| Author | Message | ||
     C Gull |
I really like Peter Carey's books and have just started My Life as a Fake. Apart from there being an obvious Australian connection, often the language and imagery he uses remind of the GB's particularly some of Grant's songs. Is there any history of the GBs and Peter Carey ever coming across each other or even acknowledging each other's work? | ||
| Pete Azzopardi |
What a surprise topic. Great to hear of another Go-Bs/Peter Carey fan. I seriously doubt the two have ever met, though who knows. Can't say I really see a connection between the two, besides being obvious national treasures. Carey's writing is too surreal and obsessed with the idea of a national identity to be linked with Robert and Grant's songs in my mind. "My Life as a Fake" was great, though not his best. My girlfriend and I went to a talk he gave at the Malthouse theatre in Melbourne just after it came out and he read an extract from an earlier version of the book which was far more colloquial and entertaining (in a crass sort of way) but wouldn't have worked in the long run. Have you read the collected short stories? About the best short stories collection I've ever read, though I think "Illywhacker" is his masterpiece. | ||
| Cichli Suite |
Thanks for the recommendations, Pete. I've been wondering where to start with Peter Carey. Cichli | ||
| Pete Azzopardi |
No problems, Cichli. "Illywhacker" is a long, hard slog, I must add, so the short story collection gets my top recommendation. Wait till you read the story called "American Dreams": great stuff. | ||
| michael |
What about "Bliss", for a starter, the story of Harry Joy an advertising excessive who has a heart attack and once resuscitated feels he is really dead and living in hell. The movie is quite good as well. I think it is his second book, but not sure about that. I read a review of My Life as a Fake, and it really sounded like a great story, the production of fraud and then exposing it as such to get back at a reviewer down on his trade who lauded the work for his own ends. The last one I read was the True History of the Kelly Gang, which was magnificent, felt like I was really there. | ||
| Anonymous |
The other connection is Peter Carey is published by University of Queensland press the Uni that Bob and Grant meet each other. However Peter has lived in NYC for a long time now so I doubt there has ever been a meeting. | ||
| Anonymous |
Well that explains it then. | ||
| david nichols |
Peter Carey is a Victorian from Bacchus Marsh. I highly recommend his short story collection The Fat Man in History. | ||
| C Gull |
Wow - seven replies and nothing abusive! The short stories are a great starting point Fat Man in History/Exotic Pleasures which is worth reading on the train just for the double takes you get when people misread the title. Oscar and Lucinda is probably my favourite, though the Kelly Gang runs it close. My mum complains that he doesn't use proper punctuation. David - in your interview with Grant at the end of the book you talk about nineteenth-century ballad element in his lyric writing, I guess this is one of the points of connection I was wondering about with the language used in the Kelly Gang. I could be well wide of the mark here - I am no expert on literature - and could just be naively generalising about two people who share a nationality and little else. | ||
| Mark Ilsley |
Um, did I here my name called? Kelly Gang? Behind Glenrowan? in the Warby Ranges? Nah, I wouldn know bugger all 'bout that. I'm goin up da pub. ta toast me Kelly's. Goodnight. | ||
| Cichli Suite |
Hi, I don't to distract from the Peter Carey discussion, but on the subject of Grant's lyrics and Australian writing, I've always felt a similarity between the voice in 'Cattle and Cane', and the autobiographical narrator in David Malouf's '12 Edmondstone Street'. Both consider reminiscences of a childhood in Queensland. Malouf's book begins "Memory plays strange tricks on us. The house I lived in as a child is no longer there." Although Malouf's book is set in a torn down part of old south Brisbane and Grant's lyric is set in a rural suburb of Cairns, both link memory very distinctly to place. Malouf's childhood narrative organises itself around the architectural space of their old Queenslander home. The book is brilliantly evocative of the noises, light and smells in these type of houses which Grant refers to in 'Cattle and Cane' as houses "of tin and timber". In particular, Malouf describes very well the silence and coolness of hiding out in the 'under the house' part of his home. This reminded me of Grant's line "I recall a bigger brighter world a world of books and silent times in thought" Anyway, sorry to whack this into the middle of the Peter Carey discussion, but I was very taken by the similarity in tone of this little autobiographical novella and Grant's 'Cattle and Cane'. I seem to remember another thread mentioned the recurrent theme of (childhood) memory in Aussie song-writing. I wonder does this extend to Aussie literature in general? Cichli | ||
