Notes from Eve Abbey ~ June 2017

Robert Dessaix's new book, The Pleasures of Leisure, is sure to please his many fans. It is rather like having a desultory conversation with a witty friend about life and philosophy in a rather nice place. There are plenty of allusions and you will feel good that you recognise them. His voice comes through clear, honest and personal. He suggests you should cultivate a talent to just loaf about. A pleasure indeed.

NEW RELEASES

My favourite amongst Robert’s other books is A Mother’s Disgrace, which is a classic of Australian autobiography, while other pieces include Night Letters, As I Was Saying, and What Days are For. July will see new paperback editions of Arabesques: A Tale of Double Lives and Twilight of Love: Travels with Turgenev and Corfu: A Novel.

Have you realised that Donna Leon's latest book is out now? I have not missed a single title and this is number twenty six. It is called Earthly Remains. She has been edging towards this subject for some time, showing her concern about what is happening to the Venetian lagoons. Commissario Brunetti too is showing signs of stress and takes off to spend time alone on a tiny island in the laguna, reading and rowing with an old fisherman who has a secret past.

Did you enjoy My Name is Lucy Barton by Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout? If so, you must now read Anything Is Possible which takes us on a tour around the various relatives and fellow residents of Amash, Illinois. When I first looked at the chapter headings I thought this might be a collection of short stories. In a way it is as each character gets their place in the sun. Lucy Barton, now a famous writer in New York, comes home for a visit which is a good excuse for memories to be brought out and retold. Very satisfying.

If you are new to Elizabeth Strout please read My Name is Lucy Barton before you read this latest one. The other titles are Olive Kitteridge, The Burgess Boys, Amy & Isabelle and Abide with Me. Upstairs in Language Book Centre you can find Mi Chiamo Lucy Barton. Remember if the stairs are a problem for you please ask one of our booksellers to show you the lift in the foyer.


I am admirer of the work of writer and historian Mark Dapin. He has written numerous things including a crime thriller, King of the Cross and a lovely story called Spirit House, set in Bondi, about a boy’s relationship with his Jewish grandfather who had been a prisoner of war with the Japanese. Recently he has been the editor for From the Trenches: Best Anzac Writing of World War One and the The Penguin Book of Australian War Writing while The Nasho’s War: Australian National Servicemen in Vietnam won several awards. He has now been commissioned to produce a splendid book Jewish Anzacs: Jews in the Australian Military, 435 pages including photographs and index.

It has a Memorial Roll of all those who served from the Boer War to Vietnam and Afghanistan including an Honour Roll of those who made the supreme sacrifice. For the Jewish faith the act of Remembrance (zachor) is an important duty so I am sure this book will be coveted by many families. Despite the title Mark apologises that Anzacs from New Zealand are not included but this work is being done now.

Did you watch a series on SBS about Scottish Manor Houses? I think the Scottish Tourist Board must have had a hand in this? I was especially interested to see the huge difference in visitor numbers when the The Da Vinci Code became such a huge bestseller. From just a few visitors to the Rosslyn Chapel suddenly hundreds were turning up each day. So I must remind you about the controversial original work published by Leigh, Baigent and Lincoln called The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail.

There was a court case about this – the authors claiming Dan Brown had used their book as a basis for his story. Interestingly both titles were issued by the same publisher. You can get the French edition of Da Vinci Code upstairs at Language Book Centre.

There is a King Arthur film starting now so I want to remind you of T. H. White’s famous epic The Once and Future King. 

Historical fantasy writer Mary Stewart also wrote the four book Merlin series beginning with The Crystal Cave, then The Hollow Hills, The Wicked Day and The Last Enchantment. Some of these might be out of print.


I am not a great fan of performance art but despite this I cannot miss a word of The Museum of Modern Love by Heather Rose which has recently won both the Premier’s Award for Fiction and the Stella Prize. The story revolves around a real event, one of Marina Abramovic’s famous events. This time it is called 'The Artist is Present' and is staged in New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Marina sat for seventy five days at a small table with one chair opposite. No talking – just meeting of eyes. It became the hit of the town – people queued to sit and art circles were agog.

Amongst the onlookers there is a famous composer, an art teacher from the south, the ghost of Marina’s mother and another ghostly commentator. Art lovers will not miss this and people like me who don’t get Performance Art will discover a thing or two. Bravo Heather Rose who has written other novels as well as books for primary age children under the name of Angelica Banks (which she uses when she writes with Danielle Wood). A writer not yet receiving the applause she deserves.

