A crowd pleasing transgender memoir. Cadance Bell grew up in Mudgee, New South Wales. Hers is your usual story of growing up in country Australia – trips to the local fish and chip shop, hunting expeditions with your father – except for one thing. Cadance had a frightening secret. Born a boy and named Benjamin Lynch, she knew that something was wrong. Her male body, and all the cultural expectations that go with being a boy, didn't fit. She felt seriously out of whack. Cadance tried to right the wrongs of her male body by secretly buying women's clothing and wearing bras underneath her blokey clobber. She would keep stashes of women's clothes in hidden bags, terrified that someone would find out. Shame, guilt, secrecy, self-loathing. All these emotions would drive her into the arms of a drug habit to try to dull the pain and make life bearable. Finally the dark clouds started to break and Cadance found a way out. She started to transition. It wasn't easy. Most difficult of all was finding acceptance from her parents. While they did struggle with her identity, they eventually came round. The above may make The All of It: A Bogan Rhapsody sound like a misery memoir, but it's actually a boisterous, rollicking, laugh out loud ride through working class Australia. Cadance Bell has a magic gift for capturing personalities in their true vernacular. Her dialogue leaps off the page and shakes you about. The portraits of her knock-about parents – her mother, a tough-as-nails nurse who's seen it all and her father, a mine worker – are unforgettable. The various snapshots of growing up in rural Australia resonate as unmistakably authentic. This may be a trans memoir, but readers will see themselves and their family in its pithy descriptions of Australian life. Ultimately, The All of It is a funny, big-hearted memoir of growing up Australian, one that also deftly explains the pain and mental anguish of feeling you don't belong in your body. An absolute winner. Release date 5th July, 2022 The All of It: A Bogan Rhapsody, by Cadance Bell. Published by Viking. $34.99 Review by Chris Saliba A compassionate and candid memoir about the South Sudanese refugee experience. Akuch Kuol Anyieth spent a large part of her childhood in the Kakuma refugee camp, located in the North-western region of Kenya. In her memoir, Unknown: A Refugee's Story, she details the poverty, violence, danger and desperation of living for almost a decade in Kakuma. (In South Sudanese culture, names are sometimes selected to reflect the circumstances surrounding a person's birth. "Akuch" means "unknown" or "I don't know", signifying the author's birth during a time of uncertainty and war.) There were times of the day you didn't walk out alone, for fear of being abducted and raped. Or worse, killed. Food was always scarce, sanitation poor and people's mental health precarious. The UN promised food and protection, but could never deliver these basic human rights. Life in the camp was one of constant struggle. The second half of Unknown chronicles the family's experiences in Melbourne as migrants. Akuch's mother, a formidable force despite many limitations, moved heaven and earth to get her family to Australia. In 2005 they arrived – two brothers, Gai and Anyieth, and sister Atong. Language difficulties and cultural differences meant the family struggled to lay down stable roots in Australia. Anyieth's elder brother, nicknamed Dragon due to his volatile nature, took to drink, drugs and street fighting, causing immense suffering and heartache for the family. A younger brother, Gai, also found adjusting to Australia difficult and took to the streets. (Thankfully, both brothers eventually found stability in their lives and settled down.) Meanwhile, Akuch threw herself into study and work, determined to succeed academically and financially, but also to help members of her community overcome the trauma they had experienced. Unknown is a remarkable memoir. Akuch Anyieth lays out the horrible reality of life in a refugee camp and the difficulties of settling into a new country. Australian bureaucracy can be complex and daunting to deal with, and ingrained racist attitudes make life difficult for South Sudenese refugees. The sections discussing race are informative, giving the reader first hand insights into how people with darker skin are treated. Besides being a bracing memoir of an extraordinary life, Unknown is also deeply compassionate. It asks us to suspend our quick judgements on troubled South Sudenese youth until we know the complicated background story of war, displacement and trauma. Release date 3rd May Unknown: A Refugee's Story, by Akuch Kuol Anyieth. Published by Text. Review by Chris Saliba The stand up comic shows herself to be a formidable writer. Hannah Gadsby's fame now stretches the world over, but her unpropitious beginnings were in the north Tasmanian town of Smithton. As described in Ten Steps to Nanette, the northern half of Tasmania was rampant with homophobia before the gay law reforms of the early nineties. It was then unremarkable for major public figures to stoke fear and violence against gay people. Gadsby chronicles this terrible time in considerable detail. While Nanette presents as a memoir, it's a multi-faceted, left-of-field one. Gadsby depicts the struggle of growing up queer in a hostile environment and the trauma that ensues. She also examines the art and