This will hurt me...

Monster on Bathurst Street. West Hobart, February 2021. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari Interesting enough, but I suspect that I am not Harari's core target audience. I was already familiar with a lot of the work referenced here. While he has managed to weave an interesting arc that runs through the interconnected research, there were points in which my confidence with the linkages made was stretched rather taut! For one, I'd treat his certainty in terms of biological determinism with a significant grain of salt. The book - in my opinion - frequently tends to underplay social determinants to the detriment of the overall thesis. That said, it is certainly worth exploring and makes a significant contribution to the mainstream understanding of the emergence of our species. Still, I'd ensure going to the primary source material if you were looking to make a substantial academic case. ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 1/2

Jen is in the water. Little Howrah Beach, February 2021. Last Night in Montreal   by Emily St. John Mandel This novel is another in a lone line of books - at least two authored by St. John Mandel - in which the 'fascinating and mysterious central character' is anything but. In much the same way that I struggled to connect with Anna in  The Lola Quartet , I failed to see the compelling reasons through which Lilia attracted the cast of characters into her orbit so thoroughly (to their own eventual destruction). As such, I found finishing this one a chore and the shifting narrative and dreamlike prose irritated rather than compelled. Perhaps a more patient or tolerant reader would have given themselves into the mystery, but this was a case of me forcing myself to finish against my own desire to toss it aside. I found the characters one-dimensional and insubstantial, so I am very much left to scratch my head at the many positive reviews. ⭐ ⭐

Insulation against power, Geilston Bay, February 2021. The Great World by David Malouf I am glad to have turned to David Malouf at this stage in life. Others I know recoil at his name, having suffered through dreary forced reading in high school. While I love how he vividly writes of physical spaces and their relationship with a character's inner journey, there is little more tiresome than being forced to decode and recite back the tricks of the authorial trade just before lunchtime in a broiling schoolroom. The Great World  is a fantastic read. As ever, Malouf writes in a lyrical and mesmerising tone. He beautifully ties together several markedly different stories across decades and continents. Moreover, he humanised the inhuman, and while there is a great deal of pain and trauma here, it's conveyed with such a lightness of touch and loving tone that you suspect some alchemy at play. Can you guess that I loved this book? Although utterly different in approach, tone and subjec...

Chimney on Molle Street. West Hobart, February 2021. The Charmed Life of Alex Moore by Molly Flatt I chose to read this one as a lighter diversion, and in this regard, it delivered. Despite an ambitious storyline that seeks to explore deeper philosophical questions around life, identity, happiness and so on, there's a superficiality and shallowness that I couldn't quite shake. Perhaps the grand reveal around the source of Alex/ Dororthy's fell flat (I had something far darker in mind). Still, I couldn't help that in striving for a wider audience, Flatt has chosen to avoid potentially tougher harsher elements. Don't get me wrong. It is a breezy and enjoyable read, but the 'chick-lit' elements and, in the choice of the central heroine and the vacuous middle-class world she resides in, the materials were not there to achieve the gravity I assume that she was aiming for. ⭐ ⭐ 1/2

Private Pole. Lindisfarne, February 2021. John Crow's Devil by Marlon James This is an exceptionally dark and disturbing book. Not for the squeamish or faint-hearted, this reads like a magical realist Jamaican take on Cormac McCarthy's  Blood Meridian . Heavily religious in tone and written in thick patois, this is no easy read. Nonetheless, it will reward the patient reader. Exceptionally violent at points and brutally frank when it comes to the body. Indeed, I suspect this book has the highest ratio of bodily fluids spilt per page (not to mention the abundant and vivid examinations of various characters' genitalia). It isn't fair to say that I  loved  this book. It was difficult going at times, but given it is a raw excoriation of post-colonial withdrawal and the hypocrisies of organised religion (and prophets of a more disorganised sort), it would not be right if it were easy. ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 1/2

Gull on the beach. Rheban Beach, Tasmania. February 2021. Questions of Travel by Michelle de Kretser I found this an odd little book. While I do understand that the essence of the work was to explore how "life is what happens when you're making other plans", 528 pages is an awful lot to spend meandering about with little focus on what it is that they are wandering towards (or away from, which may be closer to the point). There is an immense sadness that permeates throughout. While I am generally quite comfortable with ragged narrative arcs, multiple narrators or the complex weaving of interlinked stories, I must confess to not quite seeing the point of choosing  these  two characters. Ravi - while less fully realised - was the more compelling of the two. Perhaps due to the more immediately wrenching of the personal narrative, I found myself much more forgiving of his aimlessness and seeming indifference to the currents moving around him. In Laura, I found her aimlessness...

Sunshine and clouds. Hobart, February 2021. Flake by Matthew Dooley A dour, but fun little exploration into the trials and tribulations of a mildly depressed ice cream vendor in the bleak north of England. The stark and simple illustrative style and bleak colour palette compliment the incredibly dour tale. An adventure tale (of sorts), there are good guys, bad guys, cryptic crosswords and pub quizzes. Worth a look, and you'll be able to knock it over in a single sitting. ⭐ ⭐⭐