A Museum of Space

Peter Boyle, St Lucia: UQP, 2004, 102 Pages, Paperback, : Reviewed by Andrew Johnson in the April 2005 issue.

In a previous book, What the Painter Saw in Our Faces (Five Islands Press, 2001) Boyle addressed an abiding question about the nature and power of the work of art. In a number of ekphrastic poems (poems that discuss, or represent visual works of art), including a long title poem, Boyle mused on the question of whether the work of art can preserve us against loss and the steady march of time, or in fixing an image foreshadows death. Museum of Space approaches the question from a slightly different angle: instead of the visual image, these poems are concerned mainly with the operations of memory and music, and with comparing the redemptive possibilities of art, philosophy and religion: 'The ... read more.
 

Bittersweet: An Indo-Fijian Experience

Brij V Lal, Canberra: Pandanus Books, 2004, Paperback, $45.00: Reviewed by Susan Tridgell in the April 2005 issue.

The cover of Bittersweet is a haunting one. A young Indo-Fijian girl of eight or nine, dressed as if for a special occasion, looks back at the camera. Her expression is hard to interpret -- uncertainty? distress? It is a poignant reminder of the effect which Fiji's simmering ethnic tensions may have had on other Indo-Fijian children. The child's dress seems to symbolise the care and love of her family, but as historical onlookers, we know how fragile the shield of a family can be when it is threatened by communal violence. Bittersweet, indeed. The mixture of essays, memoirs, poems and short stories which make up this collection remain true to its title. There is affection for Fiji, ... read more.
 

Blak Inside: 6 indigenous plays from Victoria

Richard Frankland Jadah Milroy Maryanne Sam Tracey Rigney Tammy Anderson John Harding, Strawberry Hills: Currency Press, 2002, 287 Pages, Paperback, $24.95: Reviewed by Maryrose Casey in the April 2005 issue.

Theatre texts written by Indigenous Australians have made an important contribution to Australian theatre and to the process of sharing information and knowledge between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities. This process is further enhanced by publication of the texts. There are limited avenues for the publication of Australian plays. This published collection is the result of a number of long term collaborations. Playbox Theatre Company and Currency Press have been collaborating for a number of years to publish new Australian plays. The text of plays produced by Playbox are published as part of the Program. This makes the publication viable by ensuring a minimum level of sales. Playbox ... read more.
 

City of Light: A History of Perth Since the 1950s

Jenny Gregory, Crawley: City of Perth, 2003, 404 Pages, Hard Cover, $59.95: Reviewed by Paul Ritter in the April 2005 issue.

Jenny Gregory's City of Light is the second officially commissioned history of the City of Perth, taking off chronologically from where Tom Stannage's earlier People of Perth (1979) ended, in the nineteen fifties. The work is fabulously well illustrated, fluently written and beautifully produced. Although commissioned and published by the Perth City Council, the book is frank and is not beholden to any vested interest. Gregory is to be congratulated on a volume that will be of interest to both the specialist and the interested lay reader. As one of the principal characters appearing within the book, City of Light was of particular interest to me and I congratulate Dr Gregory on her ... read more.
 

Curiouser: On the Queerness of Children

Steven Bruhm and Natasha Hurley eds, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2004, 338 Pages, Paperback, $US22.95: Reviewed by Dean Durber in the April 2005 issue.

Queerness and children do not play well together. They are far from perfect bedfellows. This is not just a belief held by those sitting on the conservative side. It is shared too by many with liberal minds. There has been and is widespread fear about the proximity of queerness to the young. Today, this fear translates today into a cultural obsession with the paedophile -- 'he' who lurks amongst us, waiting to pounce on innocent, sexless children. Curiouser: On the Queerness of Children appears in the midst of a cultural paranoia surrounding sex and children. In its approaches to the subject and in the conclusions it forms, this collection of essays offers an important and timely contribution ... read more.
 

Hill of Grace

Stephen Orr, Kent Town: Wakefield Press, 2004, 342 Pages, Paperback, $27.95: Reviewed by Tony Smith in the April 2005 issue.

According to some assessments of the 2004 Australian federal election campaign, religion had its greatest impact on the outcome since the sectarian 1950s. The influence of new religions, described variously by critics as Pentecostal, evangelical or fundamentalist, surprised many observers, so perhaps more effort is needed to understand not just the rise of new faiths but the survival of older, smaller ones. Stephen Orr's Hill of Grace is a work of fiction, but like any good novel, it provides insights into general psychology through its characters and addresses themes that elude social scientists. The story of William Miller's millenarianism is the product of an enviable amount of research. ... read more.
 

In Your Face: Contemporary Chinese poetry in English translation

Ouyang Yu ed, Melbourne: Otherland Books, 2004, 126 Pages, Paperback, $33.45: Reviewed by Rhian Healy in the April 2005 issue.

China: the force of the twenty-first century? More and more China is playing a significant role in the global economy, global institutions and globalisation. It is the awakening giant in the international media's imagination. Although it is maligned for its human rights, its annexation of Tibet, its threats to reincorporate Taiwan, and its autocratic political system, it will become a global power capable of challenging US economic and military hegemony. Although China makes up one sixth of the world's population (one billion people), Australians know very little of its culture or literature. Jacky Chan and Hong Kong martial arts movies are popular, but how many people can identify Lu ... read more.
 

