An incomplete tribute that may please some Hazzard fans but leave others adrift.
A Sri Lankan–born Australian novelist offers a brief paean to a much-admired fellow Australian writer.
De Kretser (The Life To Come, 2017, etc.), who moved to Australia with her family in 1972, fell in love with the novels of Shirley Hazzard (1931-2016) because they “spoke of places from which I had come and places to which I longed to go.” They also offered a view of Australia that was cleareyed about such problems as sexism and racial prejudice, which helped the author come to terms with living as an Asian woman in a white-dominated country. Moreover, Hazzard’s novels revealed a deep engagement with history and especially imperialism, a topic with which de Kretser was intimately acquainted. Hazzard was also a keen craftsperson who “read her work aloud to herself to get the rhythms right” and consciously sought to create high literary art. De Kretser writes that “movement of poetry infiltrates [Hazzard’s] prose,” and she offers examples from various, often unnamed, novels of the “precision, swiftness [and] taste for compassion” with which Hazzard used adjectives, described places and characters, and expressed political views. De Kretser’s book is strongest in its very personal, often moving appreciation for Hazzard’s work. As literary criticism, the narrative is flawed. De Kretser provides only bits and pieces about Hazzard’s life and brief reflections about important novels like The Bay of Noon, which was shortlisted for the Lost Man Booker Prize in 2010, and The Great Fire, which won the 2003 National Book Award. She offers little biographical, historical, critical, social, or political details and no cited references that would help those not already acquainted with Hazzard and/or Australian 20th-century literature more deeply appreciate this important novelist. As a result, the book reads more like a disconnected collection of poignant private musings than a text meant to educate readers who might be interested in exploring Hazzard’s life and work.
An incomplete tribute that may please some Hazzard fans but leave others adrift.Pub Date: March 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-948226-82-0
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Catapult
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2020
Funny, reflective and pleasantly inspiring.
One woman tackles aging, Texas Hold'em style.
"I'm still in," Rubenstein quietly remarks in one of the sweeter moments in this winning account of wisdom versus age. As she approached age 70, the retired philosophy professor and former U.S. table tennis champion found herself whiling away evenings in her La-Z-Boy while her husband was out playing poker. Having been barred from the East Hampton game with "the girls" because she was too competitive, Rubenstein began to lose her sense of self and dwell on the ravages of getting old. Aging, she concludes, is "the systematic elimination of alternatives." Luckily, she discovered "the fountain of youth in cyberspace" when she took her son's advice to check out online poker, where she tried tournament play. Thus began a sort of renaissance for the author, where the relative anonymity of cyberspace allowed her to match wits with other players without having to worry about the various pressures of neighborhood or casino play–from timing her length of stay at the table, to the intimidating trash-talking of male opponents. Plus, playing alone at home spelled the additional luxury of "no dressing either. You didn't have to put your teeth in, take your slippers off." Rubenstein's humor and sarcasm come through on every page, as she details the journey from her recliner to local reporter to becoming one of the poster children for the PartyPoker.com Million tournament cruises. Never losing her philosophic edge, Rubenstein writes, "Kafka said if it comes down to between you and the world, bet on the world. Here's what makes poker. Occasionally you get to beat the world. And when you do, there's really nothing like it."
Funny, reflective and pleasantly inspiring.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-9659552-1-4
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A sweet call for the unsullied love of children that frequently derails under the weight of dubious argument.
Forget Iran and North Korea. The locus of evil is the institution of the family, says poet Stannard, who died in 2004.
“They fuck you up, your mum and dad,” wrote the poet Philip Larkin. Stannard heartily agrees: The dominant-submissive arrangement crushes children, preempting their need for security and affection and stifling their healthy anger, punctuating their days with episodes of verbal and physical abuse. Children become little engines of hate, says the author (though hate can also have positive value, expressing indignation and a sense of self-love). As a child, the author suffered sexual abuse and was the constant victim of her mother’s cruel scorn. The author’s expressiveness testifies to an inner voice, a self-helper, bringing an awareness of suppressed grief and forgotten wounds. She tenders an unrestrained critique of the Bible as a how-to guide for vindictiveness and violence, a reflection of “a corrupt and brutal mankind,” with its God “the biggest hater of them all.” She also calls out Sigmund Freud for back-pedaling when he abandoned sexual trauma as the source of hysteria. Eventually, her broad generalizations detract from her message: Yes, the family can be an abomination, and yes, it’s certainly plausible that hate is often the manifestation of a hurt, frightened child. It doesn’t necessarily follow, however, that “happy families are largely a mirage,” treating children as “inferior species” and “losers.” The author is also prone to such ridiculous statements as, “that the great Gandhi mistreated his children only proves that parents don’t know how to bring up children.”
A sweet call for the unsullied love of children that frequently derails under the weight of dubious argument.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 20.00
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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