| david nichols |
To me the 'memory plays strange tricks on us' line is more evocative of the opening lines of The Go-Between, which as I recall are 'The past is a foreign country. They do things differently there.' Last time I was in Brisbane for any extended time I stayed in a hotel in Edmonstone street. And yes, 12 Edmonstone is a 1980s factory, as I recall. | ||
| todd slater |
Just on Edmonstone St, Sth Brisbane, it is the same st that former Governor General Bill Hayden grew up in as well. Probably a little older for the Go Betweens (although he was leader of the Labor Party when they started). But most probably a Peter Carey fan. Another great Queensland writer who now resides in Melbourne is a guy called Andrew McGahan. He wrote 'Praise', amongst other things and a great crime read called 'Last Drinks' I'm convinced though that Robert Forster has a great book in him, that's yet to be written. | ||
| John |
Andrew Mcgahan was mentioned in an earlier thread. A couple of people said they were going to read his latest book, "The White Earth". I've read it and I enjoyed it. McGahan is really developing as a writer. As good as they were and as important as they were to me, I think that "Praise" and "1988" would probably now seem juvenile compared to the much richer and complex "The White Earth". Does anyone else have thoughts on it? As for the other writers mentioned, David Malouf is brilliant, and the only Peter Carey books I have read are "Jack Maggs" which was almost unendurable, and "True History of the Kelly Gang", which was excellent. Or, "it were v. good". | ||
| pups |
I read the White Earth a couple of weeks ago. It was totally different from Praise, and much better I thought. I am visiting Australia in about a months time (I live in London). Can people recomend some books that a fan of the Go-Betweens and The Triffids would like? I haven't read any Peter Carey or David Malouf (wouldn't know were to start). How about some music too while you're at it? | ||
| Cichli Suite |
Apart from the Malouf, I'd recommend 'Cloudstreet' by Tim Winton. It gave me a fantastic view into suburban Australia. It's a well written, funny but poignant tale stretching over several decades (set near Perth I think) . It's been over ten years snce I read it, but I still recall some of the characters. Actually, I just typed CloudStreet into Google and I got a TimeOut review that goes "Imagine Neighbours taken over by the writing team of John Steinbeck and Gabriel Garcia Marquez and you'll be close to the heart of Winton's impressive tale". Hmmm. I'd like to suggest that "the Sullivans" as written by Garcia Marquez is closer to the mark. Kind of  Cichli | ||
| david nichols |
I am always recommending, to anyone who listens, the writing of Tim Richards. He is a very funny and barbed writer who has a short novel and two short story collections to his credit - there are recurrent themes through all, however, so it's a coherent body of work. Speaking of discontinuous narratives I am also a big fan of early Frank Moorhouse (the Electrical Experience, Everlasting Secret Family etc). The recent League of Nations novels are interesting but not as revolutionary (plus, they're bad history). Kate Grenville's The Idea of Perfection - I started to describe it but it wasn't working - is one of my favourite novels of all time. It's hilarious, apart from anything else. Her Lillian's Story/Dark Places (two novels more or less about the same thing) are very good as well for different reasons. I always liked Hal Porter. He's very out of fashion these days, often for good reason (he's quite racist for instance, and while this shouldn't impact on the books, recently-revealed details about his private life have put a lot of people off) but some of those short stories I could read a million times - incredibly gothic and bizarre, David Lynch scenarios thirty years before Twin Peaks. That's the first four to spring to mind, of course there are four hundred others that haven't sprung to mind yet. Music: everyone here knows how I hate blowing my trumpet but Greg Wadley and I have compiled a new collection of Melbourne music called Melbourne Water, it came out two days ago on W Minc and is available from their website - it will reveal to you every good band in Melbourne!!! Except the one or two we asked who couldn't contribute. As I always say, royalchord (who are on the comp and who recently released a new album called I think Night on the Town) are kind of like a Go-Betweens for the new millennium, certainly in their dynamics and creative outlook, though their lyrics are perhaps not quite as wry, but in that two-songwriter/guitarist kind of way. The Bites (who are also on the comp and who have also released an album on W Minc) are very superior, and New Estate (who I have mentioned here before) are unbelievably good and are also always worth it (yes, also on the comp and also on W Minc - who I do NOT work for!). I have close ties with New Estate however but I can't see why that should stop me liking the band. Dave Graney is always good value. Origami are brilliant. Mum Smokes are grouse. Minimum Chips... The very best bands all come from Melbourne. | ||
