Preparatory reading

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25788938-5001986,00.html

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/bits_of_destruction_hit_book_publishing_part1.php

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/07/16/2627266.htm

http://web.overland.org.au/?p=1462

http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/articles/2009/07/12585/

http://www.thebookseller.com/news/91679-australian-importation-proposals-dubbed-horrendous.html.rss

http://cityoftongues.com/2009/07/16/rethinking-parallel-importation/

http://www.pc.gov.au/projects/study/books

Konfrontasi

In 1964 Indonesia was a riot. The country was experiencing a vast surge of upheaval. The charismatic leader and great orator, Sukarno, in a three hour speech called his people to action with the expression 'the year of living dangerously'.

This is the political climate in which Malaysian writer, Tash Aw's new novel is set. Adam and Johan are two orphans, adopted separately and into very different lifestyles. Johan, the elder of the two is taken away from Indonesia to Kuala Lumpur, in Malaysia, while Adam is adopted to the small island of Perdo, by a Dutch artist who feels himself to be more Indo than the Indos. The themes of home, cultural and personal identity are unravelled as the characters are revealed.

Adam's adopted father is arrested, falsely acused of being part of a commie plot, Adam travels across archipelagos of hundreds of islands and through thousands of people to (improbably) find an Margaret, an American anthropologist in Jakarta, knowing only her name. She then helps Adam search for his arrested father - and the story is plumped out with meetings with Sukarno, riots, violent demonstrations, discussions of love and aging (oh and more - but not for this snippet of review).

All in all, Tash Aw is a skilled writer - skilled with creating characters, skilled with conveying a knowledge of human emotions - he is a young writer - under forty with great insight into the machinations of many demographics - most effectively conveyed through the voice of Margaret.


This novel is character driven and good. It has plenty of action - I'd even recommend it to the Wilbur Smith wielding types -

Not life changing, though pleasant enough and a great priviledge to receive the insight into Indo politics of the day.

Eucalyptus and Pages

Eucalyptus oil is fantastic for cleaning grime off books.

The Pages is the new novel by Murray Bail - just out in paperback - it follows two very Sydney women, one a psychoanalyst, the other a lecturer/protector of philosophy into the NSW outback to a farm, where the brother of the farmer, recently deceased, has left his life's philosophical musings on paper. I know, because my colleague told me, that the reader learns nothing of this philosophy - and so far in to this read I hear ruminations about North and South, Antipodes and Europe, thought and action, city and country. I read Bail's crafted prose and marvel at the placing of commas and his use of the short - quip like - sentence. It makes my toes curl (so far)

Hope and power

Tonight I broadcast the interview with Alan Clements - (edgeradio.org.au - The Book Show) - he is incredible. The Burmese people, 50 000 imprisoned souls, are beautiful. Aung San Suu Kyi is humourous, intelligent and hopeful. If you ware in Burma and you heard the interview - (about the current situation in Burma and Aung San Suu Kyi's farcical trial) - and you were found out - you would be imprisoned, most likely with no trial and possibly tortured.

and for July 7 show....

I found Chris Andrews on the front of a Bolano novel - he is the translator of a lot of his works - as well as a poet and a literary theorist. In this conversation Chris talks about the vicissitudes and poetry of translation, secret French literary cults, Bolano and what is new and exciting in Latin American literature.

some shows soon:

Alan Clements was the first American monk in Burma in the late seventies, expelled from the country in the 80s he continued to visit and began to document the human rights travesty that is occuring in Burma.

In 1992 he approached Aun San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who has been under house arrest on and off for nearly two decades about working together to make a book.

Aun San Suu Kyi, with her voice of clarity and hope - is currently enduring a farcical trial, following the unsoliticed visit of an American citizen - who swam across the lake that her house backs on to. She is being charged with breaching the conditions of her house arrest.

It is most likely she will be imprisioned - she is currently being held at the Insein prison in Rangoon. Insein is pronounced insane.

The Voice of Hope - the conversations that Clements had with Suu Kyi - is an inspirational book - Suu Kyi and incredible person and this is a great and Clements is informed and articulate.

This interview has international relevance and is incredibly topical.

Burma and dead Chile

On Tuesday I'll be interviewing Alan Clements, co author - with Aun San Suu Kyi - of The Voice of Hope and Chris Andrews, who is a translator of Roberto Bolano (missing a squirl over the n of his family name) - these interviews will be played over the next few weeks. I'll also be playing an interview with James Boyce, author of Van Diemens Land and winner of the 2009 Tasmanian Book Prize. This is an interview that my personal assistant, Rachel, did with James following the publication of Van Diemens Land early last year.