historian Noah Glass dies suddenly shortly after returning from a trip to Sicily. His adult children, Martin and Evie, are in shock from his death, but then get another surprise when they learn Noah was being investigated by police because a statue has gone missing from a Palermo museum. Was Noah's death an accident? Was he involved in the disappearance of the statue? Who was their father really? The judges described this novel as 'a well-crafted, detail-rich narrative from a multi-award winning literary novelist who is at the peak of her game'. Sounds intriguing!

Jamie Marina Lau - Pink Mountain on Locust Island
This is the debut novel of a 20 year old writer - so an auspicious start to Lau's literary career. Set in Chinatown, teenage Monk lives with her father in a tiny apartment. A new potential artist boyfriend enters the scene complicating relationships and leading Monk to explore her own sense of self. The judges claim 'this book is like nothing you have ever read before - a kaleidoscope of colours, smells and fragments of life observed by a teenager in Chinatown somewhere in an unknown city.'


Vicki Laveau-Harvie - The Erratics

In this memoir, Vicki returns home to Alberta, Canada to help her elderly father when her mother becomes hospitalised. Having been estranged from her parents, she is shocked to learn that her father has essentially been held captive by her mother. With wit and insight, the judges describe the author's narrative voice as 'detached, slightly numb and darkly humorous'. The subject matter sounds bleak, but as a fellow Canadian expat living in Australia I am intrigued.


Bri Lee - Eggshell Skull
I squealed with delight when I saw Bri Lee's name on this list! Her memoir Eggshell Skull is an incredible book that was one of my top reads of 2018. Lee writes about her experience as an associate for a Queensland District Court Judge and then her own battle as she sought justice against a man who had indecently assaulted her. My review can be found on this blog.




Melissa Lucashenko - Too Much Lip

I was first introduced to Melissa Lucashenko's work in 1999 when I read her debut novel Steam Pigs as part of my Masters degree in Gender Studies. I enjoyed her writing and followed her career.  Too Much Lip tells the story of Kerry Salter, a woman prone to speaking her mind. Her opinions often get her into trouble, and now she might be in the kind of trouble she can't talk her way out of. The judges describe this novel as 'a fearless, searing and unvarnished portrait of generational trauma cut through with acerbic humour'.



Maria Tumarkin - Axiomatic
Tumarkin's collection of essays traverse a wide range of subjects including child abduction, teen suicide, and the experiences of refugees. The judges describe Axiomatic as 'an unwieldy expansive beast that combines lyrical essay with psychological reportage'. I really love essay collections, but I am not sure that I could endure the subject matter of this collection.



Fiona Wright - The World Was Whole
Fiona Wright won great acclaim for her previous collection of essays, Small Acts of Disappearance. In this follow up Wright explores themes of illness, home, travel and more. The judges describe this as 'a taut and expansive mix of everyday observations, cultural theory, social commentary and memoir'. I am keen to read this volume particularly as she writes about life in Newtown and travel.



In compiling this longlist, the judges claim that they 'chose books that strove for something big and fulfilled their own ambitions'. The two I have read certainly attest to this claim, so I can't wait to explore some of the others. For more information and the complete judges comments, see the Stella Prize website.

The Shortlist will be announced on 8 March - International Women's Day - with the winner revealed on 9 April 2019. Happy reading!

Unenviable Decisions

Ian McEwan's novel The Children Act (2014) is a slender volume which packs a punch.  The author wonderfully depicts the streets of north London, the drama of social services, the complexities of religion, and the challenges of family relationships. 

Now in her early sixties, Fiona Maye is a high ranking judge in Britain's High Court. Specialising in family law, each day she has to make difficult judgements on custody, spousal support, the division of family assets. While some of her cases are mundane or routine, there are others that are heartbreaking for which there is no good decision. Fiona battles between her heart and her mind, balancing up diverse interests and legal precedent to make decisions which she believes to be in the interests of those concerned.

