The Lifted Brow No.7

Published 2010

While I'm in a reviewing mood I thought I might mention The Lifted Brow. I'm specifically talking about the Lifted Brow no7. Some of the other TLB publications I've read were less to my taste. However number seven really packs a punch. It's a remarkable collection of wild unregulated fiction from writers you've almost certainly not heard of (at least I haven't). They seem to be mostly young Australian and American authors.

There's no index, no publisher page, no author bios and only a very short editorial. In fact I don't even know how many stories are in here. At a guess I'd say about thirty (not including a few comic strips) and they're mostly fairly long stories. There's also a lot of extra artists who have apparently contributed by drawing small penises and shoes in the little spaces above and below the stories.

The collection starts out with an untitled, uncredited and truly bizarre story about a guy called Ricky. He seems to be losing his mind on some type of dissociative drug (well that's my interpretation). From there we get two super short stories of only a paragraph each and then a long, surreal piece about a vindictive santa claus who transforms the protagonist's father into a reindeer. After that is a story about a dinner date featuring a Liberian warlord in a house where every object and surface is completely covered in carpet. Following this is a comic but apparently factual account of a Bachelor and Spinster ball in rural Queensland. The collection continues on in this way, and there's a lot of it. I'm inclined to think the first half is of somewhat better quality than the second half, but there's certainly nothing bad here.

Thanks TLB for no7! Can we have some more like this one day?

In Arcadia

by JD Shaw

Published 2013

This is a comic novel that depicts a near future Melbourne collapsing at a social level. The woes seem to be economic and agricultural in nature but the precise cause isn't exactly clear. The "climate" does get a few mentions however so it fits quite neatly alongside some of the other books I've been reading lately.

The hero and narrator is a typical Melbourne dad (Tom) living with his family in a place that feels very much like Brunswick. Unfortunately the streets of the inner north are becoming overrun with unemployed vagabonds (even more than usual it would seem). Tom and his family decide to flee to the farthest edge of suburbia - to a walled community called Arcadia. Of course there turns out to be some pretty unpleasant things going on in the community and Tom is soon deeply entangled in most of it.

The thing I thought most important about this book was the portrayal of characters desperately trying to hold on to a vanishing suburban ideal. In the quest for luxury these characters are very quick to dispose of their notions of morality. The other thing I liked a lot were the farcical scenes of misadventure and destruction. There is some wildly unfashionable comic writing going here and I was laughing out loud in quite a few places.

My only criticism is that I wanted a lot more detail about what was going on in the rest of the city. The story ends with a sense of a new journey beginning so perhaps (hopefully) the author will keep writing and produce a sequel one day.

**** four stars!

Fly

by Ann Witherall
published 2012

A copy of this found its way into my hands. It's pretty great. It's a loose memoir/fiction novel set in the Melbourne punk scene of the late 1980s.

Annie (aka Agro) flees Adelaide at the young age of fifteen. She's determined to be a punk and the locals don't understand her, so she takes the train to Melbourne. She slips smoothly into the punk scene, and soon is squatting with two friends, Dee and Mel. The story is a mixture of annecdote and what feels like a lightly sculpted narrative.

Annie makes for an interesting lead character. She's saving up money to have cosmetic surgery, in order to conceal a scar across her torso. Ironically it was this scar that helped steer her into the punk scene, where being a freak is something to be proud of. I thought this apparent contradiction in her character gave the book an edge over similar stories.

In order to make quick money she travels back to Adelaide sporadically in order to buy marijuana by the pound. It seems like a long way to go for marijuana, and one of the characters remarks that weed is harder to score in Melbourne than heroin. This is just one of several concepts in the novel which I found vaguely incongruous. However, a lot can change in twenty-five years... who knows maybe it really was like that in the 80s.

I actually preferred the narrative sections of this book, as opposed to the annecdote sections. The narrative sections have a strong Romper Stomper vibe, and I think this book could be adapted into a good movie. I also liked some of the descriptive passages, which tend to celebrate the punkness. Here's one example: "Little black turds littered every surface and made my room smell like a mouse cage. I felt my earlobe. All my earrings were missing and flakes of dried blood coated my fingers. The sign of a good night."

The narrative could be improved and the loose ends tied up. But then it wouldn't be punk.

