Acclaimed actress Judi Dench talks all things Shakespeare What started out as a series of conversations destined for the archives at Shakespeare's Globe have turned into a book. It was actor and director Brendan O'Hea's idea to capture Judi Dench's musings on her career, specifically as a Shakespearean actress, but when the recordings were heard by a third party it was suggested they be turned into a book. The Man Who Pays the Rent was Dench and husband Michael Williams' nickname for Shakespeare. The playwright's expansive oeuvre kept them in work. For a book based on a series of conversations, you'd expect something light and frothy. Indeed, it is that. But so much more besides. Dench shows an impressive knowledge and incredible recall of lines, passages, dialogue, poetry and plot lines from the plays. There is also a detailed consideration of character, psychology and motive. Often Dench celebrates the mystery and subtlety of Shakespeare, advising that meaning is ultimately in the eye of the beholder. A broad range of the plays are discussed – tragedies, comedies, histories and the so-called problem plays. Mini in between chapters discuss stagecraft, language and the role of critics. Dench peppers her commentary with amusing stories from her acting career – falls, stumbles, forgotten lines, wardrobe malfunctions. Like all wonderful books on Shakespeare, The Man Who Pays the Rent inspires the reader to return to the plays. A companionable book that mixes serious analysis with jolly, break-a-leg stories from the stage. Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent, by Judi Dench. Published by Michael Joseph. $36.99 Review by Chris Saliba A new biography of Rupert Murdoch concentrates on his early years. Rupert Murdoch’s influence is ubiquitous, yet the man himself remains oddly opaque. Contradictions abound. During his university days, he toyed with left-wing politics, but soon moved to the right. He painted himself the outsider, but quickly became the establishment. As Murdoch once said candidly: “Monopoly is a terrible thing, until you have it.” Journalist Walter Marsh’s new biography of Murdoch concentrates on the mogul’s formative years in Adelaide at the helm of The News, especially its controversial coverage of the 1959 Stuart royal commission, which brought Rupert and his editor, Rohan Rivett, close to a jail term for seditious libel. The book also works as a dual biography of his father, Keith. Murdoch senior started as the editor of the Melbourne Herald and was soon engineering a series of ambitious business deals that sowed the seeds of the Murdoch empire, but left him overdrawn and overstretched. Rupert clearly inherited his father’s penchant for high stakes and risk taking. Young Rupert is a scrupulously well-researched history that examines the power of the press in the twentieth century, and its influence on politics. Rupert Murdoch remains largely elusive, yet new research shows glimpses of a man under pressure and unable to enjoy his success. Readers interested in Australian politics and publishing will find much to satisfy here. Young Rupert: The Making of the Murdoch Empire, by Walter Marsh. Published by Scribe. $34.99 Release date 1st August. Review by Chris Saliba This review first published at Books + Publishing. Ruby Langford Ginibi's classic memoir is a no holds barred story of pain, joy and survival As part of its new series of First Nations Classics, University of Queensland Press is re-publishing Ruby Langford Ginibi's acclaimed memoir Don't Take Your Love to Town (1988). Langford Ginibi, a Bundjalong woman, was born in 1934 and raised in the small New South Wales town of Bonalbo. Her mother left the family when she was six, to marry another man. By age 16 Ruby was pregnant and she would go on to have nine children by several fathers. These relationships started out good, but would eventually turn sour, ending in either neglect or abuse. Langford Ginibi, in wiser old age, would swear off men, hence the book's title. Tragically, three of her children died, causing her years of grief – and a drinking problem that she finally kicked. It's hard to understate how extraordinary a memoir this is. Langford Ginibi, viewed as a character on the page, is a mix of Chaucer's Wife of Bath and Brecht's Mother Courage, a woman of irrepressible life force and a tough survivor. She is a workhorse providing for her brood, living rough in outback tents and killing her own food. She brawls and drinks, would give you the shirt off her back if asked and raises a glass to life despite its endless hardships, especially for First Nations people. At 400 pages long, there is never a dull moment in Don't Take Your Love to Town, as it chronicles a life lived to the fullest. Despite the vein of pain and suffering that runs through the book, Langford Ginibi is also very funny. She has an ironic turn of phrase and delightfully blunt sense of humour that gives her story heart and humanity. An incredible memoir, an incredible life lived. Indeed, a classic. Don't Take Your Love to Town, by Ruby Langford Ginibi. Published