psychology of comedy, how tension is built and released in an audience. At one point Gadsby confesses to being able to play her audience like an instrument. Finally, Nanette works as a confessional, delving deeply into Gadsby's troubled psyche and then resurfacing victorious, having subdued many personal demons. There's a good deal of therapy and working through problems in these pages. Fans of Hannah Gadsby won't be disappointed with this intelligent, perceptive and often very funny memoir. A substantial work of autobiography with not a word wasted. Ten Steps to Nanette, by Hannah Gadsby. Published by Allen & Unwin. $49.99 Review by Chris Saliba Seasoned political journalist Karen Middleton takes on the Anthony Albanese story. Albanese: Telling It Straight is a well fleshed out biography of Labor's current opposition leader, Anthony Albanese. First published in 2016, it tells of the personal and the political. Albanese was born in 1963 to Maryanne Ellery and Carlo Albanese. His parents' union was a brief one. They met on a cruise ship where Carlo was a steward, but their differing circumstances (Carlo was from Italy, Maryanne from the Western suburbs of Sydney) meant the relationship could not be pursued. When Maryanne found she was pregnant, her parents helped raise the child. To avoid unwanted questions and attention, Anthony's mother invented a story. She told everyone except a select few that she had married Carlo, but that he had tragically died in a car accident. Young Anthony would not learn the truth until he was aged fourteen, when his mother sat him down to explain. He would not meet his father until he was a middle-aged man. (The detective work involved in finding Carlo makes for a dramatic final act of Middleton's biography, with the surprise help of former Howard government minister Amanda Vanstone.) Growing up poor in a sole parent family, dependent on public housing, helped shape Anthony's progressive outlook. He fought his way up through the ranks of Labor politics, aligned with its hard left faction and eventually was preselected for the seat of Grayndler. His politics are pretty stock standard left wing fare: pro gay marriage (before many others were, it must be said); pro women; pro environment. True, that's an oversimplification, but the book concentrates more on factional infighting than policy development. Happily there's no scandals or skeletons in the Albanese closet. The worst that can be said of Albanese is he knows how to play politics hard and to win. Colleagues say he is direct and honest. When he promises to do something, he does it. There's also a basic decency to his character. He makes sure people feel respected and acknowledged. Anthony Albanese doesn't leap off the page as a great character. He's a dogged political operator, doing the grunt work to get things done. One can't imagine eloquent speeches or fine turns of phrase from him. The portrait this biography paints is of someone stodgy but honest. No fancy bells or whistles, but someone who is at least reliable and true to their word. A consummately researched biography of a tough political character with a heart stopping personal story that is genuinely moving. Albanese: Telling it Straight, by Karen Middleton. Published by Vintage. $24.99 Review by Chris Saliba The story of how one of Silicon Valley's dark princes made his billions and wields his influence. Peter Thiel is not a name as well known as Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg, yet he's had considerable influence in the tech world and has attempted to push his ideas into the sphere of politics. Born in West Germany in 1967, his family moved to the United States the following year. A mathematics wiz and chess aficionado, he studied philosophy at Stanford University. His literary influences included Tolkein and Ayn Rand. He soon got involved in campus culture wars through the university's newspaper, The Stanford Review, which Thiel co-founded. The paper's bugbears were political correctness and identity politics, but some of the articles pushed boundaries into racism, sexism and homophobia. After Stanford, Thiel went into law, but soon got bored and dropped out of the corporate world. Instead he co-founded PayPal, the electronic payments system that revolutionised online shopping. Thiel was never really a technologist; investing was his true calling. His investments (including an early bet on Facebook, giving him a 10.2% stake in the company and a place on the board) made him a billionaire many times over. So much wealth, one would think, would result in overwhelming joy, but Thiele remained restless and continued his Stanford University culture wars. When gossip blog Gawker outed Thiel as gay, he sought revenge by suing the media outlet through various proxies, keeping his involvement secret. He would eventually bankrupt Gawker. It was seen by some as deeply disturbing that a billionaire investor could shut down a media company, seemingly at whim. Thiele's far right activities reached their peak when he met political strategist Steve Bannon and gained entry into Trump's circles. He would publicly endorse Trump at one of his rallies and donate one million dollars to his campaign. Business journalist Max Chafkin has called his biography of Thiel The Contrarian. This is due to his subject's ability to hold various competing (or flat out contradictory) positions at the same