Ghosts, by Dolly Alderton

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Ghosts, by Dolly Alderton

1 October 2021

When I first heard the term ghosting, almost ten years ago, it referred to leaving social gatherings without saying goodbye to anyone present, even the host. A person might mutter they were going outside to make a “quick phone call” as a pretext for leaving the room, and bang, they were gone. While ghosting’s context is wider today, it is most commonly applied to situations where someone abruptly ends an intimate relationship, without warning or explanation.

It is a phenomenon that strikes thirty-something Nina, a successful food writer, with everything going for her, in Ghosts (published by Penguin Books Australia, July 2021), the second book by London based journalist and author Dolly Alderton. While her friends are marrying and settling down with families, single Nina feels left behind until she meets Max, the man who seemingly has it all, and wants – so he says – to make a life with her.

But minutes after declaring their love for each other, Max vanishes without a trace. He doesn’t offer a goodbye, nor any reason for breaking off the relationship. But when Nina goes looking for support from her friends and family, no-one’s there. Her friends are distracted by their children, her mother is busy making a new life for herself, while her father is tragically slipping into the mist of dementia.

The Midnight Watch, by David Dyer

30 September 2021

The tragic 1912 sinking of the RMS Titanic has intrigued and fascinated me for as long as I can remember. At age ten or eleven I found a battered copy of the late Clive Cussler’s 1976 novel Raise the Titanic!, in a box of books left out on the street, and then a short time later saw the 1953 film of the vessel’s sinking, although all I recall of that now is its haunting ending.

While it’s been sometime since I watched or read anything Titanic related, The Midnight Watch (published by Penguin Books Australia, February 2017), by Sydney based Australian former ship’s officer, and lawyer, turned teacher and writer David Dyer, recently caught my eye. The story is a fictionalised recounting of events on board the SS Californian, one of the ships in the vicinity of the ill-fated Titanic as it was sinking.

While the captain and senior officers of the Californian were aware the Titanic was in distress – it fired numerous distress flares into the night – they chose to keep their distance, even though they were close enough to see the stricken vessel. Why the Californian stayed put is a question The Midnight Watch attempts to resolve, and it is difficult not to wonder how many lives might have been saved had it rendered assistance.

The Ghostlights, by Gráinne Murphy

29 September 2021

Life can become routine and monotonous. The day-in and the day-out. Often it happens gradually, creeps up from behind, you’re simply too busy to notice. You settle into a pattern, kid yourself you’re content, and believe it. It’s called getting into the zone; the comfort zone. And there you might stay, until something comes along and shakes you out of your self-induced stupor.

Ethel owns a guesthouse in rural Ireland, but leaves its management to Liv, one of her daughters, in The Ghostlights (published by Legend Press, September 2021), the second novel by Cork based Irish writer Gráinne Murphy. Meanwhile her other daughter, Marianne, who is disillusioned with life, returns from Dublin, for some time out. Her homecoming coincides with the arrival of a guest, a man named Fred.

A few days later, Fred is found drowned in a nearby pond, his death a suicide. The tragedy brings the local community together, but the demise of the elderly guest takes a toll on Ethel, Liv, and Marianne. While their neighbours mourn Fred’s passing, the three women find themselves pondering their relationships, their place in the scheme of things, some poor life decisions, and just where it is that they are going.

How many banned books have you read? More than you think

28 September 2021

To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, book cover

Lock the doors, lower the blinds, switch off your phone, we’re flying below the radar now. All because it’s Banned Books Week, and, well, who wants to be caught in possession of literary contraband? Not that I thought for a second I might be violating statutes by reading Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, or The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood.

Attempts to keep To Kill a Mockingbird out of circulation didn’t surprise me. I expect in 1960, when first published, it may have offended some sensibilities, but efforts to prohibit the title are far more recent. The Handmaid’s Tale, meanwhile, has likewise been challenged or banned since its release in 1985, for content deemed to be vulgar, violent, and sexually explicit.

Other books to receive similar treatment include The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, The Color Purple, by Alice Walker, and, yes, even Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, by Hunter S. Thompson. Yet I read each blissfully ignorant of the controversy they once stirred up, or still are. For that, I’m eternally thankful to live in the time and place I do.

Update: for the daring: banned book bingo by Keeping Up With The Penguins.

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books, novels, writing

She Drives Me Crazy, by Kelly Quindlen

28 September 2021

American young adult author Kelly Quindlen knew she wanted to write from the age of six. In comparison, I was a late bloomer. My English teacher in my final year of high school told me he thought my essays were a notch or two above the rest of the class, and suggested I consider a career involving writing. Maybe you could call the Oblong Obsession project another step towards that aspiration.

Maybe then it’s apt I’m writing today about She Drives Me Crazy (published by Roaring Brook Press/Macmillan, April 2021). Quindlen’s third novel is framed around two high-schoolers, Scottie and Irene, who begin fake dating despite barely liking each other. But Scottie is desperate to get back at her toxic ex-girlfriend, Tally, and being seen at the beautiful Irene’s side is the perfect way to bring this about.

Meanwhile, the cash-strapped Irene is happy to take money from Scottie to go along with the charade. But as can happen when apparent polar opposites, with a disdain for each other, are pushed together, the pair begin to develop feelings for each other. But will that be enough? Can Scottie get over Tally? The road is never smooth though, as was the case for the rom-com stories of the 1980s and 90s, which She Drives Me Crazy pays homage to.

