Visiting the library
So, I think my reading list-both my to do list and my current borrowing list-is worth recording, because it gives an idea of what I'm interested in culturally and socially.
I borrowed A LIFE IN FROCKS by Kelly Doust, a Sydneysider that spent several years living in Hong Kong and London. What should be a frivolous piece is very enjoyable, partly because she's a well read lass who spent her teens and twenties being busy, gathering some experiences to reflect on. She was asked to leave Marist Sisters Woolwich and was briefly an apprentice hairdresser, which is when she developed her love of clubbing and clubbing attire. After returning to school, she did an arts degree in Melbourne and worked at the Continental Cafe, having developed her love of jazz culture, all turtlenecks and black on black. She loved the Continental, the charismatic culture of the staff and patrons, spending time there when she wasn't working... then overseas, meeting a husband with modestly understated good dress sense (not a dandy, but a good buyer of long term pieces) and back to Sydney. It's a good match to the Luella Bartley book on English fashion, manages to be interesting without vacuousness. For the Quakers talk about dressing modestly, simply because they warn against using clothes to assert your superiority over another. How do we use clothes well-to manage our environment or reflect our location and culture-but not as a weapon over another, a game where he who spends most wins, or a game where you are at risk of the Emperor's New Clothes? I thought about it and remembered the character of Katherine from Brother of the Less Famous Jack, how she was very into clothes, could knit and sew excellently and the pride she put into assembling an outfit; a survival skill for when she was eventually chucked in by her beloved boyfriend; a skill she later used to support herself. And she wasn't a frivolous character-a philosophy graduate, a cynic, a girl who couldn't wait to leave her girls school and all the energetic house competitions-a character in fact that I admired and wanted to resemble in some way, especially as she emerged from her pit of grief a bit more careworn but a lot wiser and sharper. Imagine my delight when I found the author referencing The Brother of the Less Famous Jack (by Barbara Trapido) as her favourite book, along with The Passion by Jeanette Winterson (haven't read that).
I also borrowed the first book by Siri Hustvedt, which I think is The Blindfold, which is set in New York and which I thought might be a nice offset to Veronica by Mary Gaitskill, which I loved. I also borrowed House of Exile-The Life and Times of Heinrich Mann and Nelly Kroeger-Mann by Evelyn Juers, having developed an interest in the intellectual/Weimar culture since reading Anna Funder's latest book; and this was recommended in Review. Even better, the dust cover has a recommendation from Helen Garner, who complements the strength of Juers writing and how she compiles a biography of the circle, not just the couple.
What else did I borrow? I had a long list to reserve: Autumn Laing by Alex Miller, Cold Light by Frank Moorhouse, The Marriage Plot by Jeffery Eugenides, A Common Loss by Kirsten Tranter (inwardly I cursed the residents of Burnside for their highbrow literati tastes, as all of these titles were already heavily reserved). I borrowed Bird by Sophie Cunningham (my latest cultural crush) and attempted to find Blue Skies by Helen Hodgman, which is set in Hobart in the 70s for someone adrift from the hippie culture and bored by the cultural vacuum of Hobart (I think 1970s Hobart is best represented by Helen Garner in Monkey Grip, when she writes of Javo recuperating from heroin, hanging out in the casino and being funded by bored older ladies). I also read, but did not borrow, WASTED by someone Honeywill, who as it turns out now dwells in Hobart, which is a biography of Jim McNeil. He was a playwright who wrote his four plays in prison, was discovered by Katherine Brisbane, and had the Belvoir/Nimrod set lobby for his early release from prison. He was married for 2 years to Robyn Nevin, whilst she was heavily involved in performing, a marriage that was apparently violent due to his alcoholism and inability to live a disciplined life in the outside world. It was a touching memoir, well researched and touched on the damage done in his early life that led to his violent criminal behaviour and dependence on alcohol outside of prison. He was also apparently very charismatic, a great story teller-he never penned another play but could tell compelling stories and captivated the groovy Sydney set until he alienated them again, with his violence and lack of "house training". There's more to write, but I need to reflect on it a bit, about what it means and how it ended; it also reminded me of the poet Shelton Lea, whose life didn't descend to such bad depths, and didn't end quite as badly, but was also afflicted by addiction, juvenile incarceration and abandonment and a struggle to support himself with his exceptional gifts, because writing is a struggle that needs the support of a stable middle class life... which neither men had.
