Mr Fox is unlike anything I’ve ever read. Original in its concept, playful and witty in its presentation, this book breaks tradition and dares the reader to follow on its zig-zag path the relationship of St John Fox (much alive author) and Mary Foxe (his very much imaginary muse).

St John Fox has a penchant for killing off his leading ladies in inventively gruesome ways. Mary Foxe labels him a serial killer and demands that he change his ways or else she’ll leave him. Thus begins a literary adventure that bounces, rolls and strolls through a variety of scenarios, characters and plots as Mary and St John tackle each other, dare each other, fall in love with each other. Enter the very real Mrs Daphne Fox, who is not prepared to give up her man to an imaginary woman, no matter how seductive, without a fight.

Oyeyemi is a talented wordsmith who dares to break the rules with brilliant results. This latest novel was inspired by the folklore tale of Bluebeard – a fierce and formidable nobleman who violently murders his wives –  and references to him can been seen woven through the delightful fabric of this book. Oyeyemi takes traditional storytelling and turns it on its head.

Helen Oyeyemi is also the author of White is for Witching, which won the 2010 Somerset Maugham Award (a book that I highly recommend) as well as titles The Icarus Girl and The Opposite House.

Mr Fox is published by Picador www.picador.com

Buzz Aldrin, What happened to you in all the confusion? by Johan Harstad

In today’s image-saturated, hyped-up, drama-infused world Buzz Aldrin is the equivalent of taking a walk down a meandering country lane: the pace is slower; there’s time to stop and smell the roses, take in the surrounding scenery and really appreciate everything happening around you.

Written in a stream-of-consciousness-style, Johan Harstad takes the reader on an epic journey alongside main character, Mattias, who has developed an obsession with Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the moon. Mattias’s obsession is as much with the man Buzz Aldrin as it is his status of being number two. Mattias is content, make that determined, to live his life not as the main man but as ‘number two’, the man who is part of something bigger than himself, anonymously contributing to the whole. The fact that Mattias has a brilliant singing voice that can bring a room to a complete standstill and his friends want him to join their band is something that Mattias resists with irreversible consequences.

A loner, Mattias’s world comes crashing down around him when he loses his job and his long-term girlfriend leaves him for another man. A series of events culminating in a blackout sees our protagonist awaken wet and bloodied on the roadside of one of the Faroe Islands, unable to remember how he got there. Havstein, a passing motorist and psychiatrist, stops and convinces Mattias to accompany him back to the Factory, an outpatient centre that Havstein runs for people who have trouble integrating back into society after being institutionalised. Mattias, unbalanced by the direction his life has taken, decides to stay at the Factory as a guest until he finds his centre again.

Is Mattias mad like the other patients at the Factory? It’s difficult to tell: if he is, then so am I because much of his logic, his reflections and his interpretation of life resonated with me. And that is the power of Harstad’s writing. Characters are keenly developed, the story unfolds, layer upon layer, amidst a plethora of pop-culture references, which I personally felt enhanced the storyline and gave Mattias depth and credibility, and both haunting memories and heartfelt moments are revealed with just the right amount of tension. Harstad’s writing is such that I felt as though I was right there alongside Mattias experiencing his highs, his lows, his confusion and his insights. As I read, Mattias changed from a character that I observed to a friend that I cared about and he lingers still, even though I’ve moved on to another book. Buzz Aldrin, What happened to you in all the confusion? is a book that will change the way you view life and what you think it means to be crazy.

Published by UWA Publishing    http://uwap.uwa.edu.au/

Johan Harstad will be appearing at the 2012 Perth Writer’s Festival. For more information go to:  http://www.perthfestival.com.au/en/

‘A peacock seduces its mate with a thousand shimmering eyes. A woman seduces a man with a lustrous smile. Seduction is an illusion. I introduce ordinary objects within a stereotypical portrait to push the image in a new direction.’

For more information about the Perth Centre for Photography go to: www.pcp.org.au

It was in the library at work that inspiration struck, as my fingers reached for Theo & Co: The Search for the Perfect Pizza. Ash loves pizza. With a capital L. We would have a pizza party for his birthday.

