Episode Transcript
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S1 (00:09):
Take a look. Take a look inside the book. Take
a look.
S2 (00:24):
Hello and welcome to hear this. I'm Frances Keeland, and
this is the Vision Australia Library radio show, talking about
wonderful books from the Vision Australia library collection. And we've
got some wonderful reader recommended today as well. Hope you
enjoy the show. Let's begin today with a couple of
(00:46):
lovely reader recommended from Gina. The first one is Mind
Over Matter, the epic crossing of the Antarctic continent. So
this is the third book we've had recommended, um, about
the Antarctic, which is exciting. It's it's got a bit
of a thread. This one is by renowned, um, travel
author Ranulph Fiennes. On the 9th of November 1992, Sir
(01:10):
Ranulph Fiennes and Dr. Michael Stroud set out from the
Filchner Ice Shelf to attempt the first unassisted crossing of
the Antarctic continent. It was to be a journey of
epic proportions which captured the imagination of the entire world.
When they were finally lifted out, more dead than alive.
They had completed by far the longest unsupported journey in
(01:35):
polar history. Let's hear a sample of Mind Over Matter
The Epic Crossing of the Antarctic Continent by Sir Ranulph Fiennes.
It's narrated by Stephen Thorne.
S3 (01:47):
In the spring of 1990, we struggled over the sea
ice some 400 miles north of the Siberian coast. If
our Russian advisers proved correct and the fickle Arctic winds
held true to form, a northerly drift would force the
pack ice towards the pole and help us to reach
the top of the world before we starved the previous week,
(02:07):
a chunk of frozen flesh had come away from one
of my toes. But Mike Stroud, my companion, was a
doctor and I trusted his judgment. If the wound's not
subjected to further trauma and our antibiotics last, he assured
me gangrene will not be a worry in 3 or
4 weeks. We might make history to reach the North
(02:29):
Pole on foot and unaided by air contact or other assistance,
had long been the dream of polar specialists from many countries.
A climber's equivalent might be the first ascent of Everest
without Sherpas or oxygen. Amongst polar experts, only two journeys
ranked as more challenging the unaided crossings of Antarctica and
of the Arctic Ocean. On the other side of the world,
(02:53):
a group of three Norwegian ski champions had openly declared
their intention to reach the pole first, and two separate
teams of Soviet skiers were somewhere behind us, having set out,
like us from Novaya Zemlya in Siberia. Our radio base.
A Soviet army shack on the island of Sredny was
manned by Lawrence Floe and Morag Mo Howell with their
(03:18):
Russian friend Sergey Malyshev, only the day before. Mo had
managed to make voice contact via a high frequency set
and gave us news of our competitors. Kaga and his
Norwegians are out of the race. One of them has
been airlifted to safety with a frostbitten foot. The other
two are carrying on, but their challenge is compromised.
S2 (03:40):
And that was mind over matter. The epic crossing of
the Antarctic continent by Sir Ranulph Fiennes. Ranulph is spelt
r a u h r a u p and finds
is spelt f I e n n e s f
(04:01):
I e n n e s and he is a
relative of the actor Ralph Fiennes. This book goes for
ten hours and 20 minutes. Well, this book may not
be for the faint hearted. I'm reading here from the Guardian.
And this is from an article in 2019 by Leo Benedictus,
(04:22):
or 2000 2019, talking about the aftermath. First of all
of this, um, this book. So Sir Ranulph had, um, um,
when he got back, Ranulph Fiennes was on the list
to have his thumb and a finger amputated. They'd become
dead portions due to being in the icy conditions. But
(04:42):
he couldn't wait because the nerve pain was pretty constant.
So he went out to his deck, a workbench, and
removed them with a saw. So thus proving that explorers
are either made of very strong stuff or are quite mad.
Kirkus Reviews So this is just Kirkus Reviews. Reviews. Calls. fines,
(05:06):
writing rather swagger ish old boy style, but the authenticity
of his trip and the brutality of the landscape does
come through in this book, and the narrative is laced
with excerpts from the diaries of explorers who went before them.
The review ends with but for all of his ramrod,
ramrod straight comportment, he does have a sense of humor,
(05:28):
tongue often firmly in cheek. It's probably frozen there. Therein
lies the success of his story, a desperate, thrilling adventure
told with enough drollery to make it believable, and the
haughty fines a mere mortal and bully for them. They
made it a cracking account of one hazardous march in
the classic stiff lipped style, and that review was in
(05:50):
the Kirkus Reviews. Thank you, Gina, for that. It sounds
like a cracking read, but not for the faint hearted,
with the accounts of the frozenness of limbs and and
and how they coped with that during the journey and
after continuing on our books of journeys, there is another, um, title,
(06:12):
harkening once again back to the First World War, which was, um,
the whole theme of the show. Last week we have
the Path of Peace walking the Western Front Way. This
is by Anthony Seldon, a deeply intimate and inspiring memoir
about walking the 1000 kilometre route of World War One's
(06:32):
Western Front by a leading historian without a permanent home,
a wife or a job, and with no clear sense
of where his life was going. Anthony Seldon set out
on a 35 day pilgrimage from the French-Swiss border to
the English Channel. The writer's vivid account of walking the
Western Front Way illuminates the traumas of the First World War,
(06:55):
while reassessing his own tumultuous life. Let's hear a sample
of The Path of Peace Walking the Western Front Way
by Anthony Seldon. Selden. It's narrated by Gordon Griffin.
