This week I review a heartbreaking novel by Liz Nugent – an author I have not previously read. I also alert readers to the two-part novel by Rob Wills that I shall review at a later date.
Liz Nugent Strange Sally Diamond Penguin General UK – Fig Tree, Hamish Hamilton, Viking, Penguin Life, Penguin Business, Sandycove, 2023
Thank you NetGalley for providing me with this uncorrected proof for review.
Liz Nugent’s Strange Sally Diamond has introduced me to a writer that I shall want to read again. This novel is a wonderful, but heartbreaking, amalgam of social commentary, detailed and perceptive character development and an intriguing story line. The bizarre beginning —Sally attempts to cremate her father in the household rubbish after his death— becomes a feature in the news that precipitates a narrative that gradually unfolds the past that has led her to this, to her, normal procedure.
A world in which a person responds literally to information and advice is uncomfortable, for both the perpetrator and her community. The reason for Sally’s response to the community, friendships, challenges and distressing events is a difficult read, and a journey that some readers might not want to try. It is not an easy journey, but Nugent has written a novel that in many ways demands to be read. Crucial to understanding Sally and her community is recognising the way in which even the seemingly best of acts can be questioned, and in which even the warmest of friendships can be doled out. There are provisos to which Sally cannot relate and is tragically unaware. Even the reader can be bewildered before realising that Sally really is on probation – in the community, to her friends, and hauntingly, to the family who fostered her. See Books: Reviews for the complete review.
After the Covid report: Rob Wills’ Plague Searchers; Cindy Lou eats out in Melbourne – on numerous occasions; Heather Cox Richardson’s Letter from America and the Dominion Case in which Rupert Murdoch is testifying; Sir Walter Murdoch – an excerpt.
Covid Update
There will be new testing procedures for Canberrans from the 1st of March. These will make Covid arrangements more closely aligned with the treatment of other infectious diseases. Free RATS will be available from several locations. Most cases will be managed at home. There are 525 new Covid cases this week. Nine people are in hospital. None are in ICU or ventilated. No lives were lost this week.
Rob Wills’ Plague Searchers – a connection with Covid
Plague Searchers by Rob Wills was sent to me for review and even at the first glimpse looks like an excellent read. This is despite this kindle lover having to read it in hard copy! The cover is enticing, the feel of the book is really comfortable and the first few paragraphs, read immediately I had untangled the books from their wrapping, are extremely promising.
Rob says that he began the book in 2018 and he had reached chapter 16 when the Covid pandemic arrived: ‘…as the pandemic progressed it became clear that there are many similarities – and not so many differences – between two plagues raging 350 years apart’. Rob Wills, Author’s Note, 2022.
The blurb begins: ‘It is 1665 and London faces two deadly threats – the devastating plague, and dangerous rumblings of a rebellion against the King, Charles 11…’
So, you will need to wait for the review, but reading the book is a treat you might want immediately.
Plague Searchers is published by Arcadia, Australian Scholarly Publishing. The contact is: enquiry@scholarly.info / Web: http://www.scholarly.info
Cindy Lou eats out in Melbourne
Lui.Boss Brunswick
Lui.Boss is amongst a group of casual restaurants on Sydney Road Brunswick. The service was pleasant, although I had a bit of a wait for my chicken dish. The hotpot is served more elegantly than the photo below – the egg is placed delicately on top of a mound of fresh ingredients, vegetables and meat. My companions chose a pork, and a beef. Chicken was also available. Instead of choosing wisely, I was attracted to the chicken dish with noodles, rice and kimchi. This dish was very spicy, and although delicious, a little hot for me. The atmosphere was friendly, and everyone seemed to be enjoying their generous meals. I shall have the chicken hot pot next time. Although there is chili with it, the heat is not as pervasive as in the meal I chose this time.
Mamasita
Mamasita is in Collins Street, and a wonderful find. If you do not want to sit at high table on stools, I think that might be accomplished by booking well in advance and stipulating booth or table seating. We were on stools, but seemed to be amongst the last to leave at lunchtime – everyone else might have been hurrying back to work, but it does suggest the seating was not too uncomfortable. Of course, the conversation was scintillating which had an impact.
The menu is interesting, not overwhelming, and detailed. We chose the sweet potato tacos, a salad with mandarin pieces, and a wonderful pumpkin dish. The latter was half served before I thought to photograph it. This is a restaurant which will be on my list to return to any time I visit Melbourne.
