Louise Swinn

Louise Swinn reviews 'The Gospel According To Luke' by Emily Maguire and 'Rosie Little’s Cautionary Tales For Girls' by Danielle Wood

November 2006, no. 286 • 01 November 2006

Love, family, hope, death and grief have always been among fiction’s chief concerns. The Gospel According to Luke and Rosie Little’s Cautionary Tales for Girls, both second books from their authors, share many of these themes. The Gospel According to Luke adds faith, belief, religion and prayer; and Emily Maguire adroitly pulls off what would, in lesser hands, be a farce. ... (read more)

Louise Swinn reviews 'Fear of Tennis' by David Cohen

March 2008, no. 299 • 01 March 2008

Fear of Tennis is David Cohen’s quirky and absurd first novel. It features the obsessive Mike Planner, whose interests include court reporting and bathrooms. When he bumps into Jason Bunt, his best friend from high school, Mike recalls how they fell out. At the centre of the story is a bizarre struggle towards redemption; Mike wants to atone for a past sin and believes that Jason’s series of ... (read more)

Louise Swinn reviews 'A Curious Intimacy' by Jessica White

May 2007, no. 291 • 01 May 2007

There is something of the Famous Five about this book, largely due to the central character. It is the 1870s and botanist Ingrid – ‘a woman in trousers’ – is on her horse, Thistle, collecting specimens in Western Australia. She and her father, who dearly misses her back in Adelaide, are writing and illustrating a book on wildflowers. Ingrid is practical and can fix a broken water pump; eve ... (read more)

Louise Swinn reviews 'Izzy and Eve' by Neal Drinnan

October 2006, no. 285 • 01 October 2006

In the bohemian district of an imaginary city not unlike a very bleak Sydney, Izzy and Eve have been living together for twenty years. Eve, who torments herself with clippings of unsolved murders, is a jeweller and also a receptionist – sometimes more – in the local brothel. Izzy draws erotic cartoons for a living, and has taken to frequenting S & M clubs. Gay men start disappearing from t ... (read more)

Louise Swinn reviews 'A Fraction of the Whole' by Steve Toltz

June 2008, no. 302 • 01 June 2008

A Fraction of the Whole is Sydney author Steve Toltz’s sprawling début. Wearing its misanthropic heart uproariously on its sleeve, Fraction is a long father-and-son tale that traverses continents and nods to countless literary forebears on its way. James Wood coined the term ‘hysterical realism’ as a criticism of Zadie Smith’s White Teeth (2000), saying that ‘stories and sub-stories sp ... (read more)

Louise Swinn reviews 'The Boat' by Nam Le

July–August 2008, no. 303 • 01 July 2008

At a time when some fiction writers are busy defending their right to incorporate autobiographical elements, and some non-fiction writers are being charged with fabrication, it seems timely of Nam Le to begin his collection of stories with one that plays with notions of authenticity in literature. The narrator of ‘Love and Honour and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice’, ‘Nam Le’, ... (read more)