28 November 2008

Eyes and Ears - 28/11/2008

USSR:
The more that you read, the more things you will know.
The more that you learn,
the more places you'll go.
- Dr. Seuss

The Good Parents by Joan London. The only book I've read this week, and the best book I've read this year, perhaps longer. Every word is perfect, every sentence is carefully chosen and the storyline and the structure are unexpected. An 18 year old girl disappears from Melbourne just before her parents are due to arrive for a visit from country Western Australia. The story wanders back through the past and follows the fortunes of different family members as they linger at the heart or on the periphery of the mystery. I picked this book up expecting something dark, but it's far from it. It's lyrical - "She could see rings of salt surf, like petrified time" - and lovely, with the various storylines culminating in one happy ending, one tentative ending and a very bittersweet outcome for unrequited love. Not that unrequited love can ever be anything but bittersweet. More bitter than sweet for most people, I suppose. This is a thoughtful, wonderful story told without anything out of place. I loved it. Try reading it.

Radio hb:
I Go Crazy - Flesh for Lulu
That's Me Trying - William Shatner
Tightrope - Stone Roses
Sweet, Sweet Love - Russell Morris
2541 - Grant Hart

2 comments:

Nick Crumbedprawn said...

The only book I've read this week? Holy hell, I've only read three books in the last decade.

Impressive.

I'm impressed.

hazelblackberry said...

Well, Nick, I'm as free as a bird at the moment. I've got time to read. It would be criminal not to.