| Pete Azzopardi |
Nice plug, David. Every good band in Melbourne? I hope your drunken offer for the Happy Lonesome to appear on the second installment still stands or I'll be very offended (not really). Looking forward to getting that one when I can afford it. To back you up, I'm a big fan of New Estate myself, minus the close ties. "The very best bands all come from Melbourne" is quite a large call. Actually, several of the musicians making up these great bands on your comp hail from other cities: ie, the New Season are all from Geelong, the Wadley brothers from Brisbane (I think), the main singer from Origami is a yank, . . . well, I'm sure there are other examples that escape me. However, they all migrate to Melbourne for the thriving music scene I guess. Oh yeah, royalchord are fucking excellent too. I picked up "Last Drinks" after people recommended it here a while back. Pretty good, I thought. I'll definetly check out Hal Porter for the Twin Peaks connection alone. In further relation to David Lynch, the author Barry Gifford is a favourite of mine (he wrote the novel "Wild At Heart" that Lynch based his movie on, plus co-wrote the "Lost Highway" screenplay). I'm actually planning on doing my thesis on Gifford next year as there has been no academic study on his work (according to his secretary, anyway). Cichili, I also loved "Cloudstreet," though I wouldn't recommend any of his other books that I've read (avoid "the Riders" and "Dirt Music" people). He seems to have a bad reputation among Australian literary circles from what I've gathered. John, "Jack Maggs" is certainly a bad place to start with Carey. I really liked "The Tax Inspector" too, which must be his only book that didn't win some major award. Anyone else? Whoever mentioned Steinbeck before would probably like Carson McCullers who wrote "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter," "Ballad of the Sad Cafe" and "Member of the Wedding" which have all been made into films. I've been reading a lot of Jim Thompson novels lately (his novel "The Getaway" was made into a Sam Peckinpah film, "The Grifters" was directed by Stephen Frears). I strongly recommend his books "The Killer Inside Me" and "Pop. 1280". Great, psychological crime/pulp novels. Next I'll be reading David Nichol's secondhand copy of Peter Garulnick's Elvis bio "Last Train to Memphis". What a bargin! | ||
| pups |
Thanks everyone for the recomendations. I just borrowed a copy of Cloudstreet from the local library. I will start it on the tube tonight. They also have a David Malouf book called The Great Country (or something like that), and Peter Carey's My Life As A Faker. I will probably read them next. Carson McCullers is great. I love all that southern gothic stuff like Flannery O'conner, Cormac McCarthy, and Faulkner. Jim Thompson is great also. My personal favourite is Raymond Carver. I seem to remember an interview with Robert Forster from years ago in which he mentioned being envious that Nick Cave had written a novel. He hinted that he had tried something also, but nothing worthwhile had come of it. I think this was about the time of I Had A New York Girlfriend. | ||
| david nichols |
Re: Tim Winton. Just like to say I really liked That Eye the Sky. Not even sure why I bother to mention this. I also really enjoy O'Connor, Faulkner, even Carver at a pinch (weren't we talking about Australian writers? Oh well, doesn't matter) but it's the imitations/homages I can't stand, though I am not sure that Cave's novel could even be categorised as that!!! Re: Hal Porter, the collected short stories is the way to go, 'Miss Rodda', the story about JoJo (sorry, can't recall the title) and others are exceptional and bizarre. Why aren't people calling their children 'Hal' anymore? | ||
| pups |
Oh yeh, I thought Dirt Road was good - not amazing, but good. Haven't read the Riders. What's this "bad reputation" you mentioned Pete? | ||
| pups |
I'll have to look out for that short story collection when I'm in Australia. All I can find in the library here are:. STARS OF AUSTRALIAN STAGE AND SCREEN. Author: PORTER, Hal Elijah's ravens Author: PORTER, Hal The professor : a play in three acts. Author: PORTER, Hal I'm not even sure if this is the same guy. I didn't enjoy the Nick Cave book. It did actually seem to me like a imitation/homage of Faulkner and O'conner. | ||
| david nichols |