by Queensland University Press. $19.99 Released May 30, 2023 The former Baywatch star and Playboy pin-up tells her story. Pamela Anderson has always been perceived as a two-dimensional figure – a pin up girl and Baywatch star, more famous for her red swimsuit than any acting ability. She married drummer Tommy Lee in a bikini on the beach and found her life dragged through the gutter when some private videos were stolen from her house and edited into a sordid “sex tape”. In later years a different side to Anderson emerged. There was her animal welfare work for PETA and advocacy for Julian Assange. Now middle-aged and with two adult sons, Pamela Anderson has decided to write her own story. An avid reader (everyone from Anais Nin to Noam Chomsky is referenced) and diary keeper since childhood, Love, Pamela seamlessly blends poetry and prose and has a brisk, almost chatty tone. She discusses growing up in Canada, her parents' turbulent relationship and childhood traumas such as when she was molested by a female babysitter. There are entertaining chapters on working for Playboy Magazine, her passionate and often extravagant lifestyle with Tommy Lee and the more settled years of activism and farming on her Canadian property, where she lives with her parents. Love, Pamela could be best described as a book of forgiveness and healing. Anderson is candid about the many mistakes she has made in life, but seems to shrug them off as all par for the course. No one's perfect and nor should they expect to be. Where others have done her wrong, she holds no grudges or bitterness. Indeed, this is a sweet and hopeful book that strives to see the best in people. An inspiring memoir, written in Pamela Anderson's unique authorial voice. The blonde pin-up now speaks, her words wise and compassionate. Love, Pamela, by Pamela Anderson. Published by Headline. $34.99 Review by Chris Saliba Maggie Haberman's exhaustive biography of Donald Trump It feels like we reached Trump saturation point many years ago. Who would want to read another book on the polarising president? Maggie Haberman is a journalist who has covered Trump for decades. Like Trump, she's a born and bred New Yorker. Unlike other memoirs and biographies that paint Trump as a cartoonish ogre, Haberman has drawn a nuanced, fully fleshed portrait. Confidence Man argues that if you want to understand the Trump of today, it's imperative to look at his past – his years as a 1980s property tycoon and his relationship with his father. We learn that Trump senior was controlling and brutal. As a property developer in a violent and corrupt 1980s New York, Trump was more bruiser than businessman, intimidating his way to success and using his father's money. The second half of the book covers Trump's presidency, culminating in the January 6 insurrection. With superb research and detail, Haberman describes a slow motion train wreck. Trump's personality grew even more erratic and domineering with unchecked power. In the book's epilogue, Haberman neatly sums Trump up: “...a narcissistic drama-seeker who covered a fragile ego with a bullying impulse...” A tour de force. Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America, by Maggie Haberman. Published by HarperCollins. $34.99 Review by Chris Saliba Whistleblower Chelsea Manning has written a compelling and insightful memoir. Chelsea Manning, a former US soldier and intelligence analyst, leaked some 700,000 classified documents pertaining to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. She felt an increasing cognitive dissonance at how both wars were portrayed at home, compared to the reality on the ground. At first she tried to get what she knew published through mainstream media channels, anonymously approaching journalists and editors. Little interest was shown, so she decided on the bold plan of simply releasing all the documents online. Wikileaks soon made a name for itself in publishing the leaked documents. Much has been written about Manning's motives. To set the record straight, she has decided to write her own story. Too many times, Manning writes, she has been held up as a figure head for certain political movements. As the pages of Readme.txt reveal, she sees herself more as a transparency activist, someone striving to put the truth before the public. Born Bradley Manning in Oklahoma, she experienced a tough upbringing with a violent father and alcoholic mother. As a teenager she spent a period homeless, living on the streets and hustling for food and board. Desperately poor, with no prospects and trying to gain acceptance from her father, she decided to join the army. Since childhood Manning had been grappling with gender dysphoria and she hoped the army would somehow resolve these issues. Despite this, the dysphoria remained, with the need for secrecy influencing career decisions that would see her eventually stationed in Iraq. Readme.txt is written in crisp, concise prose, neatly putting Manning's endlessly fascinating story into a satisfyingly digestible form. She claims to have always been a voracious and wide