Another year of the Sydney Writers Festival means another collection of great rendez-vous between numerous writers and their readers. Curiosity is a good thing. It allows you to take a journey without knowing exactly what to expect. The rich program of the festival facilitates the individual to take this journey and a careful selection can only be beneficial.
Like every year, several international big names make the visit to our shores. They bring with them highly anticipated moments shared with the audience. As Peter Carey mentioned in his closing address, literature can be a powerful tool to a more captivating life. The presence of perhaps the most respected living australian writer who lives in New York for now two decades is an indication of how this country has complexity issues when it comes to artistic talents. A successful Australian artist can have close connections with Australia however the choice of living and working abroad is only a natural and necessary thing to do.
At writers festivals, there are always one or two episodes that remain in our mind. This year one came thanks to a Lebanese female writer by the name of Nada Awar Jarrar. Her latest novel "A good land" talks about three individuals from different age group and backgrounds. This well spoken intellectual who has an Australian mother and a Lebanese father shared her affections for a country small in size but huge in tragic past. It is difficult to dissociate the war with the writings of Lebanese authors. After all, conflicts of the past and present are a source of inspiration to express feelings that could be less intrusive in writing than in any other form.
Eric Lax is best known as the biographer of Woody Allen. He has written three books on him, the latest being a conversation covering the rich career of my favorite New York filmmaker. Lax is also an intellectual who has a thing or two to say about faith, the story of penicillin and life in a big hospital. My next reading will be the book of conversation with Woody Allen - an ideal book to devour if you are on your way to New York.
Catherine Millet is becoming a regular. She was here in 2003 for "The sexual life of Catherine M."- a mega success with five million copies sold all over the world. She is back with "Jealousy" - a book of reflection about whether a libertine like Millet has the right to be jealous of her life partner being unfaithful. The sixty two years old parisian seems rather conservative at first view. Sex does sell but i have dubious views whether Catherine Millet intimacy is a subject to explore.
The polemicist Christopher Hitchens is here for his memoirs called "Hitch-22". Prior to this festival, i didn't know about this English-American author and journalist who frequently expresses his views via a variety of media sources and lectures. Forty years of observation, polemic and criticism have given Hitchens the reputation of a public intellectual.
Talking about politics, the writers festival at least here in Sydney has every year a number of politicians and political journalists as guest speakers. In 2010, the dialog between the ex-prime minister Paul Keating and the wall street journal chief economist David Wessel was a key event that i missed out. I also missed out on Tony Abbott, Kristina Keneally and Julia Gillard.
Back to the international big names, this year we had the pleasure of listening to John Ralston Saul, Lionel Shriver and Colm Toibin. Three writers from different horizons: the Canadian Ralston Saul apart being a well respected novelist and essayist is also the president of International Pen; the american Lionel Shriver who calls UK her adoptive home for some years now and the irish Colm Toibin who has written a compelling book about good prospects in Brooklyn in the 1950's
The main discovery of this year festival comes nevertheless from an art historian, Sarah Thornton. "Seven days in the Art world" was named one of the best art books of 2008 by the Sunday Times, the Independent and the New York Times. I haven't read it yet but i am convinced that Thornton has written this book also considering readers like myself that don't know much about the subject but who like to know more without being bored with theoretical jargon. Reading here and there few lines from the book, i can see how captivating this exercise could be.
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