Books I have read - Navigation by Judy Johnson

A trade with my dad (we both had accidentally purchased books we already owned) rewarded me with a copy of Navigation by Judy Johnson.

The blurb states that: "Navigation contains poems that are short, sharp pieces drawn from her abiding concerns with family, death, and love". As I sat at Central train station reading her explorations of these human concerns I felt that the bustling of life around me was the ideal setting to get lost in Johnson's words.

'Paper Dolls' is an honest scene from a childhood, exploring the innocence of youth and the conflict that can occur in adult relationships. I remember paper dolls and paper bikinis from my own childhood, the concentration and care needed to pop all of the pieces out and neatly fold the tags so that the 2D figures could be as glamorous as their glossy haired barbie doll cousins. Through her description of the attention given to these dolls Johnson explores the child's emotional response to the sound of fighting from the next room:

I push hard on the perforations.
                         She comes away in two pieces.

Johnson writes poignant images, such as: "I remember the ground / dog-nose damp beneath my feet", capturing the imagination of a child and the sometimes uncomfortable relationship between father and daughter in her poem 'A Month Before my Father Died'.

A poem that resonates with me is 'At the Temple of Sisters'. Someone close to me has been recently diagnosed with cancer and in this poem Johnson describes the cruelness of the disease:

But snares and exorcisms don't work. 

There is nothing to offer your cancer
that it doesn't already have.

Johnson's longer poems in this collection are historical narratives of whalers, a whaler's wife and the Tuniit people of the Antarctic. Here is a harrowing description of doing the laundry on a whaling vessel from her long poem 'A Whaler's Wife at Sea':

...After they are dragged 

back in I sew the body-eaten ghosts
of drowned sailors with thick twine 

onto the strung line.

Warrick Wynne has written a review of Navigation which can be found here. He discusses the diversity of poems and the four parts within the collection, stating that: "[he] found it a little difficult to find the centre of it all, or something like the true voice, if indeed that’s the quest. The book is diverse and moves from the past to the present and back again fluently and is as comfortable with the story as the lyrical moment". For me the centre of the collection is this theme of family, death and love.

I agree with Wynne that the first section, 'Ties', contains the strongest poems of the collection. These poems delve into difficult and sometimes uncomfortable emotions and display an impressive control of language. 'Cannas' is a perfect example of Johnson's rich imagery and description of the external world, alongside an exploration of our 'inner worlds' that Peter Boyle has praised her for. She captures the flowers, their "Garfield-orange, / fresh-wound red, / lemon-spread yellow" colouring and their "elastic javelin" stems. At the same time, she writes of the complexities of coping with cancer, "terminal clusters" that "flows like heredity /through my dreams".

To purchase a copy of Navigation visit 5 Island Press here.

Johnson's most recent book Stone Scar Air Water can be purchased here.  

Books I have read - To Kill a Mockingbird

It has been too long since my last blog post! I started teaching this year and I am loving the new experiences and challenges that come with being in the classroom!

I finally read To Kill a Mockingbird in January. I felt that I should read this classic novel before I started teaching, because it had been put to me as one of those novels that every English teacher has to have read. After finishing it, I wish I had of read it sooner!

It is interesting what makes a novel a classic. Stories like Anna Karenina have never been able to capture my attention, but the characters, themes and setting of To Kill a Mockingbird had me enthralled! 

The themes of racial descrmination and inequality, of differences between people and prejudice are eternal themes that will make this book always relevant and important!

There are many great book reviews out there of To Kill a Mockingbird for you to explore. 

Here are some cool teaching resources to accompany the text:

http://smago.coe.uga.edu/VirtualLibrary/Duke_2009.pd

http://resources.mhs.vic.edu.au/mockingbird/

https://www.pearsonschoolsandfecolleges.co.uk/Secondary/Drama/14-16/NewWindmillsFiction/Resources/P-T/Mockingbird_web.pdf

Books I have read - The Lollipop Shoes by Joanne Harris

A light breeze was playing around the hem of my skirt as I was walking to university to hand my last assignment in and the movement of fabric on my calves got me thinking about Joanne Harris' book The Lollipop Shoes. 