S4 (07:08):
The first afternoon is still warm. My plan is to
be walking northwest along the front in the first half
of the day, which means the sun will be mostly
on my back. But walking to day north and starting
out at 4 p.m., the sun is on the left
side of my face. To my west lies the low
(07:31):
mountain range of the Vosges, to the north the flat
plains of Alsace, and to my east the southern tip
of the Black Forest, cradling it the mighty Rhine. The
first of the seven rivers that will be my touchstones
on the walk. My route never allows me to see it.
(07:53):
But for my first hundred kilometers, the Rhine is a
constant companion. I can sense it and smell it almost,
and can never forget its pulsing urgency. The Rhine, indeed,
was the ever present unconscious shadow of the Western Front
for four and a half years. It was never within
(08:15):
sight of the fighting, but never beyond its sounds. It
mirrors the fronts. Length 1036km from the old Rhine Bridge
at Constance in the Alps, till at the Hook of Holland.
It expires into the dark oblivion of the North Sea
(08:35):
as the Western Front runs north through Alsace. It mimics
it flowing north from Baal. Then, as the front wheels northwestwards,
so too does the Rhine, both travelling urgently onwards in
search of the sea. I'm never happier on the walk
than when I am beside a river. Always on the move,
(08:59):
always lifting my spirits and urging me on.
S2 (09:01):
That was the path of peace. Walking the Western front
Way by Anthony Seldon. Anthony is a n t h
o n y a n t h o NY. Seldon
is s e s d o n. That book goes
for nearly 13 hours, and in the Guardian from November 2022,
(09:27):
they write. In 2012, the author was deeply inspired by
a letter a young but soon to be killed officer
called Alexander Douglas Gillespie had sent his parents from the
Western Front, and this described his dream of creating a
commemorative path after the war along no man's land, all
(09:47):
the way from Switzerland to the channel. After that, he wrote,
he hoped to send every man and child in Western
Europe on pilgrimage along that Via Sacra, so that they
might think and learn what war means from the silent
witnesses on either side. Seldon set out to set up
a charity to realise this dream and a very difficult one,
(10:10):
he explains. Given that far less than 1% of the
lines of trenches remained, with the rest ploughed over to
restore working farmland. All profits from this book, when it
was sold, would go towards publicising and hopefully getting a
start on this, um, what he called the Western Front way.
And the Guardian says he has a historian's enthusiasm and
(10:32):
sharp eye for spotting and recounting good stories, many from
the battlefields he is passing by, and the review ends
with the results of his walk and his publicising of it. Ah,
the route through Belgium is now fully marked and open
for walkers, though progress in France has been slower. And
another one by Gina, another book which was published to
(10:56):
great acclaim years ago. It is The True History of
the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey. Thank you Gina. This
is an exploration of the life and times of Australia's
most enduring folk legend, Ned Kelly and his gang. Using
Ned Kelly himself as the powerful narrator of this novel,
written for a daughter he will never see. This is
(11:18):
a heart rending story of a young boy growing up
in grinding poverty, and of a young man defiantly resisting
the wealth and power of those who wish to destroy him.
It is a novel, evocative of time and place, and
of the class ridden society that was colonial Victoria in
the 1870s. Let's hear a sample of The True History
(11:40):
of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey. It's narrated by
Francis Greenslade.
S5 (11:46):
Now, were your poor grandpa's poor racked body finally granted
everlasting title to the rich soil of Avenal? And your
grandma left free to reveal her passion for the Duffy
Land Act once again. There were now no one to
contradict her or call her a fool. Certainly not us children.
We knew the Quinns had gotten 1000 acres at Glenmore
(12:06):
on the King River, and that is what we wanted too.
Even Dan, who were the most distressed by our father's
death in the hot summer evenings following the burial, my
mother gathered her brood about her. It were not Cuchulain,
Andrew and Maud she talked of now, but the mighty
farm we would all soon select together. She said we
would find a great mountain, river and flat, so rich
(12:29):
no plow were needed. We would plunge our hands into
it and breathe the fertile, loamy smell and be neighbors
with our aunts and uncles once again, and break wild
horses and sell them, and grow corn and wheat, and
raise fat, sleek cattle, and all the land beneath our
feet would be our own to walk on from dawn
to dusk, ours and ours alone. We did not talk
(12:51):
about our father, knowing our very excitement were an insult
against his memory, and his soul were within each soul
of ours, and would be for every moment of our lives.
And there would never be a knot I tied, or
a rabbit I skun, or a horse I rode that
I did not see. Those small eyes watching to see
I done it right. There were 60 hard crab hold
(13:12):
miles between Avenal and my aunts, Kate and Jane. The
very small children rode in a borrowed car together with
our chooks, in baskets and pots and pans and blankets
and axes and hoes and two bags of seed. My
mother sitting up on the bench, driving with baby Grace
at her breast. We older ones had charge of the
cows and dogs. It were our job to catch the
(13:33):
pig when he escaped, though he never minded on account
of we was goin to a farm. Doubtless my mother
had the same idea, but when we finally arrived at
the township of Gretta, we discovered our uncles had been
put in jail, and the aunts and all their children
was living in a de-licensed hotel.
