BOOKS & WORDS
Spring book reviews by Mark Laurie of South Seas Books, Port Elliot.
Reset: Restoring Australia after the Pandemic Recession by Ross Garnaut Published by La Trobe University Press in association with Black Inc. and the University of Melbourne ISBN 9781760642822 $32.99 Calm, rational, authoritative and optimistic, Ross Garnaut presents a persuasive case for a very new approach to Australia’s socio-economic policy settings in a world growing accustomed to new norms. Responding to the very real challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change, and the deteriorating relationship with an increasingly bellicose China, Garnaut encourages us to see the opportunities available to re-make Australia for the better. Core prescriptions include grasping the renewable ‘superpower’ opportunity explored in his previous book, establishing a universal basic income, and seizing the opportunities available from
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carbon sequestration in our vast landmass. These are supplemented by a fairer, more transparent approach to corporate taxation, suggestions for navigating new international trading pathways and some helpful thoughts on interest rates and monetary settings for our Reserve Bank. There is of course no ‘snapping back’ to the pre-pandemic past and Professor Garnaut identifies several reasons we shouldn’t try to do so. Suppressed wages and heightened resentments from high levels of 457 visa labour, reduced capabilities and declining international prestige resulting from de-funding and devaluation of our universities, along with increasing inequality and disenfranchisement fuelled by rewarded rent-seeking and politicised public spending are but some examples. Gently he removes any rose-coloured glasses from the ‘Dog Days’ of our more recent past. It would be uncomfortable reading for libertarian denialists, if there are any left, and those to whom the political class is presently captive will want this book burned. Eye opening and hopeful for the rest of us, it should occupy the night tables of all Canberra’s hotels.
The Others by Mark Brandi Published by Hachette Australia ISBN 9780733641145 $32.99 This new novel from Victoria’s Mark Brandi is written as a diary recording the constrained, claustrophobic existence of its owner, