Books to read this week include new titles from Tariq Ali,Oscar Farinetti and Katherine J. Chen.

Books to read this week include new titles from Tariq Ali,Oscar Farinetti and Katherine J. Chen.

Book critics Lucy Sussex and Steven Carroll cast their eyes over recent fiction and non-fiction titles. Here are their reviews.

Non-fiction pick of the week

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Winston Churchill
Tariq Ali,Verso,$49.99

It might be said of Churchill that he only ever got one thing right,but it was a big one thing – to fight on in 1940 and reject any idea of a negotiated peace with Nazi Germany. Nonetheless,as Tariq Ali documents in this forensic dismantling of the Churchill myth,even at the height of the Blitz a Gallup poll showed that Churchill was not popular.

Ali dates the Churchill cult as beginning with Thatcher and the Falklands War,after that it got out of control. Churchill is now something of a balloon god in search of a pin,and Ali is more than up for the job.

He cites Churchill’s ruthless imperialism,racism (he totally under-estimated the Japanese),violent put-downs of strikes,military catastrophes and more – all largely air-brushed from history. Informed,relentless,often witty,and thoroughly engaging.

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Old Rage
Sheila Hancock,Bloomsbury,$29.99

In 2016,at the age of 83,British actor and author Sheila Hancock took on a film role that required her to scale a Scottish mountain. With a mixture of pluck and preparation she did it,discovering that she connected with nature more than she thought.

It’s emblematic of the woman that emerges from this entertaining combination of diary and memoir,from 2016 to 2021. But it’s not simply taken up with memories of acting over the years. There’s Brexit,railings against Trump and Boris,the politics of owning a house in France and more.

Running through it all is the shadow of mortality,the “inexplicable”. Her dead husband,John Thaw,is a constant presence and reminder. She goes to more funerals,her daughter is diagnosed with breast cancer and she gets rheumatoid arthritis. But,true to her title,she rages on.

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Serend!pity
Oscar Farinetti,trans.,Barbara McGilvray,Black Inc.,$34.99

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One morning in 1894 when John Kellog and his brother Will were making corn soup for the sanitorium they ran in Michigan,they were called to an emergency. When they got back the corn was over-cooked and,for better or worse,corn flakes were born.

Oscar Farinetti,founder of the food chain Eataly,has made a meal of those happy accidents that have given the world its most famous foods and drink:Champagne,born of accidental double fermentation (at first thought to be inferior wine);coffee,invented when a goat-herd from ancient Kaffa observed his frisky goats after they’d eaten the red coffee berries;and Panettone (Toni’s bread) invented after the eponymous Toni,a scullery boy in Ludovico Sforza’s kitchen,burnt the desert and served his own mix instead. Mouth-watering fun,told with the relish of a gourmand.

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Open Secrets
Ed.,Catriona Menzies-Pike,Sydney Review of Books,$29.95

Most writers spend most of their time trying to make money to create the time to write. Writers work very hard,yet there is still a pervasive view that it’s an indulgence.

In this collection of writers on writing,that view is debunked by the testimony of,say,Fiona Kelly McGregor,who documents all the jobs she’s done and does,from reviews to sex work,to bring in money. Another writer works in a call centre. Vanessa Berry,in a superb piece of writing,pays homage to the role of clutter in the writing process:written scraps that join other scraps and may create a whole. James Ley,in a resolutely argued and timely piece defends literary scholarship against neo-liberal philistinism.

Too often writers and literature are dismissed as the mere icing on the cake of culture,as apart from an intrinsic part of it. May this collection help to redress that.

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Fiction pick of the week

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Joan
Katherine J. Chen,Hodder&Stoughton,$32.99

Katherine Chen’s first novel took on Jane Austen. Her second,Joan of Arc. This project is similar to Shelley Parker-Chan’s fantasyShe Who Became the Sun — history with a new twist,but also with overtones of martial arts narratives.

The unlikely,such as peasants,through hard work and ability,become great warriors. Chen here strips away the supernature,with no religious overtones. Her Joan is naturally strong,and a scrapper. If her ability to learn medieval warfare seems uncanny,then it is made perfectly credible.

The Society for Creative Anachronism and weaponry fans may quibble,but the book makes for a lived-in past. It eschews both post-modernism and anachronism,as well as the real-life ending of Joan,in fire. Chen’s Joan is fresh,unusual and vivid.

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The Registrar
Neela Janakiramanan,Allen&Unwin,$32.99

This first novel has much media attention,as the author has an established public profile. She also has a strong sense of narrative,something not always taught to creative writers.

What is revived here is the novel of social protest,so successful as art and agitation for Dickens et al. The victims inThe Registrar happen to be the elite — surgeons in training. That their public hospital is failing is one issue. The other is that their progress to a profession is inhumane,with long hours,extreme stress and victimisation. Small wonder suicides occur.

The author writes human nuance with assurance,though not yet with Dickens’ ability to make even minor characters vibrate. Contains much gore,even with bunions.

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Uncanny Angles
Sean Williams,Wakefield,$32.99

Sean Williams is a prolific Australian writer of SF and fantasy. The field requires an international audience for much longevity,also flexibility. By his own account he stopped writing short stories in 2000 when he became a successful novelist. Yet the form remained something of a first love for him,hence this collection.

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Helpfully,Williams has organised a series of paths through it. If,like Williams himself,matter transmitters are your thing then the theme can be followed from story to story. Elsewhere he essays the fantastic,riffs off Wells’ War of the Worlds or,like Georges Perec,loses a letter.

The stories range from the short and quirky to novelettes,where his ideas can be developed. Pick of bunch:Impossible Music,about just that.

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The Family String
Denise Picton,Ultimo,$32.99

This debut novel draws upon the author’s Christadelphian childhood,but is not,she says,autobiographical. It merges two different genres,the novel of knockabout youth and the psychodrama.

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Scene:1960s Adelaide,where pre-teen Dorcas is always in trouble. She seems a Just William or Naughty Little Sister,but meets genuine nightmare. Her mother is slowly breaking down from dire domesticity and Dorcas is the object of her abuse. The children watch their parents,unable to understand the adult world. They spin their fears into a lethal fable,with faith no help at all.

Despite Dorcas being appealing as a heroine,the comedy and darkness make for an uneasy mix. The resolution may seem sweetness and light,but it also recalls the Rolling Stones’Mother’s Little Helper.

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