Susan Lever

Susan Lever reviews 'In the New Country' and 'Studs and Nogs' by David Foster

May 1999, no. 210 • 01 May 1999

At the end of The Glade Within the Grove, D’Arcy D’Oliveres coughs his way towards death from lung cancer. With him dies David Foster’s benign alter ego, the narrator of his comic Dog Rock novels. Of course, the ‘Arcy who narrated The Glade had become less sociable and considerably more learned than the postman of Dog Rock, but it seemed reasonable to assume that his demise marked the end ... (read more)

Susan Lever reviews 'The Dancer: A biography for Philippa Cullen' by Evelyn Juers

December 2021, no. 438 • 23 November 2021

What meaning can be drawn from an individual life? Most of us will disappear without much trace, forgotten by all but friends and family. Writers may hope for more, leaving their art behind for posterity. Performance artists, though, live their art in the moment. Philippa Cullen was a gifted dancer and choreographer who died in 1975 at twenty-five years of age. Her sudden death in India, probably ... (read more)

Susan Lever reviews 'A Paper Inheritance: The passionate literary lives of Leslie Rees and Coralie Clarke Rees' by Dymphna Stella Rees

July 2021, no. 433 • 23 June 2021

Coralie Clarke Rees and Leslie Rees are not remembered among the glamour couples of twentieth-century Australian literary life. Unlike George Johnston and Charmian Clift, Vance and Nettie Palmer, or their friends Darcy Niland and Ruth Park, neither of them wrote novels and they both spread their work across a range of genres. Critics, journalists, travel writers, children’s writers, playwrights, ... (read more)

'Conference-ville' by Susan Lever

August 2001, no. 233 • 01 October 2001

Travelling to the Association for the Study of Australian Literature (ASAL) conference on the morning tram, I marvel at Melbourne’s sophistication and self-regard. In Swanston Street, new sculptures honour John Brack’s satire of Melbourne’s regimented workers, while in front of the State Library there’s a classical portal half buried in the pavement, as if the ancient world lies below. At ... (read more)

Susan Lever reviews 'Bleak Rooms' by Peter Goldsworthy

May 1988, no. 100 • 01 May 1988

Peter Goldsworthy uses the short story to examine and question elements of the kind of life he leads. There is an attractive lack of pretence in his kind of story; Goldsworthy sketches social situations clearly and succinctly so that he can move on to probe the weaknesses in his characters’ otherwise complacent lives. As the back cover tells us, and the stories reveal, Goldsworthy is a medical p ... (read more)

Susan Lever reviews 'Men On Women' by Kevin Childs

October 1986, no. 85 • 01 October 1986

Reading Kevin Child’s book, Men on Women, creates the irresistible temptation to answer on behalf of the women. I can imagine them offering the following kind of replies to their sons and lovers: Mrs. Lurie: Morris was one of those babies who go rigid every time you pick them up for a cuddle. I felt inadequate so I scrubbed the floors. Unconditional love he wants! Who doesn’t? Sonia McMaho ... (read more)

Susan Lever reviews 'Carnival Edge: New and selected poems' by Katherine Gallagher

September 2010, no. 324 • 01 September 2010

Katherine Gallagher, who has lived in London since the 1970s, has now published six books of poetry, all but two of them with British or American publishers. This book selects poems from her earlier books, together with twelve new poems. As a whole, it gives the sense of a writer’s development over a period of thirty-five years, with some slight shifts of style over that time. Gallagher has alw ... (read more)

Susan Lever reviews 'The Glasshouse' by Natalie Scott

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

At a time when novels by women must run the gauntlet of feminist criticism it is surprising to find one which is prepared to discuss love and female dependence without any deference to feminism. Natalie Scott makes it clear that her heroine lives in ‘liberated’ times but she insists that the need for love remains a fundamental human weakness or strength. Furthermore, she is not afraid to link ... (read more)

Susan Lever reviews 'Artful Histories: Modern Australian autobiography' by David McCooey

July 1996, no. 182 • 01 June 1996

Artful Histories represents that extraordinary achievement – a learned critical study, based on a thesis, which is exhilarating to read. While it covers the expected ground, with careful accounts of Australian autobiographies of various types, it also addresses a core problem of current literary debate – the relative status of different literary genres, and the interrelation between writing an ... (read more)

Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam (Belvoir St Theatre)

ABR Arts • 11 February 2020

I made the mistake of rereading Peter Goldsworthy’s 1993 novella before seeing Steve Rodgers’ adaptation of Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam at Belvoir St Theatre, so I knew the play’s advertised surprise ending and may have been resistant to its emotional charge. At its première production for National Theatre of Parramatta at the Riverside Theatre in 2018, it was said to reduce audiences to t ... (read more)