The Lollipop Shoes is the sequel to Chocolat. In both of these stories the characters understand the temptation of magic, the allure of hand-made chocolates and the power of the wind.

That wind. I see it's blowing now. Furtive but commanding, it has dictated every move we've ever made. My mother felt it, and so do I - even here, even now - as it sweeps us like leaves into this backstreet corner, dancing us to shreds against the stones (19).

Just as the wind has always dictated Rosette, Anouk and Vianne's lives, I can feel it pushing and pulling me to the end of another chapter and the beginning of my career as a teacher. Thankfully, this wind of mine is not dashing me against stones. The concept of the changing seasons and winds having this kind of power is romantic and a little bit scary.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Lollipop Shoes; worrying with Vianne about her children and the wind; growing and learning about magic, family and love with Anouk; and flirting with the extravagant Zozie de l'Alba.

Zozie says you can ride the wind; that it's like a wild horse that can be tamed and trained to do just what you want it to. You can be a kite, a bird; you can grant wishes; you can find your heart's desire...(311-312). 

Blogger Valerie J found this book to be aimed at a teenage audience and did not enjoy how the chapters are written from the perspectives of the different characters. I disagree with Valerie on both of these counts. The story explores the adult themes of motherhood, the desire for security, lust, love and friendship.

The chapters are told from the three voices of Anouk, Vianne and Zozie and it is not always clear at first whose perspective we are reading from. However, I found this to be part of the magic of the book.

The rich sensory imagery of Joanne Harris' writing encourages a reader to experience the story fully; tasting the chocolates and other culinary treats; smelling the perfumes of the women, the city and the food.

You can ride the wind like an eagle, Nanou - or you can choose to let it blow you away (245). 

To hear from Joanne Harris about the writing of the book please visit her website here.

An excerpt from this book can be found here.

The book can be purchased from Random House books here.

Other reviews of this book can be found here and here. 

Poems I have Read - Taint by Grace Nicholls

Henry Louis Gates discusses the use of ‘Black’ vernacular in postcolonial literature as an act of reclaiming language and aligning the speaker with their black heritage, separate from the ‘white’ colonists (1989). ‘Black’ vernacular is used to create a ‘black’/ ‘white’ schism and is often used to highlight the different roles that ‘black’ and ‘white’ played in the process of colonialism and in the slave trade. The title of Grace Nicholls' poetry collection is written in this ‘Black’ vernacular, I is a Long Memoried Woman (1983).

However, Nicholls' poem 'Taint' is not written in this ‘Black’ vernacular. This is possibly to strengthen the theme of the poem, being ‘stolen’ for the slave trade. The speaker has been ‘stolen’ from where they belong. Language is a powerful tool in post-colonial studies, for the reasons that Henry Louis Gates explores, it is used to reclaim culture and heritage. The development of pigeon English and the handing down of this dialect through generations to form a Creole language is an important process to separate the victims of the slave trade from ‘White’ colonial powers and reclaim a cultural distinction.

On looking closer at the poem the theme of being ‘stolen’ for the slave trade becomes more complex. The speaker states that they were ‘stolen’ and ‘traded’ “by men the colour of my own skin”. The use of repetition here, as Nicholls repeats the line “by men the colour of my own skin”, emphasizes the anger the speaker has for this history of being ‘stolen’ by African slave traders. The anger is not being aimed at the ‘white’ slave owners, but at the men of the same "skin" as the speaker. The use of Western phonetics in this poem can be interpreted as a rejection of a connection to the speaker’s African heritage.

But I was stolen by men
the colour of my own skin...

But I was traded by men
the colour of my own skin
traded like a fowl like a goat
like a sack of kernels I was
traded...

