My Life as an Alphabet

There are just so many books, it's really hard keeping up. I don't always remember where I heard about a particular book, but for this one I do. Lisa at ANZLitlovers mentioned it when she listed the finalists for the 2014 Victorian Premiers Literary Awards, and she said that it was popular with the kids at her school. My Life as an Alphabet went on to win the Young Adult Award and the Children's Peace Literature Award. I found it at my library recently, and wanted to read it so I snuck it into my busy schedule. I'm very glad that I did. It's a great read- managing to be both funny and moving.

My Life as an Alphabet is a funny, quirky book- a bit like a Rosie Project for the YA set. Although Candice Phee isn't searching for a mate like Don Tillman was. Candice is simply trying to help her family, and her small number of friends be happy. Candice's younger sister has died, and now she is an only child. Her parents haven't really dealt with the death, and both are getting by as well as they can in their own ways. There is an ongoing family rift with Rich Uncle Brian.

My family does not have enough laughter in it. All the laughter evaporated when my sister died. 

My Life as an Alphabet is written as an extended response to a school assignment from Candice's English teacher, Miss Bamford. It is meant to be 26 paragraphs, but Candice extends it to 26 chapters. Conceits like that don't always work in fiction I think, but it works a treat here. It's a school project writ large. It's rather fascinating to see that Barry Jonsberg, an English teacher himself, borrowed the title from an assignment submitted by one of his students. He has created a unique and very funny first person voice in Candice- always one of my favourite voices to read.

Candice is an interesting, quirky character. She is on her second run through Dickens- it always annoys me when characters are better read than I am! She befriends the equally quirky Douglas Benson From Another Dimension, and worries about the religious musings of her fish, Earth-Pig Fish.

What if she believes that if she does die, she will be brought, in a fanfare of heavenly trumpets, to my bosom and live in eternal bliss when in fact she's almost certainly destined to be flushed down the toilet?

My Life as an Alphabet will be released in the US September 2014 as The Categorical Universe of Candice Phee. And I thought I'd discovered a sequel :-(. It's being adapted as a play touring to schools.

It's been a good year for new Australian authors for me so far- first Steven Herrick, then Ursula Dubosarsky and now Barry Jonsberg. I'm looking forward to reading more from all of them.

Like Father Like Son

Master Wicker is a teenager now, so I'm learning more about modern pop culture than I've known for some time. He watches a lot of music videos. Recently we both saw this one by Belgian artist Stromae (no I'd never heard of him either, but he's interesting).

He's Belgian, but the video reminded me of a phenomenon I witnessed in the windows of Paris last year. 

And it's not just for the boys!

I'm not sure if I like the idea or not. What do you think?

Dreaming of France is a wonderful Monday meme
from Paulita at An Accidental Blog

Saturday Snapshot is a wonderful weekly meme
 now hosted by WestMetroMommy

Author Event Trevor Shearston

Six months ago I went to a fascinating author talk, but time being what it is, I didn't get to telling you about it. Now Game has been longlisted for the 2014 Miles Franklin and I'm seeing the book everywhere and being reminded of missed opportunities.

I try to go to every author event that I can, even if I think that the book isn't particularly my cup of tea, or my usual reading matter. I know that I will enjoy myself, chat with interesting folk, and likely learn something. And so it was with seeing Trevor Shearston talk about Game. I'd never heard of the book or the author back then.

Game is about the latter stages of bushranger Ben Hall's short life. Trevor picked a time when Hall and his companions had become "dead men walking" after the death of a police sergeant during a mail coach hold up at Jugiong. Hall had to leave NSW or be killed. He wondered if Ben Hall had doubts about the life he was leading, and feels that these times of doubt make for interesting stories.

Trevor spoke a lot about his writing process for this book. He has long been interested in Australian bush ballads and folk songs, indeed he sang several for us this night. Trevor found the songs gave him a gateway into the feelings and the emotions of the people he was writing about. He pointed out that's it's important to have an emotional connection to the subject as you're going to be with them for a long time.

The ballads about Ben Hall were mainly composed soon after his death, by not particularly educated people, and they are songs full of anger and grief. The songs alone of course weren't enough to write a novel so he travelled and researched. Much of the book is set in the Central West I believe. Certainly Ben Hall was shot and killed 20km from Forbes in the corner of a paddock. Trevor told us that seven police surrounded him and shot him as he slept, and that his body was strapped to a horse and taken through the streets of Forbes at 3am. Trevor travelled to the property where Ben Hall was shot and stood there amongst the yellow box, white cyprus and saw the low range of hills.

