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Francesca Sasnaitis

Francesca Sasnaitis was recently awarded a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Western Australia.

Francesca Sasnaitis reviews 'Murder in the Telephone Exchange' by June Wright

June–July 2014, no. 362 01 June 2014
Francesca Sasnaitis reviews 'Murder in the Telephone Exchange' by June Wright
Who killed Sarah Compton? She was a ‘prying old busybody’, but surely that isn’t an adequate motive for murder? When her grisly corpse is found on the restroom floor of the Melbourne Telephone Exchange, there is no lack of suspects. Could Gerda MacIntyre, the girl with the ‘tragic eyes’, be capable of such a heinous crime? What is silly, pretty Gloria Patterson hiding? Is the attractive ... (read more)

Francesca Sasnaitis reviews 'Cicada' by Moira McKinnon

April 2014, no. 360 27 March 2014
Francesca Sasnaitis reviews 'Cicada' by Moira McKinnon
Moira McKinnon practised as a community doctor in Halls Creek, in the Kimberley, where her first novel Cicada is also set. She was joint winner of the 2011 Calibre Prize for her essay ‘Who Killed Matilda?’, the story of an Aboriginal woman whose audacity and traditional knowledge prompted McKinnon to question the efficacy of Western medicine and philosophy. ... (read more)

Melbourne Now

February 2014, no. 358 19 January 2014
‘There’s no time like NOW!’ proclaim the signs. Inspired by the fond reminiscences of slow tram rides of several Melbourne personalities, whose brief anecdotes are interspersed between the pages of the sumptuous Melbourne Now catalogue (Melbourne Now Limited Edition, National Gallery of Victoria, $100 hb, 280 pp, 9780724103768), I am travelling into the exhibition by tram. Through the recta ... (read more)

Francesca Sasnaitis reviews 'Lola Bensky' by Lily Brett

October 2012, no. 345 26 September 2012
Francesca Sasnaitis reviews 'Lola Bensky' by Lily Brett
It is no secret that Lily Brett has mined her past and her family history in her fiction. Her parents, like those of her current alter ego, Lola Bensky, were survivors of the Łódź ghetto and Auschwitz concentration camp; Lola, like the author, was born in a displaced persons’ camp before her family emigrated to Australia. Lola, a chubby baby, was possibly the only plump person in a camp whose ... (read more)

Francesca Sasnaitis reviews 'Nicole Kidman' by Pam Cook

October 2012, no. 345 25 September 2012
Francesca Sasnaitis reviews 'Nicole Kidman' by Pam Cook
‘Will the real Nicole Kidman please stand up?’ Many readers will remember that line from the television game show Tell the Truth, in which celebrities were required to guess which of three contestants was the ‘real’ person. Pam Cook tells us that our ‘search for veracity is doomed to failure’ because, in this case, the celebrity’s identity is a fragmentary and contradictory media con ... (read more)

Francesca Sasnaitis reviews 'Sufficient Grace' by Amy Espeseth

September 2012, no. 344 28 August 2012
Imagine the book as a repository of memories: to turn the pages is to remember. Fiction, in particular, encourages flipping back and forth through memory’s volume. An author’s life informs her fiction. Memories, personal and second-hand, play a pivotal role in the formation of narrative structures. In a début novel, it is not uncommon for the author to resort to childhood sources for inspirat ... (read more)
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