Kwabena Akurang-Parry, states that some African states were involved in the trading of African’s from other states in the Atlantic slave Trade (2010). However, in his critique of Henry Louis Gates, he stresses that it is important to not except the viewpoint that “Africans” enslaved “Africans” (Akurang-Parry, K 2010). Akurang-Parry discusses the deployment of “African”, observing that in African history there is a tendency to coalesce into obscurantist (conservative/traditionalist) constructions of identities that allow scholars, for instance, to subtly call into question the humanity of “all” Africans. Whenever Asante rulers sold non-Asantes into slavery, they did not construct it in terms of Africans selling fellow Africans. They saw the victims for what they were, for instance, as Akuapems, without categorizing them as fellow Africans. Equally, when Christian Scandinavians and Russians sold war captives to the Islamic people of the Abbasid Empire, they didn’t think that they were placing fellow Europeans into slavery. This lazy categorizing homogenizes Africans and has become a part of the methodology of African history. It is through this history that Afro-Americans search for, or rebel against an African identity.

The similes in the second stanza illustrate how undervalued the speaker feels as the men trade him/her “for trinkets”. Indeed, African slaves were traded for goods such as glass beads. The use of the punctuation in this stanza, the question mark, creates a tone of disbelief and resentment, disbelief that anyone could trade her life for such little value and resentment at the middle man, who traded lives for trinkets.

But I was traded by men
the colour of my own skin
traded like a fowl like a goat
like a sack of kernels I was
traded
for beads for pans
for trinkets?

Alliteration is also used in this stanza to again highlight that the speaker’s life was reduced to the value of a ‘trinket’. The ‘K’ sound is repeated throughout the stanza: "...traded ‘like’… ‘like’ a ‘sack’ of ‘kernels’… for ‘trinkets’". The line spacing in this stanza is also important in demonstrating the emotion the speaker feels for being traded for something as little as a ‘trinket’. The word ‘traded’ is placed on a line by itself not only to focus the readers to the act of trade that has occurred, but also to symbolise the trade, separating the objects to be traded from the objects they are traded for. The space between “like a fowl like a goat” emphasises the simile of the speaker to these animals. The spacing in the items the speaker was traded for is used to slow that part of the stanza down and draw attention to the simplicity of the items and the resentment that the speaker feels.

What is a Negro slave? A man of the black race. ... A Negro is a Negro. Only under certain conditions does he become a slave. A cotton-spinning machine is a machine for spinning cotton. Only under certain conditions does it become capital. Torn away from these conditions, it is as little capital as gold is itself money, or sugar is the price of sugar. - Marx, Wage Labour and Capital (1847)

Nicholls has used a lot of alliteration in this poem. I have already shown how the letter ‘k’ is repeated to demonstrate the undervaluing of the speaker’s life that happened through the slave trade. Throughout the entire poem there is alliteration of the letter ‘t’. The letter ‘t’ appears to be dictating the themes of the poem as being ‘stolen’ and ‘traded’ by men who are not human, who do not value life, hands ‘turned talons’, the undervaluing of life, being ‘traded’ for ‘trinkets’. The letter ‘t’ takes us down the ‘trail’, the path of the trade, or of the memory of the trade and walks us to the present. ‘It’, the stealing and trading, we cannot ‘forget’, what we refuse to acknowledge in history is still there, it still happened. Finally the ‘t’ brings the reader to the end of the journey as the speaker rinses the ‘taint of treachery’, the history of betrayal and the speaker’s racial heritage. The poem moves away from an Afro-diasporic identity, allowing the speaker to create their own individual identity, which is still dictated by the past.

Books I have read - Red Bird by Mary Oliver

I had heard so much of Mary Oliver's writing from Mark Tredinnick,  Monica (Mon) Markovina and Phillip Hall (my Dad).

Mid last year Mon pressed Oliver's collection, entitled Red Bird, into my hands. Mon told me that I had to read it!

It has taken me a while... but finally, I have read the collection. Now that I have finished it, I wish I had of read it sooner. Mark, Mon and Phillip are right, Oliver's poetry is wonderful to read!

I read Oliver's collection in one sitting. That is unusual for me; I generally only tackle about five poems in a sitting.

There is a simplicity to Oliver's poetry. Oliver uses simple language and images, with often a conversational tone, to explore multiple themes.

