Cirrus@Austlit

'Sasha Soldatow was a writer, gay activist, member of the Sydney Push, party animal, and bon vivant with legions of friends. In Drink Against Drunkenness, Inez Baranay maps the life like an archaeologist’s dig, though we are looking into the recent past (Soldatow died in 2006, not yet sixty). A fall in the icy streets of Moscow, in which his hip was broken and subsequently badly reset, heralded a steep decline; his alcoholism grew apace, and many of his friends tired of him. It was a sad end, yet he had a life full of daring: avant-garde writing and living freely as a gay man in a still repressive age.' (Introduction) 

'Susan Varga's memoir covers a varied life across seven decades, circling between Australia and Europe, activism and seclusion, everyday life and the writing life.

'This compelling memoir of Susan Varga's life spans seven decades and circles between Australia and Europe, activism and seclusion, everyday life and the writing life.

'She was born into war-torn Budapest but her family escaped loss and trauma to make a new life in Sydney. Susan makes another escape, from the narrow confines of suburbia into the arms of the exciting and contradictory world of the Sydney Push. As a young woman she lives in London, Paris, Bendigo and Holland, before returning to Sydney, keen to take part of Gough Whitlam's reformist agenda, in a powerful time of change.

'Yet Susan also spends a long time lost in the wilderness, wrestling with the raft of dilemmas of the life of a woman. When she finally commits to the demands and joys of writing, and to a surprising love, her life assumes a new harmony. Fate then intervenes to throw up major challenges, testing her will to re-find the hard joys of life.
'In this memoir, Susan Varga moves through the intersections between her own life and the wider world, with an incisive portrait of our times.'(Publication summary)

'Carol Lefevre is the author of two novels and a non-fiction book on Adelaide, all well received and awarded. Yet she is not as well known in her own country as she should be, having spent decades in England. I hope The Happiness Glass will remedy that.'  (Introduction)