Book Reviews

The Phoenix Years

THE NIB AWARD

The Waverley Library Award for Literature, established in 2002, is entitled ‘the Nib’. Organised and financed by Waverley Council, it is managed by Waverley Library, with the support of a committee, and a number of community establishments, including Friends of Waverley Library, Gertrude & Alice Bookshop, and local RSL Clubs. The Nib promotes research-based Australian literature, with a generous prize of $20,000.

Definitely the best book I have read this year, is one of the finalists for the 2017 Nib Award. It’s The Phoenix Years : Art, Resistance and the Making of Modern China by Madeleine O’Dea. Foreign correspondent Madeleine O’Dea has been an eyewitness for over thirty years to the economic success of China, the ongoing struggle for human rights and free expression there, and the rise of its contemporary art and cultural scene. Her book, The Phoenix Years is vital reading for anyone interested in China today.

Tom Keneally, author of Australians sums it up nicely: ‘Amidst all the chatter about China lies this rock of a book, a magnificent memoir/ history from the very core of modern Chinese society and history. … Let no one speak of China who has not read ‘The Phoenix Years’.

THE BOOK

This book piqued my interest as a long-term second language teacher with adult migrants (AMES) and the Institute of Languages (UNSW). The book relates the heady years of hope and creativity in the 1980s, which ended in the tragedy of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Following that disaster, government members in China turned their backs, once more, on the people, while feathering their own nests and ruthlessly promoting economic success above all else. Human rights and the environment were disregarded in favour of economic advancement at all costs.

cover-phoenix-years What could not be totally quelled, however, was the spirit of freedom loving Chinese, especially from the emerging avant-garde artists, who’d borrowed many of the radical approaches to dissent from the west, especially from New York.

Among those who would not be silenced, was a particularly poignant group, the now middle-aged ‘Tiananmen Mothers’ who continued to keep alive the memory of their sons and daughters, whose lives were brutally cut short by the massacres on June 4th 1989.

I was left, after reading the book, with a terrible sadness at the fate of the freedom fighters in China, and with an anger against the government cadre, who were prepared to shed the blood of their own citizens for greedy self interest.

Was the price of modernisation—China’s economic boom and thriving metropolises of today—worth the loss of lives, the resulting traumatised nation and a denuded countryside? I think not.

At the same time, I was left with an overwhelming admiration for the people of China, for the students, the artists and the ordinary citizens who supported them in their battle against the authoritarian regime. It reminded me a little of the year of 1968 that I spent in Paris during the student/workers’ strike, when ordinary citizens passed water and food down from their balconies to help the students in their battles with the government of General de Gaulle.

One of the lasting images for me is of the young female artist Pei Li’s work depicting in a darkened box a video of a girl : ‘From time to time she would pick up a can and spray-paint on asking “Isn’t something missing?” over and over again. The work was exhilaratingly angry and exhausting, with its cycle of creation and destruction played out to a screeching soundtrack.’ (Chapter 9).

If you don’t get to read any other book this year, I recommend this one, published by Allen&Unwin 2016, to you.

November 18, 2017 0 comment

Book Reviews Writing

We Are Not Alone

WE ARE indeed NOT ALONE

I joined WANA tribe, after having read a book entitled: Rise of the Machines: Human Authors in a Digital World by American writer and blogger, Kristen Lamb. I’d recommend it to anyone trying to understand the world of social media and blogging. It’s a first step into learning how to increase traffic to your site.

Pelicans at The Entrance, Central Coast of NSW

The online Book on Social Media and Blogging that led me to better my social media skills and improve my blogging:

kristen-lamb-book

Kristen says in explaining the concept of WANA tribe:

WANA stands for We Are Not Alone, and began as the title of my #1 best-selling social media book. I named the book, We Are Not Alone—The Writers’ Guide to Social Media, because I saw that social media was a game-changer for creative professionals, if only they could let loose of fear and understand that we don’t have to change our personalities to be successful. Social media isn’t about spamming people for free on ten different sites; it is about community and connection.

…

WANA Tribe is a place where creative people can be themselves and connect with other artists. Form critique groups, discussions, post your art, network, or just sit back and be inspired. No matter where you turn on WANA Tribe you will find passion and imagination and people who understand you. Why? Because they are just like you.

We Are Not Alone! Wanna join?

This book helped me understand and start to use social media a lot better. We writers are often technically challenged, so thanks must go to Kristen. Actually, I need lots more help in reality…

Trying to set up a self-hosted website nearly made me consider giving up entirely, but I’m proud to say I didn’t, and I achieved my goal, after a lot of time spent asking for help. I’m still struggling with being able to use Hootsuite, but am determined to get there.