Birders will be all agog! There is a new Australian Bird Guide, published by CSIRO and with six authors and illustrators: Menkhorst, Rogers, Clarke, Davies, Marsaka and Franklin. According to Robyn Williams on the Science Show, who already has two other guides, this is a terrific achievement – ten years in the making. There are a few more species and digital imaging has allowed the illustrators to be even more precise and there is a huge digital database. Our resident birder Lindy Jones is probably fondling a copy right now.

Keep well,

Eve

Since 1968 ~ Abbey's 131 York Street Sydney ~ An Aladdin's cave for readers

Notes from Eve Abbey ~ December 2013

Heaven Forbid! One of Donna Leon’s latest books turns out not to be a Commissario Brunetti mystery. I fell into this trap when I chose her new novel, The Jewels of Paradise. In this story about a musicologist employed by two jealous cousins to find the real heir to Agostino Steffani, a now-forgotten baroque composer, Donna Leon is having lots of fun. She indulges her enthusiasm for, and knowledge of, baroque music, and lets off some steam about faith and greed and Italian governance.  After all, Leon’s very first Brunetti story was Death at La Fenice, set in the famous Venetian Opera House. She has also written, amongst other non-fiction and essays, Handel’s Bestiary: In Search of Animals in Handel’s Operas. However, I hope it’s not the beginning of a new series as Brunetti and partners are hard to replace.

Fortunately there is another new title, The Golden Egg, #22 in the series, in which Donna Leon makes some modernising moves. There is now a female Commissaria (and Brunetti is worried how Signorina Eletra will accept her) and Ispettore Vianello is moving upwards.

Language Book Centre, upstairs, has some Donna Leon stories in German and Spanish, such as Cuestion de Fe or Testamento Mortal, and I noticed a DVD, Libranos del Bien, in Spanish. It is worth browsing there. The fiction in other languages is very reasonably priced and much cheaper than you might expect. Certainly not what I found to be true about English books in Paris.

There have been several brilliantly written books by young Australian women this year, not least Hannah Kent’s Burial Rites. This unlikely bestseller is about a crime committed several hundred years ago in Iceland. Don’t miss it.

Now we have The Night Guest by Fiona McFarlane. This is a fable and a psychological thriller, and a very sensitive portrayal of old age. Ruth, now a widow, is living alone near a South Coast beach. She imagines she hears a tiger in the lounge room at night and a large, efficient woman arrives to take care of her. Neither of them are what they seem. Perfectly written. Every word falls neatly into place.

I went to see the anthology of short films made from Tim Winton’s book of short stories, The Turning. I thought it was terrific and I’m sure it will encourage many people to go back and re-read the stories. In a way, the wonderful images have hijacked Winton’s wonderful words so that they work very well as films. You just have to remember they are indeed short stories, so don’t look too hard for continuity. It doesn’t hurt to read the short resumes before each film, but as you don’t get the booklet until you enter the cinema, you may need to read them by the light of your mobile phone!

Colin Friels reads T S Eliot’s poem Ash Wednesday at the start of the program. It is interesting that another of Australia’s great writers, Steven Carroll, also references T S Eliot. Carroll’s novel The Lost Life imagines two young lovers visiting a country house where Eliot and his wife stayed earlier in their lives. A World of Other People is set in blitz-bombed London in 1941, where the heroine is on firewatcher duty with T S Eliot on top of the Faber publisher’s building when they both witness a plane coming down. The young woman, and future writer, later meets and loves the Australian pilot, whilst one of T S Eliot’s poems about this plane crash becomes famous. Both recommended. I am also a fan of Carroll’s series set in Melbourne in the 50s, 60s and 70s - The Art of the Engine Driver, The Gift of Speed, The Time We Have Taken (which won the Miles Franklin Award in 2008) and The Spirit of Progress (longlisted for the 2012 Miles Franklin). Of course you will also find T S Eliot’s Complete Poems and Plays in stock at Abbey’s.

I re-read Elizabeth Harrower’s The Watch Tower, first published in 1966. My edition is the Sirius edition from 1987. Text Publishing have republished two of the four novels from this great Australian writer, with The Long Prospect also now in stock, as is Down in the City. The Catherine Wheel will follow later. Don’t miss any of these absorbing, psychological stories full of observation and memories. The Watch Tower depicts two motherless girls trying to find their way in Sydney just after the war. They fall into the clutches of a seemingly kind, but nonetheless ruthless, dictator who delights in dominating them. It is not an easy read, but you can’t bear to miss a word. I doubt he could do it today!

Enjoy. Eve


Buy these books at Abbey's (131 York Street Sydney) ~ An Aladdin's cave for readers