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  Gibeau, Yves - Allons z'enfants (1952)
Posted by: Frenuyum - 12-04-2025, 04:27 PM - Replies (1)

   



Un jeune homme, fils d'adjudant de carrière, est forcé par son père d'entrer dans une école militaire. Profondément antimilitariste, il subit des brimades de ses supérieurs, bien que très bien classé (dans le peloton de tête à l'école des enfants de troupe des Andelys, deuxième de la classe, 13.82 au Brevet de Préparation militaire supérieure). Attiré par la littérature et par le cinéma, il sera rattrapé par les débuts de la Seconde Guerre mondiale.


A young man, who was working as a driving force in his career, was forced by his father to enter a military school. Profoundly antimilitarist, he underwent training in his higher education, though very well-classed (in the Peloton de tête à l'cole des enfants de troupe de Andelys, deuxième de la classe, 13.82 au Brevet de Préparation militaire supérieure). Dressed in literature and film, they were captivated by the debuts of the Second World War.

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  Clean Straw for Nothing and A Cartload of Clay
Posted by: Frenuyum - 12-04-2025, 04:23 PM - Replies (1)

   


In the sequel to his semi-autobiographical novel My Brother Jack, George Johnston concludes his Meredith trilogy in this brilliantly evocative, single volume of books two and three: Clean Straw for Nothing (winner of the Miles Franklin Award) and A Cartload of Clay. Set against the backdrop of a Greek island, Clean Straw for Nothing follows the story of successful war correspondent and retired journalist David Meredith as he abandons his career for a life in exile with his beautiful wife Cressida. Johnston focuses on the developing relationship between David and Cressida, exploring the complex and reflective character of David as he questions the nature of success, sexual tensions, expatriation and ill-health. The questions are almost entirely unanswerable and the freedom David craves nearly impossible.

In the final episode of the trilogy, David Meredith travels back to Australia, rediscovering his deep affection for his native land after having been so long in Greece. Coming to terms with his new home's deep faults and failings, as well as virtues, it is here that he reviews his life, his pursuit of success and his unfortunate failures. Still without a conclusion to his philosophical concerns, David comes to accept that the meaning of life is the journey we take and is not a price to be given at the end.

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  My Brother Jack (1964)
Posted by: Frenuyum - 12-04-2025, 04:20 PM - Replies (1)

   


One of the best novels I have ever read.

A roman-à-clef based on the author George Johnston’s life, narrator David Meredith tells his story from his youngest memories of his father coming home from the Great War through to the end of the Second World War when David had become a war correspondence journalist of some repute.

Hugely thematic in delivery covering various issues such as domestic violence be that physical or psychological, family relationships through to the cultural changes that had occurred between the wars. Johnston’s character descriptions are superb and left this reader with an absolute image of the physical and temperaments of all dramatis personae who came into contact with David Meredith no matter how small or large they loomed in his life.

As a thematic work the major theme in my opinion was guilt. David Meredith gave thought to his and his only brothers vastly different attitudes and approaches to their lives with David’s guilt looming large. The brothers vastly different approach to their lives and their consideration as to others had this reader trying to understand and consider from beginning to end my own thought process as to relationships we have with one and all on our life journey. There is no doubt in my mind that George Johnston was a very complex individual, one who was looking for something that he may never have found. I later read about his life and he was indeed just that, complex. Are we as individuals as complex? Do we have the talent to put into coherent thought and words a life not spent as we thought it could have or should be? Do the vast majority of us really care?

Having won the prestigious Miles Franklin Award, My Brother Jack had always been on my radar. Once begun, I could not put it down and read late into the evening. Terms such as classic may be thrown around far too much in the literary world but this is a superlative that My Brother Jack deserves. As to winners of Australia’s highest literary award this is as good as a winner as I have read so far. Deserving of all the praise that it received on publication and any more that has come its way over 50 years since.

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  Michael - Some Boys (1969)
Posted by: Frenuyum - 12-04-2025, 04:13 PM - Replies (1)

   


Some Boys is the 1969 sequel to Michael Davidson's The World, the Flesh and Myself which was previously published in 1962. The earlier work was described by Arthur Koestler as the "twofold story of a courageous and lovable person's struggle to come to terms with his Grecian heresy and of a brilliant journalist's fight against colonial jingoism" and it scandalized the "respectable" world with its opening sentence: "This is the life history of a lover of boys".

Davidson's sequel is still more revealing. Some Boys is a fond memoir of the author's young friends across four decades and as many continents: from Marrakech to Saigon, Ischia to Lahore. Written with the discernment and observation of a brilliant journalist, these recollections combine erotic intenseness with an unerring personal empathy, and show throughout a keen and sensitive perception for the diversity of international customs and culture in the middle twentieth century -- much of which is now gone forever.

   

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  The World, the Flesh and Myself (1962)
Posted by: Frenuyum - 12-04-2025, 04:09 PM - Replies (1)

   


In the heyday of the foreign correspondent, Michael Davidson traveled the globe and campaigned against oppression and injustice. He joined the Berlin communists against Hitler, crossed wartime Morocco in Arab disguise, and opposed the British authorities in Malaya and Cyprus. Twice sent to prison for his sexuality, he bravely wrote in 1962 Life Story Of A Lover Of Boys. This autobiography, praised by Arthur Koestler and James Cameron, is a classic memoir of gay life in the first half of the century.

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