Catherine Raynes: Bonfire of the Murdochs and Hooked

Bonfire of the Murdochs by Gabriel Sherman  

When Rupert Murdoch made a fateful decision about who should inherit his media colossus, he believed that pitting his children against each other would produce the most capable heir. Twenty-five years later, that gamble would tear apart one of the world's most powerful families and trigger a multi-billion dollar reckoning in a succession battle featuring betrayals, lawsuits, and revenge plots. 
 
In Bonfire of the Murdochs, bestselling author Gabriel Sherman tells the inside story of this epic family war, one whose seeds were planted a half-century ago in Australia when the complicated patriarch left his homeland to conquer the world and please the ghost of his judgmental father. That quest culminated in a media empire that controlled Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, and tabloids on three continents, which wielded more political and cultural power than any single company in modern times. 
 
But Rupert's plan to rip up the secret trust controlling his empire and anoint his conservative firstborn son Lachlan as successor set him on a collision course with his three more liberal children. What price would Rupert pay to secure his legacy? For the aging patriarch, this would be his final and most personal deal. 
 
Based on interviews with more than 150 sources, Bonfire of the Murdochs is a richly textured narrative where each child plays their predestined role in a blood feud that explodes in a courtroom showdown. There, Murdoch's children weaponize his own secrets against him. It is a tragedy Shakespeare would have appreciated, where getting everything you want costs everything you love. 

  

Hooked by Asako Yuzuki  

Eriko really wouldn't mind being savaged, if it was her best friend doing the savaging ... 

Eriko's life appears perfect - devoted parents, spotless apartment and a job in the seafood division of one of Japan's largest trading companies. Her latest project, to reintroduce the controversial Nile perch fish into the Japanese market, is characteristically ambitious. But beneath her flawless surface she is wracked by loneliness.  

Eriko becomes fascinated with a popular blog written by a housewife, Shoko. Shoko's posts about eating convenience store food and her untidy home are the opposite of the typical Japanese housewife's manicured lifestyle.  

When Eriko tracks Shoko down at her favourite restaurant and befriends her, Shoko is at first charmed by her new companion. But as Eriko's obsession with Shoko deepens, her increasingly possessive behaviour starts to raise suspicion. As Eriko's carefully laid plans begin to unravel, how far will she go to hold on to the best friend that she's ever had?  

Beautifully translated by Polly Barton, Hooked is a thrilling and unsettling story of the line between friendship and dangerous obsession. A delicious exploration of food, loneliness and womanhood in contemporary Japan, Hooked brings together all the ingredients for which Asako Yuzuki is so adored. 

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast
from News Talks at b.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Let's Bring in Catherine Rains, our book reviewer, this morning,
Good morning.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
Good morning Jack.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Oh you're headed south for the long weekend. How good.

Speaker 3 (00:22):
We sure are looking forward to some interesting weather in Queenstown.
But you know, it's always such a beautiful place.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
It should be fun, do you know, I reckon that's
one of the part of the South Island where often
the experience is better if you have a bit of
wild weather. You know, if it's perfect and dry, then
you know, that's sure, that has its attractions and pleasantries.
But actually sometimes if it's a bit wild, you know,
it adds another kind of dimension. So yeah, so long

(00:48):
as you get in.

Speaker 3 (00:50):
Yes, absolutely absolutely, and you're right lake Walker tipoo and
wild weather is quite amazing.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
It's pretty something. Yeah, yeah, all right. Hey, we've got
a couple of reads that sound fantastic this weekend. I
am fascinated by the sound of your first book for
us this morning. So tell us about Bonfire of the
Murdocks by Gabriel Sherman.

Speaker 3 (01:08):
So this is Robert Murdoch's story, and he's now ninety
four and worth twenty three billion dollars and Rupert Murdoch, Yes,
just the past ACQUI twenty three billion, yeah, right, And
so the American Juriors Gabrielle Sherman has been reporting on
the Murdoch family for the last couple of decades and

(01:29):
he's interviewed all of them over over those years. And
the thing I found really interesting about this book is
I didn't realize that Robert Murdock actually inherited this media
empire from his father, Sir Keith Murdoch, and so he
grew up around the Herold newsroomman and all of that
kind of journalism side of things, and he really wanted

(01:49):
to join the Herald straight after he graduated from high school,
and his father actually insisted he went to Oxford, and
so he works in different newspapers as well after he
finishes as Oxford. But the real style of that whole
Murdoch style of journalism, which actually has father was really
like as well, and it's probably revealed in the book

(02:11):
most by the phone hacking scandal, which I'm sure most
people kind of remember about the news of the world,
where they were listening to individuals and their private messages
and breaking into the phones of famous people and also
really vulnerable people. You know, people had been victims of
attacks and bereaved parents, and Murdoch just kind of sums

(02:31):
them up really when he denied kind of direct responsibility
of it, but considered they called us with dirty hands
when he's in court over this. And the other interesting
thing is his relationship with his children over the media empire,
and in twenty twenty four it really came to her
head because he'd set up this family trust in nineteen
ninety nine and established this inheritance of prudence his daughter

(02:55):
by his first wife, and Lachlan, Elizabeth and James, and
that all inherit everything equally. But Robert at this stage
wanted Lachlan, who's probably the most right wing of his children,
to assume the full control of the business. And there's
a whole lot of legal action and they all end
up with one point one billion each at the end
of it, which is probably not a bad sum of money,
but there's this real ruthlessness about him, and he pits

(03:18):
people against each other, including his family, and it's just
fascinating look at the really incredibly dysfunctional family and the
control and the power and a really reckless disregard. That's
just completely driven I think by greed.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
Yeah, oh fantastic. It sounds so interesting. So that's a
Bonfire of the Murdocks by Gabriel Sherman. Next up tell
us about Hooked by Azarko Yuzuki.

Speaker 3 (03:43):
So this has been translated from Japanese, but it reads
really well. And Eriko's thirty and single and living at
home and kind of this almost epitome of corporate success,
well groomed, you know, really really good at a job.
But there's one thing that she's never really got in life,
and that's a great female friend. And in her interactions

(04:05):
in social media, she's some across this blog that really
is almost the complete opposite of her life, and she
becomes hoked on reading these and the woman that writes
these blogs, a woman called Choko, is a stay at
home housewife and she hates cooking and cleaning and anything
that requires any effort. And she never anticipated that her blog,
called the World's World's Worst Wife, would ever attract any attention.

(04:29):
And Arico's this fan, and she begins stalking the places
that Shoko goes to, and then one night they meet
and they get along and Arico's really excited about this,
but Choko's really unaware that Arico has this obsessive behavior
in her past, and so the relationship begins okay, and
then really very early on, the obsession becomes really obvious,

(04:51):
and it's the story of the dynamic between the two
and the behavior and the way they both change in
reaction to it, and the online presence. And so this
novel really focused on how modern society works and they
want real hunger for connection and just the way our
lives can go completely out of control and how easily
we define ourselves by what other people think of us

(05:13):
and what social media is about, and it's just it's
really interesting.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
Great, okay, cool. So that's hooked by Asako Yuzuki. Catherine's
first book is Bonfire of the Murdocks by Gabriel Sherman.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
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