I cemented the seeds of temptation by borrowing a copy of Theo and Co. from work and left it on the coffee table at home. Ash’s casual browsing turned to genuine interest and soon we were both salivating over the pages of delicious-looking pizzas. I returned the borrowed book and purchased my own copy, now certain that I had hit upon a winning birthday present.

The hardest part was choosing which pizzas to make and we eventually decided on a progressive dinner: first came the Margherita, then the Pearsciutto plus our own creation the El Supremo, after that the Quattro Fromaggio and lastly, the pièce de résistance, Black Forest pizza.

One of my pinkies was recovering from a rather nasty previous encounter with a broken glass in the sink, and I was banned from manhandling the dough, so Ash was head pizza-maker and I his assistant prep-gal. Ash kneaded, stretched, rolled and twirled the pizza bases into shape while I blended up the tangy traditional tomato sauce and whipped up the white bean dip – an Italian-style hummus.

Our apartment is on the far side of small and so, unfortunately, we had to restrict ourselves to inviting only two guests – Matt & Kristine were our two esteemed companions on the night. As the pizzas progressively rolled out the oven onto the table we all oohed and aahed over each wedge of flavour sensation that made its way to our mouths. The bases were thin, crisp and tasty, the toppings divine.

The wine flowed and the conversation bubbled along and was only brought to a halt by the arrival of the Black Forest. All eyes focused on the chocolate dessert pizza topped with cherries, melting dark chocolate shavings, shards of cherry syrup toffee and a centrepiece of vanilla ice cream. (The cherry toffee isn’t actually part of the recipe – it was supposed to be a cherry syrup but I took my eye off the pan for a but a moment and the heat got too high, the sugar caramelised, and so I quickly poured it onto a sheet of baking paper, and wah-lah cherry toffee was born.) The first bite of the Black Forest was one of those memorable moments where the flavours transcended all expectations. I was in heaven. The surrounding groans confirmed I was not alone in my opinion.

Theo’s pizzas base is the perfect platform for the suggested toppings in the book but he also encourages experimentation. We turned the vegetarian Acropolis into a Supremo with the addition of mushrooms, salami and anchovies. The simplicity of the Margherita allowed the flavours to shine through and I was surprised at how good this pizza tasted.

What I love about the Theo & Co. cookbook is that the pizza base and tomato sauce recipes were so very easy to make and after that it was simply a matter of chopping the toppings. The progressive approach allowed us to still be sociable while cooking – a quick five minutes in the kitchen to dress the next round of pizzas, slip them in the oven, and then we were back at the table entertaining our guests. It was such a success that I’m definitely going to host another pizza party, and Ash thought that next time we could involve our dinner guests and let them design their own pizza. I recommend this book to anyone who loves eating pizza – and hey who doesn’t? Not only is it delicious hot, but it also makes a great snack the next day.

Theo & Co. is available at all good bookstores or through UWA Publishing at: http://uwap.uwa.edu.au

If you weren’t there, you missed a spectacular event. A red carpet greeted guests at the door, the room was crowded full of art enthusiasts admiring the beautiful array of paintings that lined the room, and at the smaller exhibition room, which featured a video and still image projection, people queued to gain access. A popular exhibit, it was standing-room only. Dr Christopher Crouch, from Edith Cowan University, gave a brief but eloquent opening speech after which the guests were free to engage with the artist, and his delightful wife, Kristine Lockwood, who, I must add, wore show-stopping heels. The wine flowed freely as did the praise for Jackson’s work—‘his work is so powerful’, ‘this work has the potential to move people’, ‘the images left me speechless’ were just some of the comments overheard on the night.

A Perth artist, Jackson has been exhibiting for over 15 years. The theme of his current exhibition, Us, Them & Me is about re-presenting gender fluidity in contemporary art. His works represent three years of research for his PhD, in which he discusses the lack of representation of the transgender community in art. Jackson travelled the world to interview people and gain insight into gender fluidity in other cultures, and combined this information, as well as his own personal experiences with gender fluidity, into a series of portraits, a video and still image presentation and, the pièce de résistance, a 12m-long painting consisting of 6 panels.