time. As Chafkin writes: “How exactly could a hedge fund guy who was effectively shorting the American economy also be a wide-eyed futurist? What kind of libertarian sold spy technology to the CIA? What kind of gonzo risk taker says no to an early investment in Tesla?” The Contrarian reads as both a jaw-dropping biography of a cold nihilist and a well researched history of Silicon Valley, its personalities, energy and ethos. So many tech companies started out as sunny, optimistic, idealistic outfits, promoting themselves as striving to make the world a better place. But as they grew and became more powerful, businesses like Facebook and Google would start courting authoritarian regimes like China. (Mark Zuckerberg requested President Xi Jinping name his unborn child at a White House dinner.) A powerful book that raises a lot of questions about the power of technology and the lack of accountability surrounding it. The Contrarian: Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley's Pursuit of Power, by Max Chafkin. Bloomsbury. $29.99 Review by Chris Saliba Two time Walkley Award winning journalist Annika Smethurst turns out a fair and balanced biography of Australia's 30th prime minister, Scott Morrison. There is much in this biography that the general public already knows about Scott Morrison: his Christianity, his background in marketing, his time as state director of the Liberal Party (New South Wales Division). In government, we have seen Morrison as a hard nosed Minister for Immigration and Treasurer under Malcolm Turnbull. To flesh out the picture a bit further, Smethurst undertook extensive interviews with colleagues, friends and various associates. We learn that Morrison is hardworking, ruthless and not trusted by many. Men get along better with him, whereas a pattern emerges that women loathe him. Morrison likes it when things are going his way, and is ready to take credit, but when mistakes happen he's liable to sheet the blame home to others. A fascinating quote appears on page 219 from a colleague who has known Morrison for two decades. It demonstrates how the current prime minister pursues power for its own sake. “He is a highly political person who doesn't have any sort of strong values, but the one thing he always had a view on was gay marriage. He was vehemently opposed.” Annika Smethurst has written an instructive and informative biography that pays attention as much to Morrison's flaws as to his strengths. A highly skilled politician, one with a high focus on research and polling, he's someone not to be written off, despite his bungling of several serious issues during his prime ministership (think the bushfires, Brittany Higgins, vaccine rollout etc.) A well rounded biography that should please a broad audience. The Accidental Prime Minister, by Annika Smethurst. Hachette. $39.99 Review by Chris Saliba tongerlongeter: first nations leader and tasmanian war hero, by henry reynolds and nicholas clements25/9/2021
A first class biography of a forgotten Australian war hero. Tasmania's Black War raged from the mid 1820s until its conclusion in 1832. The conflict was between the Oyster Bay – Big River clans and white settlers. There were many shocking atrocities on both sides. Initially the First Nations tribes thought the Europeans were their returned ancestors, but this reasoning came under sustained pressure as their lands were appropriated and women abducted, raped and murdered. Life became an intense struggle as food sources were dramatically reduced and comfortable resting places taken. Out of this chaos emerges the leader and war strategist Tongerlongeter. He managed to organise and maintain a dogged resistance against impossible odds, causing a general terror among the white population. Surrounded and with no other option, he and the last 25 of his people made a peace agreement. He was offered land to live on and guaranteed protection from whites. This promise was broken and he and his compatriots were sent to Flinders Island, which was rife with disease. He would die there, never seeing his homeland again. An excellent work of scholarship that chronicles in lucid detail a terrible war and acknowledges Tongerlongeter as an extraordinary fighter, one that history must remember. Tongerlongeter: First Nations Leader and Tasmanian War Hero, by Henry Reynolds and Nicholas Clements. Published by NewSouth. $34.99 Review by Chris Saliba The third instalment of Deborah Levy's autobiographical series. Real Estate forms the third part of Deborah Levy's “Living Autobiography”, following on from Things I Don't Want to Know and The Cost of Living. In it, Levy discusses different concepts of real estate, the things of value we own or even produce ourselves. The condensed timeline of the autobiography follows various trips around Europe, meetings with film producers, visits with friends, literary parties and so on. Some dramatic effect is added with the shenanigans of her best male friend, whose romantic life is up in the air. The autobiography's most central concern, one that is treated fairly lightly, is the author's impending sixtieth birthday. This is seen as a coming milestone, but not particularly meaningful. Levy sprinkles her book with quotes from favourite authors and ruminates on some feminist themes. It would have been nice if some of the book's intellectual ideas were expanded a bit, mainly because they were quite