August 11, 2016 0 comment

Book Reviews Writing

Elusive Elena’s Brilliant Novel

“My Brilliant Friend” by Elena Ferrante, is a brilliant read, if somewhat elusive at the start. This mirrors the enigmatic aspect of the novelist herself: Who is she?

Is part of the draw-card the setting in Naples, that boisterous and “dangerous” city to the south of Rome?

Many English speaking readers of these books, have been raving about them. Others have been wondering what all the hype is about.

I must admit I was put off, at first glance, by the long list of characters at the beginning of the novel. It reminded me of a Shakespearean play. Ten groups, mainly family ones, contain nearly fifty characters, including their names and their roles. I only read the list after I finished reading the book. I preferred to let the narrator introduce the characters bit by bit, during the unfolding of events. Then I soon became entranced and pulled along by the characters, especially the two women.

my-brilliant-friend

May 8, 2016 1 comment

Book Reviews Writing

Daffodil: Biography of a Flower

Meet the Author, HELEN O’NEILL, in conversation with Suzanne Leal
Thursday 21 April 2016 6.30-8pm Waverley Library

I attended an interesting conversation in 2016 at the Waverley Library, Bondi Junction, Sydney, between Susanne Leal, journalist and author, and Helen O’Neill, whose recently published book, Daffodil: Biography of a Flower” was a contender for the 2016 Waverley Library Nib Award.

This was the fifteenth anniversary of this generous competition, in which judges select a winning entry based on literary merit and evidence of in-depth research.

Helen started out by recounting a short personal biography, telling of a rather uprooted childhood in the UK, travelling around because of her father’s work, until the family settled, when she was thirteen, in Southern England: “In Midsomer Murders” territory”. Helen spoke with passion about her subject, an interest and love originally inspired by her mother’s growing daffodil obsession; the latter was surprised to win silver cups for her specimens three years in a row. She then started sketching the flowers from her garden, showing the different colours and shapes and sizes of each one, prompted by a desire to understand more about the flower, its propagation and its background.

April 25, 2016 4 comments

Book Reviews Writing

An Article in Quadrant Magazine

cover-of-the-book

I’ve just had my review of My Year with Sammy by Libby Sommer published in the Quadrant Magazine under Reviews.

The review is entitled “Retrieving A Childhood. I’m chuffed!

The Book: MY YEAR WITH SAMMY by Libby Sommer,

Published by Gininderra Press, 2015

The Review:

My Year With Sammy, by Libby Sommer, is the story of a free-spirited little girl, whose behavioural problems are causing anguish to those close to her. Sammy’s pain, expressed mainly through anger, leads her single mother on a wild dance to find some sort of a solution. It’s the grandmother, as narrator, who bears witness to this.

The passion and heartache of grandparenting is a central theme from the beginning. Other topical themes of interest to modern-day readers are set up in the first part. Split families, child behavioural problems, “modern” childhood disorders, such as dyslexia, ADHD, aspergers and autism, medication versus re-education, and the overwhelming load placed on single parents, are touched on in this novel. The modern-day nail parlour full of women, counsellors for preschoolers, and grandmotherly intervention in relation to her daughter’s laundry duties, all add authenticity to the narrative.

But it’s Libby’s unique voice and writing style that engaged this reader from the outset, as the descriptions of a young granddaughter with a strange beauty are full of passion and poetry. Her use of dialogue without enclosed conversation marks is appropriate, given the genre and the theme of a free-spirited child. The beginnings and endings to chapters are especially notable. As reader, I was grabbed by the very first sentences: “Sammy said she doesn’t like kisses. No kisses and no hugs.” The narrator reveals things bit by bit, slowly, so that the reader can take part in trying to solve the mysteries at the base of the novel: What is the cause of Sammy’s behavioural problems? Will there be a solution in the end?

Sammy’s erratic behaviour suggests that something is deeply wrong, yet no-one can unlock the key to her violent outbursts and non-compliance at school and at home. She is such a complex mixture of extreme, yet charming, personality traits that the reader is keen to discover what will become of her at school and within the families. The cat is a continuing apt motif, linked subtly to the tiger as metaphor: the wild, wilful part of the personality, and to the idea of mystery. Is the grandmother right about Sammy (She was born this way)? It’s a very sensitive handling of the issues.

Stuctured in three main parts, the novel resembles a long poem, with a shorter middle segment and a longer (third) segment. The fourth part is merely a coda to signal closure, a sort of poetic finality, without total resolution. Poetic motifs and imagery recurring throughout, sometimes like a refrain—cats, tigers, Egyptian mythology, dreams, water and eternal childhood games and activities—add to this impression of poetry.

