Focus: Reflections

Editor: Julie Hale

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I'm a sucker for good photography, I love light and I am fascinated by reflections. Is it any wonder I grabbed a book from a stack offered by a passing bookseller that combines all three? This is a small format hard-cover book packed with fascinating images (around 180 pages with an image per page). With a theme like "Reflections" the subject matter is very broad, from "found art" (photographs that are impromptu of people and scenes that are not rehearsed) through to carefully structured close-ups.

There are a wide range of styles as well. I love the shot of a single pencil coil of pencil shaving shot against a shiny dark table, but equally an astonishing shot of a closed lily bud with three dew drops hanging from it... each reflecting perfectly an open flower from the background.

The pages are mostly offered as diptychs, with pictures on the left and right that have some resonance with each other. Sometimes it is a colour, sometimes a concept such as a page of pool reflections that have been inverted so we see the reflection as the reality. Some of the links are shapes, some are textures, some are technical, such as a set of three shots that are duo-tones with vignette... but all from different photographers.

There is little discussion of how this collection was put together. All artists are attributed, but the back cover suggests the sources are "emerging photographers" from image hosting sites.

This is a celebration of light and reflection in a thoughtfully selected presentation with dazzling variety. It is well printed and a surprisingly satisfactory format for a relatively small book. There is no material I could find that would give parents any cause for concern for younger viewers... and I'm going to suggest that younger students would enjoy glancing through this to find and enjoy eye catching photographs. As well as the book cover I have added one of my own "reflection" photographs from the Blue Mosque in Kuala Lumpur.

Andrew Lack
Head of the Odell Learning Resources Centre

The Old Man Mad About Drawing and Hokusai Prints and Drawings

Hokusai was a renowned Japanese artist who died in 1849. Even if you know nothing about Japanese prints you will be familiar with one of his famous images at it inspired the Quiksilver Clothing logo. We have two beautiful books now in the OLRC. The one I love most is Hokusai Prints and Drawings (Author Matthi Forrer). It is a hefty book with 200 pages covering Hokusai's major series (such as 36 Views of Mount Fuji)   nicely reproduced in colour, though not at the original size. There is a thirty page introduction about his life and art.

I can think of many reasons to sift through these beautiful and exotic images. He is an acclaimed master, but also heavily influenced the French Impressionists. Many well known artists have been collectors of his prints. He is sometimes said to be the forerunner of modern Manga, but his works were never assembled into comic styled stories. Individual pictures, however, often tell intriguing stories. When you reflect that much of what is in the book are hand carved woodblocks you can also start to appreciate the artisanship involved in the fine lines, detail and delicate textures.

For younger readers, we have The Old Man Mad About Drawing (by Francois Place). This lovely book tells the story of Hokusai's life from the point of view of a young boy who sells rice cakes and meets the famous artist. It is illustrated both with original Hokusai prints and also with charming illustrations of Japanese street life done in the style of Hokusai. Both book are suitable for any age, with the Biography suiting Year Four and up.

For those who want to follow up connections, I reviewed 36 Views of Mount Fuji by Cathy Davidson a few weeks ago. This is the story of her time spent in Japan and is named and structured as a tribute to Hokusai.

Andrew Lack
Head of the Odell Learning Resources Centre

Cloud Atlas

Author: David Mitchell

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Cloud Atlas is an exciting and unusual novel. It uses a structure I have never seen before in a book... a nested palindrome.  The book opens with a story set about 200 years ago, which is half told, then interrupted. A new story starts, set in the early 20th C. This is then interrupted, and a contemporary story starts, which in turn gives way to a story set in the foreseeable future, then another story starts in the far, post-apocalyptic future. This is the “keystone” of the arch, and after it is told the other stories are completed in order. Each story in the layer is connected in some way to the story that follows, typically by having the main character in the subsequent story read, view or observe the previous story. This could have been handled badly but Mitchell does this well. As soon as the structure’s full design became clear I was actually pumping the air with my fist and saying “YES”.

