Dear Squeers,

I have a few Henry James novels but I haven't got around to reading them (yet). One of his short stories that I have came out in a little Penguin 60th anniversary edition - it's called "The Lesson of the Master" and the blurb on the back tells that one of James's abiding themes is the debate concerning the genius of an artist and whether it is hampered by a life of settled domesticity - it's the study of a young writer drawn into the power of his literary mentor - have you read it? Just noticed "The figure in the Carpet" is in the same small volume.

Another novel I enjoyed was "The French Lieutenant's Woman". John
Fowles demonstrated extraordinary skill in writing. Haven't read it for years but I remember being conscious of being carried about on his whims - he even gave the story alternate endings.

Dear Johnny Rotten,

I haven't read "American Psycho"- sounds like the author personified well the callous excesses of our times.

We have a huge choice of our own
writers these days that we can
enjoy from Tim Winton, Peter Carey,
Robert Dessaix, Henry Reynolds,
Helen Garner, Carmel Bird to name
just a few. Then there's people like
Khaled Hosseini (The Kite Runner), that
shows us how the other side lives.

I read, "American Psycho," years ago.
It scared the bejesus out of me.
And would you believe our library
administrator at the time banned it
from the library. A bit ironic I thought,
I had to write an essay on "censorship"
at uni.

cont'd ...

Dear Poirot,

I recently bought the book, "Sex and Stravinsky,"
by Barbara Trapido, for a friend, when I was
invited to her dinner party (hubbie bought the wine).
Anyway, Jennifer Byrne recommended the book highly
to her bookclub last month. There's a review of it in
"The Age," Saturday, August 14, 2010. It sounds like
a good read, and I thought you might enjoy it.

Dear Foxy,

Thanks for that - sounds interesting.