Liberating Tokyo

Katarina Konkoly, Wollongong: Five Islands Press, 2004, 32 Pages, Paperback, $9.95: Reviewed by Stephen Lawrence in the April 2005 issue.

The title suggests that Konkoly may be attempting to free us from constrictive urban paradigms -- to depict and reframe the metropolis -- transforming our existence and our sensibilities. The sassy superhero girl on the cover, a liberating force, looks like she is going to enact this for us. However, it is misleading. Like the feline, East Asian eyes that loom behind the young girl, dominating and appropriating her persona, we do not get what we might expect. Hints of city life do adorn the collection, and the 'Tokyo girl' appears in the first poem, but its themes are rooted in a more mature sensibility and sexuality. The collection is temporally structured. We progress through time, in ... read more.
 

Liverpool of the South Seas: Perth and its Popular Music

Tara Brabazon ed, Nedlands: UWA Press, 2005, 244 Pages, Paperback, $38.95: Reviewed by Daniel Herborn in the April 2005 issue.

Initially, it seems the timing of Liverpool of the South Seas could not be better: Perth bands are riding high at present, with the likes of The Sleepy Jackson, The Hampdens, End of Fashion, Downsyde, Little Birdy, The Panics and The Fergusons all enjoying success. So the time would seem right for the release of Liverpool..., a collection of essays from students from the Popular Culture Collective, to appear and to examine the scene, to provide some insight and some context. Well, that was the plan. What transpires is rather different and causes one to wonder whether the book was rushed into print to capitalise on Perth's newfound visibility as a musical city. Under-researched and ... read more.
 

More or Less Than

MTC Cronin, Exeter: Shearsman Books, 2004, 136 Pages, Paperback, £9.95: Reviewed by Carolyn van Langenberg in the April 2005 issue.

On the morning I had set aside to read <More Or Less Than> 1-100 I was listening to Radio National's Law Report in which Julie Clarke, lecturer in law at Deakin University, argued for the legalisation of torture. Beatings conducted according to the ordinances after the Act with a medical practitioner present, so Clarke believes if my ears did not deceive me, would not damage health, mental or physical. Her assertion lashed 'like the leashes which bind answers to their questions' ('32' p 38). What music then to read 'not simply the stream but they who thought of following' ('1' p7), the opening words of ... read more.
 

Navigating Boundaries: the Asian Diaspora in Torres Strait

Anna Shnukal Guy Ramsay and Yuriko Nagata eds, Canberra: Pandanus Books, 2004, 330 Pages, Paperback, $55.00: Reviewed by Suvendrini Perera in the April 2005 issue.

The ocean as a shifting, mobile space of possibility and interconnection between peoples is a counter force to the rooted territorialities, bounded demarcations and sovereignty claims that organise dry land. This is not to suggest that the sea is a space free of cultural inscription or territorial contestation, but that it is the site of alternative practices, histories and imaginaries that counteract absolutist claims to territory. In the Indian and Pacific oceans long histories of the sea as a space of commonality and exchange refute nationalist fantasies of the island-fortress and rebuke aspirations to rule the waves. Increasingly, cultural theorists and historians are exploring maritime ... read more.
 

Nudity: A Cultural Anatomy

Ruth Barcan, Oxford: Berg, 2004, 308 Pages, Hardcover, US$27.95: Reviewed by Caroline Daley in the April 2005 issue.

On a recent sabbatical I visited the American Nudist Library. Located in a Florida nudist camp, the library's resources were invaluable in my research into the reshaping and revealing of the modern New Zealand body. When I wrote my leave report and noted the trip to Florida I reassured my colleagues that the nudist library was clothing optional and that I opted to remain clothed: I made the academic equivalent of a 'tits and bums' joke in my leave report. Those who read the report were suitably amused. I was later told that my report was voted best leave report in the Vice-Chancellor's office. I suspect that Ruth Barcan would not be surprised by either the way I wrote about my Florida ... read more.
 

Popular Mechanics

Liam Ferney, Carindale: Interactive Publications, 2004, 68 Pages, Paperback, $23.00: Reviewed by David Crouch in the April 2005 issue.

Popular Mechanics is the fresh debut work of innovative Brisbane poet, Liam Ferney. It is a collection of well-crafted poems. They counter-balance dashes of popular and literary culture with a delicacy of finely worked detail. The book is broken into four sections whose themes trace trajectories stretching from a John Forbes poem to the tale of 'the cold chicken river murder mystery' and is inflected throughout with the surprising music found in snatches of slang and sounds of everyday speech. A reader encounters surreal juxtapositions of imagery which interact with a refuse of iconic cultural artifacts, all slow-filtered through a subtly laconic use of language. And from the outset, ... read more.
 

Reports from a Wild Country: Ethics for Decolonisation

Deborah Bird Rose, Sydney: UNSW Press, 2004, 236 Pages, Paperback, $39.95: Reviewed by Ravi De Costa in the April 2005 issue.

