The Natural Way of Things

The Natural Way of Things was all over the best of 2015 lists a few months ago, and I suspect it will pop up on many award lists this year, it has already made the Fiction Shortlist for the Indie Book Awards and the 2016 Stella Prize Longlist (Update- The Natural Way of Things won the Stella Prize). I was sorely tempted. And I really loved the cover. I became even more tempted. I bought a copy for a friend, and then I had to buy a copy for me too.  I'm glad I did, although it's certainly not my usual fare, rather far from it actually. 

It's a mystery of sorts. Two young women wake up in an unknown place in unknown clothes. It's obvious fairly quickly that things are not right. 

She got out of bed and felt gritty boards beneath her feet. There was the coarse unfamiliar fabric of a nightgown on her skin. Who had put this on her?

But it's not just these two young women, Yolanda and Verla, in this remote place in outback Australia, there are other women. It's hard to say more than that about the plot really, without giving too much away. 

It's a sparse, unappealing story in some ways- profane, violent, mean, it makes for very uncomfortable reading at times. And yet I didn't stop reading, I couldn't. I had been warned that some "old ladies" didn't like it at all, and didn't finish it. I can see how it isn't a book for everyone. Still it's a powerful story and well written. 

Clouds collect and steepen, build then collapse, silver empires rising and falling in the vast blue skies. 

Even within this most Australian of novels there are mentions of Paris that made my heart swoon. Verla has stood before The Lady and The Unicorn at Musée Cluny. I tried to do that in 2013, but it was visiting Japan at the time. As you read the cover design becomes even more intriguing. I think it's one of the most perfect book cover designs ever. Big call I know. 

This has been my first taste of Charlotte Wood, although I've been meaning to read her for several years. I saw her talk at a Melbourne Writer's Festival quite a few years ago now.  I'm glad I've finally had the opportunity to read her writing, and of course look forward to checking out her other books. 

Hear a fascinating RN interview with Charlotte Wood talking about The Natural Way of Things (there are however some specific discussion of plot points). And another RN podcast of Charlotte Wood talking about 5 works of art that helped inspire The Natural Way of Things, it's very fascinating, and explains the yellow bus. 

http://australianwomenwriters.com

The Bélier Family/ La Famille Bélier

I knew as soon as I saw the gushing ads for The Bélier Family before Christmas that I wanted to see it. Rather desperately. Sadly I missed it at Christmas time. Finally I did get to see it last week. France's hit film of 2015, and even the print ads made it look enchanting.

The Bélier Family live on a farm in Normandy. They run dairy cattle and make cheese, selling it at a stall at the local marché. Paula Bélier is 16, and is the only hearing member of her family. Her parents and younger brother are all profoundly deaf. Paula is their voice to the world, running the farm business and being their voice at the markets. Gradually she discovers her own voice and a love of singing. Paula's music teacher is obsessed with the songs of Michel Sardou, a new to me French icon, sadly a little middle of the road for my tastes.

The plot is possibly a little predictable overall, but it's a gentle, sweet feel good film, with plenty of laughs- not always an easy thing for a foreign language film to have humour bridge the language gap. There are some things that happen that are clearly wrong for a 16 year old girl, but that is a minor quibble. The Bélier Family is still is a rather charming French comedy. Louane Emera plays Paula Bélier, Louane was discovered on a series of The Voice in France in 2013, she certainly has a great voice.

The Belier Family has come under fire from the deaf community, about the use of non-deaf actors playing deaf characters (the parents are not deaf, the younger brother is). The signing is bad apparently. I do wonder how different that it is to using non-Australian actors for instance playing an Australian character. In that case the accent is usually so appalling as to be laughable.

The trailer gives too much away IMHO, so beware. But if you've already seen it, it's nice to reminisce.

Or maybe watch it with French subtitles (if you can't read them).

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

So, This Happened This Week

I got a bit of a fright as I walked into the lounge room this week. 

I saw a shape at the door. It was moving. But wedged in between the screen door and the glass door. 

Was it a huge rat? It kind of looked like it.

Closer, no, not a rat, reptilian. OMG, is it a snake? (Every Australian's first thought... ) The dogs had something cornered in the yard the other day under some wood and I'd been worried it was a snake.

But no, there's legs! YAY, there's legs.