interesting, offering a diversion from the concentration on day-to-day minutiae. A pleasant enough ramble, a thoughtful meditation on ageing that is often fairly upbeat. Real Estate, by Deboarh Levy. Published by Penguin. $22.99 Review by Chris Saliba A breezy yet well informed journey through the Australian landscape. Academic and writer Belinda Probert moved from the UK to Australia in the late 1970s. She travelled around the country taking up various teaching posts, mainly between Western Australia, South Australia and Victoria, finally settling in Melbourne. Imaginative Possession describes Probert's decision to buy a property in the Otways, rural Victoria. Her aim was to get a better grip on the Australian landscape by studying and living with it at close quarters. Taking inspiration from writers such as Don Watson (The Bush), Charles Massy (Call of the Reed Warbler), Kim Mahood (Position Doubtful), Bill Gammage (The Biggest Estate on Earth) and Tim Winton, Probert explores notions of belonging and meaning. How do Australians of European ancestry relate to the land, if at all? Why do First Australians have such strong ties to Country? Part memoir, part essay, part literary appreciation, Imaginative Possession is a fascinating and thought provoking book that will get you thinking about what the Australian environment means to you. Imaginative Possession: Learning to Live in the Antipodes, by Belinda Probert. Published by Upswell. $26.99 From street hustler and jailbird to powerful Black leader, the story of Malcolm X has a lot to teach about race in America. Born in 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska, Malcolm Little grew up rough. His mother, while pregnant with the future leader, would find herself harassed by the Ku Klux Klan, knocking on her door one night searching for her husband. It was an era where lynchings were almost routine and segregation was law. Malcolm's parents Earl and Louise were both supporters of the activist, Marcus Garvey, who promoted Black separatism and Pan Africanism. Earl Little would die relatively young, run over by a tram car, and Malcolm would forever maintain he was murdered by white supremacists. Louise Little, left without a husband and seven children to look after, couldn't cope and was institutionalised. Malcolm grew up hustling on the streets, got involved in petty crime and ended up in prison. In prison, Malcolm became a voracious reader and autodidact. At this time his brothers introduced him to the Nation of Islam (NOI), nominally a Muslim organisation, but in reality a Black nationalist group that espoused Black separtism. With a changed name Malcolm was soon a prominent and charismatic leader, a much sought after speaker and interview subject. Despite this success, the contradictions of Nation of Islam chipped away at his conscience, especially its separatist stance. In 1961, Malcolm attended a secret meeting with members of the Ku Klux Klan. The two groups believed in keeping the races separate, a key point they agreed on, although for different reasons. The contradictions came brutally to the fore when the KKK members wanted information on Dr. Martin Luther King, so they could assassinate him. King being an integrationist made him an anathema to both parties. Malcolm X withdrew from the meeting, deeply shaken. It remained harder and harder to maintain ideological purity, faced with so many wild contradictions. Malcolm X would leave Nation of Islam when it was proven without a doubt that its leader, Elijah Muhammad, was a fraud and hypocrite, siring half a dozen children with different women and using his position to accumulate obscene levels of wealth. The break with NOI would make Malcolm an enemy and target for assassination, from his own people. Journalist Les Payne has conducted hundreds of interviews with friends, relatives and colleagues of Malcolm X, giving an extraordinarily well researched portrait of a complex, evolving figure. Against the background of a racist America, with white supremacist terror groups making daily life a nightmare for African-Americans, it is easy to see the appeal of a philosophically bankrupt group like NOI. What makes Malcolm X such a compelling character is how a man with little education and fewer prospects could transform himself into a thought provoking leader on the question of race, but also one who was willing to admit when he had got it wrong. He could remake himself. Unfortunately, that remaking resulted in his death, helped along by police and spy agencies turning a blind eye and not marshaling enough resources for his protection. The Dead Are Arising helps explain so much, particularly to a white or non-American audience. The harrowing, detailed descriptions of the lynchings of Black men are a horror to read. The blood is soaked on the pages. Les Payne doesn't hold back on illustrating the many contradictions of Black politics and race – the prejudice within the community against darker skin, the bizarre fact that NOI was started by a white man named Wallace D. Fard, a convicted felon who posed as mixed race and mysteriously disappeared in 1934. An elegantly written book, one that strives for truth and moral clarity. The Dead are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X, by Les Payne and Tamara Payne. Published by Vintage. $65 Review by Chris Saliba |
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