biography

I hadn’t heard about the Children of God, a radical religious cult founded in 1968. Known variously as Teens for Christ, Family of Love and more recently The Family International, Faith Jones would tell people she grew up in Macau with missionary parents. In reality it was a secretive sect which enforced communal living, unquestioning obedience and practices like ‘flirty fishing’, where women were expected to proselytise by seduction. Faith grew up with an unquenchable need to learn, pilfering books, putting herself through high school and ultimately leaving The Family to attend college. If you liked Educated by Tara Westover, you’ll appreciate Faith’s gruelling journey outwards and upwards.

William Morrow, 2021

memoir/essays

Calypso was, arguably, some of Sedaris’s best work. The way it blended the hilarity of both the mundane with the dark and absurd was Sedaris at his best. Happy-Go-Lucky follows suit, and somehow Sedaris is able to find the (often) dark humour in family tragedy once again. While the essays primarily follow his relationship with, and the slow decline of, his father, there are also snippets spanning Sedaris’s whole life. From his childhood spent as one of five kids in Raleigh, North Carolina, awaiting the hatching of baby turtles at his beach house (punningly named The Sea Section), or experiencing New York’s COVID lockdown with his husband, Lou, Happy-Go-Lucky offers generous helpings of Sedaris’s signature dry style paired with hilarious, cynical, and often heartfelt musings of daily life. Fans of Sedaris will not be disappointed.

Read the titular essay here.

Little Brown, 2022

fiction

Those who are familiar with the art of William Morris may be surprised to find that he was also one of the first writers of fantasy literature through his publishing company Kelmscott Press. A prolific reader, theorist and social activist, it is no surprise to find these themes at play in his not inconsiderable literary corpus. Drawing on the structure and style of English and French chivalric romances such as Gawain and the Green Knight, Le Morte d’Arthur, and the Roman de Troie, Morris explores social and metaphysical problems with a startlingly singular prowess.

In The Story of the Glittering Plain he explores crime and violence, death and the afterlife, and passion. The Sundering Flood, the longest of his tales, is a unique application of the ideal of chivalric virtue to a setting of exploitation, corruption, and revolutionary upheaval. The Wood Beyond the World is a plainer, more folkloric story, but one which anticipates some of the genderbent writings of Neil Gaiman and Angela Carter. The contemporary editions published by Dover Publications are facsimiles of the original Kelmscott Press editions, and feature extraordinary illustrations and embellishments by a true master of woodblock printing

Dover Books, 2019

fiction

The empire, long divided, must unite; long united, must divide. Thus it has ever been.

The Han dynasty is in decline. Courtiers have taken power and rebellious factions are on the march. The capital of the empire, Luoyang, burns, and the tyrannous warlord Dong Zhuo seizes power. Liu Bei, a relative of the Han imperial family, and the warriors Lord Guan and Zhang Fei swear an oath to avenge the dynasty, aid the troubled and endangered, to perish together, and restore the mandate of heaven. These are the opening chapters of Ming dynasty author Luo Guanzhong’s Romance of the Three Kingdoms, a Chinese national epic on par with other great works such as Homer’s Odyssey, or Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of England.

As part of the ‘World Literature in Translation’ series by the University of California Press, this edition is accompanied by a useful and sophisticated introduction which grounds the reader in both the period of the author and of the action. The original twenty-four volume work has been substantially abridged, so it was a delight to notice that efforts had been made to ensure the representation of women characters, whose devious statecraft, virtuous action, or rebelliousness add much to the story. The polymath Zhuge Liang, known by his nickname ‘Sleeping Dragon’, is a captivating figure, and his wisdom, strategy, and inventiveness are deeply compelling elements of the latter half of the novel.

‘Three Kingdoms’ covers almost an entire century of Chinese history, incorporating elements from historical records, mysticism, poetry, and oral storytelling, with a perfect balance of lyricism and concision. Like history, however, its close opens out onto the endless vista of human activity, and it is with great enthusiasm that I await the publication of Feng Menglong’s Kingdoms in Peril, from the same series by University of California Press, which charts the unification of China under the Qin. The themes explored in Three Kingdoms of imperial ambition, decline, and struggle feel very contemporary today as we enter a new period of great power relations.

University of California Press, 2020

fiction 

This might be the most enjoyable weekend read I’ve had, and by ‘weekend’ I mean time set aside for the pure enjoyment of reading. Preferably three uninterrupted hours with a flaky pastry and a pot of tea. An American family takes on the lease, sight unseen, of a grand house in Sydney with harbour views. The mansion comes complete with grounds, staff and the expectation that the Armstrongs will host lavish work parties. It’s a lot for Alice Armstrong who is homesick for their Manhattan apartment, tetchy and drifting in her discontent. There is a touch of humour to the interactions of the people in the story though. If you liked Mrs. Bridge by Evan S. Connell and The Women in Black by Madeleine St. John, you’ll enjoy the delicious concoction of A Dream Life.

Tablo 2021