The author simply disdains the conventional divisions such as “historical fiction”, “adventure story” and “science fiction”. I was delighted to find out that the book was both on the Booker Prize short list (as literature) and the Nebula Award short list (as Sci Fi) in the same year. The connections between the stories are not forced. In some ways this consists of six well written short stories or novellas that have been torn in two and inserted in each other. Doing this, however, and doing it with the nesting also happening in terms of an ascending then descending time line, opens all sorts of wonderful possibilities for subtle interactions between the “layers” of stories. For instance, once you read about how the character in the fifth story is remembered in the sixth story, you have a new layer of understanding of her fate and purpose as you read the conclusion of the fifth story. There is also the hint of a more mystical connection as each main character seems to carry a similar birth mark.

The stories are of many kinds, each told in the first person, each using a language representing the age and context.  There is a decided moral tone throughout the book, though one of the characters is decidedly immoral, and other characters describe distressing sights and events.  While the book
reeks with imagination and is redolent with rich story-telling, it is not merely artifice and rumination. Most of the stories have elements of adventure, risk and challenge: I was torn between reading for the sometimes poetic language and intriguing cross references, and flicking pages in my normal style to catch the drift of the action.

I was reminded of another recent favourite, A Visit from the Goon Squad which also combines interlinked tales with stories from past, present and future. I was also reminded of the extraordinary Gödel, Bach and Escher by Douglas Hofstadter which explores the concept of layers of meaning and
reference.

This is a thoroughly engaging book for an adult reader who is prepared to explore unusual structures. There are definitely adult themes and references to sexual encounters, some quite grim, though overall there are positive messages about resilience, fortitude, courage and virtue. A delightful
discovery for me!

Andrew Lack
Head of the Odell Learning Resources Centre

The Shadow Girl

Author: John Larkin

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I’ll break some rules here, and review a book that I’m not putting in the library. Don’t get me wrong, it is a book I read to the end with interest, and there is nothing in it that makes it inappropriate for adult readers. The problem I see is that it takes a real issue (and starts with a real story) and puffs it up into a sensationalised drama. Even this is not the heart of the reason I struggle with the book… it is just that it is plainly intended for teen readers.

A bit of context is in order. John Larkin is a prolific teen fiction/ young adult writer. The book was inspired by meeting a girl who told him her story about being a run-away. There is no suggestion however that this is a biography. It is simply a story that starts with the idea of an intelligent girl who runs away from home to escape a predatory uncle/guardian. We are introduced to her through a number of scenes where she describes her life to the author, but segue into first person narration. I find the mechanism a little contrived. In order to tell the story with a sense of development certain details are held back even though we can see the author and the story teller are both aware of the details in the narrative “now”.  I am not adverse to complex narratives (loved All That I Am) but clunkiness is always annoying.

I found myself reeling with the series of tragedies and confrontations the girl has to deal with… not just exposure to a sexual predator, but violence, murder, rape, betrayal and institutional neglect. I am pleased that there are some adults who provide a degree of kindness or even shelter for the girl, so the book is not without its sense of hope. Religion gets some pretty stern serves and the only religious leaders shown are either uncaring or, in one case, sexual predators themselves.

A friend of mine found the book fascinating, and I found it interesting, but showing all the hallmarks of a recent trend to offer teens books with levels of adult themes, sex and violence that not that many years ago would have been questioned in books for adults.

Andrew Lack
Head of the Odell Learning Resources Centre

36 Views of Mount Fuji

Author: Cathy N. Davidson

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This delightful, autobiographical book leapt out at me from the shelves of the gift shop at the Museum of Contemporary Art. It is a poignant and sometimes funny account of the author’s various stays in Japan, where she worked as an English teacher at a university. While the edition I have was published in 2006, the book was written in 1993, so the Japan we meet is not the 21st century Japan. Having been fascinated by the country, culture and people all my life, I found this book touched on many of the complexities of Japan that I have pondered, and I identified strongly with some of her experiences.

At the same time, this is not simply a travelogue. She describes in painful detail sad events in the lives of some who she got close to in Japan, and also the upheaval and devastation of losing unexpectedly a close family member. The book certainly has some amusing and entertaining travel tales, but also deploys some motifs and images that link different scenes.