The Griefing

by Huck Walker

published 2013

I was totally unprepared when I began reading this novel. From the title I could guess that it involved some kind of mass destruction but that was about it. It was great to be propelled into such a wildly original book. So if you like being surprised and unprepared then please ignore the rest of this review and get into The Griefing without finding out too much about it. However if you like reviews, read on. (There's some serious spoilers that follow).

The first thing to say is that this is a very hefty tome (696 pages according to amazon). It's long enough to cover some pretty diverse territory. The novel focusses on four characters. The first is Tommy - a young molecular biologist who is a genius in his field. His quest is to unlock the relationship between the human cell and the organelles inside it. At least that seems to be his main objective. There's also a lot of other stuff he gets up to. The effort to explain the science is commendable and it all feels a lot more plausible than the typical horror fantasy. There's mention of reprogrammed retroviruses for example.

Stayshia is the next character we get close to - she's a hardcore science nerd who accidentally discovers something supernatural. She has a very human reaction to something which she considers impossible, but then goes on to become possessed by her discovery. Including a character like Stayshia who has extrasensory powers reminded me vaguely of Stephen King (he often throws a telepathic character or something into the mix to spice things up). 

Mark is a spectacularly rich young man with some dubious morals. He's looking for something dodgy to fund and comes across both Tommy and Stayshia. The fourth character is Graham. He's a likeable fellow who chops down feral trees for a living, but later on mutates into a big red killing machine.

There's a long section near the beginning of the book which obviously pays homage to the Newcastle underground scene of the late 1990s. Combining the "Bloody Fists" with all the weird science going on was seriously fresh and probably my favourite part of the book. The other section that deserves a special mention is the last twenty percent or so of the book. There is a real pay off for horror fans here. Yes there is a plague of zombies but this is about as original as a zombie plague can be. It reminded me vaguely of "the Thing", "Akira" and maybe "the Fly". There's a lot of gore and a couple of scenes especially are about as scary as horror novels get.

I feel reluctant to criticize this book at all since I don't read a lot of genre fiction - what I liked least here is quite typical of genre fiction - and quite probably the very elements that other readers will particularly appreciate. The Griefing is very long for example, and there are some very lavish descriptive passages. There's also a total lack of comedy which I guess is something you don't expect in a horror novel anyway but I felt it might have helped smooth the ride a little. Also sometimes the characters are remarkably deadpan about the sheer impossibility of things happening around them. For example, Julie doesn't show a lot of concern when her patient slowly mutates into a three metre monster. Then again, stuff like this happens in horror all the time.

All up an amazing novel and good head-trashing material. It's great to find Australian fiction with imagination for a change. Highly recommended.

Hot Mess

Speculative Fiction about Climate Change

edited by Rachel Lynn Brody 2012

This is a collection of six short stories. The last two stand out as being truly superb stories, the others are less memorable.

She Says Goodbye Tomorrow, is a piece of dry realism. Decades from now a family is losing their vineyard due to changing weather conditions. Haute Mess is a fancy short piece about an item of clothing. In Between the Dark and the Light is a fairly traditional science fiction story. It reminded me of Yevgeny Zamyatin. Actually I don't think it really has anything to do with climate change at all. After this comes Traditionibus Ne Copulate which is a truly bizarre story set after the demise of the humans, when mice have taken over as the dominant species. 

Next up is Mom.Mom.Mom.Mom.Mom. I particularly enjoyed this one. It's a little bit like the really good chapter in A Visit From The Goon Squad. The future has a lot of fancy communications and computers, but there's some real problems getting plants to grow. The World Gets Smaller And Things Get Left Behind is set at a time when Venice is underwater. A somewhat philosophical tourist goes diving to see some Botero statues.

Definitely worth a look.

Spectacle City

by Nicola Themistes

Fleshmarket Press 2012

Spectacle City takes us on a lavish journey into the dark heart of decadent modern Melbourne. The writing is rich and eloquent, narrated in a voice inpsired by the literary giants of old (think Milton, Nieztche and Patti Smith). This is a wild and unfettered novel of the kind that is so lacking in contemporary Australia. 