She frequently writes about nature, as in the title poem 'Red Bird', where she writes of her devotion to birds and her particular admiration of the red bird:

....
Still, for whatever reason—
perhaps because the winter is so long
and the sky so black-blue,

...
I am grateful

that red bird comes all winter
firing up the landscape
as nothing else can do. (1)

The colour and warmth found in this poem is beautiful. Maxine Kumin has described Oliver as a “indefatigable guide to the natural world”. Indeed, as Kumin has identified, Oliver gives a great deal of attention to the natural world within her writing. In the poem 'Red Bird' Oliver paints a picture of the colours found in nature, of the passing of seasons and of the birds.

As well as this celebration of nature, Oliver describes a relationship between that world which we deem to be human and that which we view as animal. There is a human persona within the poem and it is through their eyes that we are viewing the red bird, as they feed all of "God's" birds (The entirety of 'Red Bird' can be read here).

Here we find another dimension to Oliver's poetry, in her exploration of the spiritual world.

One thing that I have enjoyed about Oliver's poetry is that while the spiritual that she explores is a Christian Spirituality, it is often able to be interpreted as spirituality with a little 's'. As it is a non-denominational spirituality that I believe in, I like that her poetry can be interpreted through this lens.

When Mon lent me this book one page had the corner folded over. Mon had marked the poem 'Percy and Books (Eight)'. Oliver has written a series of poems about her dog, Percy, where she again delves into a discussion about the relationship between the so called human and animal world.

Within this particular poem, Oliver humorously represents the relationship between a dog and its owner. The dog in this poem wants to be immersed into the splendor of the world outside, while the owner desires to dally in the world of books.

The poem begins: "Percy does not like it when I read a book" (29). It then describes the dog and the weather and sounds of the natural world, that can be heard from where both dog and owner sit. The owner pleads with the dog: "But Percy, I say. Ideas! The elegance of language!" (29). Without ruining the joke, the dog is not convinced of the value of books.

While the simplicity of Oliver's imagery and language make it easy for a reader, or at least for me, to loose them self in the ideas and pictures that she has captured, is it enough to explore nature as beautiful?

I have had many discussions with Phillip Hall and some with Mark Tredinnick and Mon about just such a question.

In the 21st Century we are being faced with global warming, environmental disasters (both natural and human made), and the endangerment and extinction of various plants and animals. Is it, therefore, enough to celebrate nature and explore how the perceived 'natural' and 'human' world interact, or should representations of nature be exploring the bigger issues of global warming and the threats facing both the natural and human world?

In asking the above questions I am not suggesting that Oliver should necessarily be doing these things with her poetry, or that there is not a place for the celebration of nature in poetry, but I am questioning what is poetry's role in the world?

You can buy a copy of Mary Oliver's Red Bird from Amazon here.

Here is a great interview with Mary Oliver, exploring another of her poetry collections, A Thousand Mornings.

Here are some links to Oliver's poems that can be read, for free, online:
http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/133.html
http://rinabeana.com/poemoftheday/index.php/category/mary-oliver/
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/mary-oliver#about

Mary Oliver reads three of her poems here.

Books I have read - White Turtle by Merlinda Bobis

White Turtle is a magical, humorous, sensuous and emotional collection of short stories by Merlinda Bobis. Many of the stories contain an element of magic realism and offer either narratives or snap shots of social commentary.

The first narrative in the collection, 'An Earnest Parable', has been marinated in mouthwatering descriptions of food and language and all the things that a tongue can sense. This fantastic story offers a unique take on multiculturalism as the residents of Bessel Street taste the food and language of their neighbours through their communal tongue.

The butcher was not one to waste time. Immediately, he laid his soft, pink flesh, moist with the previous owner's steak and peppercorns, inside his mouth (1).

The delicious description of food, combined with magic realism, can also be found in Bobis' story 'The Kissing'. I hope to one day write as well as Bobis does, to capture the taste of food, to entice the senses and to create clever twists, similar to what can be found in this short story.

'Fruit Stall', the second story, is a comment on the kinds of prejudice that Filipino women, living in Australia, post the mail-order-bride trend, experience. The main character of this story hides her cultural identity, ashamed of the connotations that follow. Bobis has a way of constructing social commentary that can be at times embarrassing, but is never the less delicious to read. 'Fruit Stall' is fast paced and soaked with a dry humour:

He reminded me of the pet monkey we had when I was young. My father gave it away, because it would wake up the whole house in the middle of the night with its crazed monkey-sounds. Jake did the same, chattering away about his great big white banana getting bigger and harder... (7).

