Author: TravellinPenguin

I am in the middle of a big winter shake up. WINTER= Beautiful sunny days. But by the end of it I am fed up with the short days with dark coming too early. I am tired of the cold. I am tired of the damp. I think many people who live in the southern regions of Australia feel this way in winter and head for warmer climates if only for a couple of weeks.

We are leaving this afternoon for 8 days or so to Koh Samuii in Thailand. We are going to lie on a chaise lounge between the beach and the swimming pool. Picture me at the bottom of the pool, long snorkel and a drink in hand. I might sit there for 2 or 3 days. The hot sun beats down.

Then we are going to Singapore to  be around people for a week and celebrate our 46th wedding anniversary.

There have been family issues back home,(Michigan)  including my very old mother who is probably in her final year. It all makes me sad and winter is not a good time to be sad.  When I seek refuge in a book I am reminded I am reading War and Peace.

I have finished five parts out of ten. I have enjoyed it for the most part but it dawned on me the other evening I do not care about these people.  I enjoyed the strategy and conversations during the war scenes. Those were the scenes I thought I would dislike the most. They weren’t. It is the domestic part I get so impatient with. The society rules, the silly women who are presented again and again. The men who prance around. They are either silly or weak. I am tired of them. I want to get back into the books with strong women, modern women. Yes, women with smart phones and important jobs.  I can’t take anymore of it. I am, yes, quitting.

I have SO MANY tbr books on my shelves that look like adventure. They look like fun. They have beautiful covers. I don’t care if the stories are new or old, they are books that I want to spend time with.  When one is older, one is conscious of how little time may be left in the scheme of things. Even 20 years is not a great deal of time considering how fast the years go by.

I always wanted to read War and Peace. I wanted to be able to say, “Oh yes, I read that.” Am I comfortable not being able to say it? Yes, Absolutely. I get the gist. I will, however continue to follow the others who are reading and writing about it.   I have partial interest in hearing what might happen. I might pick it up again but when winter depression and Seasonal Affective Disorder has left me. When family issues overseas don’t occupy so many of my thoughts. When politics are better?  Ha!!

I am going to take a couple of copies of ‘real’ books with me. For the poolside. Something interesting or fun. I have many books on my Kindle and I can access the eBooks from the library.  I am going to work on my photography. I am going to take walks along the beach. The camera is packed. The Penguin is ready. Mr. P. has his things ready.  The housesitter comes tonight. The cats are at camp (cattery).  As one person, name unknown, once said.  “Elvis has left the building.”   Out of the way. “We are leaving the building.”

Stay tuned.

The week before last I went to an author interview in the city. I posted up Part I and said I would post up the main books of Mr. Dessaix this week. They have been reissued, as some were out of print, by Xoum Publishing.  You can view Part I here.

Be sure to notice the flashy new covers. I quite like them.

When we talk of Robert Dessaix we most commonly think five main novels he wrote. Most are autobiographical or linked to history. In the talk I attended he talked briefly to each one. There are other books one can read that are not mentioned below. I thought I would give you a brief explanation of what he said as he referred to them.

My Mother’s Disgrace-  This is  his most autobiographical book. He talks about growing up in Sydney to adoptive parents. He discusses the relationship he found later on to his biological mother. The difficulties of coming out ‘gay’ during that time period and his family’s reaction to it.

Night Letters – In this novel he writes of his visit to Venice, Italy. He is coming to terms with his recent diagnosis of HIV. The books discusses much history of Venice and how he incorporates his thoughts of his illness into this holiday destination. He writes in his hotel room every night as he comes to terms with where his life is heading.

He mentioned the first two books are often taught in the school curriculums. He told a funny story of a Marist College in New South Wales where these books were on the reading curriculum. He asked the representative at the school how does a book with the content of homosexuality and AIDS make it onto a curriculum in a Marist school? The reply was, “The Brothers don’t know what they are about.”   (More audience laughter)

Corfu – He mentioned he likes this book quite a bit more and thought it a good starting point for those who haven’t read him. Although he stated the critics didn’t seem to appreciate it much and he will always remember some of the cutting remarks he read. He begins to explore in more depth the ordinariness of people around him. He decides what is important to observe whilst travelling. He ties that in with what he also feels about himself.  He discusses how intimacy in all its different forms makes up your life.

Twilight of Love: Travels With Turgenev – This is a non fictional account of his love for Russian literature. He attended Moscow University and taught Russian language. His favourite was Turgenev. He decided to learn more about him and visited his homes in Germany, France and Russia. He was interested in his love life around the married opera singer Pauline Viardot and the triangle of love she lived in. There are themes of love, sex, theology and eventually death. I have read it and think it a book one reads once without asking questions and then needs a re-read to consolidate all that is in it. This is especially true if one is not familiar with Russian literature.

