Carmel Bird

Carmel Bird reviews 'The Lost Woman' by Sydney Smith

July–August 2012, no. 343 • 09 July 2012

In 1978 Christina Crawford published her memoir Mommie Dearest, an account of her life as the abused adoptive child of Joan Crawford. Shocking scenes in this book remain forever with readers. Sydney Smith’s account of life with her mother is, if anything, more horrific than Mommie Dearest. Traditional fairy tales often split the mother into the good mother and the bad mother, and the one in The ... (read more)

Carmel Bird reviews 'Reaching One Thousand: A story of love, motherhood and autism' by Rachel Robertson

March 2012, no. 339 • 22 February 2012

At some stage in every workshop on the art of memoir somebody raises the question of ethics, of privacy, and of who has the right to tell a version of a story. How far, the author of Reaching One Thousand asks, is she prepared to ‘sacrifice other people’s privacy’? What betrayals will she ‘perpetrate on others’? ... (read more)

Carmel Bird reviews 'Thought Crimes' by Tim Richards

September 2011, no. 334 • 23 August 2011

A book’s epigraph doesn’t often feel like a direct personal statement to the reader, but the one in Thought Crimes, drawn from Ionesco, is just that: ‘You got stuck in the mud of life. You felt warm and cosy. (Sharply) Now you’re going to freeze.’ Imagine the world as a jigsaw from which the author has removed some pieces, substituting them with his own pieces – but which ones are ... (read more)

Carmel Bird reviews 'The Roving Party' by Rohan Wilson

June 2011, no. 332 • 24 May 2011

Stories of the impact of European discovery, exploration, invasion, and settlement on Australia are naturally a source of fascination to novelists. The microcosm of the island of Tasmania, with its cruel yet beautiful landscape and its unforgiving weather, offers these stories with a special kind of eerie horror. Against this setting, the stories emerge both in concert and in counterpoint, describ ... (read more)

Carmel Bird reviews 'Little People' by Jane Sullivan

April 2011, no. 330 • 24 March 2011

Jane Sullivan’s novel, which was runner-up in the 2010 CAL Scribe Fiction Prize for a novel by a writer over thirty-five years of age, blends the powerful theme of dogged maternal love with the extraordinary world of P.T. Barnum’s freak shows. ... (read more)

Carmel Bird reviews 'A Darker Music' by Maris Morton

December 2010–January 2011, no. 327 • 24 November 2010

Maris Morton’s novel is the winner of the Scribe CAL Fiction Prize for 2010. The Cultural Fund of Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) has this year contributed to raising the prize money to $15,000. The winning manuscript, and the runners-up, are published by Scribe Publications. In a world where many prizes are won by experienced writers, and where there are special prizes for young writers, the Scr ... (read more)