Porter was a bit of a hack, or should I say, a successful working writer. I am sure at least the first and last of those two books you list are his. I doubt they would be much fun. Never heard of the middle one. His memoir The Watcher on the Cast Iron Balcony is probably his best known work. The Cave novel is just crap. Surely even Cave is embarrassed by it now. | ||
| Berry |
mmmmm...couldn't entirely agree with that last comment: I never read Nick Cave's book as a book, because I hate novels that are written in heavy accent/dialect - too hard to read.. BUT I must say that when I once heard Cave reading aloud from his book (at the old chinese movie theatre in Sydney - forget the name) I was quite impressed! It took it into a whole other realm, which worked for me. What's the goss on Tim Winton then? 'cos he always comes across as rather sweet in interviews? "Dirt Music", totally made me think about Triffids songs, as most of it is about one man in the wilderness - I would recommend it for that reason, despite corny ending and all. FOr australian novels I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Patrick White. Not exactly easy going- his books are quite 'dense,' but very rewarding to patience and effort. I also recently enjoyed a couple of older books by Martin Boyd, set in and around Melbourne earlier this century, but maybe it is my familiarity with Melb that made them more interesting. | ||
| Pete Azzopardi |
Pups, I'm a bit fuzzy on the Tim Winton question. I seem to recall various lecturers at my university dismissing his work, though I'm not sure why. Perhaps there's a bit of jealousy regarding his popularity, or even prejudice considering his overt Christianity and the sentimentality in his novels ("Cloudsteet" included). Academic types are usually suspicious of sweetness. Berry, I'm staring at my girlfriends book case as I type this (well, if I really was I probably wouldn't be able to type) wondering whether I should start with Patrick White's "Voss" or "Flaws in the Glass." | ||
| michael |
A Private man by Malcolm Knox is the last contemporary Australian novel I read, its about a a Sydney family with 3 boys, one is in the Australian cricket team playing a test around new year and the father dies in strange circumstances, purported to be about the secret life of the maledom, and it is just that, and believe me if you think the presence of sport in the novel is a turn off, don't be put off, it's worth it. Very good writer. I didn't know, Andrew McGahan had a new book, delightful. My opinion of his earlier books is a bit like that referred to Alien, which was a better movie than it was a book - nobody's probably read it I imagine. OK not in the same genre and McGahan is better than that, but the movie lifted the book out of the dirge it was. I'm reading Will Self at present - Dorian which is a reworking of the Oscar Wilde story the Portrait of Dorian Gray, and recommend Great Apes by him. Riders by Tim Winton is the only one I've read, and it was fairly thriller page turner, but he's not me cup of tea. | ||
| Gareth |
Good thread this (and very welcome). I'm reading 'My life as a fake' at the moment too and i like it a lot. My main criticism is that it can be confusing as to who is telling the story - it jumps around a lot, almost like he's trying to trick you a little as to who the main protaganist is. I loved 'Jack Maggs'! Far from unreadable! Great sense of location in that book - almost like Dickens in his prime. And '...Kelly Gang' is just brilliant. He brought the characters to life so well. Any Paul Auster fans here? I know Grant likes him. I think he's a great author but his books can annoy people - too male centred, all the characters speak in the same voice etc but i think he's terrific. Haven't read the Nick Cave book. For me his strength has always been the bands / musicians he plays with so i'd imagine the book's not for me. I'm assuming it's not a light comedy? | ||
| bradders |
Slightly off at a tangent, but Christopher Brookmyre once dedicated one of his books to a certain G.W.McLennan. Can't remember which book though, I think it was "Quite Ugly One Morning" but I may be wrong. So there! | ||
| pups |
Dirt Music made me think of the Triffids as well. I also agree with you about the ending Berry, it's terrible. Even as I was reading it, I was thinking "how is he going to end this?" It felt as though he wrote himself into a corner. I enjoyed The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster, but no enough to read any of his other stuff. Not yet anyway. Another Trilogy that should be read is the Border Trilogy by Cormac McCarthy. Who is Christopher Brookmyre? Wasn't there a Brisbane novel from a few years back called Bachelor Kisses? Does anyone know what I am talking about? | ||
| Jerry |
I don't think Nick Cave is embarassed by his book. It is a difficult read and probably does require a performance to see it's true worth, that is what Nick Cave is best at. It was written over a long period of time where he was going through a series of drug addictions followed by rehab, plus recording and touring. It has a bible/Steinbeck feel to it. I have read that Cave was kind of obsessed by the bible throughout the time of writing. | ||