reader, and a sharp intelligence comes through in the text. Her story is one of surviving extreme psychological duress during seven years of prison, especially her early years of incarceration, where it was clear the authorities wanted to mete out the toughest possible punishment. Despite this, she managed to advocate for herself as a trans woman and receive appropriate gender treatment. Manning is a complex and fascinating character. She comes across as both incredibly vulnerable and resolutely strong. A gifted computer technician and analyst, she's also a passionate activist, someone ready to face jail for her beliefs. A trans woman who has had to fight for her identity. Chelsea Manning is certainly a polarising figure, but one who can't be ignored. Readme.txt deserves a wide readership. Readme.txt: A Memoir, by Chelsea Manning. Published by Jonathan Cape. $35 Review by Chris Saliba A selection of Behrouz Boochani's writing from his time detained on Manus Island. Behrouz Boochani fled his native Iran in 2013, his work as a journalist having brought him the unwelcome attention of the authorities. He was on his way to Australia via Indonesia when the boat he was travelling on was intercepted by the Royal Australian Navy. He was detained on Manus Island from 2013 until 2019, when he managed to travel to New Zealand for a literary event and was subsequently granted refugee status. Freedom, Only Freedom is a collection of Boochani's prison writings, translated and edited by Omid Tofighian and Moones Mansoubi. The book is divided into ten parts, covering key events of Boochani's time in detention and also addressing philosophical and political questions regarding Australia's asylum seeker policies. Each part finishes with two pieces by different writers – academics, activists, journalists and supporters. These pieces aim to give context and perspective to Boochani's writing. While these contributions are interesting, they tend to be densely academic in tone. Boochani wrote the majority of the work presented here on his phone – an amazing feat of determination and commitment. He covers all aspects of detention – the constant humiliation, the hunger, dirt, filth, squalor, poor health of detainees and lack of appropriate services. The aim of detention, it seems, is to psychologically break down detainees until they are mere shells. One man whose only pleasure was playing his guitar had it confiscated. The official reason was the strings were considered a suicide risk. Despite so much misery and indignity, Boochani strives to show the humanity and hopes of his fellow detainees. If prison life offers only sadness and desperation, there are still the beauties of nature: birds, sea, sunshine. When all promise and dignity is stripped from the individual, nature allows detainees to still feel themselves as human. Another aspect of detention the book addresses is the political. Boochani asks why Australia has chosen such a cruel and merciless system. Does it have roots in our colonial past, our former White Australia policy? Manus and Naru are like a gulag, where people are disappeared. Boochani sees his writing as a history project, a secret history that Australians don't want to confront. “This writing that comes out of Manus is the unoffical history of Australia, a history that will never be authorised by the government.” Freedom, Only Freedom proves to be a unique and critical document chronicling Australia's detention policy. It will surely only grow in status and relevance in the years to come. Freedom, Only Freedom: The Prison Writings of Behrouz Boochani, by Behrouz Boochani. Published by Bloomsbury. $32.99 Review by Chris Saliba A highly enjoyable, witty biography of the great metaphysical poet, John Donne John Donne (1572-1631) was many things in his time: a soldier (although not a particularly effective one), a parliamentary MP (he was parachuted into the role) and a cleric, achieving considerable fame under James I as the Dean of St Paul's Cathedral. He worked hard to curry favour with the royal court, efforts that paid off, although an ill chosen word in a sermon could bring on the king's wrath. Today we remember Donne for his poetry. Everyone knows the phrase, “No man is an island”. Beyond that, he also contributed hundreds of new words to the English language, many which we use today. Donne spent a large part of his life trying to keep out of trouble. He was Catholic (later giving up his religion) at a time when Queen Elizabeth's spies were at work, capturing and torturing anyone suspected of plotting against the protestant queen. Donne's brother, Henry, would be thrown in jail for trying to hide a catholic, where he would die. Donne married Anne More, without her father's permission. An act of deceit that found him temporarily thrown into prison, a terrifying circumstance considering disease was rife. The marriage was a happy one, although perhaps not as happy for Anne. She bore him 12 children, many of them dying either still born or in childhood. Her last pregnancy literally killed her. She was only thirty-three years