Popular travel writer and social commentator, Bill Bryson, said he had difficulty writing about Australia in his book “Downunder” because he likes this country. He said it was much easier to criticise than to praise. After you have said that something is good, that’s about it. As it turns out, Bryson’s admiration for Australia resulted in a book that was less humorous and certainly not as entertaining as his previous works.

In the same way that Bryson could not do his usual acerbic shtick in “Downunder”, I’m having trouble writing about “Notes on a Scandal”. I liked it too much to pick it to bits.

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Last year I wrote a sceptical review of “Suite Française” by Irene Nemirovsky which was not well received by readers from Amazon.com. In it I questioned whether the novel had any value as an account of the Holocaust. I am sticking to my claim and now I have support from a new publication about Nemirovsky. So it is with some vindication and a feeling of “I told you so” that I am now posting the original review which sparked an outrage in some circles.

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There is nothing light and frivolous about Tim Winton’s novel, “Dirt Music”. I know he’s Australian and I know that he wins awards, but I had to struggle through this book. Winton’s motto appears to be “to make a short story long”. One almost wonders if he were paid by the word.

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Mark Steyn can be described as the Paul Revere of the modern age. While the West sleeps, Islamic nations have been slowly infiltrating the U.S, Europe, Australia and Canada.

Steyn regards Europe as a lost cause which did not notice that Muslims were multiplying much faster than Europeans so that the most popular name for newborn babes in Europe is Mohammad. He regards this change in demography, the aging population of Europe and its low birth rate as being extremely dangerous to the future of our Western culture.

He encourages us all to change that demography by having more children.

He also warns us that Muslim fundamentalists mean business when they declare they hate the West and want to destroy it.

What is going on France right now with the Muslim youth riots, must be terrifying to the French population. This is the second round of riots since 2005 and it was Sarkozy’s tough stance against the first round of riots that brought him to power.

Most European countries are becoming more right wing because of the threat caused by the changing demographics. Steyn has conceded defeat in Europe but I hope that the youths will embrace education and work and then perhaps they won’t feel so angry.

If truth be told, however, a higher education is no guarantee that the youths will be happy to assimilate. The 9/11 bombers were educated, after all. The latest would-be bombers in England were doctors.

if the Muslim youths continue their vendetta, then they will not win friends in France or anywhere else in Europe. You can’t force people to like you if you are bashing them up and burning their property, can you?

“America Alone” is similar in theme to Melanie Phillips’ “Londonistan” but is much more pertinent and interesting to read.
Steyn has a brilliantly effective and humorous style that belies the seriousness of his topic.

In one sentence his message is “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

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I had never heard of Douglas Kennedy the author, but that’s not so surprising when I have already confessed to being a literary snob. I like books that make me laugh or make me think or both at once, if possible. Kennedy’s “Temptation” offers neither humour nor thought, but the Book Club chose it for this month’s selection and since I am nothing if not compliant I read it. The best thing about it is that it makes no demands on the reader. “Temptation” is very, very, very, easy to read. That probably accounts for its popularity.

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My book club encourages me to read books which I would not normally choose. This is a good thing in itself because it broadens my experiences. By nature, I am a classicist and enjoy Victorian and Edwardian literature simply because it has style and excellent characterisation. And because I am a literary snob.

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One of the most thought-provoking books that I have ever read is Lionel Shriver’s “We need to talk about Kevin”. I can’t imagine that fifty years ago it would have dared to be published, let alone win the Orange Prize for Literature.

So it’s a credit to today’s more candid society that Shriver could have written a book about a parent-child relationship that isn’t total bliss. Whilst the novel is described as taboo-breaking, gutsy and startling, which means that most people would have had some reservations about the theme of not really liking one’s child, the author has excused herself to some extent by making her child a sort of Damien Omen character and that is a kind of cop-out, in my opinion.

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There are some writers whose work is timeless, but Ernest Hemingway’s writing was so contemporary to the first half of the Twentieth Century, that its main relevance is in its depiction of events around World War I and the period between the Wars.

Apart from “The Old Man and the Sea” for which Hemingway was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, his work seems to be extremely journalistic rather than literary. He was proud of that style and was praised for it, but I find it unimaginative, especially in the dialogue sections.

Perhaps it’s because I can’t relate to Hemingway’s pseudo macho personality which could be the result of his mother insisting on calling him “Ernestine”. Reminds of the Johnny Cash song, “A boy named Sue.” Poor Ernie spent his entire life trying to prove he wasn’t Ernestine.

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Isn’t it intriguing that after reading an entire novel based on the life of Henry James one is left wondering what it was all about. That was my reaction to Colm Toibin’s, “The Master”.

Had it not been for my deep admiration of James’ work and had it not been for the fact that Toibin’s book was to be discussed by our book club, I doubt that I would have persevered with it.

I have purposely not read any reviews of “The Master” so that I can offer my gut reaction.

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