S2 (13:49):
And that was the true history of the Kelly Gang
by Peter Carey. Peter is p e e p t
e r Carey is c a r e y c
a r e. And that book goes for 11 hours
and 45 minutes. It was added to our collection in 2007,
(14:11):
and in a fairly recent review, or recent compared to
when the book was published. This is from 2020, in
The Guardian by Caro Llewellyn. She writes in Kerry's take
on the enduring Australian myth, the odds stacked up so
highly against everyone. Your heart gets broken on every page.
The True History of the Kelly Gang was published in
(14:33):
2000 and was awarded the 2001 Booker Prize. In this
novel is credited with changing the perception of Kelly forever.
She says, the true history. True history is a tough book.
The language is tough. The people are tough. The relationships
are even tougher, as is the land and the life.
Kerry's book on Kelly had been brewing a long time,
(14:56):
Caro writes in an interview in the Paris Review. He
said he was 19 and just discovering literature when he
first imagined a book about Ned Kelly. I was reading Joyce,
and at that time I read the Jerilderie Letter, a
letter written by Ned Kelly in a town where he
was robbing a bank. It's a very Irish voice. I
know it's not Joyce, but it does suggest, even to
(15:17):
a 19 year old, the possibility of creating a poetic
voice that grows out of Australian soil that is true
to its place and hasn't existed before. So thank you, Gina,
for those two recommendations. Um, the one on the Antarctic
and this one, two very different books, but are both
challenging in their own ways. The next recommendation is from Anne. Now,
(15:40):
many people who are members of the library, um, and
many people who, um, just ring Vision Australia, for whatever reason,
will have talked to Anne. I'm absolutely sure she has
a beautiful American accent, very dulcet. And I worked with
Anne for many years and still see her from time
to time. Anne recommended reading. Lolita in Tehran a memoir
(16:04):
in books. So another non-fiction, this is by Azar Nafisi.
In Iran in the late 90s, Azar Nafisi and seven
young women, her former students gathered at her house every
Thursday to discuss forbidden works of Western literature. Shy and
uncomfortable at first, they soon began to open up not
(16:25):
only about the novels they were reading, but also their
own dreams and disappointments. Their personal stories intertwine with those
they are reading. Azar Nafisi also tells her own story.
Let's hear a sample of Reading Lolita in Tehran a
memoir in books by Azar Nafisi. It's narrated by Laurel Lefkow.
S6 (16:48):
In the fall of 1995, after resigning from my last
academic post, I decided to indulge myself and fulfill a dream.
I chose seven of my best and most committed students
and invited them to come to my home every Thursday
morning to discuss literature. They were all women. To teach
a mixed class in the privacy of my home was
(17:09):
too risky, even if we were discussing harmless works of fiction.
One persistent male student, although barred from our class, insisted
on his rights, so he neemah read the assigned material,
and on special days he would come to my house
to talk about the books we were reading. I often
teasingly reminded my students of Muriel Spark's The Prime of
(17:33):
Miss Jean Brodie, and asked, which one of you will
finally betray me? For I am a pessimist by nature,
and I was sure at least one would turn against me.
Nasreen once responded mischievously, you yourself told us that in
the final analysis, we are our own betrayers, playing Judas
to our own Christ. Manah pointed out that I was
(17:56):
no Miss Brodie, and they. Well, they were what they were.
She reminded me of a warning I was fond of repeating,
do not, under any circumstances, belittle a work of fiction
by trying to turn it into a carbon copy of
real life. What we search for in fiction is not
so much reality, but the epiphany of truth. Yet I
(18:19):
suppose that if I were to go against my own
recommendation and choose a work of fiction that would most
resonate with our lives in the Islamic Republic of Iran,
it would not be the prime of miss Jean Brodie
or even 1984, but perhaps Nabokov's invitation to a beheading
or better yet, Lolita.
S2 (18:38):
And that was reading Lolita in Tehran a memoir in
books by Azar Nafisi. Azar is Azar. Azar Nafisi is
n a f I s I n a I s I.
This memoir was originally published in 2003. Once more in
(19:01):
the in The Guardian, there is a review by Paul
Allen from 2003. He calls it a rather wonderful book,
very moving, and some of the books that these women
discuss are The Great Gatsby or Lolita, of course. Henry
James's Daisy Miller. So a few books are discussed. The
classes that she writes about lasted from 1995 to 1997,
(19:26):
when Nafisi left for the United States. Thank you, Anne,
for that lovely recommendation. The next book is one that
people have been waiting on, phenomenally popular when it came out.
It is called yellowface all One Word yellowface by R.F. Kuang.
Authors Juniper Haywood and Athena Liu were supposed to be
(19:48):
twin rising stars, but Athena is a literary darling, while
Joon is a nobody who wants stories about basic white girls.
Joon thinks so. When Joon witnesses Athena's death in a
freak accident, she acts on impulse stealing. Athena's just finished masterpiece,
an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers
(20:11):
during World War One. So what if June edits Athena's
novel and sends it to her agent as her own work?
So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her
as Juniper Song, complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo?
This piece of history deserves to be told whoever the teller.
