Stuart Coupe

Stuart Coupe reviews 'Crowded House: Something So Strong' by Chris Bourke

November 1997, no. 196 • 01 November 1997

Pop and rock’n’roll music is essentially disposable popular culture which throws up comparatively few enduring items. For every 10,000 albums and singles released maybe only a hundred will be listenable a year later, let alone ma decade. The same goes for literature that attempts to define or interpret the music. Sure, that Guns ‘N’ Roses, Culture Club or Spandau Ballet picture/text book m ... (read more)

Stuart Coupe reviews 'Crowded House: Something so strong' by Chris Bourke

November 1997, no. 196 • 01 November 1997

Pop and rock’n’roll music is essentially disposable popular culture which throws up comparatively few enduring items. For every 10,000 albums and singles released maybe only a hundred will be listenable a year later, let alone in a decade. The same goes for literature that attempts to define or interpret the music. Sure, that Guns ’N’ Roses, Culture Club or Spandau Ballet picture/text boo ... (read more)

Stuart Coupe reviews 'Straight, Bent and Barbara Vine' by Garry Disher and 'Raisins and Almonds' by Kerry Greenwood

February–March 1998, no. 198 • 01 February 1998

As the co-publisher of Mean Streets, Australia’s ‘crime, mystery and detective’ fiction magazine, I have, like Garry Disher, occasions when I wonder what the various terms actually mean and what separates them. It’s something Disher addresses in the author’s note to this very fine collection of stories which are amongst the best writing Disher has done. As Disher says: From time to ti ... (read more)

Stuart Coupe reviews 'Continent of Mystery: A Thematic History of Australian Crime Fiction' by Stephen Knight

September 1997, no. 194 • 19 November 2021

Continent of Mystery, subtitled ‘A thematic history of Australian crime fiction’ is, in the most simplistic terms, a daunting and inspiring book. My Australian crime fiction, mystery and detective fiction magazine, Mean Streets, was launched by Knight towards the end of 1990, not long before his move to the United Kingdom. For better or worse upon Knight’s departure I assumed, or at least so ... (read more)

Stuart Coupe reviews 'Crowded House: Something so strong' by Chris Bourke

November 1997, no. 196 • 01 November 1997

Pop and rock’n’roll music is essentially disposable popular culture which throws up comparatively few enduring items. For every 10,000 albums and singles released maybe only a hundred will be listenable a year later, let alone in a decade. The same goes for literature that attempts to define or interpret the music. Sure, that Guns ’N’ Roses, Culture Club or Spandau Ballet picture/text boo ... (read more)