The Month that was… April 2023

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Interview about A Perfect Stone

You may recall that earlier in the month I was interviewed by the Canadian Macedonian Historical Society about my novel, A Perfect Stone. Together with fellow Melbourne writer, Tom Petsinis who spoke about his two novels, Fitzroy Raw and Fog we talked about our motivations behind the stories, the research, the titles and what our process was. All three novels are centred around a Macedonian character and as there are so few fiction novels which feature Macedonian stories, the historical society in Canada was keen to know more.

The interview is now up on YouTube on the following link if you are interested. Check it out.

Where I went this month

We embarked on a road trip for ten days to enjoy the autumn countryside. We stopped in Albury and then Tumut and visited our nations capital, Canberra. We also spent a few days in Sydney enjoying the sights and sounds of the inner city. The autumn leaves were ignited with colour and I believe autumn is really the prettiest time of the year to travel. Of course, we were also lucky with spectacular weather.

What I’ve been reading

A mixed group of books this month all of which left an impact on me. Watch out for the reviews in the coming weeks.

Until next month…

Book Review: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

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I’ve taken a while to get to this one despite the hype. I adored Daisy Jones and the Six by the same author and after reading this one, I will have to hunt for more of this author’s work, because her books are just so damn good.

The novel follows the life of Evelyn Hugo, a glamorous movie star who rose to fame in the 1950s and 1960s. Evelyn, now in her seventies and has decided to give a tell-all interview to an unknown journalist named Monique Grant. As the two women sit down for the interview, Evelyn begins to reveal the secrets of her past, including her seven marriages, her rise to fame, and the tragedies that have shaped her life. You almost believe she’s a real person but of course it is fiction.

It’s an epic journey through each stage of her life from her early days and her rise to fame. As we progress through the story, we discover that her life is not as it may seem. Secrets are kept hidden and lives fabricated into something entirely different in order to feed the publicity machine for the tabloids and fans. The author gives us an insight into the inner workings of Hollywood and the sacrifices made by actors. It reminded me very much of the lives such as Rock Hudson and Judy Garland both stories hidden from the public.

What makes this story so compelling is the character of Evelyn herself. She is not always a likeable character, but you can’t help but feel sorry for her. She is the product of Hollywood and can never be her true self. Her struggle with this makes you cheer her on while understanding the choices she has made. There’s a nice twist towards the end which I guessed.

Overall, it is a beautifully written novel that is both entertaining and thought-provoking, with well drawn characters. It’s a story that stays with you long after you’ve finished.  I was hooked entirely. Try this one which would be especially good as a holiday read.

Book Review: The Last White Man  by Mohsin Hamid

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This is a story about Anders, a white man who wakes one morning to find his skin has turned dark and when he looks into the mirror a stranger’s face is all he sees. Terrified he tells his new lover, Oona. Before long, there are reports coming from all over the country that this happening to other white people.

The main characters are Anders and Oona whose relationship grows as the established order of society is challenged and changes. It reminded me very much of what may have been inspired by our response. Like the pandemic, there is panic buying and fear as more and more white people change colour. Suspicion, resistance and racist vigilantes, riots and violence ensue.

There is also the voice of another generation in Ander’s father and Oona’s mother. The relationship Anders has with his father is tender and illuminating. Oona’s mother resists and fights, clinging to her conservative views until the end.

The writing is quite different, in very long paragraphs, punctuated only by commas. The following excerpt is an example which goes for almost a page.

“”When Anders got back in his car it occurred to him that the three people he had seen were all white, and that he was perhaps being paranoid, inventing meaning out of details that might not matter, and at a traffic light he confronted his gaze in the rear-view mirror, looked for the whiteness there, for it must be somewhere, maybe in his expression, but he could not see it, and the more he looked the less white he seemed, as though looking for his whiteness was the opposite of whiteness… “

Reading this novel with paragraphs so long made me almost hold my breath, as tension and change escalates. But it’s not all doom and gloom as Hamid shows us what society can do and perhaps it is a way of giving us hope for the adaptability or even a metamorphosis of humans into a better non-racist future.

It’s a short read and I’m sure will be on the awards list. I enjoyed this one.

Book Review: The Lessons by John Purcell

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This novel is a compelling story of a forbidden first love, class division and betrayal.

It’s 1961 when sixteen- year- old Daisy comes home from boarding school and meets young farmer, Harry. They fall deeply in love but her mother intervenes deciding that Daisy should be away from his influence and sends her to her Aunt Jane’s house unaware that the young Daisy is pregnant.

Daisy has always been convinced that her mother does not love her, and given that her mother was forced to marry Daisy’s father because she herself was pregnant at a young age gives rise to their fractious relationship.

Interspersed between the 1961’s timeline we meet Aunt Jane in 1983. She is a writer of renown on her way to a literary event in New York where she is interviewed about an earlier work exploring a coming of age novel, said to be drawn from real life.

We are privy to the point of views from Daisy, Harry and Jane which is cleverly handled to propel the story forward as Purcell explores how far a person would go for love, given numerous obstacles thrown their way.

Jane, a bohemian character in a marriage of what seems to be convenience is lost in her own relationships. Harry is a simple man who knows what he wants and that is Daisy. The interference by her mother and Jane creates a tragic outcome for the young lovers who go through life always yearning for one another.

