Jacqueline Kent
Autore di The making of Julia Gillard
Sull'Autore
Nota di disambiguazione:
(eng) Australian non-fiction author Jacqueline Kent also publishes young-adult fiction under the name Jacquie Kent.
Opere di Jacqueline Kent
Etichette
Informazioni generali
- Altri nomi
- Kent, Jacquie
- Data di nascita
- 1947
- Sesso
- female
- Nazionalità
- Australia
- Luogo di nascita
- Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- Luogo di residenza
- Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
- Istruzione
- University of Technology, Sydney (PhD - Creative Arts)
- Attività lavorative
- journalist
- Nota di disambiguazione
- Australian non-fiction author Jacqueline Kent also publishes young-adult fiction under the name Jacquie Kent.
Utenti
Recensioni
Jacqueline Kent is the author of so many biographies of people in the arts, I'm surprised that I haven't read any of her books before this one. I've heard her in interview too, at the Woodend Winter Arts Festival in 2011, in conversation with Mary Delahunty about An Exacting Heart, the story of Hephzibah Menuhin, (which #SlapsForehead I meant to read but forgot about, which just goes to show that I should have bought it there and then.) Kent also wrote A Certain Style: Beatrice Davis, A Literary Life which won the 2002 National Biography Award and the Nita B. Kibble Award. But I wasn't sure about Beyond Words, a Year with Kenneth Cook... a memoir based on just one year?
However, it turns out that this memoir is about more than one memorable year with an iconic Australian writer. It's also about a woman who had a satisfying life as a freelance book editor and an emerging career as a writer, and how falling in love meant she had to confront choosing between independence and companionship. Not only was Kenneth Cook a blokey bloke twenty years older than she was with a string of failed relationships behind him, he also had adult children from his previous marriage, and shreds of Catholic guilt still lurking within. He was bankrupt (literally) with creditors still harassing him, he smoked and drank (a lot), and he was undisciplined about his writing.
But he was gorgeous. She loved him. He was funny and clever and exciting, and even though he needed 'housetraining' (as we feminists say of men who haven't quite grasped the domestic implications of feminism) Kent and Cook were so happy together that they set up house and decided to marry. By the time this happens, the reader is delighted, because despite their differences, they seem so suited as a couple. (One of their more caustic friends comments that an author/editor marriage is a bit of a cliché, but it seems to me that it would be a kind of literary heaven, to write side-by-side with the one you love.)
The wedding was a relaxed and informal affair, despite the best efforts of the celebrant to indulge her taste for pink hearts, lace doilies, figurines of doting couples in eighteenth-century costume and Hallmark sentimentality:
There are four photos of this joyful wedding, and I defy anyone to look without lips twitching in suppressed laughter at the one of Kenneth, hands on hips and almost daring the celebrant to go off-script!
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2019/03/27/beyond-words-a-year-with-kenneth-cook-by-jac...… (altro)
However, it turns out that this memoir is about more than one memorable year with an iconic Australian writer. It's also about a woman who had a satisfying life as a freelance book editor and an emerging career as a writer, and how falling in love meant she had to confront choosing between independence and companionship. Not only was Kenneth Cook a blokey bloke twenty years older than she was with a string of failed relationships behind him, he also had adult children from his previous marriage, and shreds of Catholic guilt still lurking within. He was bankrupt (literally) with creditors still harassing him, he smoked and drank (a lot), and he was undisciplined about his writing.
But he was gorgeous. She loved him. He was funny and clever and exciting, and even though he needed 'housetraining' (as we feminists say of men who haven't quite grasped the domestic implications of feminism) Kent and Cook were so happy together that they set up house and decided to marry. By the time this happens, the reader is delighted, because despite their differences, they seem so suited as a couple. (One of their more caustic friends comments that an author/editor marriage is a bit of a cliché, but it seems to me that it would be a kind of literary heaven, to write side-by-side with the one you love.)
The wedding was a relaxed and informal affair, despite the best efforts of the celebrant to indulge her taste for pink hearts, lace doilies, figurines of doting couples in eighteenth-century costume and Hallmark sentimentality:
Everybody was smiling except the celebrant. In her bag with the documents I noticed a biro with an enormous plastic feather quill, the sort of thing used by writers in bad historical movies; clearly this was her last-ditch attempt to impose a sense of ceremonial colour on the signing of the register, at least. Resplendent in maroon and cream, she stepped in front of the tree she had chosen for the ceremony, opened her wedding book and cleared her throat.
Ken walked towards me and stretched out his right hand, the one with the crooked middle finger. 'Come here, woman, and marry me,' he said. (p.178)
There are four photos of this joyful wedding, and I defy anyone to look without lips twitching in suppressed laughter at the one of Kenneth, hands on hips and almost daring the celebrant to go off-script!
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2019/03/27/beyond-words-a-year-with-kenneth-cook-by-jac...… (altro)
Very interesting to see the rise of Julia through the ranks. Heavy going in some places.
Liste
Premi e riconoscimenti
Statistiche
- Opere
- 13
- Utenti
- 125
- Popolarità
- #160,151
- Voto
- 3.9
- Recensioni
- 7
- ISBN
- 38
I didn't feel like I got to know Julia Gillard at all (though I suspect I am supposed to read "My Story" by Julia Gillard for that. It went very factual through her prime ministership (not complaining, that was exactly as advertised on the cover), but without being completely abreast of politics of the time, I felt it gave me to little to be interesting.