Oh, it's a blue tongue. Our largest skink. 

I'm not sure what it was doing in there. 

A pretty big one too. Pregnant maybe? I hope so. 

We went out to take the screen door off to help it get out. 

I hadn't seen a blue tongue for quite a few years. We had one that sunned itself out the front of the house for a while, but the neighbour's dogs cornered it in their yard one day, and killed it. 

I wasn't sure if it would eat the skink. It didn't. 

I hope I can keep this one safe from my dogs. I like to think that's she's out there.

Update Feb 23- I found a youngster in the yard today! Well my dog found it in the grass, so I guess she was a she.

Saturday Snapshot is a wonderful weekly meme
 now hosted by WestMetroMommy

10 Great Books All Children Should Read

A new great list from The Conversation about friendship and families.

1. Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes - Mem Fox, Helen Oxenbury

2. Over the Hills and Far Away: A Treasure of Nursery Rhymes from Around the World - Elizabeth Hammill

3. Bear & Chook - Lisa Shanahan, Emma Quay

4. The Lion and the Bird - Marianne Dubuc

5. The Day the Crayons Quit - Drew Daywalt, Oliver Jeffers

6. Herman and Rosie - Gus Gordon

7. My Two Blankets - Irena Kobold, Freya Blackwood (see my review)

8.  Animalium - Katie Scott, Jenny Broom

9. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (illustrated edition) - J.K. Rowling, Jim Kay

10. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

5/10

Although I have read Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, just not the illustrated edition.

I do love how these lists always contain books you've never heard of.

June 2016 6/10

Indie Book Award Shortlist 2016

Australia's Independent Bookshops run the Indie Book Awards each year. The 2016 Shortlist was released this week.

Fiction Shortlist

The Other Side of the World - Stephanie Bishop
The Secret Chord - Geraldine Brooks
A Guide to Berlin - Gail Jones
The Natural Way of Things - Charlotte Wood (see my review) (WINNER)

Non-Fiction Shortlist

Flesh Wounds - Richard Glover (review coming soon)
One Life - Kate Grenville
Reckoning: A Memoir - Magda Szubanski (see my review) (WINNER)
The Anti-Cool Girl - Rosie Waterland (see my review)

Debut Fiction Shortlist

Rush Oh! - Shirley Barrett
The Anchoress - Robyn Cadwallader
Relativity - Antonia Hayes
Salt Creek - Lucy Treloar (WINNER)

Children's Shortlist

The Bad Guys, Episode 1 - Aaron Blabey (WINNER)
The 65-Story Treehouse - Andy Griffiths & Terry Denton
Olive of Groves - Katrina Nannestad & Lucia Masciullo
The Singing Bones - Shaun Tan

Young Adult Shortlist

Ranger's Apprentice: The Early Years 1: The Tournament at Gorlan - John Flanagan
Soon - Morris Gleitzman
Prince of Afghanistan - Louis Nowra
Cloudwish - Fiona Wood (WINNER)

The Young Adult list is difficult as 3 of those books are part of a very successful series- none of which I have read sadly. Cloudwish is the third in a linked series of books. Soon is the fifth of Morris Gleitzman's series dealing with the Second World War. And I know that John Flanagan has written quite a few of the Ranger's Apprentices books.

And still always books you've never heard of...

You can see the full longlist here. It's always interesting to see what didn't make the cut.

Winners will be announced March 23 2016.

One

I'm not really sure why I became so desperate to read One, a book I hadn't really heard of all that much. I did see it on a number of end of year lists out of Britain. Actually I do think this one from the Guardian may have tipped me over the edge. Various authors recommended it- including Katherine Rundell (who is high on my To Read radar herself, and who had many recommendations of her latest The Wolf Wilder on the list). Who can go past this:

Mine is One, by Sarah Crossan. It's a book that shouldn't be possible- a blank verse novel about conjoined twins that never once dips into sentimentality- but Sarah Crossan makes it look so easy. It's a book about love, and courage, and I adored it.

I've come so far in my Verse Novel Journey that this was an added incentive, and soon it was landing on my doorstep. Perhaps because it featured so much on an English list I thought it was an English book. But it most definitely isn't. One is set in Hoboken, New Jersey. I see now that Sarah Crossan was born in Dublin, and currently lives in England, but she did live in New York while working as an English teacher before she became a full time writer. I believe that her other books are set in the UK, I wonder why One is set in America then?

