"Passion for Prose" City Edition, October 2024

A Zine on Books, Reading, Writing and Community published on the first day of each month Featuring my beloved Melbourne UNESCO City of Literature with Special International Supplement in January, April, July & October

By Christine Yunn-Yu Sun In This Issue:

LOCAL FEATURE

MY READING PATH Reflections on “Hope is the Thing” and a radio dramatisation of The Exorcist

FICTION REVIEW

EVENTS, NEWS & RECOMMENDATIONS

Celebrating 10 years of Queenscliffe Literary Festival The Ledge by Christian White Runt by Craig Silvey The Killing Code by Ellie Marney NON-FICTION REVIEW

Acknowledgement of Country: We acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the land on which we live, learn and work. We pay respect to all First Nations people of Australia, and recognise their connection to this land.

Tell No One by Brendan Watkins NEW TITLE RECOMMENDATIONS

RecipeTin Eats: Tonight by Nagi Maehashi Out of the Blue by Anthony Field INTERNATIONAL FICTION REVIEW

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro The Silence Factory by Bridget Collins INTERNATIONAL NON-FICTION REVIEW

Tiffy Cooks by Tiffy Chen

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LOCAL FEATURE

Celebrating 10 Years of Queenscliffe Lit Festival

Image credit: Queenscliffe Literary Festival THIS YEAR'S FESTIVAL, from Friday 18 to Sunday 27 October, will bring some of Australia's best authors and thinkers to seaside Queenscliffe on Wadawurrung Country.

Now in its 10th year, the festival is designed to showcase an awesome range of emerging and established authors, artists, musicians and artisans to communities across the Bellarine Peninsula.

“The purpose is to curate a lively and intelligent season of events that stimulates discussion and to provide opportunities for engagement and participation,” says the event website.

“The program aims to be inclusive, accessible, thought-provoking and diverse. It celebrates Australian literature across fiction, non-fiction, poetry, music and art.”

Four of the Australian literary greats hosted by the festival this year are Tim Winton, Alexis Wright, Pip Williams, and Candice Fox. Other well-known authors include Bruce Pascoe, Tony Birch, Rosie Batty, Louise Milligan, Clare Wright, Jock Serong, Jeff Sparrow, and Melanie

Cheng – just to name a few.

One eye-catching session is “You're Cancelled!”, where industrial relations lawyer Josh Bornstein will explain the real victims of “cancel culture”.

Another interesting event is “Shipwrecks and Sea Myths”, where authors Shivaun Plozza, Michael Earp and Andrea Rowe will discuss writing stories about pirates and ocean adventures for young and diverse readers.

Particularly exciting is the guided Queenscliff Literary Walk, which sheds light on those locations that feature in a variety of books and films. The leisure stroll begins and ends at the historic Queenscliff Library, a local landmark since 1888.

And there is the innovative concept of #QLFBookSwap, where Queenscliffe residents can leave a book they enjoyed (but are prepared to part with) by their letterbox and then take a walk around town to find another new read from someone else. A curious morph from the idea of the Little Free Library.

Note the difference between “Queenscliff” and “Queenscliffe”.

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FICTION REVIEW

The Ledge by Christian White

LAUDED AS THE “CRIME BOOK of the year” and the “most exciting Christmas title of 2024”, this is supposed to be the author's “twistiest book”.

And it does not disappoint. The novel contains the kind of jaw-dropping plot twist that no one sees coming!

Like the renowned 1986 movie Stand by Me – which is based on Stephen King's 1972 novella “The Body” – the story begins with the shocking discovery of human remains in a forest.

As the police investigate, a group of old friends start to panic, fearing that their long-held secret is about to be exposed. One of them is our first-person narrator and protagonist, a successful

author who is trying to rescue his failed marriage.

Our protagonist's return to his hometown is also a trip down the memory lane. It brings us back to 1999, when 16-year-old Aaron went missing.

His best friends – Justin, Chen and Leeson – became involved, but how far would you – and should you – go to help your mate?

White describes this as a “crime thriller about the inevitable death of childhood”. But there are other universal themes, including toxic masculinity, domestic abuse, male puberty, and the inner dynamics of male friendship. The female characters in the story also have crucial roles, and the protagonist's love for his wife and daughter is heart-wrenching.

