allen & unwi – Aussie Reviews

HipsterMattic, by Matt Granfield

Matt Granfield’s girlfriend has just broken up with him, telling him ‘I can’t be with someone who doesn’t know who they are.’. Broken hearted, he decides that she’s right – he doesn’t know who he is – and that it’s time he figured it out. In a moment of clarity he decides that the best way to figure out who he is is to become someone else.

Luckily I didn’t own a bath. If I’d had a bath I would have been crying in it, and there were so many tears and so much snot the thing would have started overflowing and I would have floated out and broken a rib on the floor.

Matt Granfield’s girlfriend has just broken up with him, telling him ‘I can’t be with someone who doesn’t know who they are.’. Broken hearted, he decides that she’s right – he doesn’t know who he is – and that it’s time he figured it out. In a moment of clarity he decides that the best way to figure out who he is is to become someone else. He’s always been a bit of a hipster – but now he embarks on a quest to become the hippest person there is – the ultimate hipster.

HipsterMattic, subtitled One Man’s Quest to Become the Ultimate Hipster recounts Granfield’s adventures in his quest to figure out what the ultimate is – and how he can become one. In his wryly witty first person narration Granfield takes us along as he learns to knit, sets up a market school, starts the ultimate hipster band, acquires a fixie (a fixed wheel bike) and overdoses on coffee, all in a slightly mad quest to become more hipster.

This is laugh out loud funny, with Granfield’s self-deprecating, open style making it the sort of book you want to share bits with other people. I found myself reading bits aloud regularly. But along with the humour there’s some self-discovery, with Granfield perhaps coming closer to discovering who he is – or, at the least, who he’s not.

If you’ve ever tried to be cool, or ever searched for who you really are, or perhaps just want a laugh, HipsterMattic: One Man’s Quest to Become the Ultimate Hipster is highly recommended.

HipsterMattic: One Man’s Quest to Become the Ultimate Hipster, by Matt Granfield
Allen & Unwin, 2011
ISBN 9781742377858

This book can be purchased in good bookstores, or online from Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

Closing Hell's Gates, by Hamish Maxwell-Stewart

In October 1827, nine convicts who had endured unimaginable cruelty at the hands of the system opted for ‘state assisted’ escape. They had forced five terrified witnesses – their hands and feet bound – to watch as they seized Constable George Rex and drowned him in the tannin-stained waters of the harbour. When the sentence of death was pronounced upon them, the condemned prisoners uttered just one word in reply: Amen.

On the rugged shores of the wild west coast of Tasmania, Sarah Island in Macquarie harbour was one of the most feared places in Australia. It was here, between 1822 and 1834, that convicts were sent as a form of punishment. The weather and physical landscape were fearsome, food was scarce and escape seemingly impossible. Under these harsh conditions, many men went mad, others risked escape in spite of the knowledge that there was nowhere to go, whilst others clung to the hope of some sort of reprieve.

Closing Hell’s Gates is a real-life account of the history of this terrible place – from its commissioning as a penal station until its closure twelve years later. Of interest to anyone with a passion for lesser known chapters in Australia’s history, this a well-researched, detailed account of the history of the penal station, with stories of some of the inmates and insights into human nature.

A fascinating account.

Closing Hell’s Gates, by Hamish Maxwell-Stewart
Allen & Unwin, 2008

This title is available from Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

It's Not All About You, Calma

He is back, Fridge. He turned up this morning like a bad smell, though I attempted to waft him away. We need to arrange new identities, false passports and visas for the Galapagos Islands. Give me the word and I’ll withdraw the forty-eight dollars from my savings account.

Calma Harrison doesn’t like to over-react, but when her long-absent father turns up in Darwin, she wants to leave town. After all, it’s been five years since he left town with a barmaid, and Calma isn’t ready to forgive him. To make matters worse, her mother (aka: the Fridge) seems to be keeping a secret from her and her best friend Vanessa has a huge problem.

Still, life’s not all bad. The new checkout boy at Crazi-Cheep , Jason, is gorgeous, and when Calma gets a job there she hopes to make him her boyfriend. Calma’s new English teacher, Miss Moss, is the best teacher she’s ever had and is helping her improve her writing.

But in spite of these good things, Calma’s life seems to be falling apart. Her relationship with her mum is increasingly strained, and her dad just won’t go away and leave her alone. Calma knows it’s up to her to fix everything once and for all.

It’s Not All About YOU, Calma! is a funny novel about some serious issues. Calma is, as she points out, an unreliable narrator, because she likes to stretch the truth. Her voice is fresh, sarcastic downright funny. Readers will laugh along with her, even in the midst of some pretty heavy events.

This is the sequel to The Whole Business of Kiffo and the Pitbull, but stands alone, so that readers don’t need to have read the first novel to love the second. Kiffo was short listed for this year’s CBCA Awards, and this novel is sure to find similar success.

Outstanding.

It’s Not All About YOU, Calma!, by Barry Jonsberg
Allen & Unwin, 2005