smh.com.au

Alas at the Lyric Theatre - reader review

The austerity of a simple set, sombre costumes and an elegiac musical score foils the dancers' fluid, floating movements, which morph and melt from solos into synchronized symmetry. Performed by Spain's Compania Nacional de Danza, Alas confronts the human condition. Thanks to its innovative use of voice, dance and a stunning water finale, Alas was also exciting as well as deeply philosophical.
Anna Spencer, Roseville

• Posted by Dan Kaufman in Club Metro at 10:38 PM
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How was your Sydney Festival?

It's over for another year. No, not the summer holidays but Sydney's annual Festival. Note that the word 'arts' is nowhere to be found in its title, so no reason for us to expect a collection of high-minded fare. In this heat and humidity it's hardly the season for it anyhow.

But is the Sydney Festival doing its job?

• Posted by Chris Dobney in The Green Room at 11:38 AM
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This Show Is About People at the Sydney Opera House - reader review

This multi-layered piece combining dance, music and dialogue captures the edgy nature of human relationships, with its message being that other people are the hinge on which we hang our sense of fun and our capacity for joy. The hypnotic live music complimented the mood and an electronic word message board gave the piece a quirky edge. As part of the Sydney Festival's About an Hour series, this piece was great entertainment. Let's have more of this: the dance equivalent to a one-act play without an interval to break the momentum.
Trish Honeyfield, Woollahra

• Posted by Dan Kaufman in Club Metro at 8:37 PM
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Page to screen

Book adaptations are dominating cinemas and this month Penguin Australia has five books on the screen: American Gangster by Mark Jacobson, Lust, Caution by Eileen Chang, Charlie Wilson's War by George Crile, The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler and The Water Horse by Dick King-Smith. Next month comes There Will Be Blood, based on the Penguin classic Oil! by Upton Sinclair.

• Posted by Susan Wyndham in Undercover at 1:59 AM
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A sporting chance

It is rare for book publishing employees to breach the wall between editorial and publicity. The most prominent in recent times was Maggie Hamilton, once head of publicity for Random House and now a successful author (What Is Happening to Our Girls? is due from Penguin in July) and publisher of Allen & Unwin's Inspired Living imprint.

In her footsteps comes Mel Cain, the HarperCollins publicity manager, who is moving into the role of associate publisher after 15 years with the publicity department.

• Posted by Susan Wyndham in Undercover at 1:56 AM
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Thanks a million

A reminder of how important libraries are to Australian authors' earnings comes in the annual report of the federally funded Public Lending Right Committee. In 2006-7 a total of $7.1 million was paid to authors, artists and publishers, based on the number of their books held in public libraries. It's always intriguing to speculate on the most highly paid author ­- one person scored $85,576.05.

• Posted by Susan Wyndham in Undercover at 1:54 AM
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Garnering sales

I have always wondered why Helen Garner is not better known internationally. Her first novel, Monkey Grip, was published in Britain, the US and France; The First Stone in Britain, the US and soon in Japan; and Garner remembers once or twice receiving copies of The Children's Bach "in some mysterious language". But her universal themes and fine writing deserve a wider reputation. Perhaps it will happen with her novel The Spare Room, coming out here from Text in April and sold already to the US, Canada, Britain, Italy, France, Holland and Portugal.

• Posted by Susan Wyndham in Undercover at 1:03 AM
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Loss is in the air

There was mild confusion at the Frankfurt Book Fair last year when foreign publishers were offered two Australian books with similar titles: A Household Guide to Dying by Debra Adelaide (Picador, June) and The Young Widow's Book of Home Improvement by Virginia Lloyd (University of Queensland Press, May).

• Posted by Susan Wyndham in Undercover at 1:00 AM
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Please talk to me!

I have just learnt that for several weeks readers have been unable to post comments on some of the Herald blogs. So that explains the silence. The technical problem has been fixed and I hope you'll look back at my past entries and remember what you wanted to say. Thanks for visiting....

• Posted by Susan Wyndham in Undercover at 4:10 PM
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The Triffids at the Metro Theatre - reader review

The 19 or so years since they last played together slipped away as The Triffids reformed at the Metro to pay tribute to the songs of David McComb. The band's joy at performing together was apparent in the strength of the show, while the set list sensitively picked from the full breadth of David's writing, brought to life through the inspired vocals of band members and guests including Rob Snarski, Mick Harvey, Toby Martin and Steve Kilbey.
Dominic Schuster, Winston Hills

• Posted by Dan Kaufman in Club Metro at 6:04 PM
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On the critics' list

While the screenwriters' strike almost crippled the foreign press's Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills last weekend, the US National Book Critics Circle announced its awards shortlists in San Francisco. The prolific Joyce Carol Oates is nominated twice - in fiction for The Gravedigger's Daughter and in autobiography for The Journals. Other finalists include Junot Diaz, Marianne Wiggins, Anna Politkovskaya, Sarah Paretsky, Vikram Chandra, Claire Tomalin and Susan Faludi. Winners will be named on March 6.
See bookcritics.org.www.smh.com.au/undercover

• Posted by Susan Wyndham in Undercover at 1:55 AM
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The political price

An avalanche of American political books is coming in this election year, covering subjects from the Bush White House to the Iraq War and grassroots activism.

• Posted by Susan Wyndham in Undercover at 1:13 AM
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Plenty of positivity

More than 60 books have been entered for the inaugural Barbara Jefferis Award for Australian fiction that portrays women and girls in a positive light. Jeremy Fisher, the executive director of the Australian Society of Authors, is pleased by the number of entries "in almost every conceivable genre, which was fantastic, and from both male and female writers". The shortlist will be announced on International Women's Day, March 8, and the award presented on March 28 at the University of Sydney. It will be fascinating to see which books fit the criteria.

• Posted by Susan Wyndham in Undercover at 1:12 AM
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Spilt blood

Tom Wolfe's novel I Am Charlotte Simmons, about student shenanigans on an Ivy League campus, sold 293,000 copies in hardback and 138,000 in paperback, according to US BookScan. Most publishers would be thrilled but John Sargent, the chief executive of Holtzbrinck, which owns the imprint Farrar Straus and Giroux, said the book was "disappointing in terms of its financial performance".

• Posted by Susan Wyndham in Undercover at 1:10 AM
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