240 Lygon Street
There are so many restaurants here that making a good choice is more a matter of luck, I think. This one boasted a Trip Advisor rating, and an outside table was available. I have yet to find pasta in Australia of the silkiness of that in the Bagni de Lucca restaurant where I at long last realised what pasta experts were describing. The closest I have found, alas, was not in an Italian restaurant! However, the meals were pleasant enough, plentiful and flavoursome. We were served quickly, and there was a good atmosphere.
Maverick Little Collins Street
This is a pleasant coffee shop, with pastries, and breakfast and lunch menus. The coffee is very good, and the meals generous. The folded eggs were served with dill and black pepper. They needed the pepper, and I shall try another of the offerings on the menu next time. The service was friendly and efficient. On a warmer morning the outside seating would have been terrific. However, inside was not too noisy and the seating is comfortable. I would return to this coffee shop on another occasion.
il Solito Posto
il Solito Posto is in a basement at 113 Collins Street. with an entrance a short way down a lane. It is a lively friendly trattoria, and somewhere I like to visit when I go to Melbourne. The atmosphere is one of its nest features, but it also has a good menu, efficient and friendly staff, and is not too noisy. The prawns were advertised as flash prawns, and I was unaware that this meant that they weould not be the large succulent ones I envisaged. However, they were light and crunchy and the accompanying aeloi was very good. The calamari was nicely cooked and the accompanying rocket crisp. The mushroom risotto and the meatballs, although larger than expected, were flavoursome. A good start to the meal was the generous serve of herbed garlic bread.
The Salon in Myer
This coffee shop and bar is a small but attractive venue in the middle of the women’s fashion in Myer. It serves alcohol as well as tea and coffee, a large selection of cakes and sandwiches, and small hot meals. It is a pleasant place to meet a friend, or just collapse after shopping.
Recommended at Flinders Street Station
Kitchen on Collins
Eating here is a delight. I recall a magnificent breakfast last time, and this meal late at night after a fruitless search for something simple, was really enjoyable. The something simple was fulfilled by the chips – served with tomato sauce! The succulent prawns I had been hoping for on an earlier occasion eventuated here. Served with a crisp salad with just the right amount of dressing, they were delicious. Sausages with chickpeas completed the savoury part of the meal. The drinks and desserts were excellent.
Heather Cox Richardson – February 27 2023
Heather Cox Richardson from Letters from an American <heathercoxrichardson@substack.com>
Another filing today in the defamation lawsuit of Dominion Voting Systems against the Fox News Network has revealed more of the machinations behind the construction of the Big Lie that former president Trump won the 2020 presidential election.
A previous filing showed that Fox News Channel hosts knew full well that Biden had won and that Trump loyalists saying the election was fraudulent had no evidence. Personalities like Tucker Carlson continued to push the Big Lie, though, apparently out of fear that they would lose their audience to Newsmax and other right-wing outlets that continued to parrot the idea that Trump had won the election.
Today’s filing shows that executives at the highest levels of the Fox Corporation and the Fox News Network knowingly permitted Fox News Channel personalities to spread false conspiracy theories about the election in order to protect their profits. It includes testimony from Rupert Murdoch, the chair of the Fox Corporation, showing that Murdoch and his son Lachlan Murdoch, the executive chair and chief executive officer of the Fox Corporation, as well as Suzanne Scott, the chief executive officer of Fox News Media, were all deeply involved in the question of how to deal with Trump’s lies and with the personalities who were echoing those lies, without losing viewership.
Rupert Murdoch spoke with Scott frequently, and testified: “I’m a journalist at heart. I like to be involved in these things.” Lachlan Murdoch, as well, was in the loop with his father and Scott. Ultimately, although they knew that claims of massive election fraud were unfounded, they decided to give the lies airtime anyway to stop their audience from abandoning them for other channels. Fox board member and former House speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-WI) warned them “that Fox News should not be spreading conspiracy theories,” but they ignored him.
Murdoch also revealed FNC’s role as a wing of the Republican Party when he testified that he “provided Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor, Jared Kushner, with Fox confidential information about Biden’s ads, along with debate strategy… (providing Kushner a preview of Biden’s ads before they were public).”
Political writer Rick Wilson summed it up: “They knew Trump lost. They knew there was not then (nor is there now) a scintilla of fraud. They knew, and lied. Over, and over, and over. They chose guests they knew were lying. They allowed story meetings promoting a massive, dangerous lie that reduced faith and belief in the American system. The entire top level of Fox management knew their lies were leading to danger for this nation…. They knew the lies were lies. They fed and fed the beast.”