Why make up the details when they're all there to see?

During his visit to the site Trevor found the remains of a house, and a piece of broken crockery in the creek. He wondered if Ben Hall had eaten his dinners from it. Trevor used a lot of newspaper accounts from the time. Some events are well covered and so he must stick quite closely to the truth- for example he found 40-50 witness reports of the shooting of Sergeant Parry.

 There are always some old people in the audience who know the history backwards.

One snippet in the Yass Courier gave him half the novel, about the relationship between Ben Hall and his son, although the historical novelist is there to take the characters between the gaps in the historical record.

That's the fun- inventing between the facts. 

Trevor Shearston was a teacher in Papua New Guinea, and his previous 7 works of fiction were set in PNG.

Random fact: Tinned sardines were a bush staple for anyone travelling on horseback.

I still haven't read Game, but Lisa at ANZLitlovers has.

25 Essential Books about Americans in Paris

I'm not American, and don't have any particular fascination with books about Americans per se. But I do have a fascination with books about Paris, so this Flavorwire list is still interesting, and possibly even essential, for me.

1. A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway

2. Paris Notebooks by Mavis Gallant

3. Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin

4. An Extraordinary Theory of Objects by Stephanie LaCava

5. Breathless: An American Girl in Paris by Nancy K. Miller

6. Dreaming in French by Alice Kaplan

7. Paris in Love by Eloisa James (see my review)

8. Paris by Julien Green

9. Paris I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down by Rosecrans Baldwin

10. Paris to the Moon by Adam Gopnik

11. The Sweet Life in Paris by David Lebovitz (see my review)

12. Paris was Yesterday by Janet Flanner

13. Shakespeare and Company by Sylvia Beach

14. Time was Soft There: A Paris Sojourn at Shakespeare & Co by Jeremy Mercer

15. The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris by David McCullough

16. Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris by A.J. Liebling

17. My Life in France by Julia Child

18. American Cocktail: A 'Colored Girl' in the World by Anita Reynolds

19. Eugene Bullard: Black Expatriate in Jazz-Age Paris by Craig Lloyd

20. Inside a Pearl: My Years in Paris by Edmund White

21. The Most Beautiful Walk in the World by John Baxter (see my review) he's not even American! John Baxter is Australian.

22. C'est la Vie by Suzy Gershman

23. Henry James Goes to Paris by Peter Brooks

24. Living Well is the Best Revenge by Calvin Tomkins

25. The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein

Hmmm. 3/25. Not a particularly sterling effort. It must be said that I hadn't heard of many of these books. Which can be dangerous- I just bought three of them online….

Books on France, a great 2014 challenge
 from Emma at Words and Peace

Dreaming of France is a wonderful Monday meme
from Paulita at An Accidental Blog

Trees Adventure

I'm not an overly adventurous person I suppose. I enjoy the outdoors as much as anyone, I did some moderate level bushwalking in my youth, but now more often I like a bit of stroll from the car park to see something nice. Sometimes though you get taken out of your comfort zone- and it can be a good thing.

Recently Master Wicker and I met up with my sister and my nephews for an outing at Trees Adventure Grose River Park, on the outer edges of Sydney, near Richmond. I watched the video online at the website, but wasn't sure how I'd like it, or how I'd go.

Still I decided to give it a crack. No point just sitting on the sidelines watching. 

There's challenges for every age

At various heights

Lots of fun zip lines/flying foxes

While I limited myself to the green courses,
Master Wicker did a Red level course

It's all up pretty high

It was a fantastic 2 hour session, and I was only mildly sore for the next two days. Everyone enjoyed it. Both Master Wicker and I hope to go back again one day. 

That day in Sydney, a mere 9 days ago, now feels like a distant dream… It was 30 degrees in Sydney that day. Today in the Central West it hasn't got above 5 degrees, and snowed this morning!

It didn't settle in town,
but is the earliest snow I remember

Saturday Snapshot is a wonderful weekly meme
 now hosted by WestMetroMommy

Charles Dickens Museum

Sometimes interests just align and even though you have a packed four days in London (that isn't enough time, not nearly enough time, there is just so much to do), you know that you have to make a pilgrimage of sorts. And so it was I came to visit Charles Dickens House in London last year.