Arabesque – This book was not discussed in quite the detail as the others as we only had one hour and then questions. I have taken the synopsis from Amazon below:

One Sunday afternoon in a secluded valley in Normandy, Robert Dessaix chanced upon the castle where the famous French writer Andre Gide spent his childhood. Recalling the excitement Robert felt when he first read Gide as a teenager, he set off to recapture what it was that once drew him so strongly to this enigmatic figure. On a magic carpet ride from Lisbon to the edge of the Sahara, from Paris to the south of France and Algiers, Robert takes us to the places where the Nobel Prize-winning author, in ways still scandalous to modern sensibilities, lived out his unconventional ideas about love, marriage, sexuality and religion. Featuring meditations and conversations with fellow travellers on such diverse subjects as why we travel, growing old, illicit passions, and the essence of Protestantism – and illustrated with over 100 stunning illustrations and photos – Arabesques is Robert Dessaix and travel memoir at their absolute finest.

He did go on to talk about the different selves people seem to live in. He believes everyone has more than one self and if you live in a small town/city sometimes it is hard to live out all those selves. He enjoys travelling because he can let some of his other selves come to the fore. Being gay and a well known writer he made a funny remark, “How does anyone have an affair in Hobart?”  A woman from the audience called out, “Get a different car!”  The room erupted into laughter.

We covered a great deal of Dessaix territory in this single hour at the bookshop. I have read his books, My Mother’s Disgrace; Night Letters and Twilight of Love. I have Arabesque and Corfu sitting on the shelf.  I think sometime I will have to have a Dessaix month and reread the books I have read as it has been a long time, and get into

the ones I haven’t. I feel I have a better understanding of what he is saying.

It certainly was an evening of enjoyment and our heads swirled afterwards with

so many topics.

I had the pleasure of visiting Fuller’s Book Shop the other evening and hearing an interview with author Robert Dessaix. The shop was packed with people. This Hobartian (moving here from Melbourne) author is a very popular man here it seems. I have always loved his work. Adam Ouston is a Fuller’s employee and is currently working on a PhD about Robert Dessaix’s work and the rapport between the two of them was entertaining. They have obviously spent a great deal of time together.

Mr. Dessaix began his talk discussing writing for the ordinary person. He said it is relatively easy to write about famous people such as (pause…..)  Napoleon Bonaparte but it is to ordinary people he shares his writing.   He has always appeared to me a man who stops and thinks about things. I have seen him at a social gathering as he stood in a large backyard alone staring into the valley below.   His mind never shuts off. His past books have taken place in Europe and Australia but he is now more connected to India which he visits regularly in the Tasmanian winters. He stated the Indians seem to dance, sing, celebrate and not spend a lot of time talking about the truth of their religious teachings. They appear to treat religion as a form of play rather than always searching for the truths of it.  They simply live. The Europeans he mentioned,  write a lot about mortality. Always trying to verify their teachings especially in religion. What really is true, what is not. The Indians simply believe.

Referring to travel he said that if  home life is very good (he described ‘home’ as being anywhere his partner Peter Timms and his dog are) then travel is good. I think it is knowing you can experience the world yet look forward to coming back.   He stated that when one travels one must ‘zig-zag’. If you go through your travels, as well as life in a straight line you will hit a wall and die.  It is better to ‘zig-zag and see what you find. Who do you meet, what do you see, what do you learn?

In his earlier career he hosted the Book Show on Radio National, ABC. He said when he was first employed his supervisor told him ‘don’t talk to Australia’ but rather talk ‘to the individuals’ listening in radio land. He believes that he writes to the individual, not to the amassed crowds.

He was diagnosed with HIV two decades ago and was told by a doctor he probably wouldn’t live beyond another five years. With the advances in medical research he continues to thrive in 2017. He then had a significant heart attack. These events changed him greatly. He has defined his ‘world’ of life. This includes travel, home and books. Outside of this he largely leaves  life events to others. I asked him afterwards as he is such a thinker and analyst how does he resolve the issues of the depressing political events in his mind. He said he follows politics but then lets go of it.  He leaves it to others who know it better than he does . “There are people out there who know a lot about politics and I leave it to them.”  Maybe I will take up this mode of thinking. I tend to dwell on it at times, become depressed and of course it gets me nowhere. I am still thinking about this.

I particularly enjoyed his comments, “Everyone lives in a splodge….(he pauses for thought, then again…) Everyone lives in a splodge.  Enjoy the splodge you are in.” (Laughter from the audience.)

The interviewer, Adam, was responsible for helping get his out of print books reissued. He noticed the earlier ones weren’t being published anymore and he wanted that changed. In working with Xoum publishers the first five major works of Dessaix have now been reissued with splashy new covers within the last month.

In the next post I will share with you his five major books with a blurb of how he described each of them.

I was reminded how much fun it is to listen to an author talk about his/her writing. I never leave without a new idea to think about or some insight into their life. It is interesting to see how those thoughts transfer into books.  It is also fun to share thoughts and laughter with others in the room who are all interested in the same things.