Unspoken words and written words

Hoo-girls!  It was our first full house for a few meetings at Mogs on 3^rd May, so there was a lot of pre-book club chat about various haps including bargain dog beds at Audi, dog tussles on the beach and men who talk to the television, before Moggy pulled us in to line, sat us down, moved Bonnie off her lap, and introduced her selection, ‘All that’s left unsaid’, by Tracey Lien.   After hearing her talk at Book Week, Mog jumped right in and traced Tracey’s journey from growing up in a migrant Vietnamese family/community in Cabramatta, to journalist in Australia, then on to Los Angeles, where growing anxiety about journalism and ethics drove her to study for her Masters of Fine Arts at the University of Kansas.  “Research your own experience” is one piece of advice sometimes given to emerging writers and so Tracey did exactly this in her first book.  Set in Cabramatta during its drug days of the 1990’s it follows her (possibly) alter ego Ky as she investigates the death of her younger brother at Lucky 8.  True story it wasn’t but based on a true crime it was.

Australia comes out of this book quite whiffy with the stench of racism continuously swirling through the book.  There was a lot of discussion about this element of the book, along with the difficulties faced by the Vietnamese community when they arrived in Australia (which coincided with Australia’s late 1970’s transition from the White Australia Policy to multiculturalism).  So we learnt it was mainly the first generation of Australian born Vietnamese who haunted the druggie streets of Cabramatta in the 1990’s, while their parents worked hard, drank hard, gambled hard and often (it seems) set against each other, verbally and/or physically.  There was a lot to pick through and we agreed the book explored the conflicts, pressures and characterisations of the Vietnamese with some finesse.  In hindsight, it was interesting that Vietnamese males (of both generations) seemed to struggle more to adapt - though this can be contested as some females lost the plot as well.  However, this may be one of the many reasons why Denny’s death was so tragic, as he was regarded by all as a ‘good’ son.  Though it also has to be said one of our readers thought the good person/bad person trope was overdone and puzzled why the author used this analysis to the extent she did (who could that be now?).  Despite this lone criticism we all agreed it was a great book selection, and was important to read about the difficulties growing up as part of a minority community in Australia.

 

Yuendumu Doors at SAM

After a bigger discussion about minorities and racism, aboriginal communities and racism and artificial intelligence, and when Bonnie had settled down again on the floor, we time travelled 30 years and geographically travelled 16,438 kms with Cherrie’s selection ‘Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop’ by poet Alba Donati (translated by Elena Pala) – a very different book in sooo many ways.  

 

Written in diary format, with book orders at the end of each day’s entry (count the number of books you’ve heard of, if you dare), Cherrie gave us the run down of the book as we marvelled at her mastery of the Italian pronunciations of towns and names.  There were quite a few how's in this book - how Alba started the bookshop (crowdfunding campaign), how it burnt down shortly after it opened and how it was resuscitated with the help of the local community only to then strike Covid lockdowns.  We also read about Alba’s family and background as it emerged bit by bit from the diary, including (after 50+ years) the separate reconciliations of her 101 year old mother and 20 years younger father, and then her brother and Alba herself, the 19 years younger sister.  And interspersed were delightful rapid fire stories of most of the other 180 villagers living in Lucignana – along with Alba’s attempts at commercialism by organising and selling literary-themed jars of jam (go figure), Freda Khalo tea (it was highly coloured) and other unique products (read book-titled knitted socks).  

 

It was a short but alluring read about daily life in the village and the bookshop, and we all wanted to find our way to the bookshop’s garden with a coffee (or FK tea) in one hand and a book in the other.  

 

As Mogs moist fruity/mango cake triumphantly went down the book selections for 5 July at Kathy’s place started to tumble out – they are

 

Megan – Return to Valetto by Dominic Smith

Kathy – The bookbinder of Jericho by Pip Williams (you can get it at Big W for $16).

And you might get the right recipe for the cake here https://www.bestrecipes.com.au/recipes/mango-fruit-cake-recipe/exyu8mue

(note to Mog: please review and assess, but don't use ChatGPT - if you want to read a scary article about AI, try this one - https://www.theage.com.au/national/when-the-godfather-of-ai-warns-you-about-his-offspring-you-listen-20230504-p5d5ig.html