Don Grant

Don Grant reviews 'Winner Take All?' by Donald Horne

April 1981, no. 29 • 18 April 1981

Don’t judge Donald Horne’s books by their titles. The Lucky Country, he now tells us, is not so much about the good fortune ofAustralia as about Australia as a derivative society. But even that, he said in the preface to the second edition, is misleading, for the central theme is the subtitle: Australia in the Sixties. ‘The Lucky Country theme is really a sub-plot’. ... (read more)

Don Grant reviews ' Western Landmarks' by Ronald P. Wright and 'Western Heritage' by Ray and John Oldham

June 1979, no. 11 • 01 June 1979

  ‘The feelings aroused in us by our old buildings are difficult to define. But they are none­the-less powerful feelings. There’s something of a dream-like quality in going back into the past; of projecting oneself into history; of identifying oneself with outstanding personalities and events in our national story; or perhaps with the simple and unknown pioneers who patiently laid th ... (read more)

Don Grant reviews 'Bob Hawke: A portrait' by Robert Pullan and 'Hawke: The definitive biography' by John Hurst

October 1980, no. 25 • 08 June 2022

Success may not always have come easy to Robert James Lee Hawke, but it has come often. In 1969 he became President of the ACTU without ever having been a shop steward or a union organiser or secretary; he had never taken part in or led a strike. His experience at grass roots or branch level in the ALP had not been extensive when he was elected Federal President of the party in 1973. Now, untested ... (read more)

Don Grant reviews 'Borderline' by Janette Turner Hospital

April 1986, no. 79 • 01 April 1986

Janette Turner Hospital was born in Melbourne, but has lived and travelled abroad in recent years. Borderline, her third novel, is set for the most part in Boston and Montreal. It is a mystery story which contains many of the conventional ingredients of the genre: disappearances, murder and violence, mysterious messages. However, these things are subsidiary to its dominating theme which is an expl ... (read more)

Don Grant reviews 'Xavier Herbert' by Laurie Clancy

May 1982, no. 40 • 01 May 1982

Xavier Herbert is probably the most enigmatic of Australian writers, but there is nothing enigmatic about Laurie Clancy’s treatment of the man and his works in Twayne’s World Authors Series. This is the best assessment of Herbert since Vincent Buckley’s article ‘Capricornia’ (Meanjin, 19, 1960) forced critics to take Herbert seriously as a writer of stature and an experimentalist with th ... (read more)