Unpolished Gem by Alice Pung.
Why have I never read this book before? I’m so glad I chose it for my Library book group.
Alice Pung’s memoir managed to place me right next to her, in the middle of her Chinese-Cambodian family. Newly arrived in Australia, settling in Footscray, Alice navigates the disconnect between home and the world outside. There’s pathos and humour as she documents her journey into Australian life. As well as gaining understanding of her immigrant experience, I could see just how weird we – white Australians, Anglo-Australians, whatever we are – can seem.
Legacy by Christ Hammer
I stayed up until 2.30 am to finish this book. Which doesn’t mean it was a great book (as in well-written, complex, believable, etc) – but it was a great page turner. Hammer knows what he’s doing. The series hero, journalist Martin Scarsden, is on the run. He gets stuck in a small town in the Channel Country of outback Queensland – and of course becomes embroiled in current and historic crimes. Water theft is the big issue in this story. I didn’t know that after a heavy fall of rain, water flows very slowly (it can take three weeks) from over 700km away to form a network of channels in this dry, flat country. Which means cattle graziers can take advantage of the transient greening to re-stock their properties, and communities can be cut off by flooding. There’s a sub-plot featuring a family feud and a missing woman; a tepid romance; the mafia…
Also…what is it with Hammer and his female characters’ names? Mandalay Blonde? And Ekaterina Boland – known as Ecco?
Police at the Funeral by Margery Allingham
I enjoyed this so much – until the very end. It’s classic Allingham, which is complicated, twisty, literate, often very funny, full of superbly eccentric characters. And I love Albert Campion to bits. But at the denouement, I came upon an example of racism that was actually shocking to my modern-day sensibilities. This issue comes up quite often in re-issues of classic crime novels. What, as a publisher, do you do? (Here’s a fascinating discussion about editing Agatha Christie from the Shedunnit podcast). Racial slurs can be excised, and most readers won’t know the difference, but what do you do when racism is the raison d’etre of the crime?