Our latest reviews

Subtle Bodies by Norman Rush

Reviewed by Alan Vaarwerk

Ned, a California anti-war activist, and his wife Nina are trying to conceive – he is 48, she is 37, and the clock is ticking. When Ned, without warning, travels to upstate New York for the funeral of his eccentric…

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Gentlemen Formerly Dressed by Sulari Gentill

Reviewed by Fiona Hardy

It’s 1933 and the well-bred but occasionally low-brow Rowland Sinclair has just escaped torture in Germany, fled Paris, and is waiting in England for passage home to Australia. However, he and his fabulously bohemian group of live-in friends cannot leave…

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The Best 100 Poems of Dorothy Porter

Reviewed by Lucy Van

A wild combination of experimental, popular and prolific, Dorothy Porter was the kind of poet writers want to be and readers – even non-poetry readers – want to read. Black Inc.’s The Best 100 Poems of Dorothy Porter concisely represents…

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The Embassy of Cambodia by Zadie Smith

Reviewed by Emily Laidlaw

What to make of Zadie Smith’s The Embassy of Cambodia, a short story, originally published in The New Yorker, now packaged into a slight, hardcover book? Is that all? you may very well ask. Printing a short story…

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A Lifetime on Clouds by Gerald Murnane

Reviewed by Suzanne Steinbruckner

Gerald Murnane had me hooked from page one of what is his second novel, A Lifetime on Clouds. Murnane’s wonderful imagination (and perhaps parallels with his own Catholic schoolboy upbringing) is exhibited through the hilarious and sincere tale of…

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White Beech by Germaine Greer

Reviewed by Luke May

It’s not uncommon to see an elderly lady’s garden blossom; under her retired hand she waters the agapanthus and whispers to her watsonias, verbenas or honeysuckles. Instead, at 74, Germaine Greer is on all fours ripping them to shreds.

White

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Banana Girl by Michele Lee

Reviewed by Fiona Hardy

In the build-up to her departure for Laos – the homeland of her Hmong parents – Michele Lee wanders through Melbourne’s bars and streets, and the history of her life and relationships. She talks to her dubious teenage self, defending…

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The Electric Lady by Janelle Monáe

Reviewed by Bronte Coates

I’m crushing so hard on this album at the moment. Janelle Monáe’s music is fun and inventive and even though I know it’s too early to say this - I have a sneaking suspicion The Electric Lady is going to…

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Open by The Necks

Reviewed by Tam Patton

Occupying a unique space in contemporary music, The Necks have quietly birthed a genuinely original sound, carved from strata of seemingly disparate materials. Emerging from a nebulous background in the late 1980s, drummer Tony Buck, bassist Lloyd Swanton and pianist…

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Fall To Rise by Love Over Gold

Reviewed by Dave Clarke

US singer–songwriter Pieta Brown and Australian Lucie Thorne have teamed up to form the international duo, Love Over Gold. Thorne has created a series of great, independently released albums, making it all the way to the final nine of the…

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