Ultimately, as fellow crime fiction author Michael Robotham praises, The Ledge is “a coming-of-age story where not everybody comes of age”. This reviewer would recommend it as a must-read for the holidays.

Local Events •

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To celebrating Nature Book Week, the Wildness Society is presenting the “30 Years of Nature Book Illustration” exhibition at the Wheeler Centre from Thursday 3 to Thursday 31 October.

A special screening of American actor Spike Jonze's 2009 film adaptation of Maurice Sendak's iconic 1963 picture book Where the Wild Things Are will take place at ACMI on Saturday 5 October.

Visit the “World of the Book” exhibition at State Library Victoria (May 2004-May 2005), where more than 300 rare and remarkable items that celebrate the unique place books have in our hearts and minds.

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FICTION REVIEW

Runt by Craig Silvey

THIS MULTI-AWARD-WINNING children’s book features 11-year-old Annie, whose best and only friend is a rescued stray dog named Runt.

Annie lives with her family on a draught-affected sheep farm. Money is tight and water is scarce, and many in their town have been forced to sell their properties and move away.

Worried the same fate will befall her family, Annie tries to enter Runt in a lucrative agility course championship in London. Trouble is, Runt only obeys

her commands if nobody else is watching. Worse, a fellow competitor will do everything in his power to take the pair out of the race. Not to mention the family's lack of money for the trip, especially with the local land baron eyeing their farm.

The story is all about being true to yourself and respecting other people’s rights to walk their own paths. It is also about family and friendship, teamwork and mutual support – the Australian spirit of mateship and equality even in the most dire of circumstances.

The writing is full of what Silvey describes as “the twangs of language, the dry wit, the understatements, the vary particular rhythm of speech” that characterise our Australian English. The smart and entertaining wordplay is accompanied by delightful illustrations created by renowned artist Sara Acton.

FICTION REVIEW

The Killing Code by Ellie Marney

THIS YA HISTORICAL FICTION tells the story of Kit, who is recruited by the U.S. Signals Intelligence agency in 1943 to

use maths and patterns to decode intercepted enemy messages.

When government girls are brutally murdered, she is drawn into the hunt for the serial killer. Also working on the case are fellow codebreakers Dottie, Moya and Violet, and their friendships blossomed.

Readers are brought into their inner circle, aided by the author's meticulous research on everything American in the 1940s. There is also

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considerable emphasis on the inner workings of the Army and its wartime intelligence work.

But the most noteworthy part of the novel is how Kit and her cohort apply their code-breaking skills and insights to solving the crime. These are the fundamental steps of psychological profiling, gathering, deciphering and analysing data in order to identify the

behavioural patterns and psychological characteristics of the killer.

This is a smart book in its gentle way of tackling difficult issues such as war, crime and punishment, racism and segregation, and women's rights. Subtly and effectively, it casts light on the many types of injustice in our society, while celebrating the good and the beautiful in our daily lives.

NON-FICTION REVIEW

Tell No One by Brendan Watkins

THIS MEMOIR IS PRAISED to have laid bare a disturbing history with compassion and humanity.

It details the author's search for his birth parents, which uncovered “an astonishing global scandal”.

Here are the deep emotions of a man desperately searching for answers to some of the most fundamental questions about his existence. “Who were my parents? Where were they?

Why did they give me away?”

Poignantly illustrated is the “nagging inkling” that many adopted people feel, “that they're mismatched, don't quite fit, or are outsiders, a recurring sense that they've lost something”.

Watkins learned about his adoption at the age of eight. When he decided to start a family of his own, the practical issue of “what was swimming around in my gene pool” became urgent.

After decades of extensive research and a DNA test, Watkins discovered that he is the son of a priest and a nun.

Worse, his father, a celebrated outback missionary, had sworn his mother to secrecy about their relationship.

There are approximately 450,000 Catholic priests around the world. It is estimated that they have fathered over 20,000 children. Research shows that many mothers were pressured to have abortions. Others were coerced into hiding, tormented by shame and guilt as they gave birth to babies who were immediately and forcibly removed for adoption, their records falsified or conveniently lost.

The book is a powerful reminder of the sort of cruelty that institutionalised religious power can impose on women and children.

