Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
Edited by Ashley Hay, Text Publishing, $29.99.
Griffith Review #66 represents the start of a new story — four novellas, two fellowship winners, inspiring short fiction from one of Australia’s brightest writing stars and a complement of new poetry – each is out for their own distinct points of illumination.
Open to both fiction and creative non-fiction, GR’s dedication to the novella has been hailed as “central to the revival of the form in Australia”.
The Light Ascending is the review’s seventh annual edition dedicated to the novella and it abjures a set theme to showcase work across a spectrum of subjects. A woman takes a hill too fast on her bike and lies into a new world; a heartbroken sister sells sublime sweetness to her old town; a pleasure dome glistens shimmers on the edge of colonial Brisbane, a magic black panther tucked into the centre of itself; a young girls transcends the strange gaze visited on any muse. These are stories of exploration and revelation; tales of taking flight and breaking free; tales of discovery and recovery. They’re a handful of narrative mornings; they’re starting points for change.
Who is the woman behind one of Paul Gauguin’s most famous canvas? In her insightful novella, Mirandi Riwoe (Brisbane) explores how Annah, a woman of colour seen as little more than a possession, must fight to survive in 19th century France.
In a poignant and original tale, by Keren Heenan (Melbourne), three unlikely friends – Parker, Pisley and Stick Man – return to Parker’s hometown and try to win over its residents with a series of idiosyncratic state performance.
Instructions for a steep decline sees Julienne van Loon (Melbourne) taking readers on a riveting journey through a comascape that explores questions of fate, choice and desire. A cycling accident sends Wilhlmina Bloome plummeting into the Swell River, but while her body lies inert beneath the water, her mind roams the corridors of memory and imagination.
Krissy Kneen (Brisbane) pieces together the story of her grandmother Lotty, who journeyed to Egypt as a child during a mass emigration of Slovenian women. Aleksandrinke is an intimate portrait of identity and belonging. It’s a memoir that’s interwoven with history and folklore.
Edited by Hay, #66 presents new work that confronts, rejoices, interrogates and scrutinises.
