The key theme of Overland 195 seems to be crisis. The contributors to this edition of the journal address the ‘global financial crisis’, as well as various other moments of tension and unrest in Australia’s present and past.

The journal opens with Germaine Greer’s essay on Kevin Rudd. Greer argues that Rudd’s contribution to the February 2009 issue of The Monthly focused heavily on the ‘ideological causes’ of the global economy’s currently parlous state. This is ‘safe ground’ for Rudd because, as Greer rightly contends, he does not map out a ‘course of action that could be shown eventually to have failed’.   Other articles explore such diverse topics as Australian literature, global warming, rock music criticism and Australia’s participation in the war in Afghanistan. Threaded throughout Overland 195 are short stories, poems and reviews. The highlight of this edition is Clare Wright’s provocative and impassioned essay on Lola Montez. Wright points out that Montez’s political activism is overlooked in the many historical accounts of her life which portray her as ‘the archetypal femme fatale’. Wright asks rhetorically: ‘Does it say something about Australian national identity that one of the most recognisable women in its mainstream historical narrative is a flirtatious vamp with a penchant for whips?’ Also enjoyable is Andrew Macrae’s analysis of Australian speculative fiction (SF). Macrae critiques ‘the distinction between speculative fiction and literary fiction, as it has played out in the Australian landscape …’ Macrae’s enthusiasm for SF writing infuses every sentence of his article.