ANZ LitLovers LitBlog

Here’s another perceptive review from regular Guest Reviewer,  Karenlee Thompson.   Here she investigates a slightly different sort of collection called Sunscreen and Lipstick, a compilation of excerpts with an introduction by writer, broadcaster and academic, Liz Byrski.

I must say at the outset that I’m not fond of this idea of putting excerpts from novels and longer works into a collection. Short stories and novellas are self-contained pieces of writing that, whilst they may leave much unsaid, don’t leave you with the notion that the author didn’t finish what he or she set out to do.

Most of the works in Sunscreen and Lipstick are excerpts from novels or memoir and, as such, are not written to stand alone. Without the full story, some extracts failed to interest me entirely. Others were wonderfully enticing which, unfortunately, leaves me with only one option. If I want the full story, then I need to purchase another book. It may not be the intention of the publishers, but it could be construed as straight-out commercialism. Instead, I’ll adopt the notion that in combining works of emerging writers with some of Australia’s best known authors, the former get a leg-up in being read and critiqued and it gives readers the opportunity to sample the various authors.

Deborah Robertson’s ‘Living Arrangements’ is a beautiful insight into the life of a lonely woman – Roxie – whose promiscuity is yet another wall, even as her sexuality is used as a means to an end.

Roxie gets the visit she has been dreading from a Social Security official checking on living arrangements.  In a fit of confusion over the form that seemed designed to catch her out, she had written ‘I’m a Lesbian’ (p. 93):

Hers was a look I had been running from all my life: sensible shoes, sensible skirt, sensible blouse. […] I guessed we were about the same age but I hoped my face wasn’t as dragged by time and disappointment.  (p. 101)

Roxie’s dry pragmatic voice comes through loud and clear. Here’s her succinct impression of the social security office:

There was a kid screaming, an old guy coughing up his guts, a woman clutching her briefcase as if it held all her dignity: the usual. (p. 89)

In ‘Maisie Goes to India’, Joan London showcases her award-winning style with descriptive passages such as the flock of birds that ‘rose, shrieking, while their wings flapped liked aprons in dismay‘ (p. 156) and clouds that ‘fill the sky with domes and turrets‘.  (p. 170)

The blurb touts that ‘this book is all about women‘ but I think that is an interpretation too narrow.  T.A.G. Hungerford’s ‘The Fisher Hat’ for example, says something about a boy’s relationship with his mother but the story is really about a boy growing up, not about the mother.

‘Gnowangerup Doctors’ – a written record of Kim Scott’s interview with Hazel Brown – is at once soft and harsh. Be prepared, if you are a parent, to feel your solar plexus pierced in four powerful pages.

If you fancy a bit of a writerly Tapas, then this book might be what you are looking for. Just be prepared to put your hand in your pocket when you’ve finished tasting and realise what you really wanted was a big plate of paella.

© Karenlee Thompson

I know what you mean, Karen, with your reservations about a compilation such as this: I don’t just want an aria, I want the whole opera.  But in some contexts a taster like this can be just what you want.  I’ve read Oxygen Books Guides about Paris, Berlin and St Petersburg (see the review) and while I also found that I wanted more than the excerpts provided, I thought that the snippets about the city did contribute to my enjoyment of my travels.

Sunscreen and Lipstick might (as the publisher’s blurb suggests) be just the thing for a beach read?  (Not that anyone would ever catch me on a beach, except in winter, with the dogs).

Karenlee Thompson is an author and reviewer for The Australian and was featured on Meet an Aussie Author in 2011.  Her debut novel 8 States of Catastrophe is reviewed on the ANZ LitLovers blog here.  Karen blogs at Karen Lee Thompson.

Authors: various, including  Goldie Goldbloom, T.A. Hungerford, Elizabeth Jolley, Simone Lazaroo, Alison Lester, Joan London,  Deborah Robertson, Alice Nelson,  and Kim Scott & Hazel Brown,
Introduction by Liz Byrski
Title: Sunscreen and Lipstick
Publisher: Fremantle Press,  2012.
ISBN: 9781922089113

Availability:

Fishpond: Sunscreen and Lipstick
Or direct from Fremantle Press

This review is cross-posted at Karenlee Thompson’s blog.