Ludmilla Forsyth

Ludmilla Forsyth reviews 'Pillbox' by Gary Langford

February–March 1986, no. 78 • 01 April 1986

At times I was delighted by this novel and at others was absolutely irritated. It is a novel which swerves between metaphors of wit and wisdom and crass punning. It is interesting structurally and it is crudely constructed. It is a novel of commitment, keen observation and loving sympathy. In some ways it is a novel of simple faith reminiscent of the Christian novels I was given as Sunday School a ... (read more)

Ludmilla Forsyth reviews 'A Family Madness' by Thomas Keneally

December 1985–January 1986, no. 77 • 01 December 1985

Thomas Keneally’s A Family Madness attempts to get the reader in touch with life beyond the headline and the common enough family madness which irrupts the security we call home, sweet home. While each family may be unhappy in its own way, only some hit the screen or the front page, splattering their sorrow onto family breakfasts, lunches, dinners. Keneally has exploited our voyeurism to captur ... (read more)

Ludmilla Forsyth reviews 'The Suburbs of Hell' by Randolph Stow

May 1985, no. 70 • 01 May 1985

Randolph Stow’s latest novel, The Suburbs of Hell, may be read as a simple whodunit: a simple allegorical Whodunit. Like Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose, like David Lodge’s Small World, this novel sets out to intrigue the reader. The new genre, nouvelle critique, teases the reader’s vanity, the reader’s erudition at the same time as it engages with questions of a metaphysical kind – ... (read more)

Ludmilla Forsyth reviews 'Strange Country: A study of Randolph Stow' by Anthony J. Hassall

October 1986, no. 85 • 01 October 1986

Professor Hassall’s study of Randolph Stow is indeed a strange country. A text which sets out to establish Stow as ‘a more important writer than is generally recognized’ and to show that his ‘best work bears comparison with Patrick White’s’ promises an intellectual engagement with either critics or the text or both which would lead to reassessment of Stow’s work. It appears that thes ... (read more)

Ludmilla Forsyth reviews 'No Place for a Nervous Lady: Voices from the Australian bush' by Lucy Frost

June 1984, no. 61 • 01 June 1984

If Australia during the last century was ‘no place for a nervous lady’, this collection of women’s writings edited by Lucy Frost establishes with simple eloquence that it certainly was no place for a nervous gentleman. Annie Baxter, who obviously has caught Lucy Frost’s imagination writes: Talented young men-the very elite of any society, we see giving way to this odious dissipation! Ma ... (read more)