I borrowed A LIFE IN FROCKS by Kelly Doust, a Sydneysider that spent several years living in Hong Kong and London. What should be a frivolous piece is very enjoyable, partly because she's a well read lass who spent her teens and twenties being busy, gathering some experiences to reflect on. She was asked to leave Marist Sisters Woolwich and was briefly an apprentice hairdresser, which is when she developed her love of clubbing and clubbing attire. After returning to school, she did an arts degree in Melbourne and worked at the Continental Cafe, having developed her love of jazz culture, all turtlenecks and black on black. She loved the Continental, the charismatic culture of the staff and patrons, spending time there when she wasn't working... then overseas, meeting a husband with modestly understated good dress sense (not a dandy, but a good buyer of long term pieces) and back to Sydney. It's a good match to the Luella Bartley book on English fashion, manages to be interesting without vacuousness. For the Quakers talk about dressing modestly, simply because they warn against using clothes to assert your superiority over another. How do we use clothes well-to manage our environment or reflect our location and culture-but not as a weapon over another, a game where he who spends most wins, or a game where you are at risk of the Emperor's New Clothes? I thought about it and remembered the character of Katherine from Brother of the Less Famous Jack, how she was very into clothes, could knit and sew excellently and the pride she put into assembling an outfit; a survival skill for when she was eventually chucked in by her beloved boyfriend; a skill she later used to support herself. And she wasn't a frivolous character-a philosophy graduate, a cynic, a girl who couldn't wait to leave her girls school and all the energetic house competitions-a character in fact that I admired and wanted to resemble in some way, especially as she emerged from her pit of grief a bit more careworn but a lot wiser and sharper. Imagine my delight when I found the author referencing The Brother of the Less Famous Jack (by Barbara Trapido) as her favourite book, along with The Passion by Jeanette Winterson (haven't read that).
I also borrowed the first book by Siri Hustvedt, which I think is The Blindfold, which is set in New York and which I thought might be a nice offset to Veronica by Mary Gaitskill, which I loved. I also borrowed House of Exile-The Life and Times of Heinrich Mann and Nelly Kroeger-Mann by Evelyn Juers, having developed an interest in the intellectual/Weimar culture since reading Anna Funder's latest book; and this was recommended in Review. Even better, the dust cover has a recommendation from Helen Garner, who complements the strength of Juers writing and how she compiles a biography of the circle, not just the couple.
What else did I borrow? I had a long list to reserve: Autumn Laing by Alex Miller, Cold Light by Frank Moorhouse, The Marriage Plot by Jeffery Eugenides, A Common Loss by Kirsten Tranter (inwardly I cursed the residents of Burnside for their highbrow literati tastes, as all of these titles were already heavily reserved). I borrowed Bird by Sophie Cunningham (my latest cultural crush) and attempted to find Blue Skies by Helen Hodgman, which is set in Hobart in the 70s for someone adrift from the hippie culture and bored by the cultural vacuum of Hobart (I think 1970s Hobart is best represented by Helen Garner in Monkey Grip, when she writes of Javo recuperating from heroin, hanging out in the casino and being funded by bored older ladies). I also read, but did not borrow, WASTED by someone Honeywill, who as it turns out now dwells in Hobart, which is a biography of Jim McNeil. He was a playwright who wrote his four plays in prison, was discovered by Katherine Brisbane, and had the Belvoir/Nimrod set lobby for his early release from prison. He was married for 2 years to Robyn Nevin, whilst she was heavily involved in performing, a marriage that was apparently violent due to his alcoholism and inability to live a disciplined life in the outside world. It was a touching memoir, well researched and touched on the damage done in his early life that led to his violent criminal behaviour and dependence on alcohol outside of prison. He was also apparently very charismatic, a great story teller-he never penned another play but could tell compelling stories and captivated the groovy Sydney set until he alienated them again, with his violence and lack of "house training". There's more to write, but I need to reflect on it a bit, about what it means and how it ended; it also reminded me of the poet Shelton Lea, whose life didn't descend to such bad depths, and didn't end quite as badly, but was also afflicted by addiction, juvenile incarceration and abandonment and a struggle to support himself with his exceptional gifts, because writing is a struggle that needs the support of a stable middle class life... which neither men had.
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