old. Money was often tight with so many children, but Donne would eventually come into money as a cleric for the Church of England. While Super-Infinite is a biography of Donne, children's author Katherine Rundell also provides an appreciation of Donne's poetry. Rundell admits that Donne can be difficult, even baffling. “The pleasure of reading a Donne poem is akin to that of cracking a locked safe, and he meant it to be so...The poetry stands to ask: why should everything be easy, rhythmical, pleasant?” Rundell's analysis shows a poet and prose writer whose work crackles and pops with ideas, paradoxes and conundrums. He truly wrestled with life's great questions and mysteries, his dynamic mind never tiring for a minute. Donne marveled at our “super infinite” selves, the limitless bounds of human consciousness. He thought each human's inner life vaster, more overflowing, than the very globe we stood upon. Donne's intellectual and psychic energy propelled him like a rocket, his pen producing great satires, sermons and love poetry. Katherine Rundell has written a biography that is delightfully light in tone but deep in its study. We come away from this portrait of Donne pleasantly discombobulated but also invigorated. Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne, by Katherine Rundell. Published by Faber. $34.99 Review by Chris Saliba A heartbreaking AIDS memoir. John Foster was an historian, specialising in German history. For many years he taught at Melbourne University. His home was North Melbourne, where he lived with his partner Juan Céspedes. Foster was a practising Anglican and a parishioner at St Mary's. He rented a flat from the church in Howard Street, North Melbourne. (Residents of the inner-city suburb will recognise many locations and streets.) In 1981, on a trip to New York, John met Juan and they enjoyed a long distance relationship for several years, until their battle with the Australian immigration department started to yield results and Juan moved to Australia. It was the early days of AIDS and information was slowly emerging. There had been a disturbing rise in what were called “gay cancers”. New York was an area where such mysterious illnesses seemed to be proliferating. For many years, Juan had complained of stomach problems and had cast around for various cures to his condition. The idea that it could be AIDS was something the couple thought a remote possibility, but too terrible to contemplate. As Juan's health deteriorated, the possibility had to be confronted. By the time Juan found out he was HIV positive, he was living in Australia. The cherished dream of building a life together started crumbling apart as John took on a carer's role. AIDS is a slow and cruel death. Take Me to Paris, Johnny is candid and matter-of-fact about how the disease relentlessly ravages the body. Juan was once a vibrant and energetic dancer, but near the end he weighed under 40 kilograms. He was only thirty-three when he died. This is a lyrical yet unsentimental memoir that documents not only the illness itself, but social attitudes and the lack of legal protections for gay couples. There are, however, bright rays of sunshine in the support John and Juan received from St Mary's and the small community of friends they belonged to, but unbearable pain in the hopelessness of Juan's condition. John Foster died of AIDS in 1994, the year after Take Me to Paris, Johnny was published. John and Juan are buried together at Kew cemetery. A heartbreaking story told with restraint, humanity and dignity. Take Me to Paris, Johnny, by John Foster. Published by Text Classics Review by Chris Saliba A successful young writer describes a personal season in hell. Oliver Mol found a degree of early success with his debut memoir, Lion Attack! He was broadly feted and received the Scribe Non Fiction Prize for Young Writers. Yet it was this very success that precipitated a chronic, 10-month migraine. Depressed and not knowing what to do with himself, Mol took on a job as a train guard. If he couldn't read or write, at least there was the possibility of staying employed and useful. Train Lord is not so much a memoir about his work as a train guard, although there are plenty of entertaining workplace vignettes interspersed throughout, but more a story of mental breakdown. Mol suffered low self-esteem and depression. It's tempting to surmise that his vaulting ambition as a writer somehow backfired into a crisis of confidence: his migraine affliction made it painful to look at screens, read books or write. What recommends Train Lord is Mol's heartbreaking honesty. He's clearly suffered a season in hell and has managed to put his experiences on paper. The writing is plain and direct, yet haunting and melancholy. Anyone who struggles with their mental health may find a friend in this book. Train Lord: The Astonishing True Story of One Man's Journey to Getting His Life Back on Track, by Oliver Mol. Published by Michael Joseph. $35 Release date: 2nd August, 2022 Review by Chris Saliba |
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