No comments about Blokes: Stories from Australian Lives.

No comments about Aspoetry: Illustrated Poems from an Aspie Life.

4 comments about Into the Wadi.

1. I found this first novel/autobiography interesting but incomplete. Perhaps the author is still too close to the events and to her husband and thus unable, or unwilling, to to be frank with us. At the end of Michele Drouart's book, her husband remains a shadowy stranger. We gain very little insight into their relationship and yet he must surely be the character, aside from herself, who we need to know - even if only through her eyes.

   What is refreshing, is that Drouart is not judgemental of the Jordanian society of which she is unable to become a part.Indeed, she greatly admires the sisterhood of women in that culture. The women of the family are very accepting of her and eager that she should feel welcome. This is no rehash of "Not Without My Daughter". I feel it is a genuine attempt to understand another culture without imposing our own value system. Like Drouart, I am a West Australian woman also raised in a conservative WASP environment (White,anglo saxon, protestant) and I found it most interesting to read of a life whose experiences are so different to my own. However, she leaves me feeling disappointed that she was unable to share more of herself with us.




2. un my opinion this book is one of the few books that gives an honest opinion about the arab world and its rich culture. And as an Arab is very happy to know that there are people who give other cultures a chance to be explained and understood.



3. un my opinion this book is one of the few books that give an honest opinion about the Arab world and its rich culture. And as an Arab i'm very happy and pleased to know that there are people who give other cultures a chance to be explained and understood.



4. A very descriptive account of life and environment in the Arab world, the author brings details of familial relationships that are absolutely foreign to the Western world. She is an Australian woman trying to fit into a world that doesn't allow for anything she is used to. Romantic, intuitive, caring, in the end total failure.
   
   It is THAT world vs. THIS world. Will the gap ever be bridged? The author can make you believe that it never will. This is excellent literature for anyone interested in learning about the Arab world.

No comments about The Collected Letters of Katherine Mansfield: Volume Two: 1918-September 1919 (Collected Letters of Katherine Mansfield).

1 comments about Solid Bluestone Foundations: and Other Memories of an Australian Girlhood 1908-1928.

1. What an unusual life in those times, how marvellously told. A must for those interested in a life full of awakenings to all levels of life, childhood, teens, leaving the apron strings of home and an academic life. Loved the descriptive 'sea voyage' Melbourne to the "homeland", England, something we will never experience. A autobiography along with the best.

5 comments about A Commonwealth of Thieves: The Improbable Birth of Australia.

1. Like a lot of myths, the founding of Australia by 'convicts' is altogether a misleading statement. Though the majority of people in the "First Fleet" had been consigned to 'transportation', if we are to believe Keneally, they were more schemers and scammers than violent criminals. In addition there were a number of marines and government officials who would 'settle' down with convict-wives and start up some of Australia's most famous families.
   
   Keneally only writes about the three "Fleets" that arrived in the first five years of immigration. He has done his research into how the colony was started and what failed and what worked. He has also taken the time to try to present the emotional effect on the original (The Eoras) society that existed at the time of Sydney's founding. Unlike most histories, Keneally doesn't present the land as having been 'vacant' and only marginally occupied by the native people. He tries to give a flavor as to how the Eoras viewed the Europeans who had settled in their midst.
   
   My one negative comment about the book reflects a lack of historical back- ground on my part not Keneally. I would guess that he wrote this book for home (Australian) consumption and therefore assumes that certain informa- tion would be evident to most readers. Unfortunately, most Americans learn little or nothing about Australia and therefore it would have been nice if an appendix could have been added to clarify some situations that Keneally mentions that happened later, such as the Irish Rebellion of 1804 and the mutiny against Governor Bligh.



2. The author of Schindler's List brings us his 37th book, a history of the four years during which white Australia was born. Thomas Keneally competes with Robert Hughes' epic history of Australia's origin that covers a span of 80 years, chronicling the white settlers as oppressive. But Keneally's fresh, novelistic history has found its own place in Australian historiography; it scrutinizes a short time period, providing a multifaceted and profound study of the historical characters that birthed Australia.
   
   Midwife to this birth was Great Britain, who sent a captain of her royal navy, Arthur Phillip, to oversee as governor a penal-colony experiment with 759 thieves, prostitutes, and criminal children. The poorly planned experiment could have easily become a disaster, had Phillip not been both authoritative and compassionate. Ultimately, Keneally admits bewilderment as to the true nature of Phillip, the narrative's potential hero, given his "nature so complex and hidden behind official formality."
   
   Keneally illuminates the white settlement against the backdrop of the then virtually unknown Aborigines, whose contact with the criminal settlers kept tension high. The useful historiographical theme of dichotomy between two cultures takes shape here, with Keneally's description of the Aboriginal worldview, and his admission of its impossible incongruence with the intent of the Empire to colonize and cultivate.
   
