Nattapan Suwansukho Suwansukho itibaren Hazipur, Telangana 504207, Hindistan
I came to Schaffert via "The Mermaid in the Tree," a wonderful short story in the My Mother She Killed Me anthology that stars Miranda and Desiree, the child protagonists at the heart of a series of books in The Coffins of Little Hope. "The Mermaid in the Tree" is a very fantastical tale with sprinkles of the grotesque; I was hoping for the same sort of world in The Coffins of Little Hope. But Coffins is a much different kind of story. Though the glorious weirdness of "The Mermaid" flitters at the edges of Coffins, ultimately it's a much tamer story, set in a quaint, realist rural community. That's not to say I didn't enjoy it. In fact, I really savored the entire first half of it. Schaffert achieves a sort of indirect omniscience with his first person narrator, Essie, who communicates with the other characters enough to be able to report their thoughts and feelings secondhand. It's a sort of a reportorial omniscience, a very interesting approach. As captivating and endearing as Essie is, though, I felt like Schaffert was more excited about the untold Miranda and Desiree stories. He's even created a website, rothgutts.com, where he has fleshed out the Miranda/Desiree world. Ultimately, I, too, was more excited about the fantastical tinges in Coffins of Little Hope, but the novel was still a worthwhile read.
This was a fascinating novel of how one's man decision affected the entire life of his family,even though he thought he was doing the right thing. A young mother unexpectedly gives birth to twins in 1964. One a perfect baby boy, his sister born with Down's Syndrome. I couldn't put this story down until I had read it all.
Having read 'Journey to the Stone Country' in an Australian Literature course last year, I was interested to see how this one went. I did not see it as a "love song" but the rather bleak, slightly ironical fantasy of a middle-aged man. I would have liked more depth and humour in all of the main characters, although there was potential for kindness in some. The tentative treatment of others made me wonder whether their cruelty was meant to be seen as such. Promising settings for both felt dull and under-utilised. The rather cloying intimacies in both made me squirm, as did warm and fuzzy repetitions of "a drink of tea" in 'Journey to the Stone Country' and "sweet pastries" in 'Lovesong'. While prepared to get through novels such as these, I want more than domestic homily and characterisation. Australian literature seems a little bogged down with sentimental family sagas, fictionalised historical tragedies, and rather insipid soul searching. Try 'Carpentaria' by Alexis Wright and 'The Hunter' by Julia Leigh. And anything by Christos Tsiolkas. All that said, there are an awful lot of Australian novels yet to read, especially more recent ones.
This is billed as a sort of must-have cookbook. Although there are a lot of really excellent recipes, you can't rely on it exclusively. Of course, the other, modern, high-tech issue is that you can find most of these recipes (for free) on the fabulous epicurious website.