The story follows the misadventures of a methamphetamine-addled young introvert, Alexander Smokescreen, who wanders sleeplessly throughout the city over the terrifying Melbourne Cup weekend. He lives with two other reprobates, Huw Drop and Smithton Smith. Smithton has a secret amphetamine lab hidden in the attic, and produces a lot of black methamphetamine which may or may not have magical powers. Alexander spends the entire novel getting high, and smokes what appears to be superhuman quantities of the black ice. His love interest is a girl known only as T, who seems to represent some kind of redemption. Throughout the book we also meet a variety of eccentric characters, for example, the young Phoebe, Alexander's niece, and Farina, a speed freak who turns into a harpie. Alexander's adventures include crapping his pants while staring at a mural and installing advertisments in the Crown Casino. 

There are a lot of digressions here, and the story has a tendency to fly off onto rather long tangents. The major and recurring themes are gambling, horse-racing, and the lucky country (Australia Felix). There's a lot of extemporising and stream of consciousness writing. Some of it feels authentically drug-induced. The real strength and distinction of the book is of course the language. It's raw and poetic, a homage to self destruction and the battle within. At times I was reminded of Thomas De Quincey (just a little bit). 

Some of the most imaginative passages are the descriptions of Melbourne itself. Places are usually given alternative and appropriate names - ie Melbourne becomes "Specatcle City" and Sydney becomes "Sinny", etc. There's a lot to like here. If I had to make a criticism I would probably pick on the ending, which was perhaps a bit abrupt and unlikely.

Spectacle city is a smoking hot first novel from a new Melbourne author. Romantic, gothic and individual, it's a welcome burst of fresh energy into the local literary scene. Give it a read!

Love Is Not Constantly Wondering If You Are Making The Biggest Mistake Of Your Life

By Anonymous

Perfect Day Publishing 2012

I picked this up in Polyester a few days ago. It looks great, and if it wasn't so fresh it would probably pass off as one of the original Choose Your Own Adventure books. Inside however, it's a rather more straight-forward narrative structure. The "turn to page" options and the pictures are incorporated only so far as to give the book an abstract feeling and a curious aesthetic.

The book traces the relationship between the unnamed narrator and his alcoholic girlfriend Anne. It's told in second person and appears to be a true story. Why the narrator sticks with Anne for multiple years is not entirely explained, but she does get into some wild, life-affirming adventures. She is repeatedly arrested and pulls off a few stunts that would put Shane McGowan to shame. Meanwhile however, the illustrations and page-turning options are completely unrelated. They instead refer to a space fighter who is trapped on a planet ruled by giant ants.

This was a fun quick read but I wasn't sure whether the Chose Your Own presentation was really the right way to do this one. It's a bit like there's two different ideas here, neither of which have been thoroughly pursued. I hope someone picks up the ball and produces a real, fully functional Chose Your Own Adventure book (with optional drunk girls).

A Girl Among the Anarchists

 

by Isabel Meredith

first published 1903

This was another book that I stumbled upon by accident and enjoyed immensely. I find it astonishing that I didn't come across the book previously and I guess I have the internet to thank for exposing me to another great (and free) novel.

The protagonist here is Isabel Meredith, a young Londoner living in the late nineteenth century. She comes from a wealthy and talented family, but after the death of both her parents, she turns to radical politics, and discovers that anarchism is the closest thing to her heart. As soon as the possibility arises she teams up with some truly eccentric anarchists and they take over the publication of a struggling anarchist paper. The narrator spends a great deal of time describing the people around her. In fact, character descriptions take up most of the novel. Stylistically it reminded me somewhat of Charles Dickens, but perhaps that's only because I'm a bit out of touch with more comparable English writers. To put it simply - the prose is truly great.

What touched me most about this was how little has apparently changed in 120 years of anarchism. Idealistic anarchists living with the poor and deranged. The talented exploited by the unscrupulous. Damaged anarchists putting their associates at risk. One thing that has changed however is that a modern european anarchist would probably not resort to eating a stewed tom cat (well probably not).

After reading the book, I was inspired to do a bit of research on the author. Isabel Meredith was apparently the pseudonym of two sisters, Helen and Olivia Agresti. Incredibly Olivia in her later years moved to Italy and became a supporter of Mussolini (according to wikipedia). Learning this was somewhat disappointing to me, but it seems wrong to judge a book by the behaviour of the author. I'm still rating this with five stars.

