Feminist retellings of myths and classics have increased in popularity in recent years (see Zadie Smith’sWife of Willesden,Jessie Burton’sMedusa,Pat Barker’sThe Silence of the Girls,Madeline Miller’sCirce). JR Thorp’s debut novel,Learwife,follows in this tradition,turning the gaze onto the nameless widow of Shakespeare’s king in the period following the end of the play. The protagonist was banished to a nunnery years ago,but following the death of Lear,she can finally tell her story and reclaim her place in history. Australian-born,Ireland-based Thorp is a writer of great skill and detail,teasing out particulars about marriage,gender,motherhood and politics. Those with an interest in Shakespeare will find this work compelling and thought-provoking,but readers who aren’t as keen on the Bard may find it a little too dense.
NON-FICTION PICK OF THE WEEK
Ciao Bella!
Kate Langbroek,Simon&Schuster,$32.99
I must be one of the few people who have never heard Kate Langbroek’s voice,but the one that emerges from this terrific memoir is an easy blend of light,funny,sad and occasionally bleak. In 2019,Langbroek,husband and children shifted to Bologna for a year. A huge move,richly rewarding but not without problems – especially with four young children who attended the city’s international school. They also had a lot of support,from family and workmates – Langbroek continuing to do her radio program from a studio in Bologna. You can taste the pasta,the local reds,the thrill of meeting new friends and sense the adventure of daring to live differently. But things get really interesting when COVID and lockdown,Italian style,arrive. An engaging tale and an intriguing snapshot of these strange days seen by a Melbourne family on the other side of the world.
The Incredible Life of Hubert Wilkins
Peter Fitzsimons,Hachette,$49.99
Hubert Wilkins isn’t a name heard much now,but Peter Fitzsimons’ entertaining biography of the explorer may change that. To call Wilkins an explorer is a bit like calling da Vinci a painter for,in a truly epic life,he experienced many incarnations. From humble beginnings in South Australia in the late 19th century,he displayed an amazing mix of talent,instinct,chutzpah and luck being,at varying stages,a cinematographer in film’s early days,an aviator,polar explorer,decorated soldier and war photographer – going over the top with the troops armed only with a camera. If he didn’t find adventure,it found him when he worked as a spy for British Intelligence in Russia just after the revolution,meeting Lenin. Told in the present tense,it’s a blend of the novelistic and popular history.
Will
Will Smith,with Mark Manson,Century,$35
When actor Will Smith was 11,his father insisted he and his brothers build a wall at the front of his father’s shop in Philadelphia,brick by brick. The lesson,which Smith has applied throughout his life,was that to achieve the big picture you need to focus on the brick. This was the same alcoholic father who beat his wife so often that she eventually threw him out. There’s a lot of raw honesty in this portrait of the artist as young man growing up black in a white Catholic school. But he was always observing people,how they absorb and deal with pain – in Smith’s case,his family falling apart and experiencing racism. Smith used his pain to fire his art,as hip-hop artist and later actor,but there are no violins in this kid-from-Philly-makes-good tale. Simply written,thoughtful and moving,especially the death of his father.
The Long Song of Tchaikovsky Street
Pieter Waterdrinker,Scribe,$35
In 1988,an elderly man approached the author in his native Holland asking him to take delivery of 7000 illegal Bibles in Leningrad. He accepted and,of course,his life changed. Years later,living in Moscow with his Russian wife,his publisher asks him to write a book on the Russian revolution to coincide with its 100th anniversary. The result,weaving between past and present,is this mix of memoir and social history,taking in his time as a tourist guide discreetly flogging Bibles and meeting his wife. The recreations of revolutionary Russia are vivid (including his hatred of the Tsar,Lenin and Stalin) as is the daily reality of living in glasnost Russia. There are some positively Dostoevskian characters,and his portrait of Russia caught at twin moments of upheaval (1917,1988) is an epic tale told with deceptive simplicity.
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