   Keneally tactfully narrates the clashes between the two discordant populations without romanticizing either, portraying with equal emphasis the contrasting barbarity and decency both groups exhibited. For example, Phillip's would-be-hero counterpart, Woolaware Bennelong, captured as an Aboriginal translator, assisted the white settlers after his escape, to the point that he was finally disowned by his own people.
   
   Keneally's tactful tone has its own purpose. Where Hughes' history did not hesitate to weigh in against the colonial invaders, Keneally sustains his narrative along the middle ground, allowing Australians to realize their heritage as less melodramatic, and oppressive.
   
   With Phillip's return to England after his term, Australians were left without a founding father-figure. Keneally's history fills in that gap, with assurances from Keneally that he can make out a positive resemblance between the first governor's pragmatism and thoroughness, and that of the country today.
   
   Armchair Interviews says: Very well-done history.



3. Robert Hughes,'Fatal Shore' redressed? Not quite. Hughes's well-honed invective sits uneasily besides Keneally's pragmatic prose. Keneally extolls the virtuous outcome of Australia's first governor, Arthur Phillip's benevolent authority, and his establishment, against all odds of Australia's criminal society. Whereas Hughes feels troubled by these origins, Keneally, the ongoing grief of the indigenous inhabitants apart, senses triumph. The writing does not wear its research excessively, and the setting of the settlers amidst an alien environment and culture is as balanced as any recent history I have encountered. We get thumbnail portraits of a large cast of people that bring the story closer to us and a graphic sense of the hardships endured, which few present day residents around the harbour city would easily imagine. Most of the bods on the book's positive side of the ledger have their names embedded in the city, a minor intetrest to local readers. And Glebe? the name of the vegetable patch attached to a church; never knew that either!



4. Keneally has produced a fascinating introduction to the foundation of Australia, a fantastic mix of the high politics and the fascinating lives of the first settlers and their complex relationship with the Aboriginal peoples.



5. This book provides an excellent and detailed feel for what life must have ben like for the early settlers of Australia and the environment from which they came. It is difficult to imagine how anybody survived those early days and the hardships they had to put up with.

3 comments about Mary Poppins, She Wrote: The Life of P. L. Travers.

1. Valerie Lawson has done something P. L. Travers claimed she didn't want anyone to do: write her biography. It's a very good book. Travers discouraged personal questions in interviews, and preferred to discuss her work and, in later years, her philosophy of life -- the essence of experience as opposed to the mundane details of living. Lawson makes the case that if Travers had been serious about this she would have destroyed her papers -- which she decidedly did not do. Whatever her true feelings on the matter, this is a fascinating book, filled with insights into Travers' life and work, and with a respectable amount of attention to the work itself, especially the meanings and importance of the Mary Poppins books.
   
   I think Lawson gives somewhat short shrift to Travers work with Parabola magazine, which is some of her most brilliant writing -- inspiring to thousands of her readers, and collected in the now out of print "What the Bee Knows." (Note to publishers: bring it back!) You may also find out more than you want to known about her endless toing and froing with Disney, and the ways in which the movie deal echoed through the last thirty years of her life.
   
   But Lawson also gives the first comprehensive account of Travers' private life, her involvement AE and Gurdieff, her adoption of one twin, her son Camillus, and her early career as an actress. Her love affairs are touched on.
   
   I'm not sure, in the end, if all the private matters, interesting as they may be, really add to our understanding of Travers' work, though Lawson makes some persuasive connections between the fantasy and the reality. Mary Poppins herself, the Great Exception, survives the biography with her mystery intact, and in spite of Lawson's sympathetic and thorough craftsmanship, so does Travers. For those of us lucky ones who count Travers as a touchstone in our lives, that's just fine. Questions without answers can often be more satisfying than the other kind.



2. 
   Lawson provides some information on a fellow Australian, who despite protestations to the contrary, may have wanted someone to present a biography of her. Travers left notes and diaries but it appears to be information and not real knowledge. Her life was mirage, down to her name, national allegiance and way of relating to her mentors, adopted son and sponsor, Walt Disney and his staff.
   
   The book tells the story as much as it can be told.



3. As a discerning reader may suspect from the title of the book "Mary Poppins, She Wrote", there seems to be a lack of deep thought invested in this biography of P.L. Travers. There is no doubt that Valerie Lawson thoroughly researched her subject, but I do not think she invested enough time in processing and writing. Or perhaps her editor fell short. The book was disappointing for me, but I read it to the end, as I imagine many fans of Travers will do, because it was my first chance to glimpse the author behind Mary Poppins.
   One of the most disappointing aspects of the book was Lawson's apparent disdain for Travers, and Travers's work beyond Mary Poppins. Why spend so much time on a person whom you appear to disrespect? Travers had friends and loved ones throughout her life but Lawson focuses on her negative qualities and failed relationships without illumination into her greater qualities.
   Some of the book seems like page fillers, too, like a student beefing up an essay to fulfill word count. And the historical background of movements and famous figures Travers came in contact with (there were a lot of them) is suspect for me, because the section on Krisnamurti does not jive with the biography I recently read of him (Star in the East...).
   The illustrations were also disappointing. Lawson refers to many photos which are not included; instead we get pages of Disney memorabilia and illustrations from Poppins books as well as a few photos of Travers and friends.
   "Mary Poppins, She Wrote" is worth reading for those curious about Travers's life, because there is nothing better available.