Grace and Tippi are 16 year old conjoined twins who have been homeschooled to hide them from society's prying, and often cruel, eyes. But now the family circumstances have changed and the girls need to go to school for the first time. Hoping that it won't be terrible, hoping to make friends, even perhaps hoping to find love. 

'Are you kidding?

You are normal.

And normal is good.

Normal is my goal,'

I tell him.

The story was always relatable even though unusual, and the characters, especially Grace and Tippi were well written, our narrator Grace was clearly her own persona, and different from her sister. There were just too many issues for my liking. Everyone in the twins immediate family had major stuff going on. So did their friends. While perhaps we all do have our own stuff, it just seemed a bit much at times. One is not Sarah Crossan's first novel in verse, it seems that The Weight of Water was also a verse novel, she also writes in prose. She started One in prose, but it wasn't working, even after 30,000 words, until she swapped to verse. 

Conjoined twins are a rare phenomenon, and not something I've thought about all that often. Every now and then a set of twins will come to prominence as efforts are made to separate them, although sometimes this is not possible of course. I've never thought about what it would be like to be conjoined. I don't think it's something that is actually all that easy to imagine but One gives us some small insight into the internal world of conjoined twins. And even the ethics of it all. 

Gorgeous people strut down catwalks

in dresses made of string

loll half naked on sandy beaches

and no one seems to mind

that they do this for money

no one finds it

distasteful

at all. 

But when Tippi and I consider cashing in on our

 bodies,

everyone frowns.

In an Author's Note at the back of the book Sarah Crossan says that she modelled the physiology of Grace and Tippi on the bodies of Masha and Dasha Krivoshlyapova, particularly tragic Russian conjoined twins, taken from their mother in 1950 Russia, who were to live a tragic life and die of alcoholism. Although, Sarah tells us

It might be astounding to a singleton, but conjoined twins do not see themselves or their lives as tragedies. 

Grace tells us too. 

It really isn't so bad.

It's how it's always been. 

Two of Sarah's previous books The Weight of Water and Apple and Rain were nominated for The Carnegie Medal. Clearly she is an author to explore.

Update June 2016 One has won the 2016 Carnegie Medal.

Jasper Jones Belvoir Street

Picture source

Last week I had the absolute pleasure of going to see the stage version of Jasper Jones, a fantastic book that I read 5 or so years ago. I never blogged about Jasper Jones at the time, which was a bit of a shame, because I loved it so, and now I don't remember all that many details of the book. I remembered the start, the setting, and zombie cheeses, and that I loved every single word- even the quite detailed cricket match! And I really loathe cricket. But I didn't remember most of the story, or even who dunnit in the end.

Jasper Jones is an amazing tale of growing up in a small Western Australian town in 1965. Charlie Bucktin is 14 years old, and a bit of a geek, he reads a lot and doesn't get up to any trouble. His life changes forever when town bad boy Jasper Jones comes knocking on his window late one night. There are major events unfolding in the town and Jasper and Charlie end up right in the thick of it.

All of the adult actors did an amazing job of their juvenile roles. It was a particularly funny play, but not in the least light weight, the big emotive moments were really well done too. I hadn't been to Belvoir Street since my uni days in the 90s, so it was nice to go back there too, although I did think it was in totally the wrong suburb- such are the vagaries of memory. The staging was very clever, I particularly loved how the tree changed from scene to scene.

This stage version only lasts until Feb 7 (and most of it is sold out anyway), I'm so glad I got to see it. There is a movie version of Jasper Jones due out later this year starring Hugo Weaving and Toni Collette as Charlie's parents, Levi Miller as Charlie, and Aaron McGrath as Jasper Jones. I'm not very good at recognising actors, but Aaron McGrath has been everywhere lately - Glitch and Ready for This, and I think he'll make a great Jasper. I've bought myself a new hard back copy of Jasper Jones, and am definitely planning to read it again before the movie comes out. Now just to find the time.

OOPS. I've just seen the film, and Hugo Weaving plays Mad Jack Lionel, not Charlie's Dad- he is played by Dan Wyllie.