Australian Muslim Writers Festival 2021

27 September 2021

The inaugural Australian Muslim Writers Festival is on this week until Saturday, 2 October. Taking place online, speakers include Michael Mohammed Ahmad, Sara Saleh, Amani Haydar, Randa Abdel-Fattah, and Waleed Aly. I couldn’t find a specific website for the event, but you can get a bit more information about events here.

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The Paper Palace, by Miranda Cowley Heller

27 September 2021

The Paper Palace (published by Viking/Penguin Books Australia, July 2021), is the debut novel of American author Miranda Cowley Heller. Set in Cape Cod, at the ramshackle yet charming old holiday house where Elle has gathered with her family since she was a child, her late summer reverie is abruptly shattered by a spur of the moment fling with, Jonas, her childhood love.

Despite being happily married to Peter for decades, Elle has always carried a torch for Jonas, but over the next twenty-four hours must decide what she wants. Stay with Peter, her beloved husband, or run off with Jonas, whom she could have been with were it not for a tragic incident many years earlier. As Elle ponders her predicament, she finds herself recalling her childhood, and her parent’s far from happy marriage.

The past is riddled with secrets and transgressions, while the present is convoluted by mature adults still lacking in the ability to communicate clearly. The Paper Palace has polarised readers with depictions of rape, sexual assault, and incest, atrocities of which children are the victims, while manifesting the lifelong damage and impact of this abuse.

Great Circle, by Maggie Shipstead

25 September 2021

Great Circle is an aviation term, and in the context of Los Angeles based American author Maggie Shipstead’s novel of the same name (published by Penguin Random House, 4 May 2021), refers to flying around the world, from say the North Pole to the South, and then back. This is what Marion Graves, the pilot at the heart of Shipstead’s third novel is attempting.

However Marion never makes it home during the 1950 flight. Sixty years later a filmmaker is adapting the story of Marion’s life and ill-fated flight to the big screen, and casts Hadley Baxter to portray Marion. Fearing she has become typecast by her part in a recent film franchise, Hadley is keen to take on a role that will cast her in a different light.

But as filming progresses, Hadley becomes drawn into Marion’s rich and varied life, and develops a fascination with her final flight. In learning what she can about Marion, it seems Hadley may have stumbled upon a clue as to the lost pilot’s ultimate fate. Weighing at six hundred pages though, you may want to clear a few other books from your to-be-read list, before beginning Great Circle.

Bewilderment, by Richard Powers

24 September 2021

Bewilderment (published by Hutchinson Heinemann/Penguin Random House, 21 September 2021), is the thirteenth novel by American author Richard Powers, and his second work to be shortlisted for the Booker Prize. It tells the story of the recently widowed Theo, an astrobiologist, and his nine-year-old son, Robin.

They live in a chaotic world, confronting climate change and animal extinction, in a country once on the brink of civil war. The administration of a populist president wants to cut scientific research budgets, something that could bring an end to Theo’s work, searching for extra-terrestrial life on other planets.

While Robin is intelligent and creative, he is also deeply troubled, and prone to aggressive outbursts. His school is threatening to expel him unless he is given medication to control his moods, but Theo is against the idea. He would prefer to try an experimental neurofeedback treatment, based on the recorded brain patterns of Robin’s late mother.

The subtle art of asking a friend to critique your manuscript

22 September 2021

The subtle (and not so subtle) art of giving feedback to a writer, by London based Scottish cartoonist and illustrator Tom Gauld.

Writers know one of the scenarios Gauld envisages is going to play out. But it started me thinking; what if you’re an aspiring author, in other words, unpublished. How do you go about seeking feedback for the manuscript you’ve possibly spent years toiling over, when you don’t have the luxury of being able to call on an editor?

Should you ask friends? It’s probably what most people would think of. But if what a bunch of people agree to take a look, and you end up hearing nothing back? How do you interpret that? To mean your writing is subpar? That’s what I might think. On the other hand, it could be your friends are time-poor, like everyone else.

Expecting someone to read and digest one hundred thousand words and supply commentary, especially in the space of say a week, is a big ask by any standard. Perhaps a more graduated approach is a better idea, something Chicago based writer and filmmaker Jennifer Peepas suggests:

If someone volunteers to read your novel, send them the first chapter or so. If they write back to you wanting more, you have good feedback from that act alone: You wrote a good first chapter, you hooked them, they do actually want to read it, and they will likely give you notes.

That’s not a bad idea. But let’s get to the nitty-gritty. A friend has sent you their writing for critique, and it… it’s terrible. How do you respond? Without causing offence, and destroying the friendship? Freelance editor and writer Meg Dowell thinks the prospective author should put themselves in their friend’s position before sending anything. Long story short, maybe it’s best you don’t ask in the first place:

As humans often do, I turned this question back on myself and tried to imagine myself as the bad writer friend dreaming big. Would I want someone to tell me my writing kind of sucked? Or would I have a better experience continuing to write to my heart’s content and chase my dreams even if it wasn’t likely they’d come true? I’m not sure I would want to know if my writing was terrible. At least, I’m not sure I’d want to hear it from someone close to me. If I were passionate enough about writing to work hard in an attempt to make it, having my dreams crushed before my eyes … I don’t know how I would handle that.

I’m not sure anyone could tell a friend their would-be novel sucked though. More likely they’d say they really liked it, and they’re looking forward to the book launch. After all, that’s what friends are for. This is a matter requiring of further research, and follow-up. In the meantime, go and look at more of Tom Gauld’s work. It’s stellar, unlike asking friends to critique your writing.

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manuscripts, novels, writing

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