STEVE'S WRITING
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THE BOOKS
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Strawberries With Everything: A Polish Odyssey 1966-1974
ISBN 0-646-45004-2. RRP $24.95.
Strawberries with everything brings a new tone to political memoirs. How did a nice Jewish boy finish up in a place like Poland? In sometimes hilarious detail, Steve Brook describes his early years in prewar London, the emigration of his family to Australia, and his eventual Aussification. While still in his teens he gets a heavy dose of Left politics. After a holiday in Poland, via London, he is offered a job at the Polish Radio in Warsaw. He spends eight years on the wrong side in the Cold War, with a ringside seat at some of the most significant events in European history including the Warsaw Dog Show, the "anti-Zionist" uproar of 1968 and the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia the same year.
He returns to Australia in 1974 and after numerous Candide-like adventures, he finds himself wondering if it was all worthwhile.
Of course it was.
Bali Sugar: A Tale of Tropical Love, God and Politicking
ISBN 0-646-43764-X. RRP $23.95
Arnold Gold, married, two teenage children, wants to write a satire on pornography. But he feels constrained by the domestic demands of suburban Melbourne, and rents a room in Kuta, Bali. Now at last he can devote all his time to "Monica’s Mouth". But of course, it is not to be. His new life is increasingly taken up by Dutch tourists, Australian Greeks, some decidedly odd religious fringe-dwellers and a beguiling local lady, who threatens to pull out the rug from under his existing marriage. Through her he also gets mixed up with Indonesian politics, the Australian media and a bloke he once thought of as a good friend. "Monica’s Mouth" slips further and further into the background and Arnold breaks through into a completely new dimension. It could happen to anyone.
McQuail: A Likely Story
ISBN 0-646-42517-X. RRP $22.95
This a book to change lives, just as John Alexander McQuail did. Read how this illegitimate son of a Melbourne rabbi takes himself on a rutting spree, first though his schoolmates’ mums, then through the South Pacific, then through Sydney and London. How somewhere along the way he manages to get married thrice, serially, father some children, found an entirely new religion, become an international celebrity, get sweatily involved with a lady politician from Queensland and find himself deported from the US of A.
A likely story.
All right, it may not change your life, but it’s a bloody good read!
If you wish to order any or all of these books, contact Rawprawn Publishing through Australian Book Group at email:
book.distribution@elandmark.com.au
You can also order online:
Australian Book Group Online Catalogue
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