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MY READING PATH

Reflections on “Hope is the Thing”

A WHILE AGO, when this reviewer was admiring how the local school kids dressed up for the Children's Book Week (August 17-23), one famous quote came to mind: “Keep a little fire burning; however small, however hidden.”

While it may or may not come from American author Cormac McCarthy's 2006 novel The Road, the quote itself is about hope. Many of us learned about the idea(l) of hope from the mythical tale of Pandora's Box. The “box”, as lauded by ancient Greek poet Hesiod, was actually a large jar or urn. There're also alternative accounts regarding who opened the container, as well as its actual content.

According to one Renaissance engraving by Italian artist Giulio Bonasone, the real culprit is Epinetheus, husband of Pandora. As he opens the jar, various virtues rise up, including security, harmony, fairness, mercy, freedom, happiness, peace, worth, and joy. Only hope remains.

So, if the jar releases evils that set out to torment humanity, as the story is commonly told, then why was hope among them at the start? Alternatively,

if the jar holds blessings, as depicted by Bonasone, then why did hope stay back when the other virtues descended upon our world?

Either way, the real question is: Is hope preserved in the jar for the sake of humanity, or is it withheld from human existence in the first place? It is worth a thought.

In American author Jack Du Brul's 2001 techno-thriller Pandora's Curse, the protagonist Philip Mercer finds himself in mortal danger and reminisces bitterly: “Hasn't anyone ever wondered why hope was in [Pandora's jar] to begin with? Why was it in there with disease and hate and lust? Because hope's as destructive as any of those, maybe worse. It was never meant to be a gift from the gods. It was punishment. Hope gives you strengths when you have a chance. When the situation's impossible, it becomes a torture.”

These words are so impressive that this reviewer often feels cynical when reading American poet Emily Dickinson's famous lyrics: “Hope” is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul And sings the tune without the words And never stops - at all Like Pandora's jar, Dickinson's poem has inspired different authors in different ways. For example, in English author Max Porter's 2015 novel Grief is the Thing with Feathers,

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a grieving widower and his young sons are able to reconcile with death and loss thanks to a visiting crow. In American author Haley Hudson's 2022 novel Hope is the Thing with Features, a Jewish girl manages to find her way in Germany in the darkest of times.

In their 2023 illustrated children's book Hope is the Thing, Australian author Johanna Bell and illustrator Erica Wagner recall the devastation they felt after bushfires ravaged much of Australia's east coast in 2019: “Horrified by the impact the fires had on the wild places we love, we wanted to create a work that speaks to the many ways hope presents in the world.”

The artists continue: “For us, hope isn't just an eagle soaring in a cloudless sky. It's also the ibis raiding bins. The girl in this book pays close attention to birds and uses her observations to create an imagined world filled with art and hope. This little girl is us and we also hope she is you!”

This is a gorgeous book, full of uplifting words and gentle illustrations

of some of Australia's most beautiful and beloved birds.

The mixed media collages are a way to reflect and celebrate diversity, comprising bits and pieces of old artwork, painted and coloured paper, monoprints, and even fragments of vintage books.

As the artists point out, hope is the thing “with feathers and wings” and can be found in the most ordinary and unusual places. “Hope is the seed in the palm of your hand. Hope is a footprint found in the sand.” The message of rebirth and renewal is all around us.

Life will always find a way to survive and thrive.

So, while watching the kids in their colourful costumes – as Darth Vader played football with a bunch of dinosaurs, as Harry and Hermione walked their dog, and as Wednesday Addams greeted Batman in the playground – this reviewer was once again full of hope. As long as our younger generations keep reading, that little fire will surely burn bright and brave.

More Local Events •

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Author Nick Gadd will discuss his book Melbourne Circle: Walking, Memory and Loss at the Kathleen Syme Library on Saturday 5 October, Come along to discover secret places and quirky stories about Melbourne's suburbs.

From Dracula to Interview with the Vampire to Twilight and much more, Writers Victoria will host the “Analysing the Vampire from Text to Screen” workshop by artist Diego Ramirez on Saturday 26 October.

“I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.”

– Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables (1908) Passion for Prose, October 2024, Page 7 of 12

NEW TITLE RECOMMENDATIONS

RecipeTin Eats: Tonight by Nagi Maehashi Out of the Blue by Anthony Field

NAGI MAEHASHI'S RECIPETIN EATS is Australia's most popular food blog. Her first cookbook, RecipeTin Eats: Dinner, is the fastest-selling cookbook in Australian publishing history. In 2023, it became the first cookbook to win the Australian Book Industry Award's Book of the Year.

RecipeTin Eats: Tonight features 150 recipes that will solve the perpetual problem of what's for dinner every night. There are 800 variations on these recipes and 3,000 possible combinations using different ingredients.

WE ALL KNOW HIM as the Blue Wiggle, but Anthony Field is also a musician, an entrepreneur and a natural leader that inspires and nurtures the creativity of fellow artists.

This is a honest and compelling memoir detailing Field's remarkable career, from setting up his first band The Cockroaches, to his immense success with The Wiggles, and then to his continual struggle with chronic pain and depression that almost – but not quite – forced him to quit his brilliant career.

About the Author/Editor BORN IN TAIWAN, CHRISTINE YUNN-YU SUN has been living and working in Melbourne since 1997, as a writer, translator, reader, reviewer, journalist and independent scholar in English and Chinese languages.

Christine has been reviewing books via her blog “Voices under the Sun” since 2012. Starting from 2021, she has been a voluntary book reviewer for The Star Mail, part of the prestigious Star News Group. Via her column “Passion for Prose”, she reviews and recommends books and literary events to readers across the Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges.

Now, Christine shares her passion for books, reading and writing with readers across her beloved Melbourne UNESCO City of Literature.

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MY INTERNATIONAL READING PATH

BBC Radio 4's dramatisation of The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty

THE AUDIO DRAMA WAS BROADCAST on two consecutive nights in February 2014. It was promised to be just as scary as the 1971 horror novel's film adaptation that caused widespread controversy in America and Britain when it was first released in 1973.

As readers already know, the story is about a young girl named Regan and her possession by a demon. Her mother asks Father Karras to perform an exorcism, but he is in a crisis of faith, tormented by his failure to fully devote to the Church and to care for his ailing mother.

In the story, when the exorcism is performed, it is led by Father Merrin – a senior priest who has perviously performed the ritual in Africa – with Father Karras's assistance.

As is often the case, various differences are found between the novel and its film adaptation. To start with, the audio drama focuses on telling a good story using only words and sounds.

Without the aid of a narrator, the listener relies on a clever combination

of dialogues and background noises to understand the characters and their journeys, as well as how they interact with each other while responding to specific aspects of their surroundings.

This allows the listener to immerse themselves in the story and experience the plot as it unfolds. We hear Father Karras's emotional turmoil, which makes Regan's sweet, innocent voice particularly soothing.

Hence it is both shocking and confronting when we hear the demon's voice – not just the sort of raspy, croaky gibberish that one might expect, but predominantly a sickeningly syrupy spiel with cadence of speech and a precocity that belies the girl's age. The eerie voice is alluring and offensive at once, at times sharp and threatening but more than often pervasive and persuasive.

The other exceptional part of the audio drama is the final confrontation between the demon and Fathers Merrin and Karras. The whole segment sounds unnervingly chaotic, as it should be, but the impressive psychological battle between the two sides sheds considerable light on Karras's doubts.

At one stage, Father Karras asks: “A village in Nigeria. A 12-year-old girl in Georgetown. Why? What's the purpose of it?” Father Merrin's response to this question is the true gem of the audio drama, which is perhaps also the major message of Blatty's book.

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INTERNATIONAL FICTION REVIEW

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

THE FIRST-PERSON NARRATOR in this novel is immediately likeable. Klara is an Artificial Friend, designed to keep children company as they are homeschooled by “screen professors” in a much polluted future America.

Through Klara's eyes, we see a society where genetic perfection means “high-rank” class while those not “lifted” are denied education. It is also through her observation that a mother's hidden agenda is revealed,

leading us to reflect on the meaning of being human.

We are invited to ask: “What does it mean to love?” As Klara is solarpowered, she “naturally” recognises the Sun as a great, benevolent living entity capable of offering nourishment to all that he shines upon.

Such mixture of intelligence and naivety is what makes Klara's narration fascinating. Her language is simple yet sincere, her attention to details amazing, her perceptions of the world occasionally glitching out. But she never talks about love – she simply does.

