Jay Daniel Thompson

Jay Daniel Thompson reviews 'Madame Lash' by Sam Everingham

September 2010, no. 324 • 01 September 2010

Madam Lash is a biography of Australia’s most famous dominatrix. Author Sam Everingham provides an engaging insight into the life of the woman who helped bring sadomasochism to mainstream attention in this country. ... (read more)

Jay Daniel Thompson reviews 'By the Balls' by Les Murray

October 2006, no. 285 • 01 October 2006

IBy the Balls opens in the 1950s, when young Laszlo Urge and his family were forced to leave Stalinist Hungary and head to Australia. Laszlo was shocked to find his new country to be a ‘dry and colourless’ place where soccer (which he refers to as ‘football’) was unpopular. However, this situation was to change. In the following decades, Laszlo became ‘Les Murray’, a popular television ... (read more)

Jay Daniel Thompson reviews 'Sweetness and Light' by Liam Pieper

May 2020, no. 421 • 27 April 2020

Connor is a thirty-something Australian who bides his time grifting in India. His targets are Western female tourists, whom he describes as ‘talent’, and whom he seduces and fleeces. Connor seems to be escaping something, most likely the upbringing in which his masculinity and personal safety were constantly called into question. Sasha is an American tourist with an equally bleak back-story. ... (read more)

Jay Daniel Thompson reviews 'The Yellow House' by Emily O’Grady

October 2018, no. 405 • 26 September 2018

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Jay Daniel Thompson reviews 'The Lebs' by Michael Mohammed Ahmad

March 2018, no. 399 • 22 February 2018

Bani Adam wants to be a ‘chivalrous poet’ or a great writer. These aspirations make the Lebanese-Australian teenager feel like an outsider at the testosterone-fuelled, anti-intellectual high school that he attends. Until he finishes school, Bani bides his time with a group of mostly Muslim and Lebanese young men. ‘The Lebs’, as they refer to themselves, while away the hours discussing reli ... (read more)

Jay Daniel Thompson reviews 'Dancing Home' by Paul Collis

December 2017, no. 397 • 24 November 2017

Dancing Home opens in forthright fashion. The author, Paul Collis, urges readers to ‘[t]ake sides. Be involved in the ideas I’ve written into this book.’ The novel offers an uncompromising examination of some of the injustices faced by Indigenous Australians. ... (read more)

Jay Daniel Thompson reviews 'Wimmera' by Mark Brandi

October 2017, no. 395 • 27 September 2017

The tagline of Wimmera is ‘Small town. Big secret’. Mark Brandi’s first novel does indeed feature a secret (and a grim one, at that), but it also offers a disturbing insight into Australian masculinity. The book opens in the country circa 1989. Ben and Fab are primary school students who, both misfits, while away the hours catching yabbies, playing cricket, and watching The Wonder Years. Fab ... (read more)

Jay Daniel Thompson reviews 'William Yang: Stories of love and death' by Helena Grehan and Edward Scheer

May 2016, no. 381 • 27 April 2016

William Yang is one of Australia's best-known and most prolific photographers. In William Yang: Stories of love and death, Helena Grehan and Edward Scheer interrogate the political and aesthetic themes running through this artist's output. ... (read more)

Jay Daniel Thompson reviews 'An Isolated Incident' by Emily Maguire

April 2016, no. 380 • 30 March 2016

Emily Maguire's An Isolated Incident explores the media's fascination with beautiful, murdered women. The novel also interrogates the experiences of those who find themselves involved in murder cases. The novel is set in Strathdee, a fictitious rural Australian town. This 'lovely little' hamlet has been unsettled by the slaying of Bella Michaels, a 'photogenic' young resident. Bella's older siste ... (read more)

Jay Daniel Thompson reviews 'Trio' by Geraldine Wooller

April 2015, no. 370 • 30 March 2015

The threesome in Trio is a group of friends who meet in the United Kingdom around 1966. Celia, Marcia, and Mickey bond one ‘pea-souperof a London evening’ and soon move in together. They become extremely close, and socialise in the same (largely theatre-based) circles. Their closeness has its limits; the protagonists draw the line at ‘threefold sex’. ... (read more)