Anarchist Farm

by Jane Doe (aka Jan Edwards)

first published 1996

I picked this up with some pretty low expectations. I imagined a crude revision of Orwell's book, this time with the farm animals trying anarchism instead of socialism. I was very wrong! I pretty much loved this right from the start, mostly for the subtle humour and quirky details. I was about halfway through when I realized that I couldn't remember what the original Animal Farm was like so I went back and reread that. I have to say that Jane Doe's book stacks up pretty favourably. It lacks some of the fine language and the narrative isn't as tight. However it's just as imaginative and of course, much more upbeat.

The central character is Snowball the "good" pig, who was chased off Orwell's farm by Napoleon's dogs. He heads into the forest where he encounters a bunch of eco-activist raccoons (it's slightly dubious that raccoons would be living next door to Orwell's very English farm, but no matter). Snowball changes his name to Pancho because it sounds tougher and he embarks on adventures that bring him to the circle A farm - another farm without humans. The animals are a bit smarter here and there are lots of funny characters. One of my favourite moments is when Pancho falls in love with a female pig, only for her to tell him that she prefers girls. To say too much more would be spoiling it. Corporations are presented as the ultimate evil which is probably going to put some right-wing folks off the story, but for most this is going to be a fun read, whatever their politics. The death and murder is pretty minimal too so it makes a good read for children. Check it out!

Nigel Lurch, Anarchist

by Jeff Bain
published 2012 (kindle edition)

This book was a surprising find that I enjoyed greatly. It's a third person comic novel about a young British anarchist in the 1980s. Nigel studies electrical engineering in the Midlands but dreams of starting a revolution somehow. With his friend Dave Swivel they plot to blow to something up, but they're not really sure what to target.

I really liked this but it felt a little bit unfinished. The narrative keeps building up and then disappearing before the climax. For a while it seems like we're heading into "conscious-stricken bomber" territory - think "Four Lions" and "Love & Anarchy" - but this is more like Adrian Mole. There's a lot of description, which although entertaining, isn't always necessary to the story. It feels like the book is based closely on personal experiences, including the bomb building scenes!

Unfortunately the book still has a lot of copy errors. There's a lot of erroneous words, as if the manuscript was put through a spellcheck and nothing further.

My favourite parts were the sections set in the Midlands. A good read, highly original, guaranteed to make you laugh.

PS: I'm still not sure what's happening on the cover.

How to Stop Time - Heroin From A to Z

by Anne Marlow
Virago Press

This is an obscure book which I like for lots of reasons. Firstly the presentation is really quite terrible. Judging by the front cover you would expect yet another non-fiction book about heroin. Then, reading the back cover you learn that heroin is a "controversial white powder". Finally when you're half way through the book you realise that it isn't strictly about heroin at all, it's more like a philosophy of drug subcultures. Strangely enough the clumsy presentation actually endears this book to me. I like it precisely because the cover is so terrible.

How to Stop Time is a series of twenty-six (or thereabouts) vignettes, each a reflection on the New York heroin culture of the 1990s. They focus particularly on the author's own experience, and the experiences of her friends, largely middle-class artists and drop-outs. This is a scene which for many of us living in other western cities is hard to imagine - heroin is cheap, reliable, easily accessible and doesn't require full-time devotion. Marlowe and her friends are remarkably tame users in comparison to the media stereotype. For example she never injects the drug, only snorts it, and never has withdrawal sickness that lasts longer than a day. Despite this "tameness" or perhaps because of it, Marlowe consistently makes observations which apply not only to heroin users, but to human nature in general.

Some of her better ideas involve heroin addicts quitting because they realise it won't kill them, people taking up heroin so they have something to lie about and people becoming addicts to prove they are immortal. There's also another meaning to "How to Stop Time" - for example you could write a philosophical novel about yourself and your friends. Marlowe is very conscious of her role as a writer and in many ways this book is a time capsule - circa New York 1996.

Ultimately I suspect this book has a limited audience. Many middle class readers will find a philosophical exploration of heroin use distasteful. There are also people who clearly want drugs to remain demonized. Unfortunately for them, this is a great book.

The Man Who Never Sleeps

by Levin Diatschenko
Wolfty and Cliff Publishing

This is Diatschenko's first book and I was expecting a fun read (the cover led me to think it might be about a vampire speed freak). Unfortunately I didn't like it as much as I was hoping.

