Peter Nicholson, on the "3 Quarks Daily" weblog, examines the standing of Gwen Harwood as a poet, and, in the process, has some interesting things to say about Australian literature and the categorisation of culture. "How good it is to come across a poet where there is no look-at-me subtext going on. Meditative, rueful, this is writing one can immediately relate to. Harwood's philosophical bent has made her world thetangible one we all know: about the house, glimmers of beatitudes, thinking on the meaning of friendship, loves remembered, nature's beauty holding off darknesses. Eloquent music. A memorable and hard-earned calm in the face of the tell-tale X-ray or the tragicomedy of having the large sensibility in the small-town environs. And there is passion too."
"The Rap Sheet" is a crime fiction related weblog out of the US, and just recently put out a call to all its readers to identify unjustly forgotten or neglected crime novels. Peter Temple wrote in (it's a fair way down the page) suggesting the Essington Lewis novels of Australian writer Robin Wallace-Crabbe, with his favourite being To Catch a Forger from 1988.
Chris McLaren appears to be a Canadian from Halifax - I found a few hints about this on the blog but no specific information - who found himself in Melbourne recently for work. Being a reader he got to spend a bit of time hunting out Australian books, and then decided to write about it. Good to see he discovered Shane Maloney, Peter Temple and Margo Lanagan.
Marshal Zeringue applies his page 99 test to Just Desserts by Simon Haynes.
