Critic
of the Month
Melbourne
writer Brenda Niall's first career was as an academic in the English
Department of Monash University, where she taught courses in American
literature and Australian literature, biography and autobiography.
Since 1995 she has been writing full time. She is now best known
as the author of four award-winning biographies: Martin Boyd
(1988); Georgiana (1994); The Boyds (2002); and
Judy Cassab (2005).
Her other books include Seven Little Billabongs: The World
of Ethel Turner and Mary Grant Bruce (1979); Australia
Through the Looking-Glass: Children's Fiction 1830-1980 (1984);
The Oxford Book of Australian Schooldays, co-edited with
Ian Britain (1997); The Oxford Book of Australian Letters,
co-edited with John Thompson (1999).
In 2004 she was awarded an AO (Order of Australia) for 'services
to Australian literature as academic, biographer and literary
critic'. In 2005 Monash University gave her an honorary D.Litt.
Brenda Niall and ABR
Brenda
Niall has been reviewing for ABR for more than twenty years,
from the editorships of Kerryn Goldsworthy and Helen Daniel to
that of Peter Rose. The editors' unpredictable choices often bring
her new authors and new ideas, as with Peter Yule's life of Ian
Potter (ABR, August 2006), which made her think about money.
Because her own books take several years to research and write,
she finds it satisfying to see a review come so quickly into print.
What does Brenda Niall expect of a review?
'For a start, I want to know whether the book is worth my spending
time on it. More than that: a review should be an illumination,
not a mini-lecture. It respects the book under review, but has
a voice of its own. I usually get novels or biographies for review;
and I think that with a biography I ask a fellow-practitioner's
questions about the complex choices of structure and point of
view - matters that bring it close to the novel.'
Some ABR reviews by Brenda
Niall
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Current
reviews
Neal
Blewett
We are all little Johnnies now: on The
Longest Decade and The Howard Factor
'The
provenance of The Howard Factor - a collection of essays
by senior writers from The Australian newspaper - is
not promising. The Australian is after all part of Mark
Latham's 'Evil Empire', cheerleader rather than critic of the
Howard government.'
Read
full text
Glynn
Davis
When research is not enough:
on Our Underachieving Colleges
'Bok is worried by a pervasive conservatism
in higher education, specifically the refusal by professors
to confront evidence about poor teaching ... This is brave territory
for Bok to explore.' Read
full text.
Jonathan Pearlman
'A beautiful shoah'
''Israel
is not merely a Jewish state, but a faultline on an enduring
ideological debate that crosses the usual divide between left
and right. Put crudely, the battle is between those who believe
that power can be put to good use and those who believe that
any imbalances of power - such as between the rulers and the
ruled or strong states and weak - can (and must) be overcome.'
Read
full text
Gideon
Haigh
The fissured mogul: on The History of the Times: The Murdoch
Years
'For such a big deal, "the imprimatur
of The Times" has not always been wisely bestowed.
The newspaper cosied up to the Confederacy during the American
Civil War; it was approving of Hitler in the 1930s, and of Stalin
in the 1940s. But never in the paper’s history has that imprimatur
traded at an underestimate.' Read
full text
POETRY
Read
Kate Middleton's Whistler's Boatman,
as featured in this issue.
CHILDREN'S
Stephanie
Owen-Reeder
Picture Book Survey:
The Art of Communication
'Like all books, picture books are a vehicle
of communication, narrative, information and emotions. Because
of the adaptability of the picture-book genre, which communicates
using both verbal and visual language systems, it is sometimes
possible for authors and illustrators to challenge the underlying
precepts of the role of language in the communication process.'
Read
full text
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