The novel subtly alarms us about the danger of unchecked technological advances while alerting us of the remarkable beauty and fragility of humanity in a refreshing way.

INTERNATIONAL FICTION REVIEW

The Silence Factory by Bridget Collins

WITH A SETTING VERY MUCH LIKE Victorian Britain, the story begins with the writings of Sophia in 1820, who accompanies her husband to a remote

Greek island to search for rare biological specimens.

The Victorians were obsessed with science and progress, confident that their exploration and growing knowledge of the natural world could help improve society in the same way as they were advancing technology. As it turns out, this confidence – and the arrogance that men are entitled to all of nature's offerings – casts a terrifying shadow over Sophia's life.

Decades later, audiologist Henry

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Latimer is sent to the home of industrialist Sir Edward Ashmore-Percy to help cure the man's daughter of her deafness. Here, Henry's encounter with Philomel and her governess Miss Fielding plays a crucial role in his journey of self-discovery.

As Henry is drawn deeper into Sir Edward's world, he becomes obsessed with the fascinating nature of the man's business – spinning silk with a rare and magical breed of spiders. The extraordinary silk shields sound, offering respite from the everyday noise

in one's surroundings. The result is absolute tranquility and soothing calmness.

Silence is indeed golden, but, as Henry soon finds out, it comes with a price, both personal and collective.

This is an intriguing book, its writing stunningly exquisite, its depiction of the mysterious spiders creepy yet memorising, and its detailed examination of the dark and insatiable greed behind the industrialised capital world then – and now – is both captivating and alarming.

INTERNATIONAL NON-FICTION REVIEW

Tiffy Cooks by Tiffy Chen

SOCIAL MEDIA HAS CHANGED how we read, write and publish. Yet another example is Tiffy Chen, whose popular TikTok cooking and food sharing videos are now transformed into Tiffy Cooks, a cookbook featuring “88 easy Asian recipes from my family to yours”.

Chen was born and raised in Taiwan and relocated to Canada as a teenager. Her recipes are for classic East Asian dishes, such as the tea eggs, daikon cake, stinky tofu, drunken chicken, three- cup chicken, and the famous “Taiwanese XXL fried chicken”.

But Chen specialises in turning the classics into easy-to-make dishes using everyday ingredients yet retaining the original/traditional styles and tastes. It is amazing that anyone at home can learn to make soy milk, chilli and garlic oils, steamed and pan-fried buns, sesame and peanut mochi and even the renowned “boba pearls” for milk tea.

Chen further shares the stories and rich history behind each dish, including memories of family gathering and cooking with and for her parents and grandmother. Without doubt, food unites generations and brings comfort to households and communities alike.

As Chen says, food “brings people together, regardless of language, background, and culture. It can help you feel you're a part of something, that you aren't alone”. This cookbook is for both home-based food lovers and those sojourning far away from home.

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Book-ish International News •

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“20 best New Zealand books of the 21st century, as chosen by experts”

by Finlay Macdonald, Jo case, Matt Garrow and Suzy Freeman-Greene, The Conversation, September 11, 2024. Unsurprisingly, Eleanor Catton's The Luminaries (winner of the 2013 Booker Prize) and Catherine Chidgey's Remote Sympathy (long-listed for the 2022 Women's Prize) are on the list.

“In praise of Edna O'Brien, the woman who changed the Irish book world” by Jane Sullivan, The Sydney Morning Herald, September 20, 2024.

This article features O'Brien's Country Girls Trilogy – The Country Girls (1960), The Lonely Girls (1962) and Girls in Their Married Bliss (1964). O'Brien's last novel, Girl (2019), gets a special mention.

Winners of the 2024 Wainwright Prize were announced. The prize is awarded annually to books that “most successfully inspire readers to embrace nature and the outdoors and develop a respect for the environment”. There are three categories: Nature Writing, Writing on Conservation, and Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation.

Anne Anlin Cheng's Ordinary Disasters: How I Stopped Being a Model Minority is reviewed by Alice Stephens via the Washington Independent Review of Books on September 10, 2024. “Cheng stitches her witness testimony into the broader tapestries of Asian American history and culture, the immigrant experience, and American womanhood,” writes the reviewer.

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