The first third of the novel is set in Adelaide. An elite race of businessmen are controlling the world from luxury apartments above the skyscrapers. They can teleport from place to place via photocopiers and occasionally experiment by playing computer games and smoking bongs with common people. I liked this part of the novel because there was more I could relate to. Needless to say the second part of the novel gets very strange indeed...

The majority of the book is set in a fantasy world called Gamonville. This is a dream-like place where wizards compete to earn hats in a school and have their memories erased once a week. There's a lot of action in Gamonville and the description is very sparse. There's a lot of metaphysics and not much in the way of traditional themes like love, sex or death. This part of the story follows the tribulations of the lost Yenin. He starts a gardening business and fights wars in South Gamania. Other characters deal with clocks that are set into the face of the moon, turn into owls and play computer games until they fade right out of existence.

There's some good ideas here, but reading through the whole thing is discombobulating. I didn't make it through the last fifty pages or so (out of 300). The Man Who Never Sleeps is quite possibly the strangest novel ever written in the history of mankind. It should be compuslory reading for very conservative people. Hopefully it will make their brains melt.

Rage: A Sharpie's Journal

by Julie Mac
published Melbourne 2010

Most young people haven't heard of Sharpies. In fact, even when presented with the facts, their existence seems pretty far-fetched. Violent gangs who wore cardigans and platform shoes and roamed the outer suburbs looking for fights? Sounds like the premise for an unlikely Australian remake of "The Warriors".

Sharpies were real however and any doubters should read "Rage" by Julie Mac. It's the actual journal of a Melbourne Sharpie, and it traces the six years between 1974 and 1980. Julie is a precocious teenager, at the age of thirteen she is comfortable with fighting, drinking, sex, and looks old enough to buy alcohol legally if she needs to (I for one can't imagine starting so early but it certainly makes a colourful story). Her early entries are about Sharpies that she sees near her school. She initially seems to dislike them, but soon comes to release that she is one. She starts dating an older Sharpie boy called Skeeta and becomes part of his gang - the Box Hill Sharps. Later she starts dating Igby and joins the West Side Sharps. Finally she starts dating Chap and rolling with the Melbourne Sharps. (The membership of Sharpie factions doesn't seem to be very well defined so I might have got it a bit mixed up).

Reading this is a bit like attending an Anthropology class about Sharpies. I found it interesting that most of the action happens in the suburbs. Unlike some other subcultures, for example goth, or punk, the Sharps were very spread out. They routinely travelled long distances, by train, car, or even hitch-hiking, slept over at friends' houses and partied when their parents were away. Their enemies were typically Seaweeds (surfers), Rockers and Bikies, other Sharpie gangs, and occasionally ethnic gangs. The girls were also pretty violent, and it was apparently normal for girls to beat each other up and even attack boys on occasion. The Sharps were also not adverse to some serious vandalism, such as slashing and destroying every seat in a train carriage. Favourite pranks included hoax calls to the fire brigade and bomb threats. Tattoos, haircuts, and clothes shopping were important, and Julie often notes down the brands of each item she wears.

This book gets better as it goes along - the section featuring Igby is particularly good. Here there are rolling battles in Alexandra gardens, wild parties and a real sense of vitality. Other parts of the book feel a little bit prozaic. Occasionally Julie mentions other (more exotic) subcultures which seem to coexist with the Sharpies - such as Bowies, who presumably dress something like David Bowie. The Sharps seem to usually get along with Bowies and Skinheads (or Skins), in fact it's a bit difficult to tell what makes people belong to a certain group. Interestingly punks don't exist yet in Melbourne, although she notes the passing of Sid Vicious near the end of the diary and seems to be about to evolve into a punk when the diary suddenly ends. She is only sixteen. The book also features a few photos (in poor resolution), a couple of commentaries from notable Sharpie musicians (such as Angry Anderson), and a "where are they now" section.

I liked this a lot but unfortunately it was a bit long and I occasionally had to read it aloud in a silly voice to make it more interesting. There is some great material here for a retro gang film if anyone ever wanted to make one. The resemblance to films like "The Warriors", and "A Clockwork Orange" is quite palpable, and I found it interesting that she goes to see both films during the book. There's also a lot of current affairs which I liked, for example, the Granvillle train disaster. Sometimes though the voice seems to lack authenticity - is this really a thirteen year old girl? Some parts feel like they have been inserted artificially. There's also a lot of second-hand stories here, stories the narrator has apparently heard from someone else that she is relating with an unusual amount of detail.

