6 minute read
Life’s Rich Pattern and book reviews
A BOOK LOVER’S REVIEW BY JACQUI SERAFIM
Lanny
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BY MAX PORTER
Max Porter is a young writer with substantial critical acclaim. His debut novel Grief Is the Thing With Feathers (2015) was described by The Guardian’s Alexandra Harris as “the dark, comic, wild, beautiful prose-poem-novel that was a runaway success”.
It won multiple awards including the International Dylan Thomas prize for young writers in 2016. Lanny, his new novel, uses the same poetic language and magic realism to tell the story of Lanny – an extraordinary, highly intelligent and artistic boy. Lanny is an only child with a big heart, a startling imagination and a unique perspective who skips through life to the beat of his own drum. He lives in a typical English village within commuting distance of London with his parents. Lanny is watched over by the village’s ancient spirit, Dead Papa Toothwort, a mythical character, drawn from the folklore of the “Green man”. In this novel, Dead Papa Toothwort floats and shapeshifts his way around the village, watching and listening to the inhabitants of the village “he swims in it, he gobbles it up and wraps himself in it”. His presence resonates with malevolence and it feels as though he represents a threat to Lanny. Or perhaps it is just the indifference of Nature we experience through Dead Papa Toothwort’s character which, in itself, is a threat to humanity’s attachment to life.
We are drawn to Lanny’s innocence and creative intelligence and in stark contrast, we experience the jaded, narrow views of the villagers and the sense of isolation experienced by the newcomers – Lanny’s family. Lanny has few friends but a close connection to nature and spends a lot of time in the woods developing his various imaginative projects. His mother, hoping to develop his artistic talents, arranges for him to take lessons with their neighbour, Pete, a successful, modern artist and a close friendship develops between them. When Lanny goes missing, the close-minded villagers and the local police shift their focus immediately to Pete – the ageing man spending time with a young boy. As the media circus descends and Lanny’s parents navigate their way through the fear, terror and grief of having a missing child, we see the English village at its worst – full of suspicion and prejudice. Lanny is written from the alternating perspectives of the adult characters: Lanny’s Mum, Lanny’s Dad, Pete and Dead Papa Toothwort. I found the story engaging and quick to read but some of the magical realism in Dead Papa Toothwort’s sections was a bit too quirky for my taste: ‘‘Dead Papa Toothwort hugs himself with diseased larch arms and dribbles cuckoo spit down his chin”. However, don’t let that dissuade you from reading the book. Lanny is a delightful character and it was a great story with an interesting literary premise - the villagers continuing their workaday lives oblivious of the ancient spirit who hovers around observing them.
RICH PATTERN
The art of spelling
Autocorrect is leading to a generation of kids clueless about spelling and meanings of words. The skill of proof-reading for sense as much as spelling has vanished. By Liz Foster
This simple tool is not always your friend. SMS, or short message service, has become so ubiquitous it’s now common for business situations. Spare a thought for the poor person responding to an HR text confirming an interview. He replied, ‘I look forward to sleeping with you.’ Oh dear, oh dear. The hasty addendum - *speaking – might or might not have got him the job. Technology is great, 99% of the time but it amplifies any mistakes a thousand times. In the ‘90s I worked for a corporate where a young guy on placement from the Malaysian office sent out a daily sales report to all staff. In my in-box as usual was his ‘DAILY SALES’ email. Followed by another from HR, headed ‘DO NOT OPEN DAILY SALES’. And a third missive from the hapless guy again, titled ‘DAILY SALES – APOLOGY’.
As you can guess, we gathered as one round the nearest PC and opened the first message. The poor lad had intended to send the pic of bikini-clad girls at Bondi to a Malaysian mate, adding they reminded him of papayas back home. Instead, he sent it to the daily sales distribution list. He went completely white when he realised … we never saw him again. Technology led to my biggest professional blunder. I had to sign off final artwork destined for thousands of confectionery cartons. A tiny, last-minute change required the addition of an ® to the back. I approved it and off it went to the printer. Alas, the graphic designer had used an older artwork file full of mistakes and typos since rectified on later versions. But I’d only rechecked the added ®. I kept my job but never made that mistake again, and earned a reputation as an anal shrew when signing off artwork. Ignorance is bliss. We assume mistakes just haven’t been proofread, as, surely, they would have fixed them. ‘Shoplifters will be prostituted’ conjures up a severe if slightly thrilling image. The foibles of the English language don’t help either. Here’s my favourite: ‘PRIVATE. Customer parking only. All others will be toad.’ (Seems a tad harsh – I only nipped in for two minutes to grab some milk). I’ll park elsewhere, like this carpark where you come out quite well: ‘Violators will be towed and find $50.’ What a difference an ‘e’ makes. If you’d like to read more of Liz Foster’s columns, see her blog at www.lizfosterwriter.com
Lane Cove Literary Awards 2019
The Lane Cove Literary Awards 2019 are open, with entries accepted until Monday 26 August 2019. Prizes will be awarded for:
● Short Story Prize - $2,000 ● Travel Story Prize - $1,500 ● Poetry Prize - $1,500
The following additional prizes may be awarded: ● The Burns Bay Bookery
Resident Prize - $500 ● Len Wallis Audio Youth Prize (16 - 24 years) - $500 ● The Baytree by Ardency Senior
Prize (65+ years) - $500 To enter the awards read the Terms and Conditions which includes the Entry Form.
Literary Awards writing workshops
Lane Cove Library will be hosting a series of writing workshops for emerging writers: ● Poetry Tips & Techniques
Workshop
with Julie Chevalier,
Thursday 11 July, 6:00pm - 8:00pm ● Travel Writing Workshop
with Briar Jensen,
Thursday 18 July, 6:00pm - 8:00pm ● Writing a Successful
Short Story
with Keith Whelan,
Wednesday 31 July, 6:00pm - 8:00pm
http://www.lanecove.nsw.gov. au/Community/Library/Pages/ LaneCoveLiteraryAward.aspx
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