That is what June believes, and the New York Times
(20:33):
bestseller list agrees. But June cannot escape Athena's shadow, and
emerging evidence threatens her stolen success. As she races to
protect her secret, she discovers exactly how far she will
go to keep what she thinks she deserves. Let's hear
a sample of yellowface by R.F. Kuang. It's narrated by
(20:55):
Helen Lazar.
S7 (20:56):
The night I watch Athena Liu Di were celebrating her
TV deal with Netflix off the bat. For this story
to make sense, you should know two things about Athena. First,
she has everything. A multi-book deal straight out of college
at a major publishing house, an MFA from the one
writing workshop everyone's heard of, a resume of prestigious artist
(21:19):
residencies and a history of awards nominations longer than my
grocery list. At 27, she's published three novels, each one
a successively bigger hit. For Athena, the Netflix deal was
not a life changing event, just another feather in her cap,
one of the side perks of the road to literary
(21:40):
stardom she's been hurtling down since graduation. Second, perhaps as
a consequence of the first, she has almost no friends.
Writers our age, young, ambitious, up and comers just this
side of 30 tend to run in packs. You'll find
evidence of cliques all over social media, writers gushing over
(22:02):
excerpts of one another's unpublished manuscripts. Losing my head over
this w.i.p. Squealing over cover reveals. This is so gorgeous
I will die. And posting selfies of group hangs at
literary meetups across the globe. But Athena's Instagram photos feature
(22:22):
no one else. She regularly tweets career updates and quirky
jokes to her 70,000 followers, but she rarely adds other people.
She doesn't name drop, doesn't blurb or recommend her colleagues books,
and doesn't publicly rub shoulders in that ostentatious, desperate way
early career writers do. In the entire time I've known her,
(22:45):
I've never heard her reference any close friends but me.
I used to think that she was simply aloof. Athena
is so stupidly, ridiculously successful that it makes sense she
wouldn't want to mingle with mere mortals.
S2 (22:59):
That was a sample of A Yellow Face by R
f Kuang. So it's just the initials R and then F,
and then kwang is k u a n g k
u a n g. And that book goes for 8.5 hours.
This book was originally published in mid 2023. And just
(23:22):
reading from Wikipedia here, they call it a satirical novel. Um,
and the book was described as a satire of racial
diversity in the publishing industry, as well as a metafiction
about social media, particularly Twitter. And Twitter plays an important
part in spreading rumors, outing and all sorts of things
(23:42):
in this novel. It is inspired by her own experiences
as an Asian American author. Uh, being told her appeal
is largely or entirely due to her being a token author,
and this is the publishing industry that has given her
this feedback. Um, her literary agent on reading the first
draft was hesitant about the project and attempted to dissuade
(24:05):
Quang from pursuing it further due to its content being
seen as as an attack on the publishing industry. But
they she insisted, and they continued the project. The Guardian
wrote Quang delivers a hugely entertaining account of a brazen
literary heist. The New York Times gave the book a
positive but reserved review, calling it viciously satisfying but on
(24:29):
the nose and overly blunt. NPR reviewed Yellowface Yellowface positively,
calling it a well executed, gripping, fast paced novel. It
did win some terrific awards in 2023. It won the
Goodreads Choice Award for Best Fiction, Waterstones Book of the
year it was shortlisted for, and it won the British
(24:49):
Book Award in 2024. Also, this particular audio version was
shortlisted for the Best Audio Book for 2024. So it
was up for an Audie, Audie Award, as they're called.
Just a reminder to everybody about the upcoming Melbourne Writers Festival.
(25:13):
And there are still some tickets that have been set
aside for members of the Vision Australia library if they
would like to attend the event with Kate Grenville. And
this is on the 9th of May, from 6:00 in
the evening till 7:00, and there are still some tickets
left if you want to head down. I know Jean
(25:34):
is coming and I'll be there. I'm looking forward to it.
Kate Grenville is an amazing writer. This is also live streamed,
so guests may also attend via live streaming. As has
been for the last few years, the Vision Australia Library
are proud sponsors of this year's Melbourne Writers Festival and
were honoured to host this award winning author as she
(25:56):
discusses her latest novel, unsettled a journey through time and place.
So join Kate as she Hater. She discusses this deeply
personal memoir of family legacies, truth telling, and reckoning with
what it means to be on land that was taken
from other people. Intertwining her family's history with the broader
story of First Nations peoples dispossession and displacement, Kate considers
(26:21):
what it means to be descended from people who are
on the sharp edge of the moving blade that was colonization.
She speaks about historical facts and historical fictions, writing challenging histories,
and confronting the ghosts of the past. Kate will be
in conversation with Daniel James, a Yorta Yorta Melbourne based
(26:42):
writer and broadcaster. So it's a free event and there
are tickets left, but only at this stage. For people
who are members of Vision Australia Library, you'll need to register.
To register for the live stream event or to attend
in person, feel free to contact Vision Australia library, which
(27:05):
is Vision Australia library. Vision Australia Library Australia. Or you
can call 1300Â 654Â 656 1300Â 654Â 656. Thank you for joining us on
(27:34):
here this today. Thank you to Gina and Anne. If
you would like to join the library. The number as
I've already just mentioned is 1300Â 654Â 656 130654656. We would love
your recommendations. We would love you to join the library
and add your voice to the community. Simply by joining
and borrowing books. You give the library a voice. Have
(27:57):
a lovely week and we'll be back next week with
more here. This.
