Categories: uncategorized
Date: 30 May 2007 12:04:35
Last Thursday, as I was driving home from work, I was listening to the book reviews on Radio 5 Live. Being a book lover this was of some interest. The main guest was Thomas Keneally, one of the few good things to come out of our Antipodean colonies - other than vegemite, thrilling rugby finales, odd looking animals and Kylie and Nicole.
Most people will only remember him for Schindler's Ark (List if you bought it after the film came out). However he is a very prolific writer and a great storyteller. To celebrate I pulled out my copy of his Abraham Lincoln biography on the weekend. The trouble is I finished it after a day.
What surprised me was how soft spoken he is. I was expecting some brute of an Ozzie with a very "chuck another 'roo on the barbie, Sheila" accent. I never thought that the stereotypical Ozzie doesn't really exist. Maybe Paul Hogan, Kevin "Bloody" Wilson and Steve Irwin aren't/weren't real examples of typical Ozzie folk.
I was lucky in being introduced to his work about 15 years ago by an old work colleague. He was as big a reader as I am and used to bring in a cardboard box of books for me every few weeks. I'd be allowed to browse through an select works that I'd never otherwise read. This is where I discovered Saul Bellow, John Updike, John Paul Satre and John Irving, among many, many others.