The Age
The lack of Australian books under review continues this week with only one getting a very minor mention. On a Wing and a Prayer by Peter Bensley is a debut novel which is reviewed by Dianne Dempsey, who seems pretty impressed by the book: "Peter Bensley is to be congratulated on writing a novel that is actually about something: the ongoing impact of the war on its survivors. Bensley is also capable of arriving at some lovely imagery in a natural and unpretentious manner. On a Wing and a Prayer has such an uplifting denouement, I'm sure Bensley thought of it first and then moved his narration towards it. An actor by trade, on the strength of this, his first novel, he could definitely swap one precarious career for another."
Short notices are given to: Saving Australia: Curtin's Secret peace with Japan by Bob Wurth: "This is a study of a country at war and its one-time pacifist prime minister who 'recognised (that) appeasement of Japan was misguided' and who, after having exhausted all reasonable paths to peace, became the wartime leader his country needed"; Chatroom by Barbara Biggs: "Worthy message ... plus clunky writing equals indigestible novel"; and A Fox Called Sorrow: A Legend of Little Fur by Isobelle Carmody, second book of the Little Fur series: "The world Carmody has created is filled with the smell of the earth and the sound of animals who talk...This entrancing world is illustrated by Carmody's delicate pencil drawings."
Coverage over at "The Australian" isn't any better. In fact it's non-existent.
The thinnest weekend for Australian books for the past 18 months.