This is unlikely to attract younger readers but older teens and adults who are interested in Japan or simply the complex interface between cultures will find this stimulating. Several of her stories refer to blown green glass fishing net floats that she used to collect… and I was moved to find just such a float advertised on the website of a Sydney vendor of all things Japanese the other night.

Andrew Lack
Head of the Odell Learning Resources Centre

All That I Am

Author: Anna Funder

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I am not personally a fan of historical novels… but this crept up on me as I did not realise that it was! To start with I associate historical novels with books about Anne Boleyn, and this is actually about the “between the wars” period in Germany. In fact while we hear a bit about Hitler and the National Socialist Party, this is the story of some of the key figures in short lived Bavarian Soviet Republic, a left wing government in Germany ousted by Hitler. Those involved were mercilessly hunted by German agents of the Nazis even when they had escaped to England or other countries.

The story is told in a complex way, but I found this attractive, partly because real stories are complex. We hear from two narrators: Ruth and Toller. Ernst Toller was a real figure, a German playwright, a Jew, and for six short days president of the ill-fated Bavarian Soviet Republic. Ruth is the woman to whom the book is dedicated, whose life was closely linked to Toller and to the third key character in this story, Dora Fabian. Dora was an early feminist, a pacifist and anti-Nazi campaigner, who was found dead in her flat in England raising the possibility that she had been murdered by a Nazi agent.

We meet Ruth still living in contemporary Bondi and Toller who lived a distressed life as an emigrant in the US. Toller writes the story of Dora’s life and work. Ruth tells us something of her quiet Sydney existence, but thinks back to the events in Germany and England. While she initially seems on the periphery of the drama, it becomes clear as we go through the book that she is ultimately deeply involved in the drama and tragedy.

This is rich in historical detail while being the story of particular individuals, not the story of an event or epoch. I found it moving and eye opening… details about a time in Germany I was hardly aware of. Recommended for older teens and thoughtful adults. Some of this deals with grim matters, though there are no grotesque or unnecessarily intimate descriptions. Younger readers may struggle with the multiple voices (two voices and at least two levels of flash back) as well as the terrible injustice of both German and English intolerance and anti-Semitism.

Andrew Lack
Head of the Odell Learning Resources Centre

Brotherband: The Outcasts

Author: John Flanagan:
Short-listed for the Children's Book Council of Australia 2012 Book of the Year

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Following the successful international best-seller Ranger’s Apprentice, John Flanagan’s new series Brotherband will be appreciated by younger and older readers.

Flanagan deals with issues such as bullying and being ostracised. Brotherband is about boys who are seen as losers but battle on to achieve their goals.

When I was twelve years old we moved to a small country town. It has been many years but I still remember the pain when the most popular students chose their teams for softball from the most popular kids to the least popular and no one wanted me! Being thought of as worthless does enormous damage to children. In Brotherband eight boys face the same pain.

John Flanagan creates a world of seafaring adventures, treacherous pirates and epic battles. In Skandia, there is only one way to become a warrior. When boys turn sixteen they are grouped together and chosen for teams called brotherbands. They must endure three months of gruelling training in seamanship, weapons and battle tactics. When Hal Mikkelson finds himself the unwilling leader of a brotherband made up of misfits and outcasts, he must step up to the challenge. His team consists of such boys as the thief, the huge blind boy and the boy who mimics animals. Hal himself is an outcast as his mother is not Scandian. The "Heron" brotherband might not have the strength and numbers of the other teams, but use their strange skills, inventiveness, ingenuity and courage to succeed.

Flanagan will get readers thinking about bullying issues while enjoying a great story. The boys may have fewer in their team and they may be picked on by the other teams but they go about winning points with good humour and against the odds. The story also tells young readers not to give up when things are tough. This is certainly the case when we see the boys sailing away from Scandia ready for the adventures and challenges of the second book The Invaders.

Anne Montgomery
Odell Learning Resources Centre