Take a look. Take a look inside the book. Take
a look.
S2 (00:24):
Hello and welcome to hear this. I'm Frances Keeland, and
this is the Vision Australia Library radio show, talking about
wonderful books from the Vision Australia library collection. And we've
got some wonderful reader recommended today as well. Hope you
enjoy the show. Let's begin today with a couple of
(00:46):
lovely reader recommended from Gina. The first one is Mind
Over Matter, the epic crossing of the Antarctic continent. So
this is the third book we've had recommended, um, about
the Antarctic, which is exciting. It's it's got a bit
of a thread. This one is by renowned, um, travel
author Ranulph Fiennes. On the 9th of November 1992, Sir
(01:10):
Ranulph Fiennes and Dr. Michael Stroud set out from the
Filchner Ice Shelf to attempt the first unassisted crossing of
the Antarctic continent. It was to be a journey of
epic proportions which captured the imagination of the entire world.
When they were finally lifted out, more dead than alive.
They had completed by far the longest unsupported journey in
(01:35):
polar history. Let's hear a sample of Mind Over Matter
The Epic Crossing of the Antarctic Continent by Sir Ranulph Fiennes.
It's narrated by Stephen Thorne.
S3 (01:47):
In the spring of 1990, we struggled over the sea
ice some 400 miles north of the Siberian coast. If
our Russian advisers proved correct and the fickle Arctic winds
held true to form, a northerly drift would force the
pack ice towards the pole and help us to reach
the top of the world before we starved the previous week,
(02:07):
a chunk of frozen flesh had come away from one
of my toes. But Mike Stroud, my companion, was a
doctor and I trusted his judgment. If the wound's not
subjected to further trauma and our antibiotics last, he assured
me gangrene will not be a worry in 3 or
4 weeks. We might make history to reach the North
(02:29):
Pole on foot and unaided by air contact or other assistance,
had long been the dream of polar specialists from many countries.
A climber's equivalent might be the first ascent of Everest
without Sherpas or oxygen. Amongst polar experts, only two journeys
ranked as more challenging the unaided crossings of Antarctica and
of the Arctic Ocean. On the other side of the world,
(02:53):
a group of three Norwegian ski champions had openly declared
their intention to reach the pole first, and two separate
teams of Soviet skiers were somewhere behind us, having set out,
like us from Novaya Zemlya in Siberia. Our radio base.
A Soviet army shack on the island of Sredny was
manned by Lawrence Floe and Morag Mo Howell with their
(03:18):
Russian friend Sergey Malyshev, only the day before. Mo had
managed to make voice contact via a high frequency set
and gave us news of our competitors. Kaga and his
Norwegians are out of the race. One of them has
been airlifted to safety with a frostbitten foot. The other
two are carrying on, but their challenge is compromised.
S2 (03:40):
And that was mind over matter. The epic crossing of
the Antarctic continent by Sir Ranulph Fiennes. Ranulph is spelt
r a u h r a u p and finds
is spelt f I e n n e s f
(04:01):
I e n n e s and he is a
relative of the actor Ralph Fiennes. This book goes for
ten hours and 20 minutes. Well, this book may not
be for the faint hearted. I'm reading here from the Guardian.
And this is from an article in 2019 by Leo Benedictus,
(04:22):
or 2000 2019, talking about the aftermath. First of all
of this, um, this book. So Sir Ranulph had, um, um,
when he got back, Ranulph Fiennes was on the list
to have his thumb and a finger amputated. They'd become
dead portions due to being in the icy conditions. But
(04:42):
he couldn't wait because the nerve pain was pretty constant.
So he went out to his deck, a workbench, and
removed them with a saw. So thus proving that explorers
are either made of very strong stuff or are quite mad.
Kirkus Reviews So this is just Kirkus Reviews. Reviews. Calls. fines,
(05:06):
writing rather swagger ish old boy style, but the authenticity
of his trip and the brutality of the landscape does
come through in this book, and the narrative is laced
with excerpts from the diaries of explorers who went before them.
The review ends with but for all of his ramrod,
ramrod straight comportment, he does have a sense of humor,
(05:28):
tongue often firmly in cheek. It's probably frozen there. Therein
lies the success of his story, a desperate, thrilling adventure
told with enough drollery to make it believable, and the
haughty fines a mere mortal and bully for them. They
made it a cracking account of one hazardous march in
the classic stiff lipped style, and that review was in
(05:50):
the Kirkus Reviews. Thank you, Gina, for that. It sounds
like a cracking read, but not for the faint hearted,
with the accounts of the frozenness of limbs and and
and how they coped with that during the journey and
after continuing on our books of journeys, there is another, um, title,
(06:12):
harkening once again back to the First World War, which was, um,
the whole theme of the show. Last week we have
the Path of Peace walking the Western Front Way. This
is by Anthony Seldon, a deeply intimate and inspiring memoir
about walking the 1000 kilometre route of World War One's
(06:32):
Western Front by a leading historian without a permanent home,
a wife or a job, and with no clear sense
of where his life was going. Anthony Seldon set out
on a 35 day pilgrimage from the French-Swiss border to
the English Channel. The writer's vivid account of walking the
Western Front Way illuminates the traumas of the First World War,
(06:55):
while reassessing his own tumultuous life. Let's hear a sample
of The Path of Peace Walking the Western Front Way
by Anthony Seldon. Selden. It's narrated by Gordon Griffin.
S4 (07:08):
The first afternoon is still warm. My plan is to
be walking northwest along the front in the first half
of the day, which means the sun will be mostly
on my back. But walking to day north and starting
out at 4 p.m., the sun is on the left
side of my face. To my west lies the low
(07:31):
mountain range of the Vosges, to the north the flat
plains of Alsace, and to my east the southern tip
of the Black Forest, cradling it the mighty Rhine. The
first of the seven rivers that will be my touchstones
on the walk. My route never allows me to see it.
(07:53):
But for my first hundred kilometers, the Rhine is a
constant companion. I can sense it and smell it almost,
and can never forget its pulsing urgency. The Rhine, indeed,
was the ever present unconscious shadow of the Western Front
for four and a half years. It was never within
(08:15):
sight of the fighting, but never beyond its sounds. It
mirrors the fronts. Length 1036km from the old Rhine Bridge
at Constance in the Alps, till at the Hook of Holland.
It expires into the dark oblivion of the North Sea
(08:35):
as the Western Front runs north through Alsace. It mimics
it flowing north from Baal. Then, as the front wheels northwestwards,
so too does the Rhine, both travelling urgently onwards in
search of the sea. I'm never happier on the walk
than when I am beside a river. Always on the move,
(08:59):
always lifting my spirits and urging me on.
S2 (09:01):
That was the path of peace. Walking the Western front
Way by Anthony Seldon. Anthony is a n t h
o n y a n t h o NY. Seldon
is s e s d o n. That book goes
for nearly 13 hours, and in the Guardian from November 2022,
(09:27):
they write. In 2012, the author was deeply inspired by
a letter a young but soon to be killed officer
called Alexander Douglas Gillespie had sent his parents from the
Western Front, and this described his dream of creating a
commemorative path after the war along no man's land, all
(09:47):
the way from Switzerland to the channel. After that, he wrote,
he hoped to send every man and child in Western
Europe on pilgrimage along that Via Sacra, so that they
might think and learn what war means from the silent
witnesses on either side. Seldon set out to set up
a charity to realise this dream and a very difficult one,
(10:10):
he explains. Given that far less than 1% of the
lines of trenches remained, with the rest ploughed over to
restore working farmland. All profits from this book, when it
was sold, would go towards publicising and hopefully getting a
start on this, um, what he called the Western Front way.
And the Guardian says he has a historian's enthusiasm and
(10:32):
sharp eye for spotting and recounting good stories, many from
the battlefields he is passing by, and the review ends
with the results of his walk and his publicising of it. Ah,
the route through Belgium is now fully marked and open
for walkers, though progress in France has been slower. And
another one by Gina, another book which was published to
(10:56):
great acclaim years ago. It is The True History of
the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey. Thank you Gina. This
is an exploration of the life and times of Australia's
most enduring folk legend, Ned Kelly and his gang. Using
Ned Kelly himself as the powerful narrator of this novel,
written for a daughter he will never see. This is
(11:18):
a heart rending story of a young boy growing up
in grinding poverty, and of a young man defiantly resisting
the wealth and power of those who wish to destroy him.
It is a novel, evocative of time and place, and
of the class ridden society that was colonial Victoria in
the 1870s. Let's hear a sample of The True History
(11:40):
of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey. It's narrated by
Francis Greenslade.
S5 (11:46):
Now, were your poor grandpa's poor racked body finally granted
everlasting title to the rich soil of Avenal? And your
grandma left free to reveal her passion for the Duffy
Land Act once again. There were now no one to
contradict her or call her a fool. Certainly not us children.
We knew the Quinns had gotten 1000 acres at Glenmore
(12:06):
on the King River, and that is what we wanted too.
Even Dan, who were the most distressed by our father's
death in the hot summer evenings following the burial, my
mother gathered her brood about her. It were not Cuchulain,
Andrew and Maud she talked of now, but the mighty
farm we would all soon select together. She said we
would find a great mountain, river and flat, so rich
(12:29):
no plow were needed. We would plunge our hands into
it and breathe the fertile, loamy smell and be neighbors
with our aunts and uncles once again, and break wild
horses and sell them, and grow corn and wheat, and
raise fat, sleek cattle, and all the land beneath our
feet would be our own to walk on from dawn
to dusk, ours and ours alone. We did not talk
(12:51):
about our father, knowing our very excitement were an insult
against his memory, and his soul were within each soul
of ours, and would be for every moment of our lives.
And there would never be a knot I tied, or
a rabbit I skun, or a horse I rode that
I did not see. Those small eyes watching to see
I done it right. There were 60 hard crab hold
(13:12):
miles between Avenal and my aunts, Kate and Jane. The
very small children rode in a borrowed car together with
our chooks, in baskets and pots and pans and blankets
and axes and hoes and two bags of seed. My
mother sitting up on the bench, driving with baby Grace
at her breast. We older ones had charge of the
cows and dogs. It were our job to catch the
(13:33):
pig when he escaped, though he never minded on account
of we was goin to a farm. Doubtless my mother
had the same idea, but when we finally arrived at
the township of Gretta, we discovered our uncles had been
put in jail, and the aunts and all their children
was living in a de-licensed hotel.