| Pete Azzopardi |
Pups: "Bachelor Kisses" by Nick Earls. Yes, I'm that much of a Go-Bs fan that I read it. It's about a student doctor studying the link between melatonin and depression for his PhD while having it off with some female nurses, looking for luuuuurrrrrrrrrv. The opening pages talk a bit about the song which he listens to repeatedly on his car stereo. A real dog of a book, I thought. I threw it out when moving house early this year. | ||
| david nichols |
Voss is definitely a personal favourite of mine. If you're going for the Aust. classics you must not neglect Christina Stead either. I too have enjoyed Martin Boyd. Internationally and more contemporarily, Jonathan Lathem is a marvellous writer. Will Self's Cock and Bull was great too. | ||
| Berry |
speaking of a real dog of a book, and I believe this may have some sort of Go-Betweens connection, what about "The River Ophelia" by Justine Ettler, who I am told is a mate of Grant's. I think the cover is what got most people to buy it. It's an absolute stinker in every way, easily the worst local book I ever read. If we're going international now, I just read "the Horned Man" by James Lasdun, picked it up cheap in an airport. Verrrrry good, interesting sort of psychological drama: you the reader, are completely inside the delusion of the protagonist, but it's so subtly done I had to re-read it as soon as I was finished to make sure. | ||
| John |
Yes, "The River Ophelia" was terrible. A friend who knew I was obsessed with McGahan's "Praise" bought it, probably because of that early-'90s "dirty realism" hype, and gave it to me to read while he was overseas. It was awful. Returning to David Malouf and books about Brisbane, I strongly recommend "Johnno", a story about growing up in Brisbane, covering the 1940s to 1970s. I might have those details wrong (it has been some years since I read it), but it was very evocative of a Brisbane that had vanished. With that nostalgic feel and its central character being a good friend who drifts away over the years, it should appeal to GB fans. Pups: for books with a strong Australian feel, I recommend the McGahan books, Carey's "True History of the Kelly Gang", Malouf's "The Great Country" and "The Conversations At Curlow Creek". Around the time of "Curlow Creek", Malouf wrote "Remembering Babylon", which was also excellent. I remember it having a similar theme to "Curlow Creek" (again, it's been some years), but can't remember whether it is set in Australia. Now going right back to the initial Carey-GB connection question, both are featured in the National Portrait Gallery here in Canberra (Pete's "national treasures" comment reminded me of this). The GB portraits are the ones from the SMAL cover. Go here for info on the Robert portrait: http://archive.portrait.gov.au/search/search_showdetails.cfm?work_id=201 And go here for Grant's: http://archive.portrait.gov.au/search/search_showdetails.cfm?work_id=188 Here for a portrait and some info on Carey: http://archive.portrait.gov.au/search/search_showdetails.cfm?work_id=281 And here for some more info on Carey (although there's no image of the photo): http://archive.portrait.gov.au/search/search_showdetails.cfm?work_id=342 The Gallery also contains another photo of Carey, but as the website does not feature an image of it or any other biographical information, I have not included a link. | ||
| Pete Azzopardi |
My girlfriend, Liz, is enthused as she reads this thread over my shoulder. "Recommend Murray Bail," she says. Apparently his "Homesickness" is a great Australian book. Same goes for Stead's "The Man Who Loved Children". (Sorry, I ran out of my own recommendations). | ||
| cam |
it's not Australian, but just finished reading JG Ballard's Millenium People its hilarious as well as, as usual, uncannily prescient it's about a Middle Class revolt in the UK - it's also a page-turning thriller to boot | ||
| Berry |
Helen Garner's fiction is all brilliant for contemporary Australian too. Gerald Murnane's short stories I seem to remember enjoying v much. | ||
| david nichols |
Helen Garner is a gem as a novelist. The Children's Bach is another of my very favourite novels (Monkey Grip's great too - excellent film as well). Can't think why Garner didn't occur to me before, considering she has been all over the press lately promoting her latest (non-fiction) book. Just avoid The First Stone!!! | ||
| michael |
cam, i like jg ballard but have not read the millenium people. super cannes was brilliant although slightly disturbing, in a different way to crash, but still some irkesome antisocial skin crawl to his sci-fi which he does so well. he just wrote a review for the guardian last weekend on a historical book about the south of france i'm from brisbane and agree with john, re johnno by david malouf which brought my home town alive for me, even though things had changed so much since david malouf's adolescence | ||
