things change

This House of Grief by Helen Garner is the true story of the Australian trial for murder of a father following the deaths of his three young sons in a car accident.

It’s a fabulous portrayal of the incident, the participants and the trial. As involving as a thriller, but with real people, this is a sympathetic and absorbing account that leaves you switching your view throughout the course of the trial. The descriptions of the cross-examination of witnesses are particularly fascinating and disturbing.

Very highly recommended.

Epitaph For A Spy by Eric Ambler is a jolly enjoyable read!

Written and set in the 1930s, the first half seems a bit like an Agatha Christie whodunit (not that I’ve read one!). Guests at a hotel, a stolen item, our hero trying to determine who’s the thief etc.

Although continuing in the same vein, somehow it becomes a lot more interesting. It’s very well written and somewhat old-fashioned, but I really liked it. A nice read and recommended.

I wish I had put more effort into the first half of The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas. I didn’t begin to enjoy the novel until about 250 pages in (just past the halfway mark!) and by then I had lost track of the many characters.

Each chapter gives a different perspective of the same event (the slapping of a child) and of the aftermath, and these can be read and enjoyed individually as well as over the whole novel.

The novel is good on relationships in a multicultural, Melbourne / Australian society. Many of the characters are not very nice and there’s a lot of racist, sexual and crude language, so some might find this a difficult read. On finishing, I felt I would like to re-read it at some time.

Recommended, for some.