Friday, August 12, 2016

That Trollope

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B19MGvOdqactdXk2ZmRtNDB4Rmc/view?usp=sharing

Podcast concerning the life and works of Anthony Trollope

Thursday, August 11, 2016

Dates and order of reading of my NYU Australian course

September 28 Gail Jones, Five Bells
October 5 Peter Carey, True History of the Kelly Gang;
October 12 Charlotte Wopd, The Natural Way of Things
October 19 Shirley Hazzard, The Transit of Venus
October 26 Tim Winton, Breath 
November 2 Melissa Lucashenko, Mullumbimby; 
November 9  Christos Tsiolkas, The Slap
November 16 Thomas Keneally, The Daughters of Mars;

Wednesday, August 10, 2016

More on my NYU Australian course




Charlotte Wood's book just came out; it is an incredibly engaging  and also quite riveting thriller. Liane Moriarty just raved about it in the Times, and it got a long feature in the Economist.

Christos Tsiolkas's The Slap got huge publicity worldwide and was made into a very good Australian TV miniseries and a far less good American one. It is a highly contemporary, often divisive, but quite attention-holding book.

Peter Carey and Tim Winton really need to introduction to American readers; of course they are writers of widespread fame, among the finest in the world, and both Nobel contenders. Both Carey and Shirley Hazzard have lived and worked in New York City for many years and have been vital players on the American literary scene, demonstrating the continuing global stakes of Australian literature.  Thomas Keneally won the Booker Prize in 1982 for Schindler's List and has made war and its legacies his particular subject. 

Gail Jones and Melissa Lucashenko are up-and-coming writers who address Australia's neglected histories and the possibilities for changing them in this new century.