Recent Reading 21

The latest in a sequence of lists of recently-read books, listed in reverse chronological order.

  • Patricia Ludgate [2016] Butterflies of a Brief Summer: Memoires – Les souvenirs sont faits de tels moments. MoshPit Publishing. This is a very personal memoir by the wife of pianist Roger Woodward, who traveled the world, mostly as a member of the Australian diplomatic corps. The detail of the narrative in places could only be possible if she had kept a diary at the time, but there are large gaps in the story and much is omitted. For example, how exactly did she come to join the Foreign Service? Is it really true that she just wrote a cold letter to the Department of Foreign Affairs and the next thing was being posted overseas? I wonder if she had some intelligence role. I had not realized until reading her account that even junior Australian foreign service officers traveled first class when flying on business.

    When I read Mr Woodward’s memoir, I was disappointed that he had said so little about his relationship with Ms Ludgate, but her account has too much information about her relationships. I would have preferred she had said less.

  • Roger Woodward [2014]: Beyond Black and White. ABC Books. This book is in two parts, with the first being a memoir of the author’s fascinating life as a concert pianist. Not many Australians spent the decade from 1964 in Poland, for example. The second part of the book – and just as interesting to me – is an account of his relationships with various contemporary composers. These accounts are riveting, even though the author tries to be fair in his recounting of events.

    Mr Woodward does, it seems, like a good list, an affinity I fully share. The editing might have been better (eg, we find composer Pascal Dusapin listed twice in one list).

  • Tess Livingstone [2024]: George Cardinal Pell: Pax Invictis, A Biography. Ignatius Press, Second edition (originally published in 2002), revised. Kindle Edition. Foreword by George Weigel.

    Both the author of this biography and the author of the foreword let their admiration for Pell colour their judgments of his writing. Both praise his Prison Journal for its spiritual content when that content – as distinct from its content about religion – is almost zero. Weigel says that his journal is “now regarded as a modern spiritual classic.” (page 14) I would like to ask, Who precisely regards it thus?, and In comparison to what other spiritual writing? I bet no one apart from Catholic Church apologists are impressed by it, and even they would perhaps object to the strong Protestant Evangelical influence Pell exhibits. Livingstone says “some of these works, [of Pell] including his three-volume Prison Journal, will be studied for a long time.” (page 19) I bet not. At least, not by anyone interested in the spiritual aspects of life. Perhaps future historians of our period interested in Pell and his times may read these bland, non-intellectual and unreflective jottings, but no one else will.

    I write about this because it angers me that such intellectual firepower as otherwise exhibited by Mr Weigel and Ms Livingstone should be deployed in such specious argument, argument that can be refuted by anyone who actually reads Pell’s diaries.

  • Nikki Mark [2023]: Tommy’s Field: Love, Loss and the Goal of a Lifetime. Union Square. This is a moving account of the loss and aftermath of the author’s son, Tommy Mark, who died in his sleep in 2018 at the age of 12. Tommy Mark was apparently mature beyond his years and a gifted soccer player, and the family decided to honour his life and achievements by raising funds for a dedicated soccer pitch in a park in Westwood, their home suburb in Los Angeles. Despite the proposed field in the park being in poor condition and mostly unused, they faced intense opposition from some other people living near the park.

    Her son had played in teams in different parts of LA, in a sport which was more popular among young Spanish-speaking Americans than any other. From the comments she cites of opponents of the proposal, the opposition was strongly centred on the race of the children who would use the soccer field. The book gives a detailed and fascinating account of the local public consultation and lobbying of local government bodies she undertook, and the opposition she faced at every step. Ultimately, she was successful and Tommy’s Field was inaugurated in Westwood Recreation Center on 26 September 2021. It can be viewed here.

    The book is also an account of her transformation from a vague secular agnosticism to a strong overt belief in an after-life, underpinned by her frequent experiences and dreams of communication, direct and indirect, with spiritual entities. Of course, as I have argued before, any such experiences we have may be the result of delusion, and even self-delusion. But this is not how these experiences are felt by those who have them. Ms Mark’s account of her experiences is honest and strongly compelling. I was reminded of the account of Mary Le Beau (pen-name of Inez Travers Cunningham Stark Boulton) of her conversations with spirits of the dead published in 1956 (Beyond Doubt: A Record of Psychic Experience), which is also very compelling.

  • David Vaiani [2024]: Jeremy Catto: A Portrait of the Quintessential Oxford Don. Unicorn. An interesting but repetitive account of a medieval historian who seemed to know everybody (academics, politicians, rock stars), and get everywhere. The book could have done with better editing, but it would then have been shorter. One factual snippet I did not previously know: Catto was apparently the person who informed the lawyers defending the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet that Law Lord Leonard Hoffman had links, through his wife, to Amnesty International which he had not declared when hearing the appeal case in the House of Lords. I doubt anything good that Catto may have done in his life would compensate for that one single act of complicity with great evil. I wonder how he lived with himself afterwards.
  • Kim Carr [2024]: A Long March. Monash University. This is a memoir by former Australian Labor Party Senator and Minister Kim Carr. The book contains almost nothing of a personal nature. Once, Carr refers to his children without telling us anything about them, not even their ages, nor about his marriage. I understand his need to keep his personal life private, but the effect is to lessen the impact of his memoir.

    I had not realized that Carr had long held a vision of a renaissance of Australian manufacturing, reinforcing and extending the country’s presence in sophisticated and complex manufacturing by linking it to advanced research in science and technology. His vision for manufacturing was akin to that of John Button, also a Victorian Labor Senator and Minister, although they were from different party factions of the ALP. What a pity for Australia’s future that this Victorian vision was annulled by the anti-manufacturing bias of Australia’s other states.

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