The Shot by Naima Brown

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Thank you, Pan Macmillan for my review copy

The Shot is the story of a reality television program, the woman who devised the concept and the subject she chooses to participate in the program. That’s the basic outline.

I would like to say from the start that I believe Naima Brown is the new Fay Weldon. That’s how good she is. She goes deep into the backgrounds of her two main characters, Mara and Kristy, and finds what has brought them to this point in their lives where Mara is able to convince Kristy to participate in her ultimate makeover program.

The story is told from the separate points of view of Mara and Kristy and they line up well against each other. They are both from the town of Puerto Segura although Kristy is from the trailer park and Mara is from the Lagoon area, and in cultural terms it’s pretty much never the twain shall meet. Mara is more complicated than she first appears which becomes evident gradually; Kristy has a problem which has been holding her back and which she becomes aware of with Mara’s help. They are both fascinating studies into the causes and effects of where you’re born, who you’re born to and whom you meet along the way.

Shot is a brilliant work of creative, contemporary fiction and I can’t recommend it highly enough to lovers of good books.

Published by Pan Macmillan 

Aphrodite’s Breath by Susan Johnson

 

Aphrodite’s Breath is Susan Johnson’s memoir of taking her mother, Barbara, to live with her on the Greek island of Kythera. It is so relatable, so real, such a down to earth examination of a mother and daughter relationship that I kept putting myself in Susan’s shoes; that is, when I wasn’t putting myself in Barbara’s shoes! Like Susan, I have sons and no daughters and I’m wondering now if I would have had a better understanding of my own mother if I had had a daughter of my own. This thoughtful book had me pondering all sorts of questions.

This was one time I was pleased to be reading a physical book rather than my Kindle. There are a lot of pages I know I’m going to want to reread and I’ve even photographed sections so I’ll know where to find them. I would like to quote some sentences here but I wouldn’t know where to stop and I don’t want to spoil the experience of finding them for other readers,

I looked up Kythera and it looks like a beautiful holiday destination; however, Susan and her mother found the changes the off season brought to the island showed a different side to the island. Susan wanted an authentic experience, having visited Kythera as a young girl and wondering what life would be like there, including making friends and taking part in local happenings;  however, Barbara, at 86, found it hard to be away from the comforts and familiarities of home in Brisbane.

This is just an aside: I was reminded of Charmian Clift and George Johnston and their life on Hydra while reading Aphrodite’s Tears. I recently lost all of my books in a flood, including a brilliant biography of Charmian Clift and a copy of her book, Peel Me a Lotus. I must try to find replacements.

But I digress:  Susan Johnson’s honest self-appraisals are moving and open and I felt at times she was holding up a mirror for me to look into! The island of Kythera was as much a character here as Susan and her dear mother. The island’s history and its inhabitants all add to the joy of reading this engrossing book.

Published by Allen & Unwin

House of Hearts by Amber Jakemanin Euro

 

 

Dr Lisa Bakker is a group counsellor and diversion therapist working in a clinic in Las Vegas. Will Huntley, so-called ‘bad boy’ of the Huntley family, has been frittering away the money paid to him to seek out new suppliers in Europe and America for the family business, House of Diamonds in Bondi, but in reality living it up on the Riviera and losing heavily gambling in casinos. His mother has been subsidising his lifestyle as well from her home in France but when he  ends up sleeping on the streets in Las Vegas she books him into the Peters Clinic and makes him promise to sort himself out.

Addiction to gambling is treated seriously in this charming book by Amber Jakeman. A love story is threaded through it as in the previous book in this series, House of Diamonds, but the principal characters are both coming to terms with serious past issues as well as falling in love. There are some interesting facts about how and why gambling becomes an addiction, as capable of destroying lives as any other addiction; and insights into individual counselling sessions as well as group therapy.

Boulder City, Las Vegas and the Nevada desert and mountains all play a part in shaping the development of the story of House of Hearts, which is not as light as the cover might suggest. I think the two books I have read in the series each deserve a slightly more serious cover. 

I look forward to following the saga of the Huntley family!

Rewriting Illness by Elizabeth Benedict

 

Elizabeth Benedict’s fascinating memoir traces the progression of her illness from a small, suspicious lump under her arm through to her various treatments. Elizabeth writes with wit and candour, and her conversational tone is wonderfully inviting. I’m sure I could have read it in one sitting but I felt like I was conversing with a friend and I had to keep stopping and putting in my two bobs’ worth! 

To me, as an Australian, a horrifying aspect of Elizabeth’s care was financial. She was personally responsible for the costs of her scans and chemotherapy and had to hope her particular insurance policy covered them. In Australia, whether insured or not, all such treatments would surely have been  provided for under our health care system. The last thing she needed was to worry about payment while coping with a serious illness.