| todd slater |
This is a very good thread with many excitng dicoveries to be made. Can i suggest we get onto Australian poetry ? As GW McLennan is a poetry fan, could we have some suggestions please ? | ||
| Pete Azzopardi |
I know McLennan is a fan of the poet Rainer Marie (?) Rilke. Not a big poetry reader myself, I don't have much in the way of recommendations. I've read plenty of the Beat poets and the classics (had to), and Barry Gifford's poetry is great, but that's about as far as my poetry appreciation goes, unfortunately. Re Helen Garner. Her short story "The Life Of Art" is a classic. See the short stroy collection "Postcards From Surfers" for this one. David, I bought "Melbourne Water" yesterday (from Polyester Records; they didn't even know about it at JB but they guess they will get it in soon). Great artwork, great music! Particularly like "Love Bite". The liner notes can best be described as interesting. | ||
| david nichols |
Pete: I am sure you especially could work up a better description of the liner notes. Thanks for buying the record. Re: poetry. GWM might like Rainer Maria Rilke but I don't see this as much of an conversation starter on Australian poetry. Grant has very conservative tastes, I think his interest in Australian poetry finishes at around 1900, though I am ready to be surprised. For my money John Forbes, Bruce Beaver, John Tranter, Michael Dransfield, Charles Buckmaster, Pamela Brown, all excellent. These are just the ones that spring immediately to mind/after casting a glance around the bookshelves. Gig Ryan is a friend and also an excellent poet, Heroic Money probably my favourite of her books. Dransfield's collected is pretty easy to pick up cheap, published by UQP as are Buckmaster and Beaver. Recent Tranter publications also quite easy to find cheap and I believe he publishes an online magazine of some sort. Buckmaster died young and you can't help but read his work in that context, or I can't anyway. Come to think of it so did Dransfield but he had much more substantial a body of work behind him. | ||
| pups |
I really don't know much about Australian poetry. If there is a good anthology of contemporary Australian poetry ou there I'd like to read it. Myself, I'm into people like James Tate and Charles Simic. Not Australia, but very good. Sureal, dark, and often very funny. The book I'd recomend though is Actual Air by David Berman. He is from the band Silver Jews, who are also very good. I've lent Actual Air to people who don't usually read poetry and they've loved it enough to go out and buy a copy for themselves. Does anyone know what Robert reads? | ||
| Padraig Collins |
Robert reads surfing magazines. | ||
| david nichols |
The last good anthology I saw was The Penguin book of modern Australian poetry / edited by John Tranter and Philip Mead. This is coming up to 15 years old, however, you'd think there'd be something more recent than that. Robert reads Christopher Isherwood, or at least, he did in the 80s and referred to him often. | ||
| david nichols |
The last good anthology I saw was The Penguin book of modern Australian poetry / edited by John Tranter and Philip Mead. This is coming up to 15 years old, however, you'd think there'd be something more recent than that. Robert reads Christopher Isherwood, or at least, he did in the 80s and referred to him often. | ||
| michael |
And before the 80s it was Hemmingway, James Joyce, Bret at least he said he read them in the library, but maybe that was just trying to get to talk to Karen | ||
| steve connell |
I haven't read Bachelor Kisses, but (and this is perhaps why) I read its sequel, Perfect Skin, which features the same protagonist a decade later. I don't think Nick Earls is a genius, and using song titles as book titles is an annoying habit, but I did think Perfect Skin was a pretty fine light novel and I'd recommend it to anyone with a plane flight in front of them. Apart from anything else, it has one of the funniest scenes I've ever read -- and by far the funniest scene I've read involving a cat. I've reduced people to helpless laughter before now just trying to tell them what happens in it . . . --Steve | ||
| steve |
Re nick cave I read and the ass saw the angel when i was about 17 and thought it was the greatest thing i'd ever read. i tried to re-read it a couple of years ago and couldn't get beyond ten pages. i don't know what nick cave thinks of it now, but to me it does come across as a pretty embarrassing puking of teenage angst and sixth form cliches. illiywhacker on the other hand is still fantastic and, slightly off track I know, bone people by keri hulme is also an extrordinary read. | ||
| andrew stafford |