 Jackson says that his aim is to ‘re-present gender fluidity in an authentic way; to provide images of gender fluid people that aren’t stereotypical parodies that the general public have come to expect from the mainstream media’. His portraits definitely reflect this goal—the subjects are portrayed with sensitivity. They are not the stiff, stilted subjects that often feature in portraits. Jackson’s portraits are animated, engaging. Standing before the images, I got the sense of sharing a personal moment with the subject, a communication beyond the beauty of the artwork itself. I felt that, briefly, I was engaged with the subject, and it was as beautiful as it was humbling, to have had a ‘dialogue’ with such a private part of the person.

If there’s only one exhibition that you get to this month, make sure it’s Us, Them & Me. The collection is on show at the Oats Factory Art Gallery from 8-24 July.

www.oatsfactory.com.au

www.matthewjackson.com.au

There’s a lot of commotion and flapping of hands and kafuffle at present about the future of books. There is talk of the print book industry collapsing, and if the federal Minister for Small Business Nick Sherry is to be believed, then ‘apart from “a few specialist booksellers in capital cities” bookshops would cease to exist in Australia within five years because of competition from online retailers’ (as reported recently in Bookseller & Publisher magazine). His comments received lively debate from booksellers and publishers within Australia, defending the industry. I think it’s pretty sad that the Minister for Small Business hasn’t got the courage to back small business, or the foresight to realise that the publishing industry is in a state of flux, not collapse.

All he, or anyone for that matter, needs to do is look at the film and music industries. Both have undergone major transformation over the past few years and have come out the other side alive and thriving. The change from LPs to CD and then CD to MP3 downloadable music hasn’t crushed the music industry. Music stores selling CDs are in shopping centres and malls across the country. LPs have become collectors’ items. People still go to the cinema to see a movie and DVD stores continue to hire out movies. Yes, the number of stores, and the market, has obviously changed for these two industries, but stores didn’t simply stop selling music or movies, they didn’t ‘cease to exist’.  I think the same applies to bookshops and the world of publishing. The industry is changing and so we will all have to adjust as it remodels itself accordingly. I think it’s a challenging but also exciting time to see what will happen. I, for one, hope that that wonderful haven of books, the bookshop, will never cease to exist. And definitely not in a mere five years.

Inspired by Dante’s Inferno, Spiel is a story of adventure, intrigue and the imagination, crossing into parallel worlds. The protagonist, an architect, finds himself compelled to travel to Berlin where he meets a strange blind woman. She entices him to play a game, the ‘Spiel’, and once he accepts there is no turning back. Told across parallel times, the protagonist wrestles with finding Rosa Stumm, a girl from his past, who also has ties with the Stasi, and an explosion, which destroys a theatre and kills the leading lady. Or does it? For a day later, he meets the same leading lady in a bar. To unravel this mystery and others the protagonist travels back through his past and into the present. This book has serious plot twists and turns, dark characters, and will keep you guessing right up until the end. Spiel is a novel that really gripped me but, be warned, it’s not the kind of book you put down and come back to. To keep up with the plot twists you’ll want to give it your undivided attention. I think it would make a great movie, and if you’re into movies like Inception (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1375666/), then you’ll get a thrill out of Spiel.

Published by UWA Publishing (http://uwap.uwa.edu.au/)

The Perfume River: writing from Vietnam

This is a fabulous anthology of stories told by writers from within Vietnam, expats, and those living out of country but for whom Vietnam holds a special place in their hearts. The stories these writers tell are honest, evocative and compelling with themes such as migration, war, love, cultural displacement, and the struggle between retaining old traditions whilst embracing new ones.

I couldn’t put this book down and the stories and poems painted vivid pictures of a Vietnam reborn, the frenetic energy of a country rebuilding itself, its people and their struggles and triumphs, of love found and lost. I was touched by the lives of the characters portrayed in these stories and you will be too.

