How do you capture a city with words?
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That's what seven writers managed to do some 40 years ago. As Canberra was just starting to find itself, seven women were able to capture the heart of capital, at a time when many were dismissing it as lifeless.
It's a great example of seeing something that other writers don't - and running with it.
The same can be said for Curtis Sittenfeld's latest novel, Romantic Comedy. A writer known for her serious literary works, Sittenfeld's latest book - as the name suggests - is a deliciously funny romantic comedy, that still hold serious insights into topics such as feminism, sexism and American pop culture.
This week's books pages also see a pivotal moment in history told through the eyes of a Canberran.
For former federal police assistant commissioner Ben McDevitt, it all started with some blunt advice - if things don't go to plan, run.
You can find all the books we've reviewed this week below. And I welcome your thoughts and feedback on what we've been reading. You can reach me by email at amy.martin@canberratimes.com.au.
Seven writers who gave Canberra a human face
From March 1980, seven writers would meet every week to discuss and advise on each other's work.
The conversations were robust and animated. Suggestions were given and not always taken. There were celebrations of successes and commiserations of rejected works. Still the group - dubbed Seven Writers - left a mark on the literary life of the capital.
"The anthology of stories is like a time capsule of late-'80s Canberra: New Parliament House is under construction in a city where the hypodermic needle-like tower on Black Mountain pierces a taught sky," Jasper Lindell writes.
"The stories are of people coming to Canberra, of shaping lives in the shadow of the institutions of the nation, of finding meaning in a city derided and dismissed by those outside it."
The Untapped project republished the Tales, almost three-and-a-half decades since they first appeared. Then the popularity of the Tales as an ebook encouraged Brio Books, now an arm of online book retailer Booktopia, to make the book available again in print.
The line between serious literature and romantic comedy
Author Curtis Sittenfeld is known as a serious literary writer. Her work has appeared in the New Yorker and Vanity Fair, and her previous bestselling novels (including American Wife and Prep) have been translated into 30 languages and included on many "best seller" lists across the world.
And now, in a surprise turn of events, Sittenfeld has written a romantic comedy. What's more her romantic comedy is titled, Romantic Comedy.
But in true Sittenfeld fashion it's not all fun and romantic storylines (although it does have that). It's also a novel about feminism, sexism and American pop culture.
A Bavarian village in wartime
Sometimes to understand something as large as World War II, reviewer Laurie Hertzel says you need to go small.
How small? Well in the case of Julia Boyd's A Village in the Third Reich, go as small as one town.
The British writer takes readers from the demoralising end of World War I, to the rise of Adolf Hitler, then straight through World War II - all through the experiences of the residents of the small Bavarian town of Oberstdorf.
"Boyd's research is impeccable, drawing on extensive village archives, as well as diaries, interviews, newspaper accounts, letters and unpublished memoirs," Hertzel writes in the review.
"What emerges is a clear picture of a traditional Alpine village, with its cows and festivals and deep Catholic faith, and the immense changes it went through in the 1930s and '40s."
A spirited Victorian mystery
Sarah Penner's 2021 debut novel, The Lost Apothecary, hit on a winning formula with its richly detailed gothic mystery, set in 18th century London and centering on the lives of women. It climbed bestseller lists, was translated into 40 languages and is now in development at Fox as a TV series.
Penner sticks with that template for her engrossing second novel, The London Seance Society. Set in 1873, London, a time when spiritualism and seances were all in fashion. While some it's a parlour game to try and speak to the dead, for others it's a desperate expression of grief.
Protagonist Lenna Wickes is the latter - although she's not a true believer.
She has argued about spiritualism, mostly good-naturedly, with her younger sister, vivacious Evie, who's studying to become a medium. Evie is all in, Lenna skeptical. Until the night she finds Evie murdered in the garden of the small London hotel run by their parents.
An ACT cop in midst of a pivotal moment
Twenty years ago, former federal police assistant commissioner Ben McDevitt received some blunt advice.
"If it all turns to crap, run like hell for the ocean."
Canberra-born and Marist Brothers-educated McDevitt, senior diplomat Nick Warner and Lieutenant General John Frewen had been about to board a Sea King helicopter to head directly into harm's way unarmed.
Author Michael Wesley explores what happens next in his new book, Helpem Fren.
"Offshore from the Weathercoast region of the Solomon Islands, aboard HMAS Manoora, fully kitted special ops soldiers were on the helo deck, ready to scramble at a moment's notice," Peter Brewer writes in his review.
"But if things went bad onshore, McDevitt knew in his gut that the 'run for the ocean' advice wouldn't buy enough time to save their lives."
A nuanced depiction of life between countries
American-turned-Canberran Kimberly K. Williams arrived in the capital a few years ago, ready to dive into a PhD at the University of Canberra.
And in the time that she's been here she's released two books - the second of which is Still Lives.
The collection of poems contains a range of landscape and animal poems (particularly bird studies) which reveal a sensibility recalling a past in one country while experiencing a new one.
"An important link here is the influence on Kimberly Williams of her namesake, William Carlos Williams (1883-1963). This is particularly clear in poems such as "The Grackle" and "The Magpie was All". The tone, lineation and visual acuity are all unimaginable without [William Carlos Williams'] example," reviewer Geoff Page writes in his review.
Rethinking space, country and non-linear time
As readers begin to focus on the coming referendum on a constitutional amendment to incorporate a Voice to Parliament in the Australian Constitution, they may wish to think more deeply on the scope and scale of First Nations Australia.
While most Australians acknowledge the evidence of Indigenous Australians occupying this land for at least 65,000 years, Everywhen invites readers to meditate closely on what that means and implies.
"The exploration is as fascinating as it is challenging," McKernan writes.
"Readers confront a totally different way of looking at and understanding the environment in which we live, the nature of the past and the present, the meaning of "now", and societies which take their meaning from concepts that we all would do well to integrate into our own understandings."
A tender memoir of love, faith and vanilla slice
Sita Walker's memoir The God of No Good starts in an unexpected setting. In a cafe with a vanilla custard slice.
It is, however, also the moment that her husband announced he no longer wanted to be married.
Walker's judgement on this episode, as well as on many other segments of her life, is that "love and pain are two fangs of the same snake".
"Family sagas used to take the form of grandly ambitious chronicles, triumphantly spanning generations and continents," reviewer Mark Thomas writes.
"James Michener made a lot of money writing those. He wrote about adventurous and successful lives, not "fortunate" ones.
"By contrast, Walker's tale is at once more humble and more prosaic."
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