The Big Lie has become central to the worldview of far-right Republicans. On February 23, in Arizona, newly elected Republican, conspiracy theorist, and election denier Liz Harris hijacked a hearing of the House and Senate election committees to feature a speaker who talked of election fraud and made wild and unsubstantiated accusations that state lawmakers and judges are taking bribes from a Mexican drug cartel.
When another election denier, state senator Wendy Rogers, said the hearing was “not the appropriate venue” to talk about potential criminal activity, one of her own supporters accused her of being “compromised,” and another said that revolution was now “inevitable.”…
…After House speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) gave exclusive access to 41,000 hours of video from the U.S. Capitol to Tucker Carlson of the Fox News Channel, news organizations CBS News, CNN, Politico, ProPublica ABC, Axios, Advance, Scripps, the Los Angeles Times, and Gannett have asked the speaker for equal access to the material.
“Without full public access to the complete historical record,” attorney Charles Tobin wrote, “there is concern that an ideologically-based narrative of an already polarizing event will take hold in the public consciousness, with destabilizing risks to the legitimacy of Congress, the Capitol Police, and the various federal investigations and prosecutions of January 6 crimes.”
The following material related to Sir Walter Murdoch is from Wikipedia.
The published works of another Murdoch are infinitely more edifying and rewarding:
- Loose Leaves (1910)
- The Struggle for Freedom (6th edition) (1911): A history of British and Australian democracy, for schools.
- Alfred Deakin: A sketch (1923)
- The Oxford Book of Australasian Verse (editor) (1923)
- Speaking Personally (1930)
- Saturday Mornings (1931)
- Moreover (1932)
- The Wild Planet (1934)
- Lucid Intervals (1936)
- The Spur of the Moment (1939)
- Steadfast: a commentary (1941)
- The Collected Essays of Walter Murdoch (1945)
- Australian Short Stories (editor) (1951)
- Answers (1953)
- Selected Essays (1956)
- 72 Essays: A Selection (1947)
- On Rabbits, Morality, etc.: Selected writings of Walter Murdoch (edited by Imre Salusinszky, foreword by Rupert Murdoch) (2011)
Sir Walter Logie Forbes Murdoch, KCMG (17 September 1874 – 30 July 1970) was a prominent Australian academic and essayist famous for his intelligence and wit. He was a founding professor of English and former Chancellor of the University of Western Australia (UWA) in Perth, Western Australia.
A member of the prominent Australian Murdoch family, he was the father of Catherine, later prominent as Dr Catherine King MBE (1904–2000), a radio broadcaster in Western Australia; the uncle of both Sir Keith, a journalist and newspaper executive, and Ivon, a soldier in the Australian Army; and the great uncle of international media proprietor Rupert Murdoch.
Murdoch University is named in Sir Walter’s honour; as is Murdoch, the suburb surrounding its main campus, located in Perth, Western Australia.
Political involvement
In addition to his academic teaching and the benefits which the young university obtained from his extramural activities, Murdoch was to remain a member of its governing body after he resigned from his chair in 1939. Chancellor in 1943–48, he was appointed a Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in 1939 and raised to Knight Commander of the Order (KCMG) in 1964. The university awarded him an honorary D.Litt. in 1948. He had been president of the local League of Nations Union from its foundation in the early 1920s until 1936, was president of the Kindergarten Union in 1933–36, and supported movements for women’s rights.
A depression at the time did not stop his actively opposing the idea of secession from the Commonwealth as a solution to Western Australia’s economic ills. Much later, in 1950–51, he vehemently and stalwartly opposed the attempt to outlaw the Communist Party of Australia (CPA). His prominent essay, “I am going to vote No”, rebuked Robert Menzies‘ attempt to eliminate the CPA in the 1951 referendum on that issue. Murdoch wrote that his opposition rested on one principle:[3]
The Government is asking the citizens of Australia to give it powers which I do not believe that any government ought to possess….The question turns on a very simple question. Have we the right to punish a person for his opinions? If we punish anyone for breaking the law of the land, or for conspiring with others to break the law, that is justice; if we punish anyone for holding opinions with which we disagree, that is persecution.
— Walter Murdoch, I am going to vote “No”
Robin's Room 