Cirrus@Austlit

'Although many critics have emphasized the tragic and political dimension of Alexis Wright’s Carpentaria (2006), this article focuses on the novel’s use of humor and a comic structure in exploring Desperance, an isolated town in the North of Australia. An Indigenous narrator sets the humorous tone, conveying stories light and dark centered on the residents of Pricklebush, the Indigenous settlement on the fringe: their conflicts with each other; their vexed relations with Uptown, the white section; and their relationship with the powerful Gurfurritt mine. Despite the novel’s dark episodes, its comic dimension fulfills the promise of a finale defined by hope.' (Publication abstract)

'Murray Bail has broken his eight-year silence with a new book, a memoir (?) titled He. The question mark arises because "memoir" conjures up a range of familiar possibilities: a narrative of foundational events in the memoirist's life or depictions of influential figures in that life or a behind-the-curtain account of the writer's world, revealing truths and dispelling myths. But this is Murray Bail, a writer of idiosyncratic, often dazzling fictions, a man who early on rejected the "duncoloured realism" endemic to Australian writing in favor of the experimental. Now [End Page 392] eighty years old, Murray Bail has much to recall and on which to reflect. How will he do that?' (Introduction)

'Pippa Reynolds is a novelist on the rise, one who draws greater critical and popular attention with each work. Exhaustive in her artistry, she carries a notebook everywhere she goes, jotting down scraps from other people's lives, meanings for unfamiliar words, observed details of place and space.  Her husband's musical background and his way of speaking "with the force of poetry" are his chief charms. Pippa asserts, "He'll be good for my writing" (188). She eyes a future of winning awards. Pippa is ambitious, willing to work hard, determined; in fact, she has "everything needed for greatness except talent" (205).' (Introduction)

'Kif Kehlmann can encapsulate his life in a few phrases: married to Suzy, a devoted wife, with a preschool daughter and twins soon to arrive; living a modest life in Hobart (modest home, twenty-year-old car, serviceable clothing); working as a part-time doorman (and taking on odd jobs as they arise); and writing a novel—a literary one. His wife professes unflinching belief in him, convinced that Kif will produce a book that will earn him celebrity and them a life unconstrained by material want.' (Introduction)