Deborah Bird Rose's latest work is the product of extended reflections on the ways by which Australians have hitherto understood and engaged with Indigenous cultures, those cultures themselves and what they might tell all Australians about the impending ecological crises the country is facing. In particular, she urges us to work on a new ethics that centres a concern about Indigenous suffering and colonial violence. Rose develops her 'ethics of decolonisation' as a critique of European philosophical commitments. She sees these embedded in such language as 'wildlife' or 'emancipation' and on which colonial dispossession has proceeded. This critique is attentive of both the spatial and ... read more.
 

Rhubarb

Craig Silvey, Fremantle: FACP, 2004, 330 Pages, Paperback, $24.95: Reviewed by Lucas North in the April 2005 issue.

Craig Silvey's debut novel takes the reader into the nooks of Fremantle for a disarmingly personal examination of its eccentric underclass. His two central protagonists suffer disabilities, one with blindness and one with agoraphobia. But that doesn't mean they have to allow themselves to be crippled. Rather than give an account of the plot (there are several circulating on-line and in print), I wish instead to look at the writing and the development of characters, which are instantly striking and worthy of discussion. Mr Silvey likes to conjoin two or more words. While sometimes this produces a charming musicality, the technique sometimes becomes vainly annoying. Silvey possesses an ... read more.
 

The Prickly Pair: Making Nationalism in Australia and New Zealand

Denis McLean, Dunedin: University of Otago Press, 2004, 326 Pages, Paperback, : Reviewed by Graham Willett in the April 2005 issue.

Those of us alert to the emergence of new fashions in our disciplines will be -- almost regardless of what our discipline is -- aware of the recent rise of transnationalism. In Australian history, in particular, it is starting to make a name for itself, being taken up by several prominent scholars. This is a welcome development. It has always been clear that Australia cannot be understood without reference to the rest of the world, and there has been a long history of our understanding ourselves and our development as a nation and a society in relation to others -- Britain, of course, the United States, even Asia. Imperial history and comparative studies have greatly enriched our knowledge. ... read more.
 

The Stone Ship

Peter Raftos, Canberra: Pandanus Books, 2005, 218 Pages, Paperback, $29.95: Reviewed by Tony Smith in the April 2005 issue.

'I had come here to die', begins Shipton, narrator of The Stone Ship. He closes intending to return to 'a tree, and a length of rope'. Between, he describes the fantastic adventure of finding his way to the heart of 'the' University, and of coming to understand the institution enough to influence its future. The surreal arts including fairy tales, science fiction and fantasy, operate on literal and allegorical levels. When an author chooses an appropriate medium and maintains consistency, the reader is stimulated twice. Although evoking grim themes in a nightmarish world, Peter Raftos balances these levels and gives double satisfaction. At the literal level, this bizarre tale explores the ... read more.
 

True North

Bernard T Harrison, Wollongong: Five Islands Press, 2004, 92 Pages, Paperback, $18.95: Reviewed by Helen Bethune Moore in the April 2005 issue.

Poets use language for its perceived aesthetic qualities as much as for its semantic content. Poetry is quite licentious. Poets have the freedom to use devices such as assonance and repetition to achieve their desired effect. They can play with the accepted forms of grammatical structure almost at will. Poets are at liberty to conjure images using very personal metaphors and word associations or, conversely poets can display an intrinsic understanding of our entire cultural heritage by the phrases that they use. But like visual art, much of the beauty of poetry is in the eye, or in this case, ear and eye of the beholder. Because of its subjectivity of form and content, the reader can be ... read more.
 

Virtual Nation: The Internet in Australia

Gerard Goggin ed, Sydney: UNSW Press, 2004, 300 Pages, Paperback, $49.95: Reviewed by Julianne Stewart in the April 2005 issue.

Virtual Nation covers a wide range of issues and themes on the topic of the Internet in contemporary Australia. It includes sections on the history of the Internet in Australia, aspects of usage such as the context of the family home, electronic commerce and pornography, cultures of use and Internet policy. As Goggin states in his brief introduction, the work is intended to be a text book or recommended course book aimed at a number of academic disciplines in this country, as a contribution to the growing field of 'critical Internet studies', as well as providing data forming the basis of a comparative study on how the Internet is shaped by particular communities and countries. In these ... read more.
 

Who Wants to Create Australia?

Martin Harrison, Broadway: Halstead Press, 2004, 110 Pages, Paperback, : Reviewed by Mark Mahemoff in the April 2005 issue.

'The best teachers teach more than they know' -- Wendell Berry I think it's important to begin by saying that I have known Martin Harrison for a number of years. He was one of the people who judged me to be a viable candidate for a Masters in Writing at the University of Technology, Sydney, where he teaches. He has been and continues to be a mentor, motivator and friend. When I applied to study at UTS I had self-published a small volume of poetry, mainly because I was frustrated with the treadmill of small magazine publication and wanted to clear the decks for my new work. I was a poet proudly on the fringes of any scene although I had attended and given public readings. I wanted to ... read more.