I give this four out of five!! ****

The Rooftop Sutras

by Levin Diatschenko

Undergrowth Inc 

This deserves to be the Australian small press book of the year. [Well anyway, I really like it.] The Rooftop Sutras is a collection of thirteen short stories which share similar themes and settings. Diatschenko's characters are typically marooned in a surreal archetypal suburbia. They seek transcendence through a bit of loose Buddhist philosophy and some imaginative escape-artist pranks.

There's at least one great concept in each of these stories, and it's usually delivered without any build up - just a deadpan two sentence paragraph. For example, the marooned hero who discovers that he has not drifted onto an island, but rather sunk to the bottom of the ocean. Or the girl who jumps off the roof insisting that flight is only a matter of willpower. Another character climbs onto the roof of his suburban home and discovers that he has accidentally climbed right out of his life. The creativity and originality had me hooked, hanging on for the next moment of brilliance.

Some of the stories however aren't polished enough. Other times there is a vague sense of self-righteousness which isn't really appropriate in a work of fiction - ie one of the characters who drinks too much is implied as being somewhat lesser than another who meditates routinely. Worth mentioning too is the fairly sloppy copy editing. There's a lot of errors in the line indents, almost one on every second page. The back cover blurb is also remarkably bad. The last line reads: "This quirky book will both entertain and baffle, leaving a lasting impression on the reader's mind." Well whose other mind would be affected? Not the sort of thing that would make me buy an unfamiliar author.

The Rooftop Sutras works because it breaks all the rules, sets out alone and tells us something new about Australia. The reinvention of suburbia as some sort of mythological wasteland is particularly satisfying.

Underground

by Andrew McGahan

Allen & Unwin 2006

This remarkable book establishes Andrew McGahan as one of Australia's top authors. Underground makes an obvious political statement – basically that the war on terror and the whole Howard era has been total bullshit – a statement which for some reason other novelists have not put forth so lyrically. McGahan eschews a heavy diatribe for something more oddball, something more accessible, something more Matthew Riley. The resulting novel is a very imaginative, very comic, action thriller, compared justly on the back cover to both Orwell and Dr Strangelove. Despite the fact that the Howard years are now behind us, we can only hope that the book is read widely and fully appreciated by a young audience – so that they know the terrors that might have been – so that they steer the country well clear in future...

The setting is less than a decade away, but Australia has become a police state, a true fascist dictatorship. Leo James, entrepreneur and estranged brother of the PM, is captured by a terrorist group during the chaotic impact of a Queensland cyclone. Thenceforth Leo is propelled through a series of rescues, shoot-outs and recaptures – thrown from one farcical situation to the next. He winds up in the custody of a blokish resistance fighter, an agent of the enigmatic “Oz Underground”. Alongside a white Jihad-enthusiast called Nancy, the three uncover just how unbelievably mendacious the government has become. Meanwhile the action is interspersed with chunks of the background story – elaboarating on how things got to be just this dystopian and putting us in the shoes of Mr Leo James in time for the strangely touching conclusion.

Underground is very gently satirical, although it occasionally culminates in scenes of true comic brilliance. The Australia vs America cricket match is one of these – “Nothing to stir the blood in the sight of flummoxed ex-baseballers swinging and missing at a nicely contrived off-cutter or deceptively looped bit of leg spin...” Another hilarious notion is the “Citizenship Verification Test”, used by sinister government henchmen to discern rogue elements in the populace. The questions here are about Bradman's batting averages, the poetry of Banjo Patterson, and who bowled the underarm ball - “Trevor Chappell. And it bloody well was legal.”

And this is the big success of Underground – it criticizes excessive nationalism while somehow reaffirming “Aussie” culture. Maybe Leo James represents the Australian identity – wayward, but despite past indiscretions is able to reestablish himself as honest, tolerant, understanding – willing to act beyond mere self-interest.

The only thing worth criticizing here is the non-event title that fails to distinguish the book from so many others. This is McGahan's fifth book, in a catalogue that includes the Vogel Award winning Praise, and the Miles Franklin Award winning White Earth. The fact that Underground is distinctly different again, says something about his ability.