I worried about Purcell’s handling of the female point of view particularly during a troubling event but I thought he handled it sensitively and well. The power of this novel is the characters and Purcell cleverly ensures that the reader quickly engages and cares about each one of them, even the ones who don’t behave all that well.

I really couldn’t put this one down, loved the swinging sixties, filled with lusty scenes, class differences and the final eyebrow raising reveal towards the end. Yes, check this one out.

Book Review: The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding by Holly Ringland

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I have mixed feelings about this book which is about love, sisters, daughters, sorrow and grief mixed with fairytales and women’s voices.

Sound like a lot? It is and it’s quite a long read.

The story opens with Esther. A swan crashes into her ute from above and she thinks it’s her missing sisters spirit. Her sister Aura last seen walking along the beach disappeared twelve months earlier and Esther has been called home for a memorial service. She has a fractious relationship with her tattooist mother Freya but together with her therapist father, Esther is asked to go to Denmark. Why? Because her sister had lived there for three years before returning home  broken and deeply sad and they believe Esther should go and find out what happened.

The plot slowly unfolds as we discover stories surrounding tattooing and how women’s stories can be told on their skin. We discover that Aura has a childhood diary where her teenage ramblings stop when she’s about to turn sixteen. It picks up again when she’s in Denmark when her studies into folklore and fairy tales brings her to write about the seven skins, lines and passages she also has tattooed on her body the meaning of which remains a mystery.

I enjoyed the imagery and the arc of Esther’s character even though she wasn’t a particularly likeable character but that wasn’t the point. Her grief and the trauma of losing her older sister, the relationships around her and her self-discovery was touching and quite moving. The other characters weren’t terribly engaging either serving little purpose than to tiptoe around Esther.

Mostly the novel centres on Esther’s point of view with occasional drifts to others and this I found to be unfulfilling because it failed to move the story along. I also found long chunks of information about each skin, her flashbacks about her sister and the fairy tale reference to be quite repetitive. Even her one night stand with Tom was repeated a few times. There was a lot of detail and description which was nice when it deserved a place but many times, I found it merely slowed the story down. Perhaps that was the intention for this slow boil of a novel but it didn’t suit me.

A minor plot issue, but given that Freya came from Denmark herself, why she as a mother would not hop on a plane to find out what happened to her own daughter did lose me a bit. I didn’t really buy her reasons but took the leap of faith and accepted it.

Having said that, there was lots about this novel I did enjoy. The idea that grief can paralyse a person, the bonds of sisters, especially an older sister’s impact on her younger sister ( I must remember that, as I am an older sister). It is beautifully written and quite lyrical but overall it didn’t quite work for me.

The Month that was … March 2023

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What I watched

We had the pleasure of seeing the latest musical masterpiece from Schitt’s Creek writer, David West Read. Rob Mills and Casey Donovan are two of the cast amongst many other talented performers. The story about Ann Hathaway challenging her playwright husband Shakespeare to reconsider his usual tragic endings and imagine what might happen if Juliet doesn’t die at the end of Romeo and Juliet?

It was highly entertaining, energetic, funny and terrific soundtrack. It was one of the best musicals I’ve ever seen.

It’s still playing at The Regent Theatre in Melbourne and this is a must see production so buy your tickets and go.

Reading

My reading this month as been mixed although you might detect a theme of seven. Quite unintentional…or is it? Watch out for my reviews in coming weeks.

Interview

I was honoured to be interviewed by the Canadian Macedonian Historical Society about A Perfect Stone. An interview by zoom can be challenging especially when you are in different time zones and daylight saving comes into play. But nevertheless, I think the audience who participated were enlightened about where the story of A Perfect Stone came from (my husband’s Macedonian family) and the fact that 38000 children were forcibly removed from Northern Greece during the Greek Civil War.

Even though it was published in 2018, The Perfect Stone is still read right around the world and that still amazes me.

Some pics below of me trying to answer a questions and a reading.

Until next month…

Book Review: The Drover’s Wife by Leah Purcell

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This story is loosely based on Henry Lawson’s 1892 poem, The Drovers Wife. The author, Leah Purcell has reimagined it and focused on the bleak harshness for women and indigenous people during that time.

Molly Johnson lives in the high country in a shanty with her four children. The oldest, Danny is only twelve. Her husband, Joe never appears in the story as he is away droving. It’s just as well because when he is home, he’s drunk and violent. Molly is pregnant and isolated having only her children around her. Her life although harsh and unforgiving is challenged by the people who visit. The new policeman arrives with his wife and child having survived drowning in a flooded river. Next is Yakuda, an aboriginal man, in shackles who is wanted for allegedly killing a family.

The story plunges the reader into anxiety for Molly, her children and her survival as well as for Yakuda. But you can’t help but admire their gutsy determination for a better life as their relationship grows.

But this is not a story with a happy ending, so prepare yourself. The switch on occasion from third person to first person can be off putting but the story is a powerful one giving the reader a very unromanticised version of early Australia, a place of violence where women and the indigenous are little more than indentured slaves with few rights or voice or place.

The story has been made into a play where it first was brought to life and is now also a movie released in 2021 starring Purcell herself. I must now find it and watch it. And if you can check this one out.