S2 (13:49):
And that was the true history of the Kelly Gang
by Peter Carey. Peter is p e e p t
e r Carey is c a r e y c
a r e. And that book goes for 11 hours
and 45 minutes. It was added to our collection in 2007,
(14:11):
and in a fairly recent review, or recent compared to
when the book was published. This is from 2020, in
The Guardian by Caro Llewellyn. She writes in Kerry's take
on the enduring Australian myth, the odds stacked up so
highly against everyone. Your heart gets broken on every page.
The True History of the Kelly Gang was published in
(14:33):
2000 and was awarded the 2001 Booker Prize. In this
novel is credited with changing the perception of Kelly forever.
She says, the true history. True history is a tough book.
The language is tough. The people are tough. The relationships
are even tougher, as is the land and the life.
Kerry's book on Kelly had been brewing a long time,
(14:56):
Caro writes in an interview in the Paris Review. He
said he was 19 and just discovering literature when he
first imagined a book about Ned Kelly. I was reading Joyce,
and at that time I read the Jerilderie Letter, a
letter written by Ned Kelly in a town where he
was robbing a bank. It's a very Irish voice. I
know it's not Joyce, but it does suggest, even to
(15:17):
a 19 year old, the possibility of creating a poetic
voice that grows out of Australian soil that is true
to its place and hasn't existed before. So thank you, Gina,
for those two recommendations. Um, the one on the Antarctic
and this one, two very different books, but are both
challenging in their own ways. The next recommendation is from Anne. Now,
(15:40):
many people who are members of the library, um, and
many people who, um, just ring Vision Australia, for whatever reason,
will have talked to Anne. I'm absolutely sure she has
a beautiful American accent, very dulcet. And I worked with
Anne for many years and still see her from time
to time. Anne recommended reading. Lolita in Tehran a memoir
(16:04):
in books. So another non-fiction, this is by Azar Nafisi.
In Iran in the late 90s, Azar Nafisi and seven
young women, her former students gathered at her house every
Thursday to discuss forbidden works of Western literature. Shy and
uncomfortable at first, they soon began to open up not
(16:25):
only about the novels they were reading, but also their
own dreams and disappointments. Their personal stories intertwine with those
they are reading. Azar Nafisi also tells her own story.
Let's hear a sample of Reading Lolita in Tehran a
memoir in books by Azar Nafisi. It's narrated by Laurel Lefkow.
S6 (16:48):
In the fall of 1995, after resigning from my last
academic post, I decided to indulge myself and fulfill a dream.
I chose seven of my best and most committed students
and invited them to come to my home every Thursday
morning to discuss literature. They were all women. To teach
a mixed class in the privacy of my home was
(17:09):
too risky, even if we were discussing harmless works of fiction.
One persistent male student, although barred from our class, insisted
on his rights, so he neemah read the assigned material,
and on special days he would come to my house
to talk about the books we were reading. I often
teasingly reminded my students of Muriel Spark's The Prime of
(17:33):
Miss Jean Brodie, and asked, which one of you will
finally betray me? For I am a pessimist by nature,
and I was sure at least one would turn against me.
Nasreen once responded mischievously, you yourself told us that in
the final analysis, we are our own betrayers, playing Judas
to our own Christ. Manah pointed out that I was
(17:56):
no Miss Brodie, and they. Well, they were what they were.
She reminded me of a warning I was fond of repeating,
do not, under any circumstances, belittle a work of fiction
by trying to turn it into a carbon copy of
real life. What we search for in fiction is not
so much reality, but the epiphany of truth. Yet I
(18:19):
suppose that if I were to go against my own
recommendation and choose a work of fiction that would most
resonate with our lives in the Islamic Republic of Iran,
it would not be the prime of miss Jean Brodie
or even 1984, but perhaps Nabokov's invitation to a beheading
or better yet, Lolita.
S2 (18:38):
And that was reading Lolita in Tehran a memoir in
books by Azar Nafisi. Azar is Azar. Azar Nafisi is
n a f I s I n a I s I.
This memoir was originally published in 2003. Once more in
(19:01):
the in The Guardian, there is a review by Paul
Allen from 2003. He calls it a rather wonderful book,
very moving, and some of the books that these women
discuss are The Great Gatsby or Lolita, of course. Henry
James's Daisy Miller. So a few books are discussed. The
classes that she writes about lasted from 1995 to 1997,
(19:26):
when Nafisi left for the United States. Thank you, Anne,
for that lovely recommendation. The next book is one that
people have been waiting on, phenomenally popular when it came out.
It is called yellowface all One Word yellowface by R.F. Kuang.
Authors Juniper Haywood and Athena Liu were supposed to be
(19:48):
twin rising stars, but Athena is a literary darling, while
Joon is a nobody who wants stories about basic white girls.
Joon thinks so. When Joon witnesses Athena's death in a
freak accident, she acts on impulse stealing. Athena's just finished masterpiece,
an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers
(20:11):
during World War One. So what if June edits Athena's
novel and sends it to her agent as her own work?
So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her
as Juniper Song, complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo?
This piece of history deserves to be told whoever the teller.
