Damian Kelleher -

The South Wing - Essay - Fake Poets and Literary Dreams

damian — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 01:26:22 +0000

An essay I wrote on Australian poet Ern Malley, "Fake Poets and Literary Dreams", has been posted to the South Wing website.

Miles Franklin Award Shortlist

damian — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 08:26:34 +0000

The shortlist for the Miles Franklin award has been announced.

My money is on Tsiolkas for this. He's already won at least one other award (the 2009 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for South East Asia and the Pacific, and the others are fairly well crowned when it comes to Australian literary awards. That said, it's a very safe list, and it is a pity that some of the other, lesser known talents weren't included in the shortlist.

And here is the list:

Novel	Author	Publisher
Breath	Tim Winton	Hamish Hamilton (Penguin Books)
Ice	Louis Nowra	Allen & Unwin
The Pages	Murray Bail	Text Publishing Melbourne Australia
The Slap	Christos Tsiolkas	Allen & Unwin
Wanting	Richard Flanagan	Knoph (Random House Australia)

Interview with Alexander Kielland translator Christophe Fauske

damian — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 07:00:14 +0000

I recently interview Christopher Fauske, who has translated Norwegian author Alexander Kielland's novel, Skipper Worse, into English. You can read the interview at the South Wing website.

New Review - Alexander Kielland - Skipper Worse

damian — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 01:09:17 +0000

The latest addition to the website is my review of Norwegian author Alexander Kielland's novel, Skipper Worse.

Skipper Worse is a closely observed novel of the social, political, and economic mores of a small Norwegian fishing town. Kielland's voice is clear and precise, and the depth of insight he achieves in a small number of pages is simply awe-inspiring.

New Review - Richard Yaxley - The Rose Leopard

damian — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 04:53:26 +0000

The latest review to be added is of Australian author Richard Yaxley's novel, The Rose Leopard.

The Rose Leopard, aside from a well-written and emotionally resonant forty-odd pages near the start of the novel, is an unfortunate novel, poorly told with an astonishingly unappealing protagonist. I would heartily recommend avoiding it except....except....well, those forty pages are good, which makes all the rest more irritating.

New Review - Andrew McGahan - Praise

damian — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 04:22:50 +0000

The latest review to be added is my review of Australian author Andrew McGahan's novel, Praise.

Praise is miserable, bleak, unpleasant and dismal. There is no sunshine in the work, nothing happy at all. Artistically it is a boiled down work, the narrator's voice reduced to its sparest, most essential parts. And yet - McGahan tell his story well, with the confidence and force of a skilled writer. Recommended to help understand contemporary Australian literature, but it's not a nice read.

Roberto Bolaño and 2666 in the Australian

damian — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 10:19:29 +0000

As Roberto Bolaño's tumultuous, momentous 2666 hits Australian shores, The Australian takes a look at literature's most recent giant in, "Rebel Roberto Bolano takes his position in the canon".

Though the article irritatingly persists in referring to him as Roberto Bolano and not Roberto Bolaño, it is actually a pretty solid examination of the author's recent impact. The article also provides a reasonable introduction to his work.

Of note:

Such is the craze around the world for Bolano's oeuvre that almost everything he wrote is being made available in translation at a dizzying pace. In English, his luminous short stories, Last Evenings on Earth, and his masterful novellas Distant Star and By Night in Chile have made it into the canon in Spanish departments and creative writing programs. In 2007 his magnum opus The Savage Detectives, which had been awarded in 1999 the Romulo Gallegos Prize, the highest distinction for a novel in the Hispanic world, was offered in translation. The story of Arturo Belano (the author's alter ego) and another visceral realist, who both search for the mysterious founder of the movement, it has been embraced by critics as proof that literature may be losing readers but it isn't losing its guts.

and:

Bolano didn't hold academic life in any esteem. Knowledge, his work suggests, comes to us in chaotic ways, when we least expect it. Whenever he portrays academics, they are dissatisfied types, looking for signs of intelligence everywhere but in their own profession. The model student for Bolano is irreverent, intolerant and self-taught.

Indeed, I doubt that a novel such as 2666 can be taught, for it begs to be found by readers in an accidental fashion, without instruction. Therein may lie the lesson to be learned from Bolano: rebellion and success do not rest easily with each other.

New Review - Alphonse Daudet - Artists' Wives

damian — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 05:26:58 +0000

The latest review to be added is French author Alphonse Daudet's collection of short stories, Artists' Wives.

Artists' Wives is a delightful collection, brimming with wit and dripping with irony. It is slight in pages but large in entertainment, and contains several very strong pieces indeed. An excellent examination of the marriages of artistic men.

Other Alphonse Daudet titles under review include:
---Tartarin de Tarascon

More Popular Penguins on the Way

damian — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 01:10:41 +0000

June 29 will see the introduction of 50 more titles in the "Popular Penguin" imprint.

From the website:

The success of this series has been amazing, and we thought you might like to know which titles are the most popular. Click here for the current Top Ten bestselling Popular Penguins.

I am a fan of the concept, and certainly of the price (Still $9.95), but the size bothers me. I haven't bought a single one thanks to Penguin's choice of making them slightly smaller than a paperback. They aren't as small as mass-market paperbacks, but they are close. It's a pity, really, particularly with the fifty new title on the way.

That said, the fifty new title, like the previous selection, boasts a wide selection of contemporary and classic literature, popular fiction, works by Australian authors, and non-fiction. It's a well rounded series, and worth watching.

The Australian on Andrew McGahan

damian — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 01:02:34 +0000

As the deadline for the The Australian/Vogel Literary Award draws reasonably close (May 31), The Australian newspaper provides an interview, "Launching Pad for a Literary Life" with Andrew McGahan, who won the award in 1991.