Rolled up rugs, ticket stubs and other literary festivities

A few months ago I stuck up my hand and volunteered to help out at the Hong Kong International Literary Festival.

An act of altruism? Yes, well sort of...

An act of miserly cunning motivated by the desire to hear some people I’d heard of and admired (if not yet actually read) as well as some I hadn’t heard of but hoped to admire, without paying for a ticket? Yes, well sort of…

Motivation aside, the festival rolled round two weeks ago. I’ve had an enjoyable fortnight taking ticket stubs, picking up authors from hotels, passing microphones round rooms full of eager audience members, pointing out the loos, finding out where the loos are in order to point them out, putting up banners, pulling down banners and writing and issuing poorly spelled receipts for on-the-door tickets.

And an even better time… hearing Emma Donoghue talk about her research techniques (rolling her five year old up in a rug to see whether he could escape), sipping coffee listening to Amitav Ghosh’s thoughts on the Opium Wars, environmental destruction and whether his kids have read his books, flagging Jeffery Archer to hear Craig Silvey and Brian Castro at the Australian Consular General’s stunning (and difficult to find) Repulse Bay residence, and hearing Ex-Aussie PM Kevin Rudd’s daughter Jessica talk about why the label chick-lit doesn’t offend her.

Oh yeah, and all this means I’ve added the following to my gots-ta-read list:

1. Room (wasn’t going to do it, but if Ms Donoghue’s son is really putting all that effort into making sure his Mum’s stories are properly researched then I’ll give it a go – plus it sounds less Flowers in the Attic and more, umm, charming than I was expecting given the subject matter. Hooray)
2.  Burying the Bones – Hilary Spurling’s biography of West Virginian born, China-raised Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Pearl Buck whose 1931 novel The Good Earth changed the way many Americans thought of China and the Chinese
3. The Good Earth – I have it on good authority (Hilary Spurling’s) that it’s as wonderful a read today as it was in 1931
4. Rhubarb and Jasper Jones – both by Australian author Craig Silvey. Silvey is one of those rare people who just knew what they wanted to do when they grew up. He shunned University and age 19 sat down to write. He’s been awarded the prizes to suggest he definitely did the write thing…
5. When a Billion Chinese Jump – part travelogue, part environmental missive. Terracotta Warriors and the Great Wall? Nope. When Jonathan Watts toured China he sought out evidence of the environmental degradation the country’s rapid industrialization has wreaked on its landscape. The book examines the environmental issues facing China as well as the intriguing line-up of characters Watts met along the way. 

Adventures in the all-American arts

Mortality, Hitchcock and the metaphysical; beauty in New York; and democratic adventures in the brave new world of Jackson’s America... all-American and art focused is the best way to sum up my reading over the last few weeks.  The books and the case for each, below.

The book: By Nightfall

The case: reflecting on art and beauty and reaffirming that I’m lucky to be an only child...  Peter Harris is a forty-three year old art dealer searching for the real deal: an artist who creates masterful and beautiful art. Instead his search leads him towards his wife’s beautiful but troubled f***-up of a younger brother. Unsettling from the moment you clock where Peter may be headed, the novel is itself a thing of beauty, filled with the kind of longing and resignation with which you’d rather not identify. The plethora of literary and artistic references Michael Cunningham has loaded into his prose can occasionally grate, but if you make like me, eschew Wikipedia and embrace your ignorance it’s still a compelling read.

The book: Parrot and Olivier in America

The case: My book group didn’t like it (pretty unanimously) but I thought it was wonderful. These things are subjective you say? No, it’s clear that they are wrong. From the celerifere sketch on page 2, I was riveted. Peter Carey was inspired by the writings of French political philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville and has created his own guillotine-scarred aristocrat, Olivier de Garmont, loosely based on Tocqueville. As the title suggests, he partners Olivier with Parrot, an English servant with a chequered background in art and printing via Botany Bay and sends them off to America together, unhappily, to witness democracy in action. The result is a cheeky, surprising and colourfully written tale, using language that’s florid in an enticing, entertaining, never (though I must admit that the book group don’t agree with me) boring way.

The book: Point Omega
The case: Don DeLillo’s latest novel is a long, short read: at only 148 pages it took me the better part of a week to finish. It's inspired by, and opens and closes with scenes that take place at, an installation of 24 Hour Psycho, an artwork which slows the Hitchcock film down to run over 24 hours. Part murder mystery, part reflection on the metaphysical, Point Omega requires careful reading. DeLillo decelerates his characters, their thoughts and actions, shepherding them out into a desert location where the days run into each other and life is drawn out. Overall, interesting if not exactly enjoyable.

World Book Night, NZ Book Month and the HK International Literary Festival

Silent reading is out. Boisterous sharing of books, reading out loud and talking excitedly about writing is in pretty much everywhere (or at least in the three places that mean the most to me).


Hong Kong: March 8 to 18 is the Hong Kong International Literary Festival... there's a great line up of authors and events and I, for one, am very excited. The full line up is available on http://www.festival.org.hk


New Zealand: March is NZ Book Month, a time to celebrate Kiwi authors and read their books. With Whitcoulls in administration and Christchurch booksellers struggling with the tragedy of the Christchurch earthquake it's been a difficult time for the Kiwi book industry. Pay homage to Christchurch, help out a local bookshop and read a cracking good yarn, by buying a book by the likes of Christchurch writers Ngaio Marsh or Margaret Mahy. The NZ Book Council website also has an excellent resource with files on over 500 Kiwi authors and their books if you're looking to introduce yourself to a new-to-you Kiwi author. 


London: the stage is being set in Trafalgar Square for World Book Night on March 4. Go join the masses, get your hands on a free book and stay up all night reading it with the likes of Margaret Atwood.