That is what June believes, and the New York Times
(20:33):
bestseller list agrees. But June cannot escape Athena's shadow, and
emerging evidence threatens her stolen success. As she races to
protect her secret, she discovers exactly how far she will
go to keep what she thinks she deserves. Let's hear
a sample of yellowface by R.F. Kuang. It's narrated by
(20:55):
Helen Lazar.
S7 (20:56):
The night I watch Athena Liu Di were celebrating her
TV deal with Netflix off the bat. For this story
to make sense, you should know two things about Athena. First,
she has everything. A multi-book deal straight out of college
at a major publishing house, an MFA from the one
writing workshop everyone's heard of, a resume of prestigious artist
(21:19):
residencies and a history of awards nominations longer than my
grocery list. At 27, she's published three novels, each one
a successively bigger hit. For Athena, the Netflix deal was
not a life changing event, just another feather in her cap,
one of the side perks of the road to literary
(21:40):
stardom she's been hurtling down since graduation. Second, perhaps as
a consequence of the first, she has almost no friends.
Writers our age, young, ambitious, up and comers just this
side of 30 tend to run in packs. You'll find
evidence of cliques all over social media, writers gushing over
(22:02):
excerpts of one another's unpublished manuscripts. Losing my head over
this w.i.p. Squealing over cover reveals. This is so gorgeous
I will die. And posting selfies of group hangs at
literary meetups across the globe. But Athena's Instagram photos feature
(22:22):
no one else. She regularly tweets career updates and quirky
jokes to her 70,000 followers, but she rarely adds other people.
She doesn't name drop, doesn't blurb or recommend her colleagues books,
and doesn't publicly rub shoulders in that ostentatious, desperate way
early career writers do. In the entire time I've known her,
(22:45):
I've never heard her reference any close friends but me.
I used to think that she was simply aloof. Athena
is so stupidly, ridiculously successful that it makes sense she
wouldn't want to mingle with mere mortals.
S2 (22:59):
That was a sample of A Yellow Face by R
f Kuang. So it's just the initials R and then F,
and then kwang is k u a n g k
u a n g. And that book goes for 8.5 hours.
This book was originally published in mid 2023. And just
(23:22):
reading from Wikipedia here, they call it a satirical novel. Um,
and the book was described as a satire of racial
diversity in the publishing industry, as well as a metafiction
about social media, particularly Twitter. And Twitter plays an important
part in spreading rumors, outing and all sorts of things
(23:42):
in this novel. It is inspired by her own experiences
as an Asian American author. Uh, being told her appeal
is largely or entirely due to her being a token author,
and this is the publishing industry that has given her
this feedback. Um, her literary agent on reading the first
draft was hesitant about the project and attempted to dissuade
(24:05):
Quang from pursuing it further due to its content being
seen as as an attack on the publishing industry. But
they she insisted, and they continued the project. The Guardian
wrote Quang delivers a hugely entertaining account of a brazen
literary heist. The New York Times gave the book a
positive but reserved review, calling it viciously satisfying but on
(24:29):
the nose and overly blunt. NPR reviewed Yellowface Yellowface positively,
calling it a well executed, gripping, fast paced novel. It
did win some terrific awards in 2023. It won the
Goodreads Choice Award for Best Fiction, Waterstones Book of the
year it was shortlisted for, and it won the British
(24:49):
Book Award in 2024. Also, this particular audio version was
shortlisted for the Best Audio Book for 2024. So it
was up for an Audie, Audie Award, as they're called.
Just a reminder to everybody about the upcoming Melbourne Writers Festival.
(25:13):
And there are still some tickets that have been set
aside for members of the Vision Australia library if they
would like to attend the event with Kate Grenville. And
this is on the 9th of May, from 6:00 in
the evening till 7:00, and there are still some tickets
left if you want to head down. I know Jean
(25:34):
is coming and I'll be there. I'm looking forward to it.
Kate Grenville is an amazing writer. This is also live streamed,
so guests may also attend via live streaming. As has
been for the last few years, the Vision Australia Library
are proud sponsors of this year's Melbourne Writers Festival and
were honoured to host this award winning author as she
(25:56):
discusses her latest novel, unsettled a journey through time and place.
So join Kate as she Hater. She discusses this deeply
personal memoir of family legacies, truth telling, and reckoning with
what it means to be on land that was taken
from other people. Intertwining her family's history with the broader
story of First Nations peoples dispossession and displacement, Kate considers
(26:21):
what it means to be descended from people who are
on the sharp edge of the moving blade that was colonization.
She speaks about historical facts and historical fictions, writing challenging histories,
and confronting the ghosts of the past. Kate will be
in conversation with Daniel James, a Yorta Yorta Melbourne based
(26:42):
writer and broadcaster. So it's a free event and there
are tickets left, but only at this stage. For people
who are members of Vision Australia Library, you'll need to register.
To register for the live stream event or to attend
in person, feel free to contact Vision Australia library, which
(27:05):
is Vision Australia library. Vision Australia Library Australia. Or you
can call 1300Â 654Â 656 1300Â 654Â 656. Thank you for joining us on
(27:34):
here this today. Thank you to Gina and Anne. If
you would like to join the library. The number as
I've already just mentioned is 1300Â 654Â 656 130654656. We would love
your recommendations. We would love you to join the library
and add your voice to the community. Simply by joining
and borrowing books. You give the library a voice. Have
(27:57):
a lovely week and we'll be back next week with
more here. This.
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