| Author | Message | ||
     jerry hann Member Username: Jerry_h Post Number: 232 Registered: 07-2005 |
Apologies to get overly literary, but has anyone read any Australian fiction. When I first got in to the Gobees ( in the 80s) I started reading some and got to really like Robert Drewe his short stories were great (and still remain some of my favourite short stories)more his Shark Net fiction/autobiography was great. Both these would enlighten the non australian fan to there great country. On my last holiday I picked up Tim Winton's book The Turning which is also short stories interconnected with the same characters.Both these writers seem to convey the connection with the sea/rivers the great empty country. Other Australians I've like but not loved is Peter Carey-who is probably too litrary dificult for my brain. | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 777 Registered: 03-2006 |
Jerry, I read Jack Maggs by Peter Carey a couple of years ago. Great book - a spin on a character from Dickens' Great Expectations, but you're right, his stuff is some pretty heavy lifting... My bedside reading stack is always high, but I'm always open for new stuff. Any other Australian writers you particularly recommend? Particularly those concentrating on novels? I admire the short story as an art form, but, I dunno...I just seem to get more wired into novels - they're more satisfying. Also, posing this question to everybody on the board - it sounds like both GM and RF read everything, but are there any particular Oz writers that have been an influence? | ||
| Andrew Kerr Member Username: Andrew_k Post Number: 111 Registered: 04-2005 |
I read Eliot Perlmans' '7 types of Ambiguity' a while back and enjoyed it. How was this book viewed in Australia I wonder? I definitely got G-Bs 'vibes' when reading Tim Winton's 'CloudStreet'... | ||
| andreas Member Username: Andreas Post Number: 206 Registered: 04-2006 |
strange. i just think about to buy that book of richard flanagan called 'gould's book of fish'. did anyone of you read this book? worth to buy? | ||
| andreas Member Username: Andreas Post Number: 230 Registered: 04-2006 |
nobody? really? | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 806 Registered: 03-2006 |
Nope, haven't read it...but, I do like fish, if that's any help...hard to beat a good piece of swordfish or salmon! | ||
| andreas Member Username: Andreas Post Number: 232 Registered: 04-2006 |
red snapper! | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 809 Registered: 03-2006 |
Yum!!! What kinda fish do youse guys in the UK eat? Do you eat sushi? - they eat tons of it out here. A place around the corner from me advertises "Half-price Sushi" - I haven't had the chutzpah to try it yet! | ||
| jerry hann Member Username: Jerry_h Post Number: 237 Registered: 07-2005 |
Cod/Haddock with chips and mushy peas for me please. | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 812 Registered: 03-2006 |
Do you eat it with malt vinegar, Jerry? It's very good that way...I had a business lunch not long ago with an English guy (who talked just like Michael Caine and looked like an uglier Paul Williams) who didn't give a shit that they had fish n' chips on the menu. When he eventually gave up and ordered it for lack of anything else that appealed, he slathered it in tartar sauce. I like cod - good fish. They often make fish tacos out of it here. When next the GBs Convention takes place on the west coast, we'll all have to go for fish tacos! | ||
| david nichols Member Username: David Post Number: 90 Registered: 09-2004 |
This went silly. Andreas, for my money Richard Flanagan is a great writer but Death of a River Guide which I think might have been his first novel (he wrote non-fiction before that) is his best so far. The Sound of One Hand Clapping, which was also a film directed by Flanagan, was a great novel too. Gould's Book of Fish is bizarre, often hilarious, very strange... it's good too. He is a Tasmanian writer - they often have quite a specific style/approach, I think, though I'll leave you to decide what that might mean. To me, unfortunately for this kind of discussion, it's hard to broadly talk about Australian writers as when it comes to fiction I rarely read anything else. But in terms of availability at the moment I would highly recommend Kate Grenville's Secret River, which is a Booker nomination. And an absolutely brilliant book, though I actually enjoyed her last book The Idea of Perfection a little more (but it's a funny story; The Secret River is an uncomfortable one - but brilliantly written). | ||
| Cichli Suite Member Username: Cichli_suite Post Number: 164 Registered: 08-2004 |
Hi jerry, there was a thread here on Peter Carey and other Australian writers a few years ago: http://go-betweens.org.uk/cgi-bin/chatroom/show.cgi?tpc=353&post=2146#POST2146 | ||
| Cichli Suite Member Username: Cichli_suite Post Number: 165 Registered: 08-2004 |
I see now that Andrew Salford was a contributor to that thread. What a coincidence! I am about to start Pig City, his book on the Brisbane music scene. | ||
| jerry hann Member Username: Jerry_h Post Number: 239 Registered: 07-2005 |
Cichli, that thread was before my time it makes interesting reading.Some good recomendations. I've tried to get a book/literary thread going before but has not been successful. I've been fascinated by Australian writers years ago and not read many until recently, Robert Drewes the Shark Net is the best in a long time but I've already said that.May be should start a gay book thread as that may be more interesting than the gay musicians one-which is insightful. | ||
| andreas Member Username: Andreas Post Number: 240 Registered: 04-2006 |
david, thank you very much for your reply. i have the chace to buy mr. flanagan's 'fish'-book very cheap, but i didn't know anything about him. i really didn't know anything about australian writers i must confess.they were never on my topic and it seems that they were not very on the topic in germany in general (but maybe i am wrong). never mind. i will myself engage with mr. flanagan. maybe some others will follow (as ar as they are translated). i will use this opportunity to say that i read yr. 'gob's' book with pleasure. thanks a lot for that work! and fellows: literary recommendations are always welcome. music isn't my only love.... | ||
| C Gull Member Username: C_gull Post Number: 40 Registered: 05-2005 |
So as I started that whole Peter Carey thing (More than two years ago , how time flies!), whats his latest one like - Theft, A Love Story? And was the kids one any good - The Big Bazoohly? | ||
| Andy Member Username: I_am_andy Post Number: 15 Registered: 08-2006 |
I know the thread has been quiet for a while, but ... I haven't read Carey's latest but I loved some of his earlier stuff ... 'Bliss' and 'The Fat Man in History' (short stories, with a bit of a P K Dick feel to some of them). And no-one even mentioned the light but amusing stuff by Brisbane local Nick Earls, including one called 'Bachelor Kisses'. | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 508 Registered: 01-2005 |
Okay for you UK folks, what's hake taste like? Robyn Hitchcock mentions it the the Soft Boys song "I've Got The Hots". I like grouper a lot. I dust it with some cajun spices and broil it. | ||
| Michelle M Member Username: Michelle Post Number: 31 Registered: 09-2004 |
I am possibly amongst the minority here when I say that I find Carey unreadable most of the time. It is not that I don't like literary Australian writers. I will read Winton (literary and popular) and Malouf because they have a gift with language. Others I will read are McGahan and Flanagan. And I have enjoyed Robert Drewe. I will check my reading history for other names because I know that there are female writers as well but, to my disgrace, their names evade me at this moment. I will post their names shortly. I am open to attempt Carey in the future but, perservere as I do, I simply do not like the way he writes. Okay, while I am here, I will also bag Nick Earls. His best writing that I have read has been for teenagers. Very good work there, Nick. But your adult stuff has no real substance, sorry. I know there should be sad and smiley faces here somewhere to defuse my words. But I am not into smiley faces. |