Lately Fiona has had back to back cases which have truly tested her. She has had to decide between divorcing parents conflicting views on religion and child-rearing. She also had to rule on whether to seperate conjoined twins knowing that together they would both die but apart one might live. Now she is faced with a new case in which young Adam Henry is not quite of legal age where he may make his own decisions about his health, and Fiona must decide between his parents' wishes and those of the hospital. 

While she faces intense stress and drama at work, her home life is also on the verge of unravelling. Her husband of three decades has decided he wants to have an affair with a younger woman - one last fling before he gets too old - and essentially seeks Fiona's permission. She refuses and is now in a state of flux, not knowing whether her marriage has ended.    

Reading this book brought back floods of memories for me. I studied family law as part of my law degree and spent countless hours in courtrooms, so I had flashbacks when McEwan described some of the legal principles in Fiona's judgements.  Plus, whenever I travel to the UK I stay in London near where Fiona does, and I am well acquainted with the streets McEwan describes. 

Last year The Children Act was adapted into a film, with McEwan as screenwriter. It stars Emma Thompson as Judge Maye and while I haven't seen anything more than the trailer (below), I reckon the casting is spot on!

I have a lot of Ian McEwan novels on my bookshelves, many unread. My first McEwan was Enduring Love (1997), given to me by a friend who moved to Britain when I moved to Australia and we used to send each other fiction from our new homelands. I really enjoyed The Child in Time (1987), Amsterdam (2001) and Atonement (2001) but then for some reason stopped reading his books even though I continued to collect them. The Children Act has encouraged me to pull some of his other books off my shelves and get reading.

Under the Surface

As soon as I cracked the spine on Patricia Highsmith's 1957 thriller Deep Water, I was hooked. For the next few hours I savoured every word of this suspenseful tale of a failing marriage.

Set in a small town, Vic Van Allen is well regarded by locals. He runs a boutique publishing house, keeps snails, and dotes on his young daughter Trixie. His wife Melinda is unhappy in her marriage and spends every afternoon in the bar at the Lord Chesterfield Inn in an effort to meet good looking, available men.  Vic knows about Melinda's indiscretions, in fact the whole town does. She brings the men home, and invites them as her guest to neighbourhood parties, creating much awkwardness with hosts who suspect her unfaithfulness but don't want to upset Vic.

The Van Allens have an arrangement wherein Melinda can do as she pleases as long as she doesn't abandon Vic and their daughter.  In fact, Vic's only objection is that she chooses 'such idiotic, spineless characters'. His friends express concern at his being cuckolded and he is seen as having the patience of a saint while the frivolous Melinda drinks excessively and fawns over a seemingly endless parade of lovers.

When one of Melinda's former lovers is murdered, Vic scares off her current flame by joking that he killed the last one. But when another lover drowns, Melinda becomes suspicious that Vic has a hidden dark side.

Highsmith is an incredible writer and has a gift for creating complex characters who are not what they seem. She manages to make readers feel contempt for victims and empathy for a perpetrators. Suspense builds with each chapter and you never know what is going to happen next.

My review of Highsmith's The Talented Mr Ripley (1955) is also available on this blog. I am looking forward to exploring more of her novels this year.

Out of the Wilderness

One of the books that was highly recommended by many 'best of' lists last year was Tara Westover's memoir Educated (2018). It is the tale of a girl from Idaho who never attended school but went on to earn a doctorate from Cambridge. Her journey is made all the more remarkable by needing to break free from her family in order to do so.

Westover's father was a Mormon survivalist who was obsessed with living off the grid, preparing for the end of days. He didn't believe in modern medicine - forbidding doctors, hospitals and pharmaceuticals. He thought government schools would brainwash his seven children, so insisted they be homeschooled without any concern whether they learned or not. His denunciation of the government went so far as not even registering his four youngest children, who didn't have birth certificates until someone wanted to get a driver's licence and had to prove their date of birth.

Her dad ran a junkyard. All of the Westover children were raised to scrap metal, jar peaches, and mix herbal remedies. Westover's mum was a reluctant midwife with a knack for inventing concoctions that would cure all ailments. Her services were regularly used, especially by her own children who were routinely broken and burned assisting dad in his scrapping. Further, Tara was injured, physically and psychologically, by an older brother.

