What to read this week
A memoir of childhood by John Clarke’s daughter Lorin; two Pulitzer Prize winners, and new Australian poetry feature in this week’s Notable Books.
David Sabben volunteered at the age of 20 for the first intake of Australia’s National Service scheme. He applied for officer training and in January 1966, was posted to 6RAR in Brisbane. He was sent to Vietnam in June of the same year, serving a 12-month tour. He was a platoon commander at the Battle of Long Tan. He wrote daily to his then-wife, Sue; this book is essentially a compilation of his letters. As you can probably imagine, it’s heavy going. I loved the illustrations, and the many photographs. It’s so strange, seeing the daily chatter up against the reality of war. If you would like to know more about Australian soldiers in Vietnam, this book may well suit you.
This may well be the best young American book you read over summer. It’s a memoir, and it won the Pulitzer Prize. It’s about two young men, Ken and Hua, who become friends during their college years. It’s about smoking and swing dancing and sex and trying to find your feet as an adult. I’m not giving anything away by revealing that Ken is killed in a violent attack, before his life can really get going. I’m haunted by these words: “Ken was coming down the back stairwell when they came upon him. He did what they asked. He got into the trunk. He gave them his bank cards. Nevertheless, they drove him to Vallejo and shot him through the back of the head.” This book is going to break your heart.
This book was recommended to me, and there’s really nothing I love more than a personal recommendation from somebody I respect and admire, so I dived in. It’s a collection of poems about love, and desire, and sexual longing. It explores heartbreak, too. Gwen Harwood came to mind, as I read “A Narrow Field” about a parent’s open coffin, and “A Clean House” which has these lines: “Cleaning up dog vomit, I wonder/ if I really am a dog lover/ a lover of anything.” Truly, it’s a joy. The poet trained as a classicist, and studied law. Her poetry has been widely published but this is her first book.
This book came to the office with a charming note: “Dear Caroline, my wife marvels at my perseverance. I’ve been writing fiction for over 50 years and, until this year, I’ve only found modest success.” I admire perseverance too, so here’s the blurb from his book: “Adam knows something is seriously wrong. The lower levels of the city are under water and uninhabitable, the temperature of the air is rising and an unpleasant odour has pervaded every tunnel, vault and chamber and is seeping out to the surface above. But as the youngest and most recently appointed Elder in AntLand, his concerns are being ignored.” Congratulations, Nicholas. May you find readers.
Writer Helen Hayward says she always found it easy to love and look after her kids. Loving and looking after her home was another story. Home Work is a series of essays motivated by three questions: is there an art to running a home? Can it be a satisfying thing to do? Can the work we do around the home teach us something important about life itself? What does it mean, to sit with a cup of tea in a clean and tranquil space? The book comes with a recommendation from Alain de Botton, who says he was encouraged to look with greater generosity at the domestic side of life.
This has been out forever – well, since July anyway – but I’ve only just found it, beneath the teetering pile of books on my desk. Richard Ford! Who doesn’t love him? How did I miss this? Readers of these pages will know how much I love a big American book, and he’s been writing them for 40 years, winning the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Faulkner award on his way. The protagonist here is in the twilight of his life. He’s been a sportswriter, father, husband, ex-husband, and real estate agent. Now he’s in a sorrowing role, caring for his ailing son. Life, love, mortality. I’ll take this one to the beach house, for sure.
Another glorious book that shamefully slipped through the cracks. Wild Heart of Tasmania is by the leading environmentalist Greg French, and it was launched at the Salamanca Arts Centre in Hobart back in August. Bob Brown was there. So, too, was Richard Flanagan. That’s because the author is held in such high esteem. The book is gorgeous to hold, and it’s designed to encourage the ongoing protection of the Tasmanian wilderness. In essence, it’s a collection of stories centred around the wildness, and it’s a fine hat tip to the joys of bushwalking and backcountry fishing and little bush huts, which are so special to those on the Apple Isle. My father says he wants nothing other than French’s first book about trout fishing for Christmas, and I suspect that’s true of most trout fisherman, but why not buy both?
Lorin Clarke is the daughter of the beloved John Clarke, who burst into the Australian consciousness as Fred Dagg in 1974, and bewitched a whole new generation with his news satire (co-hosted by Bryan Dawe) in the 1990s and 2000s. Lorin writes in her memoir of growing up with a man who was tender, amusing, and loving. His death by heart attack was a tragedy, but it probably couldn’t have been prevented, even if he hadn’t been in the bush, which is where he so loved to be. Lorin will be known to some readers as the host of the podcast The Fitzroy Diaries. She says her childhood was idyllic.