Rules according in Orwell

It's a bit of a coincidence. I am participating in the 2012 Classics Challenge and wrote a post on George Orwell a couple of days ago.
   As part of my goal to be a writer, I am doing a unit with Griffith university in creative and professional writing. My compulsory reading this week involved reading a George Orwell essay: "Politics and the English Language"!
   Here are some rules that Orwell thinks we should follow as writers, to improve the English language:

1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print;
2. Never use a long word where a short one will do;
3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out;
4. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent; and
5. Break any of the above rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

These rules sound elementary, and so they are, but they demand a deep change in attitude in anyone who has grown used to writing in the style now fashionable.

   Coincidence that I'm being saturated by George Orwell at the moment.

Claudia's Big Break

I was lucky enough that Lisa Heidke, the author, sent me a copy of Claudia's Big Break that should be available commercially in March 2012. I really enjoyed Stella Makes Good, which I read last year, and is now available. Claudia's Big Break had the same great pace, and candid humour that I enjoyed in Stella Makes Good. It was such a great read whilst on holiday, or if you just want to relax the brain for a while.

The blurb: Seeking time and space to think about new possibilities in her life, Claudia Taylor jets off to glorious Santorini with her two best friends, Tara and Sophie.
   Sophie and Tara also hope a break from the daily grind will help them make some major life decisions. Sophie, a former high-flying career woman turned mother of one, is no longer sure what the future holds. And Tara is toying with the idea of leaving her less-than-satisfying job to try and realise a long-held ambition to be a writer.
   Claudia's Big Break is a funny, thoughtful novel about friendship, romance, laughter and loyalty. It's also a breezy account of three women taking stock of their lives - with a bit of drunken karaoke thrown in.
   For Claudia and her friends, life will never be the same after their much-needed holiday in paradise.


Lisa Heidke is a brilliant character-developer. The three ladies in Claudia's Big Break are so real, they jump off the page. The reader can see part of themselves in each of the women (or at least someone they know). For me, I have Tara's fashion sense, Claudia's feeling that I'm still a silly young girl in an adult world, and I'm terrified that I will be like Sophie if I have a child.
   This novel is a bit more of a romance than Stella Makes Good. It is not as powerful in some ways, but much more engaging in others (I love indulging in a good romance novel sometimes).
   Claudia's Big Break has also found me at a time in my life when I am reassessing where I live, and my career choices, just like the women in this novel. I'm inspired that the women are strong enough to make decisions about their future that will change their lives. At the moment, I feel stuck. If only we were all in a financial position that we could decided to study something else and pursue a different direction. If only I could get my novel finished ...

A Classics Challenge

As part of my participation in the 2012 Classics Challenge, the host will be asking for a post each month based on a guided topic or questions. Here is the link to the first challenge: The Author.

I am reading Animal Farm by George Orwell as my first classic for the year. Luckily, the edition of Animal Farm that I have chosen has notes on the text in the front, so I have a lot of information on George Orwell already to answer the questions posed.  I also utilised Wikipedia.
   'George Orwell' is in fact the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair, born in 1903 in India. His father was working in the civil service, and moved the family back to England in 1907. Eric won a place as a King's Scholar at Eton in 1917, where he remained until December 1921. He then joined the Indian Imperial Police in Burma until 1927, when he contracted dengue fever and moved back to England. He lived for a time in England, then Paris, then back to London. He died aged 46, after various medical complications during his life.
   Although best known in England for his journalism, essays, reviews and columns in newspapers and magazines, he also wrote the following novels and narrative documentaries:

• 1933 - Down and Out in Paris and London
• 1934 - Burmese Days
• 1935 - the Clergyman's Daughter
• 1936 - Keep the Aspidistra Flying
• 1937 - The Road to Wigan Pier
• 1938 - Road to Catalonia 
• 1939 - Coming Up For Air
• 1945 - Animal Farm
• 1949 - Nineteen Eighty-Four

Eric liked to stir and provoke argument. He is widely remembered as being a socialist, but his political views actual swung a lot over his lifetime. He proclaimed himself an anarchist at one point. He was anti-Stalin, supported the war against Nazi Germany, opposed British imperialism, opposed the Anglo-Soviet alliance, and was highly critical of governments generally.

   Apparently, the British intelligence group, MI5, monitored Eric for about 20 years for his "advanced Communist views".