My Driver by Maggie Gee

Vanessa, a brittle, somewhat neurotic British writer, has been invited by the British Writer’s Council to attend a conference in Uganda. While in Kampala Vanessa plans a surprise visit to see Mary Tendo, her former housekeeper, (who is now the Executive Housekeeper at the Sheraton where Vanessa is staying)  but she can’t track her down. Mary meanwhile has secretly whisked Trevor, Vanessa’s ex-husband, away to her home village with plans of getting him to build the village a well. Despite war looming, Vanessa insists on travelling to the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, on the border of the Congo, to see the gorillas. Along the way she offends her driver so badly that he abandons her at the forest and it’s up to Trevor to rescue her.

This book is very well written and Gee creates a strong, vivid background against which to tell her story. She skillfully navigates between the two cultures, showing the highlights and flaws of all her characters, and provides surprising insights into how the two cultures, British and Ugandan, view each other. Gee’s rich writing drives this book and you’ll feel yourself drawn into the both countryside and humorous foibles of the characters.

Three small children are dead. Did they die of natural causes or is Martha Rendell  the evil stepmother who killed them? Perth in the 1900s is a harsh place to live and children often fall victim to diphtheria and typhoid. Arsenic and spirits of salts are common ingredients in home remedies. The citizens of Perth, incensed at such a shocking crime, demand that Martha be punished.

Based on a true events,  this compelling novel brings to life the story of Martha Rendell – the last woman to be hanged in Western Australia. Told through the voices of the photographer, the detective, the doctor and the reverend, Haebich successfully portrays the people, the mood and the harsh realities of life in Perth in the early 1900s.

There are startling flaws in the prosecution’s case, the press incites the general public into a frenzied state, and bigotry, slander and the dismal state of women’s rights makes this a compelling yet tragic story.

Haebich handles the subject matter well and the different voices are a great way to introduce varying viewpoints as well as introduce the facts of the case. Did Martha kill the children or was an innocent woman hanged? You’ll have to read the book to find out.

Sustenance by Simone Lazaroo

On a tropical Balinese island, the guests and staff at a small resort are taken hostage. Perpetua, the cook, finds herself providing nourishment to the guests, staff and their captors.  Her love and understanding of the sustenance of food helps the hostages to navigate their  through the trauma. Everyone emerges changed in some way.

This enchanting novel combines Australian and Balinese stereotypes and then disintegrates them. The characters are well-rounded and while they reflect the cultures that they come from, they are given room to change. Lazaroo weaves love, greed, racism, sensual food and the frailty of the human condition into this rich and suspenseful novel. A wonderful read  that should be on everyone’s bookshelf.

Holy Water by James P Othmer

Henry Tuhoe works for a multi-national conglomerate that has just made him redundant. They have, however, offered him a position setting up a bottled water call centre in the far-flung Kingdom of Galado. Henry’s marriage is on shaky ground: his beautiful wife demands he get a vasectomy, then won’t let him touch her. The job in Galado put’s Henry in the path of a sociopath monarch, moral conundrums, an Aussie intent on getting lost, and a woman intent on redeeming his soul and her country.

This novel confronts the myth of contentment attached to settling down, buying a house in the ‘burbs and having 2.5 children. It tackles the subject of large corporations outsourcing to third-world countries and the resulting repercussions in an engaging and entertaining way. Othmer’s advertising background gives depth and credibility to the story and his flowing writing style make this book an easy read.

Where Have You Been? by Wendy James

A house in the Northern  beaches suburbs, two cars, two kids: Ed and Susan Middleton couldn’t ask for more. Life is just about perfect. That perfection is shattered by the death of Susan’s mother and the sudden reappearance of Karen, Susan’s sister who has been missing for the past twenty years. Only Karen, now known as Carly, seems different. Susan can’t quite put her finger on why. Carly reveals different things about herself to different people. Is she really Karen? Susan’s life will spin out of control before she finds the answer.

Wendy James writes this thriller with conviction. Is Carly really Karen? James keeps you guessing right until the end. This story twists and turns and twists again and just when you think the game is up, it takes off again. Told through Ed, Susan and Karen’s eyes, this techniques gives the reader a sense of being right in the story with the characters, adding to the tension.