Another story that explores migration is 'Border Lover'. The descriptions of flying and of family in this story reminds me of Sophie Cunningham's Geography.

The third short story, 'Fish-Hair Woman' is a harrowing magic realism tale about a young Filipino woman who dredges the river near her village everyday, to pull out the bodies of young men. This story and the fifth story of the collection, 'Storm', are emotional tales, that deal with very raw and traumatic themes. Both stories fit within the magic realism genre, entwining superstition, Filipino mythology and real life themes of war, death, love, fear and rape.

Another story that explores the theme of war and how it impacts on Filipino civilians, in small and isolated communities, is 'Before the Moon Rises'. Reading these stories by Bobis has opened my eyes to some of the history of the Philippines.  

'Colours', the fourth story in the collection, is written from a man's perspective. It tells of an unrequited love, of an obsession that the man has for his married neighbour. Again, this story is an example of Bobis' rich writing style. Bobis has a way of drawing me, as a reader, into her stories, dazzling me with her ability to stimulate my senses through her words. In this particular story the colours of the neighbours clothing are so vivid that I feel blinded, like the man:

My doctor said I needed dark glasses for protection. I ignored his advice. I didn't want the world to grow any darker. I wanted only to dream of yellow breasts. Perhaps, she was right about me being a sleazebag, but I couldn't help it. The shapes, which I could no longer see clearly, became more defined in an inkling of song the hue of mangoes, daffodils, jonquils, all yellow staring back at me (26-27).

Another magic realism story is 'Frock', which is full of rich imagery of a dress and a child' imagination:

Silvery fish on each breast. A trail of green turtles around the waist (145).

'Jar' is a brilliant story about sexual abuse and predatory behavior in the workplace. If only all women had the same defense as the woman in this story.

The story that the book has borrowed it's title from, 'White Turtle', describes the scene of a panel of writers speaking at a writers festival and how the other writers and the western audience respond to one of the panelists. Lola Bayson does not have a published book that people can purchase and have signed, her story is an oral tale:

The bespectacled writer was slightly impatient - but her act is a multicultural or indigenous arts event, definitely not for a writers' festival (42).

This realist sketch is thought provoking and a delight to read.

'Mac Do' and 'The Curse' explore illness and family relationships. Family is a recurring theme in Bobis' stories. The love, fear and pain felt by the characters of these two stories is moving and an illustration of Bobis' skill.

'Shoes' is a great story about family and poverty. The character development in this story is beautiful, as father and daughter walk along a hot road:

He takes off her shoes, bought especially for this outing. The soles of her feet are red, promising heat blisters. He examines the shoes, knocks at the soles (113).

Family and particularly the relationship between children and their parents is described in 'The Sadness Collector'. This story uses the power of a child's imagination to explore drunkenness and separation:

The lid clatters off the pot. Beneath her room, the kitchen is stirring again. Rica sits up in her bed - the big one has returned? (132).

Family and community are humorously explored in 'Pina and the Flying Cross', as well as the themes of World War II and the isolation of small communities. Similar themes are explored in 'Flores de Mayo'. Bobis' take on small, poor towns in the Philippine is unique and captivating.

Bobis experiments with the short story format in 'The Long Siesta as a Language Primer' and 'Triptych'. 'The Long Siesta...' is laid out like a series of dictionary definitions, each definition builds on the character, setting or action that has been introduced in the proceeding one. In this piece Bobis explores Filipino language and English, something that she does in a lot of her writing, giving a sense of authenticity to her themes of migration and culture.

Another experimentation with the standard short story format can be found in 'Dream Stories'. This story is constructed through three snap shots 'Corazon', 'Yellow' and 'The Death of Chopin Chopin'. This story is a touching exploration of love, constructed in a web of magic realism, where musical notes clutter a house.