Kinglake-350

Nearly at the three year anniversary of Black Saturday, I felt comfortable enough to read Kinglake-350 by Adrian Hyland. I read it in two days, whilst I was camping. I'm glad I had no access to the internet whilst I was reading it, because I was worried about Roger Wood's family from the outset. The other surreal thing about reading this book whilst camping, was that I was breathing wood smoke for most of the time. Ever since Black Saturday, an unexpected whiff of wood smoke has made me nervous.

Any trauma that I may have suffered does not compare to that suffered by those directly affected, and I understand that Adrian Hyland was a local, I was only living a few kilometres up the road at the time of the fires, near Broadford. I was awake all that night, watching the CFA website. Little did I know how useless that exercise was, until I read this novel.
   Although written as a novel, it is a true account from the point of view of various survivors.
   Obviously, the book is very emotional and confronting. But, Adrian Hyland has balanced the writing very well. He provides a lot of factual slabs of information, giving you a well-timed break from the pace of the story. He has researched weather, fire, Australian flora, and the history of fire in our country.
   This novel also asks a lot of questions, raised by Adrian Hyland. He tries to balance anger and the laying of blame very well. He asks relevant questions. He is concerned about the increased likelihood of a fire storm in years to come, and he encourages us to take responsibility in our role in creating the conditions for the same. Rightly, he encourages us to stop trying to find an individual or corporation to blame, but instead understand the multiple factors that brought about this disaster and trying to find a way to prevent another fire storm from taking so many lives.
   All people living in Australia should read this book, particularly those living in southern New South Wales and Victoria.

2012 Aussie Author Challenge

This is my third (and probably final) reading challenge for 2012. I'm participating in the Aussie Author Challenge, hosted by Booklover Book Reviews, and I'm aiming to be Dinky-Di!

I participated in this challenge in 2011, as a late entrant. In 2012, I'll be able to kill two birds with one stone by doing the Aussie Author Challenge as well as the Australian Women Writers Challenge. But to be as true to form as possible, I will try my hardest to not include any novel in both challenges. So, I will try to read 12 Australian novels for the Aussie Author Challenge, and 6 novels for the Australian Women Writers Challenge.
   This should certainly expand my reading a fair bit!

Blood Meridian

In my pursuit of reading broadly, I read Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy over the Christmas period. Not the nicest of stories to be reading during a time when everyone is in a festive mood. This novel certainly put me in a reflective and withdrawn mood. It also took me a while to read, because the language is complex, and the lengthy descriptions caused my mind to wander.
 

Like The Road, this book leaves you feeling disturbed, and like you are surfacing from a nightmare every time you put the book down.
   Also like The Road, the main character is never named (perhaps so we don't get too close to him, or give him a real identity), and only ever referred to as 'the boy'.
   This story is about the good and evil inside men. On the surface, is follows 'the boy' over a period in his life when he joined a group of men hunting and killing and scalping native Americans for money. There is blood dripping from every page of this book. The landscape is bleak, and there are bodies piled up everywhere. But underneath the gore and the horror, this book is about good and evil.
   The kid has a taste for mindless violence, but I believe this is due to his isolation and his youth. He later derides another young man for his admiration of 'meanness'.
   I've read a few other blogs that have been written on this novel, and I did not interpret the character of 'the judge' in the same way as others. The judge is a formidable character, and completely unbelievable. He is seven foot tall, completely hairless, highly intelligent, can speak multiple languages, a great musician, an agile dancer, a lawyer or judge (he knows a lot of law), a mediator, and many other things. I think he is either the devil, or a fallen angel. He thinks that things shouldn't exist unless he is aware of them. He thinks that war is the primary nature of man. He leads all the other characters is the novel astray. Blood and violence is all around him, and he manipulates situations to increase violence (despite not often participating in it himself). He is responsible for many children going missing and being killed (but tortured first) throughout the novel.
   This is more than a horror novel. It is difficult to read, and quite subtle. As it says on the front page, this is 'unlike anything I have read ... an extraordinary and breathtaking achievement'.

The White Earth by Andrew McGahan

Part gothic melodrama, part national allegory, The White Earth is a sweeping story of history, politics, settlement and racism. 


Published in 2004 by Allen and Unwin, this amazing Australian novel has won worthy praise:


The Age Book of the Year
The Courier Mail Book of the Year
Commonwealth's Writers' Prize for SE Asia and South Pacific Region
Miles Franklin Award 2005


This was quite a complex novel, with lots of themes, and yet it flowed really well. I enjoyed this book immensely, and don't understand we it is not more popular. Maybe is was a few years ago, and I missed it. I'm certainly glad I found it!

