Classic Australian reads

I've been reading a lot of Australian authors this year, past and present, discovering some true treasures in our own backyard (I won't mention the trash). 
If I were to suggest a classic homegrown summer read for the holidays - one that is engaging irrespective of gender, beautifully written, captures the imagination, an easy yet intelligent read, slim enough to read from cover to cover over a long weekend and has achieved international literary success - it would be Jessica Anderson's 1978 Miles Franklin Award winning novel, Tirra Lirra by the River. 
After Anderson passed away in July this year aged 93, the book was re-published and copies virtually walked out the door.
I love the title - I'd tell you what it means but it's more fun for you to find out for yourself when you read it.
For some more quality Australian reads, check out this selection from Susan Wyndham in the SMH. Incidentally, Ruth Park, whose The Harp in the South is a well deserved inclusion, and who many a high-schooler in the 1980s would remember for Playing Beatie Bow, passed away this month, also aged 93.
It's not the definitive list in my opinion but there are some sterling authors among them...all of which I recommend bar one (regular readers can you guess who that might be?...;)

Hope...!

For all frustrated writers out there....a breath of hope from author Roger McDonald: 'Roger McDonald started the book he has just published more than 30 years ago.' - SMH, 13-14 November.

When Colts Ran started out as a long story and over the years he developed it into a novel. McDonald won the 2006 Miles Franklin Award for The Ballad of Desmond Kale. 

I haven't read any of his books but I like him already. Keep writing keep writing keep writing!

A short list is a good list. Discuss.

I was reading extracts from some of the letters of Miles Franklin the other day, published in a curious collection called Creative Lives: Personal Papers of Australian Writers and Artists.
More on her later. For now, I'm interested in the Shortlist for this year's Miles Franklin Award. Here it is:
Lovesong, Alex Miller
The Bath Fugues, Brian Castro
The Book of Emmett, Deborah Forster
Butterfly, Sonya Hartnett
Jasper Jones, Craig Silvey
Truth, Peter Temple
I've only read Jasper Jones so I need to read some of the others to have an opinion. Have you read any of the contenders? What do you think?

Silvey goes for gold

Is writing the new black? Are brains the new brawn? And the almighty question on everybody's lips...: [Insert drumroll here] Who will beat the muscle-bound competition to a pulp and win the puissant title of Cleo Bachelor of the Year 2010?
This is newsworthy only because for the first time ever (I think, this is new territory for me) there is a true man of words among the pumped, preened, hair gelled, waxed and buffed parade of boofheads routinely nominated for the award. 
Vote #1 Craig Silvey. The 27-year-old from West Australia and author of 2009 Indie Book of the Year, Jasper Jones.
Apparently sports are out this year and smarts are in. Who'd have thought? For that alone Mr Silvey deserves to take the title.
And once the froth and bubble of the bachelor business blows over he can turn his thoughts to that other mighty and potent prize... the Miles Franklin Award, Australia's major literary gong for which he's made the Long List. The Short List will be announced this month. 
I've just started on Jasper Jones. Have you read it? Do you think it (...or its author) will be victorious?


*Photo by Marco Del Grande in the SMH

Hmm...I reckon someone deserves a slap...

Have you read The Slap, by Christos Tsiolkas? 
It was published in 2008 and is still on the SMH's Top 10 (Independent booksellers) list, has picked up the 2009 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Overall Best Book, was shortlisted for the 2009 Miles Franklin Literary Award and was the ABIA's Book of the Year.
I read it based on its success both commercially and critically, and because I thought it may have some contextual similarities to my own unfolding story. But I was disappointed. 
Publisher Allen and Unwin's  blurb reads: At a suburban barbecue, a man slaps a child who is not his own. This event has a shocking ricochet effect on a group of people, mostly friends, who are directly or indirectly influenced by the event...The slap and its consequences force them all to question their own families and the way they live, their expectations, beliefs and desires.
I wanted it to be a fantastic read. I wanted to be inspired by its contemporary portrayal of Australian middle class life, multiculturalism and our collective moral compass. 
But I wasn't. 
While I found the first half fairly engaging and the dialogue well written, I laboured, rather than raced through the second half. 
I didn't particularly like, nor empathise with any of the characters. They came across as  weary, unimaginative, generally apathetic and some of them were plain painful.
The titular 'slap' wasn't enough of an event to hold the plot as it meandered and backtracked and veered off on tangents for no other reason than to make sure each of the eight central characters had time to voice their perspective.
I was glad these people weren't my circle of friends.
The Slap is nothing like my story. So even though I wouldn't recommend it, I'm very glad I read it because I'm now more certain than ever of what I want my story to be.
Listening to Tracy Chevalier (Girl With a Pearl Earring, Remarkable Creatures) speak last year in Sydney, she imparted some valid advice. 
'Write the kind of story that you want to read, but can't find out there in the bookstores.'
Far from the gloom and resignation of The Slap, I want to read something about us, as Australians, that is hopeful and optimistic. And that's what I'm writing.
What did you think of The Slap?