Despite her feeling of powerlessness, like all good mothers who have become grandmothers, the narrator ends the first part on a note of hope via Egyptian mythology: “I open my book and read the story of the lotus blossom that appeared out of the dark and dismal expanse of floodwaters that had engulfed the world at the mythical beginning of time. The blossom surfaced and opened its petals to give birth to the sun. I hold on to this Egyptian symbol of something beautiful breaking through from the darkness.”

The second part focuses on Sammy’s mother, Madeleine, and her skiing accident on the slopes of the NSW ski fields. This provides dramatic contrast, while highlighting some of the themes relevant to Sammy. The beginning sets up, via the grandmother’s unique voice, the mystery of connections and hidden forces at work beneath the surface of things:

“There are so many ways that it is possible to make a mistake, I am coming to understand—various, unexpected ways; when unaware, out-of-the-blue, a hidden obstacle, and an accident happen. … I said so myself. We all make mistakes. … Madeleine’s father rings from the snowfields. Madeleine’s had an accident, he says.”

Real physical drama is added to Sammy’s psychological story at this point. The accident underscores the fear motifs, the dark and the insects, part of Sammy’s shadow side. These chapters reveal the tricky nature of Sammy’s problems and of dealing with them; her moods are exacerbated by school strictures and family breakdown. The child’s nightmare, and that of her mother and grandmother, continue throughout the story with only brief touches of reprieve. She is a brave little girl, but there are things in her subconscious that need to be looked at. Her over-burdened mother is unable to help her with these. Finding the right sort of outside help is the problem.

As a reader, I felt frustrated at this stage that there were no solutions for the family’s dilemma. Once more, this part ends on a spiritual note, suggesting hope for the future and a need for acceptance: “She might have had a third eye, if I’d concentrated hard enough to imagine it.”

Part Three is the longest section, and the most complex, portraying family life in all its minutiae and richness; it builds up slowly and painfully, but with snatches of light and humour, to a climax at the very end. There are going to be no easy solutions, but at least some realisations and small successes are achieved by the end of the chapter: the diagnosis, literacy classes, and an award for improvement. We realise that Sammy is intelligent, possessing a quick wit and a sense of irony about her predicament: “She said that, or something like it, how she got the first prize for being the number-one-dunce.”

Assistance from specialists results in a successful diagnosis towards the end of the third part. One statement that adds poignancy comes at this point: “Apparently, according to one of the specialists, Sammy and I are in a dance together.” The theme of running away links Madeleine and her daughter together, Sammy even stealing money from her family with this in mind. Towards the end of this part, Sammy has a final two-hour (cathartic?) meltdown, mirroring Madeleine’s own “running away” fantasy that occurs after this, at the very end of the chapter.

Gradually, it seems that the grandmother must stand back and allow her daughter, whose voice intervenes more and more towards the final resolution, to make a decision. Reading between the lines, this reader sees that Madeleine might need to take a reprieve from the stressors at home. Will she hand over the care of her little daughter to the ex-husband, at least temporarily, so that she can take a break?

My conclusion about this arises from the fact that Sammy’s two cousins and their united family enter this chapter in a positive capacity at the end. Their role in Sammy’s healing is shown, at the same time as a comparison is being suggested. For, lurking in the shadows is the issue of a broken family, and the jealousies and grieving from the past breakdown, that play a part in the whole story. Madeleine’s point of view is shown via a different voice, and with conversation marks added. The reader feels great empathy for her, as she tries to find a new partner, amid her feelings of failure and lack of control. The irony of Harmnony Day and Grandparents’ Day give added impetus to this perspective.

If I have used this review to uncover some of the mysteries at the base of Sammy’s, Madeleine’s and the grandmother’s story, it is because Libby’s writing conceals as much as it reveals, which is basic to the richness of the text. Like all good poets, and narrators of texts, she sets out to show, not tell about, this fascinating child and the family she was born into in all its complexity.

It is fitting, in conclusion, to let the writing show for itself the beauty and mystery beneath the text: “I’ll tell Sammy about the great Pharaoh Hatshepsut, the only She-King of Egypt … Look, I’ll say, see the thirty rowers on each boat, side by side, slicing through the River Nile, each stroke moving them closer to Punt, and there—look—there is the homecoming: the potted myrrh saplings, sacks of frankincense, fragrant ointments, wood, ebony and ivory, all collected on the journey and brought back home…The great Hatshepsut, I’ll say. Egypt’s most determined Queen.”

April 9, 2016 5 comments