I can't help weighing in on this thread with a bit of discussion on current Brisbane writing. I'll try to keep the self-promotion for my own forthcoming title to a minimum. I was at a gig for the Queensland Writer's Centre on Tuesday, where I was giving a reading from Pig City (history of Brisbane music scene, out in early October). I was alongside three other debut authors from University of Queensland Press, which was Peter Carey's publisher until My Life As A Fake (for which he went to Random House). There were close to 200 people present to listen to four first-time, basically unknown authors, in a pre-publicity event. We had about 20 special copies of our books available for sale for this one night and we damn near sold them out. This is a great time to be a writer in Brisbane. There are many new names coming through: Rebecca Sparrow, Alasdair Duncan, Craig Bolland and Nerida Newton have all published commercially and/or critically successful books in the last 12 months. Then there are the bigger names. Andrew McGahan is now in Melbourne while John Birmingham (has anyone mentioned him?) is temporarily in Canberra, but Nick Earls, Venero Armanno and Sandy McCutcheon are all doing very nicely from home base. We are receiving unprecedented support from governments and universities, and higher press profiles than we could once have hoped for. I feel for Gerard Lee, a wonderful author who had to do it tough when no one wanted to know about Brisbane. No one thought anything or anyone useful came out of Brisbane. Nick Earls, whether you enjoy his books or not, has probably done more than anyone else in the last decade to turn that around. He's praised the Go-Betweens repeatedly for showing him you could create a successful creative life for yourself here, and he has in turn shown the way for other writers. Plenty who open doors shut them behind them; Nick has not only held the door open, he's helped usher others through. It remains to be seen whether any of the new writers will evolve into the Careys, Grenvilles and Maloufs of the future, but at least they've made a start they can build on and are being encouraged to succeed. Steve, I'm sorry but I nicked Pig City from a song too! I think it's an appropriate choice in this case though. | ||
| pups |
Andrew, would you mind talking some more about this book Pig City? | ||
| michael |
Oink oink pig city I'm trying to remember where I heard this from my Brisbane past Reminds me of bands called post no bills, or others that wrote songs called in my "Blue Shirt" nothing touches me or singers named polystyrene Good luck Andrew | ||
| andrew stafford |
Pig City originated as a song by the Parameters. I've subtitled the book From the Saints to Savage Garden, so that should give you an idea... Yes, there's plenty of GoBs in there. I'm reluctant to say too much more until the book's published on 4 October, mainly because there's been more than enough trumpet-blowing on this board of late! However, I'm happy to answer any further queries off-list. Thanks for your interest. | ||
| david nichols |
I think I have already mentioned in this forum that I've read a couple of chapters of Andrew's book (I broke into his house to do it) and it's amazing. | ||
| todd slater |
I remember 'Pig City' being flogged by triple Z at the time of it's release, circa 1983 I think !!. I could be/probably be wrong, but it was certainly an anthem among us kids in Bris Vegas at the time. Culturally the place is going thru the roof now compared to then. After having seen Tracey Moffat's new exhibition of photography (made in Brisbane) it is indeed an exciting time to be an artist of any persuasion in Brisbane. There just seems to be a hell of a lot happening now. Looking forward to the book Andrew. It'll be the perfect read to accompany the new Saints boxed set. | ||
| andrew stafford |
OK, just clearing up a couple of questions regarding Pig City (the song, not the book)... Pig City was recorded under the name the Parameters in late 1983. Tony Kneipp, the songwriter, wanted it out before that year's state election, which the National Party won in its own right. Although the song was indeed flogged by Zed from the latter months of '83, the song wasn't officially released as a single until September 1984. The delay was caused by the time it took Kneipp to come up with, and record, an appropriate B-side. The Parameters were not a band as such - they never played live and never even played in the same room for the recording of the single, which was recorded in dribs and drabs. Hence, on the back of the single, the line "The Parameters were..." followed by the personnel. "Sticks", the drummer, some of you may know as Steven Pritchard, a legendary drummer hereabouts. This is all getting a bit far from Peter Carey, and I don't want to hijack the thread further, so let's save further discussion on this stuff for now. But it IS indeed a great time to be in Brisbane - and yes, I can't wait to get my hands on that Saints box! |