   The thing I loved most about this novel was how Australian it is. It is so tangible and real. McGahan obviously knows and loves the Darling Downs. His characters feel deep pulls to the land, and I think McGahan could only write about land if he has felt the same way. Unfortunately, the pull that his characters feel to the land are their ultimate downfall. It sends John McIvor crazy. It sends William's mother crazy.
   I have mixed feelings about John McIvor. I have come across similar people in regional Australia - people who are obsessed with the continuation of their line through heirs, and being able to keep a piece of land in their family even once they're dead and buried. John's views of protecting his land attracted bigots to him, because they thought his underlying motivation was racism. I don't think he was a racist. John just wanted his claim to his land to be ultimate. Property ownership has gone to the extreme with John.
   John was also very proud. He had doubts about his father, but could not abide his father's behaviour, but would not admit to his feelings in front of other people. He had his goal, and he wanted to achieve it, no matter how many people he burned along the way. He was a lonely, bitter man. I am sympathetic because he drove everyone away, and yet I know I would have left too because of his behaviour.
  I don't think this novel should be labelled into a pigeon hole: 'gothic', 'family saga', 'fairy tale'. It's none of those things, solely. It stands alone and surpasses those genres. There is no lesson to be learnt, but the reader certainly travels the same path as Ruth at the end. She learns a lesson, and the reader comes along for the ride. I also really enjoyed the historical context, and the political element.
   Overall, one of the best novels I have ever read.

2012 Classics Challenge

My second challenge for 2012: I have joined up for the Classics Challenge, hosted by November's Autumn.

The aim is to read seven works of classic literature in 2012. Only three of them may be re-reads.

What is considered a classic? A work that transcends time. Usually it's well recognised but there are many lesser-known gems too.

Here's my planned reading list for this challenge (please let me know if you don't think they're classics, and I'll try a bit harder!):

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

None of these are re-reads. I can't wait to get into them!

Winner of Book Giveaway

I announced a book giveaway for followers of my blog a couple of weeks ago. It is now time to announce the winner:

Mlle Slimalicious is the winner of a copy of "Foal's Bread" by Gillian Mears.

Congratulations, and enjoy!

In Cold Blood

I picked up Truman Capote's 'In Cold Blood' last week. I finished it on the train this morning. It left me a bit numb, to be honest. I didn't know what the outcome was going to be. I was not familiar with the story, at all. I thought that it was going to be more blood thirsty, and that the murders would have been more shocking or sadistic. I thought I would be far more disturbed than I was. What I ended up feeling was shock at the capital punishment, rather than the murders themselves. I think it was because Capote made the killers' flaws known. He made them vulnerable, and you couldn't help but feel some empathy or compassion for them.

   Capote didn't build suspense through the novel. It was only really like a fiction piece because of the extent of the character development, and the skill that Capote has at description. Otherwise, I felt like I was been told a story, rather than being shown a story, or rather than a story being unwound around me. I didn't like the long monologues, or the big slabs of criminal/police information.
   This book is also about the loss of innocence that was occurring in many communities around the world at the same time. The middle of the 20th century seems to be when people gradually became less trusting, less willing to let their children roam freely, and more likely to lock their doors.
   The killers, I believe, were both sane. I think they had personality disorders, but they certainly were aware of what they were doing - they just didn't care.
   I don't think that this book makes the criminals heroic, or gives them any particular unwarranted attention. What this book does is stop people forgetting about one of many murders that occur every year. It reminds you of the wider affect that murder has on a community, or even a whole state.

2012 Australian Women Writers Challenge

Now is the time to start looking for challenges to participate in during 2012.

The is the first that I have chosen to join: the Australian Women Writers Challenge.

Objective: This challenge hopes to help counteract the gender bias in reviewing and social media newsfeeds that has continued throughout 2011 by actively promoting the reading and reviewing of a wide range of contemporary Australian women's writing.

There are various levels of participation. I am not going to limit my genre, so will be a Devoted Eclectic. I will read  6 books by Australian writers in 2012, and review at least 3 (hence, the 'Miles' challenge level). It shouldn't be too hard. I've already got five authors in mind: Lisa Heidke, Rosalie Ham, Geraldine Brooks, Judy Nunn, and Belinda Alexandra. 

Bereft by Chris Womersley

An amazing Australian novel. If you haven't heard of it before now, you have been told - you should read this!

Winner of the ABIA Literary Fiction Book of the Year 2011

Winner of the Indie Award for Fiction 2011

Shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award 2011

Shortlisted for the Age Book of the Year Award

Shortlisted for the ALS Gold Medal 2011

Shortlisted for the Nielsen BookData 2011 Booksellers Choice Award

Shortlisted for the Ned Kelly Award for Best Fiction

Longlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2012

'Bereft is a dark, brooding story of war, family secrets and a man's search for justice. Chris Womersley knows how to shine light into the darkest corners of rural Australia' - Malcolm Robotham.

