Chris Flynn

Chris Flynn reviews 'The Example' by Tom Taylor and Colin Wilson, 'Flinch' by James Barclay et al., and 'Summer Blonde' by Adrian Tomine

July-August 2009, no. 313 • 26 August 2022

It is fair to say that graphic novels are now an accepted form of literary endeavour. One could even argue that this happened quite some time ago, with the benchmark publishing event that was Alan Moore’s Watchmen (1986). Comics had long been threatening to make the leap of legitimacy into the publishing mainstream, and Moore’s unashamedly adult opus was the perfect platform for DC comics to m ... (read more)

Chris Flynn 'See You at the Toxteth: The best of Cliff Hardy and Corris on crime' by Peter Corris, selected by Jean Bedford, and 'The Red Hand: Stories, reflections and the last appearance of Jack Irish' by Peter Temple

January–February 2020, no. 418 • 16 December 2019

Two of the greatest Australian crime writers died within six months of each other in 2018. Peter Temple authored nine novels, four of which featured roustabout Melbourne private detective Jack Irish, and one of which, Truth, won the Miles Franklin Literary Award in 2010. Temple died on 8 March 2018, aged seventy-one. Peter Corris was more prolific, writing a staggering eighty-eight books across hi ... (read more)

Chris Flynn reviews 'Maybe the Horse Will Talk' by Elliot Perlman

December 2019, no. 417 • 22 November 2019

Elliot Perlman’s fourth novel is tentatively billed as a corporate satire and has a striking opening line: ‘I am absolutely terrified of losing a job I absolutely hate.’ The man in this all-too-familiar predicament is Stephen Maserov, a former English teacher turned lawyer. Maserov is a lowly second year in the Terry Gilliam-esque law firm Freely Savage Carter Blanche, which, apart from soun ... (read more)

Chris Flynn reviews 'Hollow Earth' by John Kinsella

October 2019, no. 415 • 25 September 2019

Astronomer Edmond Halley (also known as Edmund, debate still rages over which spelling he preferred) may be best known for the comet that passes through our solar system once every seventy-five to seventy-six years (next sighting due in 2061, set a reminder in your iCal), but in 1692 he proposed an intriguing theory: that the Earth was hollow. Halley suggested that the surface of the planet upon ... (read more)

Chris Flynn reviews 'Being Various: New Irish short stories' edited by Lucy Caldwell

September 2019, no. 414 • 27 August 2019

Playwright and author Lucy Caldwell raises the issue of national identity early in her introduction to this long-running anthology series. She grew up in Belfast but lives in London. Her children sing Bengali nursery rhymes and celebrate Eid. She holds two passports, neither of which adequately captures who she is. ‘I feel apologetic and fraudulent to varying degrees, depending on who I’m wit ... (read more)

Chris Flynn reviews 'Minotaur' by Peter Goldsworthy

August 2019, no. 413 • 12 July 2019

Halfway through Minotaur, Peter Goldsworthy’s jauntily satisfying novel about a sharp-tongued former motorcycle cop blinded by a bullet to the head, Detective Sergeant Rick Zadow gropes his way to a shed behind his Adelaide cottage. Inside lies a partially dismantled 1962 Green Frame Ducati 750SS. Zadow, who had begun disassembling the crankshaft prior to his injury, fumbles round in the dark as ... (read more)

Chris Flynn reviews '55' by James Delargy, 'River of Salt' by Dave Warner, 'Comeback' by Lindsay Tanner, and 'Under the Midnight Sky' by Anna Romer

May 2019, no. 411 • 21 April 2019

The plethora of crime stories is such that, in order to succeed, they must either follow a well-trodden narrative path and do so extremely well, or run with a high concept and hope for the best. Having the word ‘girl’ in the title doesn’t hurt. Readers are familiar with genre tropes, to the point of being high-functioning literary detectives, ready to sniff out lapses in logic and to scream ... (read more)

Chris Flynn reviews 'Sydney Noir' edited by John Dale

January-February 2019, no. 408 • 18 December 2018

In 2004, New York-based publisher Akashic Books released Brooklyn Noir, a collection of short fiction written under a specific brief. Stories had to be set in that neighbourhood and feature noir themes: simmering familial revenge, cheating and double-crossing, sexual betrayal, domestic discord, murderous trysts, down-at-heel detectives. Authors rose to the challenge by focusing on communities like ... (read more)

Chris Flynn reviews 'Property' by Lionel Shriver

May 2018, no. 401 • 26 April 2018

The sadly departed Terry Pratchett once said, ‘Stories of imagination tend to upset those without one.’ While it is difficult to imagine anyone claiming that the great fantasist had no right to tell the stories of witches, orang-utans, and sentient luggage, authors of literary fiction have lately been held to a different standard. Lionel Shriver has been foremost in the cross-hairs, a fact she ... (read more)

What Remains of Edith Finch and Little Nightmares

ABR Arts • 22 May 2017

The rise in popularity of so-called ‘walking simulators’ in recent years propagated an existential crisis in the gaming world. In video games like Dear Esther (2012), Firewatch (2016), and Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture (2016), the absence of an overriding purpose troubled gamers used to goal-oriented fetch quests and destructive tasks. In this new genre, nothing much happens. The player wa ... (read more)