Not that I'm a great Dickens scholar. I suspect that having read A Christmas Carol, The Magic Fishbone and half of Bleak House (twice) doesn't qualify me. But I am interested in Dickens. I think that Bleak House is one of the best books that I've only half read. I've seen Simon Callow speak about him, and portray him. I've seen Miriam Margolyes astonishing one woman play Dickens Women twice now. I've watched the Dr Who episode. And bits and pieces of various BBC miniseries too of course. One day I will embark on my  project to read all of Dickens.

Still I thoroughly enjoyed the hour or so I spent in Dickens Museum on a somewhat cool Thursday morning.

I didn't have the time to do a walk,
and I was there on a Thursday,
maybe next time?

You get to see upstairs

and downstairs

Learn about Victorian housekeeping practices-
hedgehogs!

And think about how long the laundry took!
Once a year the copper would be cleaned
and used to boil the Christmas pudding

There's great memorabilia
Dickens' lectern that he designed and
used for his reading tours

His writing desk

his deathbed

and even his commode

It's a fascinating place to spend an hour or so

I was tempted by the action figure but it would have meant
one less jar of Caramel Beurre Sale to bring home from Paris-
no contest really...

It was certainly 8 pounds well spent. 

Charles Dickens Museum 

48 Doughty Street, London

Take a fun trip to the British Isles
every Friday with Joyweesemoll

By the River

Oh my gosh I just loved this book! I read it in a day- it's really very quick. Only about two hours reading even for me, and I am a ponderously slow reader. 

I think perhaps it was the perfect time for me to read this book. I've read two other Steven Herrick books this year- Pookie Aleera is Not My Boyfriend and The Simple Gift. I liked both of these well enough, and much than I thought I would- I haven't like poetry since high school. Perhaps they primed me to love By the River, and made the perfect preparation for me to read By the River. Although I see that Steven Herrick thinks that it's his favourite. 

I loved it from the very start, from the very first poem. 


The colour of my town

Red 
was Johnny  Barlow
with his lightning fists
that drew blood in a blur.
Yellow 
was Urger,
who stood behind
with crooked teeth,
spitting and cursing,
Blue
were Miss Spencer's eyes,
pale and shining,
and finding distant grey
as the taxi drove away. 

Green

was my dad's handkerchief,

ironed,

pressed into the pocket

above his heart;

a box of handkerchiefs

Mum gave him on his birthday

two week before she died. 

Brown

was dry grass all summer,

a dead snake,

cane toads squashed flat,

our house smeared in oil;

nothing that lives,

nothing that shines. 

White

was Mum's nightgown,
the chalk Miss Carter used
to write my name,
hospital sheets,
and the colour of Linda's cross.

There is just so much there. Some of it, much of it, we can't understand yet. But Green, we can all understand dad keeping the hankies his wife gave him just before she died over his heart. It made me gasp when I read it. 

The  two Herrick books I've read previously both had multiple narrators- here we just hear Harry Hodby's voice. Harry was 7 when his mum died, and he lives with his dad, and younger brother Keith in fairly humble circumstances in small town Queensland in the 1950s and 60s. Dad is a sheet metal worker, and they don't have much money, but he keeps regular hours at work, and is bringing his kids up right. The boys cook and clean and look after the house. They wait for their father to come home so they can eat watermelon with him in the yard every day. They may not wear shoes, and they do the odd larrikin act, but they know right from wrong, they know the value of property, family and friends. I felt like I knew these boys from the start. 

I think perhaps they represent a lost Australian childhood for me. When kids did work for weeks on a billycart- do kids work for weeks on anything anymore? Mine doesn't. Do they cycle three hours to get somewhere? Mine never has- but then I'd never let him. 

By the River is firmly set in Northern Australia, there are many references that tie it down. Goannas. Mangos. Bats. Houses on stilts. Canetoads. Cane toads were a big mistake, introduced in the 1930s to help control a beetle that ate sugar cane. They have now spread over much of northern australia and are terrible for our native species. They are still spreading west and south. They are a man made disaster. 

I really, really loved this book, I'm very tempted to read it through again. I even think I'll buy my own copy. My library has an audio version that I've borrowed, and have now listened to it three times driving around town. While I enjoyed the listening experience, and cementing the story in my mind, I'd never heard a verse novel read aloud- I found it somewhat unsettling,  and I much preferred the reading experience. 

By the River was to become the first of a loose trilogy based in small town Australia. You just know that I'm now seeking out Lonesome Howl (published as The Wolf in America), and Cold Skin. Steven says on his website "perhaps of all my books, By the River uses characters and situations that actually occurred". On his blog he tells us that many of the little things in the book are true. Perhaps it's that authenticity that makes it such an astonishing read? 

237/1001