1 comments about A Boy's War (An Omf Book).

1. "A Boy's War" tells of a six-year old Australian boy, son of a missionary, who went off to Chefoo boarding school in China in 1939 and didn't see his parents again until 1945. World War II intervened and he was interned by the Japanese in Weihsien camp in Shandong province, China.
   
   This is a brief book of 170 pages, but Michell covers a lot of ground. He tells about his life at the boarding school as the clouds of war gather and Japan conquers more and more of China. Then, he endures two years of internment with more than one thousand other foreigners at Weihsein. The internees were rescued dramatically by American partroopers at the end of the war and young David undertakes an epic journey back to Australia by ship where he is reunited with his family. The author concludes by telling us about his 1985 return visit to Weihsein.
   
   This is a missionary's story and the author affirms his faith, although not in a way that will offend the non-religious. The boy was fortunate in having many surrogate parents during his years of isolation, of whom one of the most important was Eric Liddell, the Olympic runner (recall "Chariots of Fire?") who lived and died at Weihsein. John Birch -- who inspired the radical political organization, the John Birch Society -- is a minor character in the book as he too was a "mish kid" in pre-Communist China.
   
   Weihsien camp in China has generated a great deal of literature. Rarely have so many talented people resided together in such close quarters. "Shantung Compound" is a sociology classic by Langdon Gilkey and "The Call" by John Hersey is one of my favorite novels. "A Boy's War" is a brief introduction to missionary life in China and the experiences of foreigners trapped by war.
   
   Smallchief

No comments about Scapegoats of the Empire.

5 comments about Unreliable Memoirs.

1. This would have to be the best offering from Clive James that I have read. His acerbic wit makes for great reading. I found this text on a bookshelf in a beach holiday house and was immediately captivated. I lost count of the amount of times that I not only laughed out loud, I snorted with appreciation and had to wipe tears from my eyes (much to the consternation of those around me) He captures the innocence of childhood with fleeting glimpses of maturity like no one has before, proving that he is not just a television presenter but a Rhodes Scholar to boot. If I could give this book more than 5 stars I would. It would be a shame to tell you more because this is a book that just has to be read to be believed!



2. For those of you who have visited Australia in recent years , it may come as a shock to you that Clive James was the man who discoverd it . Jumping from captain Cooks ship ,when the hostile crew had threatened to eat him if he risked another witism . He discovered that the land was free from parking meters . " Well boil mi billy can , cobbers , this is the place for me " . So young clive tried his hand at acting, but was disillusioned ,when James coburn was cast as the aussie in the great escape . " He sounds more real than you Clive " . "Strewth i'll have a lash at journalism " . The rest is history . A raft back to blighty . A year as an assistant to clark kent , then unexpected fame as a latex puppet on spitting image . Its all here the unreliable memoirs, of the boy from Melbourne ,The land bought by Batman .



3. One of the funniest books you'll ever read. Especially recommended for anyone who has ever been a kid, Australian, in love, in lust, in trouble, at university or has had a head that sticks out at the back.



4. "Unreliable Memoirs" is Clive James' description of his upbringing in a Sydney suburb lasting up to the time of his university education. I was expecting it to be funny but wasn't quite prepared for the raw emotion and literary skill displayed on virtually every page.
   
   To me this is the most impressive of James' autobiographical writing. He has a gift for describing childhood and a kind of relentless honesty which is hilarious and provides something of a turbulent rollercoaster ride for the reader, as he describes the trauma of being a single child to a single parent in the aftermath of the Second World War.
   
   I felt a little left behind by many of the historical and literary references James makes but this is more than made up for by the relish with which he uses the English language. For example, he describes a friend's mother giving him buttered bread covered with hundreds and thousands as like "eating a slice of powdered rainbow".
   
   "Unreliable Memoirs" made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end - I wish I had read it years ago.



5. What can I possibly add to what has been said by the other reviewers? This book is short in length and long in content. *EVERYBODY* whom I know and who has read the book has claimed to have laughed out loud while reading it in a public place. That's 5 people, myself included. Years after reading it, I still recall with great amusement the stories about James' alter ego, the Flash of Lightning. And although this is a book about James, it also is a subtle homage to his mother, or at least it read that way to me. Such is James' command of language, he can turn his experiences into everyone's experiences, even if you haven't lived through similar situations. A wonderful read.