Blurb: It is 1919. The Great War has ended, but the Spanish flu epidemic is raging across Australia. Schools are closed, state borders are guarded by armed men, and train travel is severely restricted. There are rumours it is the end of the world.
   In the town of Flint, Quinn Walker returns to the home he fled ten years earlier when he was accused of an unspeakable crime. Aware that his father and uncle would surely hang him, Quinn hides in the hills surrounding Flint. There, he meets the orphan Sadie Fox - a mysterious young girl who seems to know more about the crime than she should.


I never believed that Quinn was guilty of raping and murdering his sister. He is a soft, easily led, a-sexual kind of man. With a topic like the rape and murder of a young girl, this novel is not set up for a happy ending. I don't think that the achieving of revenge makes for a happy ending. It isn't justice. Everybody suffers and lives are destroyed.
   Quinn is physically and mentally damaged from the Great War. Despite the shell-shock he is experiencing, and the never-ending grief from the death of his sister, I don't think and never thought that Sadie Fox was a figment of his imagination. Some of her traits (her similarities to his sister) Quinn certainly projected onto her. She also seemed mentally damaged, and developed coping skills such as her own form of magic.
   The image of central New South Wales is a stark and beautiful one - harsh and rugged. I could almost smell the dust and feel the heat. The prose was unique and conjured vivid sensory reactions as I read it.
   The novel also addresses spirituality, and Quinn's struggle to believe that God hasn't forsaken him. He doesn't like people questioning God, yet he does so himself. He is both repulsed and drawn to the occult, to a medium who channeled his sister, and to Sadie's trinkets and spells.
   This is a novel that I could read a few times and get something different from it every time. It would also be a great novel to discuss as part of a book club, because of its subtlety and the variety of issues it raises. Highly recommended.

Book Giveaway

This is my first book giveaway. I have a copy of the new Australian novel Foal's Bread by Gillian Mears to give away to one of my followers. I participated in a read-along with an uncorrected proof of this book throughout October 2011. I now have a lovely jacketed copy of the published version to give away. The winner will be announced on 18th December 2011.

    The blurb from Foal's Bread:
Set in hardscrabble farming country, and the high-jumping circuit that prevailed in rural New South Wales prior to the Second World War, Foal's Bread tells the story of two generations of the Nancarrow family and their fortunes as dictated by fate and the vicissitudes of the land.
   It is a love story of impossible beauty and sadness, a chronicle of dreams 'turned inside out', and miracles that never last, framed against a world both heartbreakingly tender and unspeakably hard.
   With luminous prose and an aching affinity for the landscape, Foal's Bread is the work of a born writer at the height of her considerable powers. It is a novel of remarkable originality and virtuosity, which confirms Gillian Mears' reputation as one of Australia's most exciting and acclaimed authors.

As for my own writing, it has been non-existant. I joined NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and didn't participate or write a word. November has been the busiest month. Working 12 hours a day. I also had an exam in my first subject in my Graduate Diploma of Applied Law, and I had an exam in my third-to-last subject in my Accounting degree. One weekend in November, I ran the Geelong fun run (12 kilometres, which I did in 1hour and 3 minutes). I also had a Christmas party in Melbourne on the last weekend in November that took the whole weekend to get to and back. So, no writing!
   I'm going to try to have my whole novel writing month this December - so be witnesses to my pledge - the bones of my novel will be finished by the new year.

Wuthering Heights

Keeping with the theme for trying to read broadly, and reading the classics to improve my own writing, I decided to read Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights.

I didn’t have an expectations when I began reading Wuthering Heights, except that I had heard people talk it being a great love story. I don’t know why people consider it a great love story - it certainly is a fantastic story, but it’s not a romance!

I think it is a novel of despair and redemption. There are a lot of ‘what ifs’ raised during the reading of it. I remember hearing someone saying that if Heathcliff had not left the kitchen when Catherine said that she couldn’t lower herself to marry him, and actually heard how much she loved him, it would have turned out very differently. Certainly, there would not have been so much despair and redemption if Heathcliff had married Catherine. However, he still seemed set on bringing Earnshaw down. He may have done that anyway. Also, Heathcliff’s and Catherine’s personalities were such that they would have caused a lot of trouble for everyone if they teamed up.