'Triptych' tells of a love triangle. It is laid out in three columns, so that it can be read vertically or horizontally. This effect both visually and poetically represents the three points (characters) of the triangle. The unusual layout of the three tales, the triangle, is daring, but it works.

The raunchiest story of this collection is 'Splinter'. To orgasm as a stranger sucks a splinter out of the palm of your hand, while waiting at a train station, makes for a fun story.

The collection finishes on a humorous note, with 'The Wind Witch'. A story that contains magic, hope, dreams and fart jokes. It was great to finish with a fun story, but this by no means drowned or dulled the impact of the stories that contained more traumatic themes.

I hope that Bobis is more happy with what I have written here than the writer, Diaz, was in 'The Review'. The stories in this collection all live up to their "aspirations", they are amazing!

An excerpt from this book can be found here.

The book can be purchased from Spinifex Press here.

Another review of this collection can be found here.

For more information about Merlinda Bobis and her writing please check out her website here.

Books I have read - Geography by Sophie Cunningham

Geography is an erotic novel, which follows the journey of Australian resident Catherine. Catherine finds airplanes erotically stimulating. For her airplanes facilitate physical contact with the older academic Michael, whom she has obsessed over for years, who lives in the US. Michael and Catherine have had a long term raunchy affair that is predominantly conducted through fax and email. Airplanes and travel have also brought Catherine to the younger, attractive, lesbian Ruby.

“ … Beauvoir wrote about this … after she started sleeping with Sartre she became so obsessed that even getting on the tram became an erotic experience for her. I know how she felt, like everything around you is penetrating you … Everything turns into sex” (Cunningham 36).

 I have to disagree with Gillian Dooley's assertion that "the sequence of events can be difficult to follow, and there is no beauty or transcendence to counteract the irritation the reader feels at having to re-read pages in an attempt to work out where and when this is all happening. It’s an ambitious book, Cunningham has failed to create a narrative that is either effective or engaging." Geography does jump between the past relationship with Michael and the blossoming relationship with Ruby, as well as Catherine's memories of her childhood, but I did not find this difficult to follow and in fact found that this helped to further pull myself, as a reader, into the story. I enjoyed vicariously exploring sexuality through Catherine's relationships and admired Cunningham's ability to allow Catherine to develop as a character, to better understand herself as a character, through her sexual relationships.

Thank you Sophie Cunningham for allowing me to travel with Catherine to the US and South East Asia these Summer holidays.

For a more comprehensive review of this book check out Julie Proudfoot's comments here.

To read an extract of the book visit Cunningham's website here.

Cunningham's novel can be purchased from amazon.

Books I have read - The People Smuggler by Robin de Crespigny

I have read some amazing novels, short stories and poems so far this summer including The People Smuggler by Robin de Crespigny. This incredibly moving biography should be on everyone's must-read-list.

Ali Al Jenabi's story is an important one, particularly in-light of current political discussions surrounding how to manage asylum seekers in Australia. Crespigny's writing style and dedication to Jenabi's story is clear in the way that she captures the voice of Jenabi and the fear, sorrow, uncertainty, hope, joy and love that has been part of his journey.

There are sections within this book that are shocking and painful to read. When Jenabi first arrives in Sydney, in 2003, he is forced to strip in-front of multiple police officers and an interpreter: "...they force me to undress, then they hold me down while one of them puts on a latex glove..." (294). Another, more horrifying, event happens when Jenabi is in Villawood Detention Centre, in 2007: "...I hear screaming... It looks like a woman is being held down by four guards while two others supervise. Then one kneels next to her. Suddenly the screaming fades, she stops struggling and they drag her away" (328). After witnessing this terror Jenabi finds that asylum seekers who are refused refugee status are often deported in the early hours of the morning to avoid media attention: "The men are handcuffed and the women are forcibly injected with tranquillisers..." (328).

I hope that all Australians are made familiar with Jenabi's story and learn from it empathy for asylum seekers who flee nightmarish situations, such as Jenabi and his family have fled, as well as the humanity of so called 'boat people'.

The People Smuggler is available from various book stores, including Penguin and Amazon.

For a more detailed review of this book please check out the ABC Unleased.