While the kids were supposed to be homeschooled, any learning was done by sheer will and determination. Some of the siblings were keen to get an education and would acquire old text books with which to learn. Tara eventually studied for her college entrance exam and was accepted into Brigham Young University. She struggled when she arrived on campus, realising the gaps in her knowledge and the untruths she had been taught through her father's conspiracy theories. She was also confronted by a more modern Mormonism than she had been exposed to and began to question her upbringing. But she was also given opportunities, which lead her to her postgraduate studies in the UK, and widened the gulf between Tara and her family.

Tara attempts to reinvent herself and find a place in the world, but she is routinely lured back home by the family even though she knows it is not healthy for her. It was difficult to read these 'coming home' episodes because as much as she loves her parents and siblings, she is in danger there and could easily become stuck and forced to give up on her dreams.

I enjoyed this memoir and found it a fascinating read. I liked that Westover never sought to denigrate her family or faith, I appreciated how she questioned her memory of events, and I was moved by small acts of familial love like her brother Tyler leaving her some music once he left home. But I was frustrated and angered by her parents and the recklessness with which they repeatedly put their children in grave danger.

Educated reminded me in many ways of JD Vance's Hillbilly Elegy (2016) which is a similar tale of someone escaping their inevitable future and charting their own course. Of the two, I preferred Vance's account but Westover's book was well worth reading.

Planning for 2019

At the start of each year I like to set aside some time to reflect on my reading habits and prioritise my reading for the coming year. Today I spent some time perusing my bookshelves and sorting out my books. In doing so I found a range of titles I had forgotten about that I am still keen to read.

I have cleaned up my bedside cabinet of all unread or half-read books that will not be prioritised for 2019 and set up a new 'to-be-read' stack of physical and ebooks. This teetering tower currently consists of:

• Becoming by Michelle Obama
• The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
• Stoner by John Williams
• Warlight by Michael Ondaatje
• Elizabeth Costello by JM Coetzee
• The Iliad by Homer
• It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis
• Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene
• Goodbye, Columbus by Philip Roth
• Cosmo Cosmolino by Helen Garner
• Outline by Rachel Cusk
• The Journalist and the Murder by Janet Malcolm
• Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion
• The Long Prospect by Elizabeth Harrower
• Hold Your Own by Kate Tempest
• The Years by Virginia Woolf
• Educated by Tara Westover
• The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad
• The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
• The Power by Naomi Alderman
• The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith
• Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney
• Sing Unburied Sing by Jesmyn Ward

All books will be blogged about here and you can check my progress on My Challenge page. Of course I should note that I always go off course with my reading, and undoubtedly half the titles above will be shelved and replaced with other more urgent books. But it is a plan nonetheless. 

This year my main focus is on fiction and I am aiming for a target of 30 books in 2019 - which I didn't reach last year but I am still determined. To help me achieve this goal, and ensure my reading remains diverse, I have created a new Bingo board to stretch myself into new areas.

B	I	N	G	O
19th Century Classic	First Novel in a Series	Adapted into a Film/TV Show	Australian Literary  Prize Longlister	Short Story Collection
Essay Collection	Set in Space or at Sea	Pre-19th Century Classic	Fiction Based on a True Story	Current Affairs / Politics
Book on the 1001 List	Banned Book	Features Strong  Female Protagonist	Set in the Future	New York Times Bestseller
Spin-off on from  a Classic	Mystery or Crime Novel	Booker Prize  Longlister	Published in 2019	20th Century Classic
Legal Thriller	Biography  or Memoir	Set during Wartime	Poetry  Collection	Book with a  colour in title

There are some books coming in 2019 that I am excited about too, like Ian McEwan's Machines Like Me, Margaret Atwood's The Testaments, Elizabeth Gilbert's City of Girls, Jane Caro's Accidental Feminists, Gerald Murnane's Green Shadows and Other Poems, and plenty more.

So, let the adventures in reading begin...