The narration of the story is very interesting, going from Mr Lockwood to Mrs Dean, and even Cathy and Heathcliff’s house-keeper have a role in narrating. They all tell the story consistently, and stay true to things like Joseph’s accent. It wasn’t very believable that each would narrate in the same way.

I considered Mrs Dean to be very culpable in the events. She was always helping couples meet, which caused everything to go wrong in the first place. If she had not conspired with the young people, but been faithful to her masters in each circumstance, things could have turned out very differently.

Bronte was able to create fantastic, unique characters. Even the setting was a character, in a way - the lonely moors, the isolation, the cold. Heathcliff’s character is one of the most unique and interesting characters that I have ever discovered in a novel. Is he evil, or a product of his circumstances? I think he is evil. Certainly, his circumstances were horrible - tortured and loving a woman who he couldn’t have. But many people and characters have experienced those things. It is the way he reacts, and systematically goes about bringing down everyone that he hates. He takes everything off them and makes them miserable, and drives them to death. All for revenge. He doesn’t need the money, and in fact, when he finally succeeds in owning everything and controlling everyone, there’s nothing left for him to do but go crazy and kill himself. I don’t feel any pity for Heathcliff.

I think it was a very satisfying story, in that there is light at the end of the tunnel, and good prevailed over evil in the end. The weather and the landscape all seem to contribute to the good feeling at the end of the novel, as well. Spring, new growth, warmth, and the beginning of new happiness.

Stella Makes Good

I was lucky enough to get the chance to read and review an uncorrected proof copy of Lisa Heidke's new novel "Stella Makes Good", soon to be published by Allen & Unwin.
   Blurb: Stella Sparks is on good terms with her ex-husband, Terry, despite the fact he left her for another woman. Stella's philosophical - the marriage had run its course, they remain friends and the wellbeing of their kids is central to both of them.
   Stella's two closest friends, Carly and Jesse, envy her togetherness and wish they could emulate it. Jesse's husband, Steve, is a control freak who's driving her crazy, but she has two small children and can't see a way out. Carly, meanwhile, suspects her husband is having an affair and isn't sure what to do about it.
   Stella's life takes a distinctly upward turn when she meets a handsome, apparently single - no ring, anyway - father at her son's school speech night. For Carly and Jesse, however, the search for happiness and fulfilment proves more elusive ..
   With a healthy dose of humour and romance 'Stella Makes Good' is about the games we play, the secrets we keep, the unpredictable nature of life and the importance of female friendship.

This was a really smooth, easy read. A light-hearted escape. The characters came alive through their thoughts and dialogue. The issues they dealt with will resonate with many Australian women, whether they are married with children or not.
   Each of the women was very unique. Carly really annoyed me. She was very superficial. She seemed to associate lust with love, and if the sex wasn't wild then there was no love. She also thought that she needed to be a stay-home mother for her teenage children, as if they wouldn't survive (and probably be better rounded people) if she went back to work. She also encouraged Jesse, the most troubled character, to have some 'freedom and adventure', when what Jesse needed most was 'respect and stability'. Carly also became very worried that her son was gay, which is very politically incorrect.
   Jesse was the most interesting character. She was almost crippled by her husband's emotional domestic violence. But she had such inspiring moments of strength and courage that this saved her from being insipid.
   Stella (I'm not sure what she made good, or that she even had to make good) is the balanced character, or at least appears that way to her friends. She is actually fairly scared of a new relationship. But she is very generous, conscientious and the friend that everyone wants to have. She is independent, and she accepts her teenage children for who they are. I liked her a lot.
   The change in tense used in the novel was interesting - the story was written in first person when Stella was the central narrator. Then a more removed third-person narrator took over when either of the other women was the central character of a particular section.
   The story was mainly driven by dialogue and thought. There was minimal descriptions offered, and I struggled to visualise the characters, they were just blurry outlines in my mind, except for June, Stella's mother-in-law who is very vivid. Because of the lack of description, there were a few awkward places where time seemed to jump: one moment they were in the car talking, and the next minute they were entering the hospital ward in the same conversation. There were a couple of other places where time seemed to be wrong, such as the story was supposed to be set around the end of January and start of February, but one of the children was talking about exams.
   The only other criticism I have is that there are too many modern references that the book is going to date very quickly. It refers to current movies and TV series, current video games and social media games. I don't think they're necessary - they just annoyed me, like Lisa was trying to prove that she was up-to-date enough to know that these things are around. They are not important to the story. The main characters acknowledge that they are not up to speed with everything their kids are into - it should probably just have vague references to what the kids are up to, since their activities are not central.
   Overall, great read. Look out for this book in January 2012.