Last week, Australian writer Frank Moorhouse spoke at the University of Wollongong as a spin-off of the Sydney Writers’ Festival. Alerted by the microscopic notice in the local newspaper, we went off to see him. We arrived just in time, negotiated with the ladies at the door, and went in. Arming ourselves with red wine and spring rolls, we sat down with about 80 others to listen to what Mr Moorhouse had to say.
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Ella Minnow Pea — Mark Dunn
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
This fun novel is also a puzzle and a fairly impressive display of linguistic virtuosity. The book is a progressive lipogram – it starts off normally, but its alphabet shrinks as the story goes on. It’s not too hard to write without using Z, but things get more interesting as letters like D, A and even E vanish. We see more and more creative synonyms being used and invented.
This book consists entirely of letters written by the characters to each other. I like the way the sentences are written – the story is set in a land that esteems words and literature above all, and it shows in the way the characters play with language.
With the cute story and clever wordplay, the first half of the book is a delight. A little after this, the author cops out a bit as he has fewer and fewer letters to work with, and it all gets a bit harder to read. The story continues though, as the characters work against the clock to save their country – by solving a word puzzle.
A Man Jumps Out of an Airplane — Barry Yourgrau
A fantastic collection of dreams. Most of these short pieces are less than a page long, but they perfectly convey that weird logic peculiar to dreams. It’s amazing how much he packs into such a short form.
I bought this randomly in a used bookshop, in a double edition with the same author’s Wearing Dad’s Head. WDH is similar to Airplane, but does seem to focus rather a lot on the author’s troubled relationship with his overbearing father. The makes the book more personal, but for me, less beautifully dream-like. (Your dreams may vary.)
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix — J. K. Rowling
Harry Potter books are always published just before my birthday, which is handy. This book is more of the same, with the emphasis on the more – a bit too close to 1000 pages for my liking.
This time around, apart from the usual conspiracies and evildoers, Harry must contend with the opposite sex. He proves to be as clueless with girls as he is clever with magic. (Time’s running out – he’s only got two more books to sort himself out.)
I was pleased with the way that quite a few plotlines from previous books are picked up, which helps sustain interest. I thought the book was paced well, given its length. Even so, parts of the denouement felt a bit perfunctory. (Don’t you hate those perfunctory denouements?)
Well, I can’t blame her for wanting to finish by that stage. No doubt she was eager to get cracking with Book Six.
The Age of Wire and String — Ben Marcus
Initially, this book is very disorienting. It’s a set of short descriptions of a strange, primitive society based on our own. Common words (house, dog, wire) take on bizarre meanings that you just have to guess at as you read deeper into this world. The whole thing is like a particularly unsettling and weird dream. By the end of the book, I felt I almost started to understand it. I’ll be reading it again.
The Salmon of Doubt — Douglas Adams
Lots of amusing snippets of writing, and part of an uncompleted third Dirk Gently book. A great reminder of how much fun Douglas Adams’s writing could be.
Moral Hazard — Kate Jennings
A wry look at Wall Street, told in the voice of a outsider who has a much bigger problem than mere money to deal with. The world of investment banking may be even more dodgy than we thought. Now they tell me.
Amrita — Banana Yoshimoto
The story of an extraordinary few months in the life of an unusual family in Tokyo. The narrator is engagingly curious, with a tendency to wax philosophical; the plot starts off conventionally but then comes over all mystical. Quite fun to read.
Slash with a Knife — Yoshitomo Nara
This artist beautifully captures the angst of disaffected youth. (Like, 8-year-old youth.)