Elizabeth quotes occasionally the late, wonderful Nora Ephron. What an inspiration Nora Ephron would have been for her. Of course, in writing about her illness Elizabeth touches on her personal life story. She has the perfect husband for her situation;  he is loving and caring but above all remains calm. She writes of her life as a writer, and touches on her travels and her past history, making me wish I had a friend like her!  It is hard to imagine how Elizabeth must have felt with this insidious intrusion into her happy life: she was working with graduating school students, helping prepare their college applications, she was about to start teaching a fiction writing workshop and, most importantly, she had “…found true love” after “…years of loneliness”.

The Australian writers, Susan Duncan and Pamela Bone, have both written about their encounters with cancer. It is such a brave, generous, unselfish thing to do; as well as promoting understanding to some extent of what they are experiencing, hopefully helping someone else who might be facing the same thing. 

Thank you, Elizabeth Benedict, for sharing your inspirational story. I wish you, James and Emily many more happy, loving years.

Published by Mandel Vilar Press

Emboldened by Belinda Alexandra

 

I love autobiography and biography, and Emboldened is a combination of both. In this very interesting book Belinda Alexandra talks about being emboldened herself and then, through the pages, she tells the stories of four emboldened women: her mother, Tatiana Morosoff; the Second World War spy, Virginia Hall;  the great flamenco dancer, Carmen Anaya; and Edna Walling, the famous landscape designer. They all became emboldened when they chose their paths through life which Belinda did also when she emerged from a shattering experience determined to regain control of her own destiny.

Belinda’s mother and grandmother came to Australia from China as White Russian refugees and Belinda absorbed their culture, as well  as that of her Australian father. She was a strong, independent girl who travelled much of the world by herself, always knowing that she would  eventually achieve her ambition to become a writer one day. Something happened to destabilise her and this book deals with how Belinda coped with that part of her life.

The biographies within the book are all of inspirational women. By a strange coincidence, the night before I started reading Emboldened I watched a film in which the two principal characters were Virginia Hall and Vera Atkinson. I realise now that the film was a condensed version of Virginia’s wartime experiences but it did touch on important aspects of her life. I was picturing the actress as I read today!

This is a most unusual book and the combination of autobiography and biography works very well. I congratulate Belinda Alexander and highly recommend Emboldened to lovers of thoughtful literature.

Published by Affirm Press

The Coast by Eleanor Limprecht

 

This moving, utterly stunning novel tells the story of some of the patients at the leper colony which was attached to The Coast Hospital at Little Bay, Sydney, in the early years of the twentieth century.

I am now ashamed of my ignorance about leprosy, having believed (if I thought about it at all) that leprosy was a highly contagious disease and sufferers had to live in isolation. In fact, leprosy “…comes from a bacteria. Most of the population is not susceptible, but it seems that susceptibility is inherited……” which the intelligent, compassionate Doctor Will Stegner understands completely as he administers to his patients.

 Alice and Guy are central to the story and their lives before The Coast are described in brilliant, evocative detail, telling of the hardships they had both endured. They are sad but compelling stories but they are also stories of love, and hope, and I found it almost impossible to put the book down. Alice, Guy, Clea and Will became real to me and are going to stay with me for a long while.

Although  fictional, The Coast surely represents accurately life in those times under those conditions. Leprosy sufferers were treated with fear and revulsion; Aboriginal soldiers in their World War 1 uniforms were allowed to drink in pubs but, out of uniform and not identifying as servicemen, they were not; and homosexuals had to keep their identities secret. 

I’ve tried hard here not to give away any of the story while at the same time wanting to encourage people to read Eleanor Limprecht’s heartbreakingly beautiful book. 

Definitely 5 out of 5!

Published by Allen & Unwin

An Afterlife for Rosemary Lamb by Louise Wolhuter

 

I have just read a truly magnificent book! An Afterlife for Rosemary Lamb is about people with secrets; people with pasts; people whose present lives are overshadowed by their pasts.

Winifred is a small town on the mid-Queensland coast and the story centres on the inhabitants of nearby Magpie Beach: Rosemary is married to Eddie whose family own the butcher shop in Winifred; Meg lives alone since the death of her partner, Sonny; and Lily and her husband, Norman, who is suffering from dementia, live in a house overlooking the ocean.

Rosemary initiates a friendship with Meg and eventually Lily joins them.

A nine year old girl has gone missing from the town and police have been unable to find any clues pointing to where she has gone or who has taken her.

These are the bones of a dark, complex, fascinating story. Pasts are delved into, secrets are uncovered and people are not who they appear to be. Louise Wolhuter’s writing is beautiful, lyrical, and I found myself reading the same page twice in a lot of places. There are twists and turns and shocking revelations as the plot unravels.

Think Tim Winton with punctuation: that is about as close as I can get to describing this book. I would recommend it to anyone who loves mystery stories, insightful character studies, and generally becoming totally immersed in evocative, atmospheric story telling.

Published by Ultimo Press.