Writers at the Convent - #3. Destinctive Debuts

My third session of the day was entitled "Destinctive Debuts" and the six authors who participated were a diverse mix.

"Do you want Sex with that?" by Claire Halliday

This book is part memoir, part investigation and considers the place of sex in Australian life.  What make's Claire's book different is that it considers the issues regarding sex in our society with reference to her own experiences.  The excerpt that she read from her book outlined, in uncomfortable detail, her own  negative experiences of sex as a young adult, and it made me shuffle in my seat not knowing where to look.  How sad her reading was.  Is this all our young girls have to look forward to?  I didn't really get a feel for her book from the reading, but have read reviews of it since. I am sure it would be very informative but I think that I want to keep my illusions about what happens out there a little bit longer.  "Too much information"  - as the saying goes.

"The Legacy" by Kirsten Tranter

Set in the world of art in New York, this mystery/thriller follows Julia's quest to find her friend, Ingrid, after she disappeared on September 11, 2001 - yes, 9/11.  As one review I have read said, 9/11 was a day when almost anything could happen.   Did Ingrid disappear or did something more sinister happen?  Although set in New York, the main characters are Australian, and the book is written by an Australian now living in New York.  To me this meant that the writing style had a bluntness to it, more in common with Australian fiction than that the American mystery/thriller writers that I am more accustomed to.  The book has had good reviews so I think I will put it on my "to-read" list for the future.

"Cooee" by Vivienne Kelly

Vivienne selected a scene from her book where the main character, Isobel, is having lunch with her reluctant son, Dominic, who resents that his mother left him when he was ten and just wants to get the lunch over with.  From the audience's response, I think a few could relate to the sense of defeat that Isobel felt as she tries to establish a relationship with her adult son.  I found the reading funny in a dark sort of way, but the book was not something that I will rush out and buy in the near future as I feel uncomfortable with this sort of humour and found the scene quite depressing.  If anyone has read this book, please let me know whether you liked it.

Writers at the Convent - #2. Stephanie Dowrick

Continuing on from my last post, I went to three other sessions at the Writers at the Convent Festival.  After lunch was the an interesting session with Stephanie Dowrick, author of books dealing with "personal, social, and ethical development" such as "Choosing Happiness"  (for more on Stephanie see her website at http://www.stephaniedowrick.com/.

Why Stephanie you might ask?  The "Mind, Body, Soul" genre is one of the fastest growing genres in book sales in the US and I'm sure that is so for Australia also.  Why are we looking for answers on happiness, intimacy, solitude, and forgiveness (all the subjects of some of Stephanie's bestselling books)?  I wanted to hear more from someone who is working in this genre everyday.  Stephanie's latest book "In the Company of Rilke" started life as a Phd thesis, and looks at the work of the 20th century German poet, Rainer Rilke.

Why Rilke?  Rilke lived during a time when the world was changing rapidly, becoming more mechanistic.  He wrote poetry about how we experience life - how my life connects with yours.  Rilke's poetry conveyed the message of not struggling to have answers, and to live the questions, at odds with the society in which he was living.  Stephanie could see parallels in society today, and talked about the idea of "surrendered living" to "awaken to whatever it is with freshness, and not be burdened by our preconceptions".  Putting it in my own context, I likened it to current parenting styles where "control" over outcomes has been the goal in recent years.  (That's the subject for another post).

Stephanie admitted that this book is very different from her previous books and thus would have a smaller audience, but she really wanted to make people less afraid of poetry, so that they might give it a go.  While much of what she said reflected the spirituality of her role as an interfaith minister, I did find much to ponder as I left the room.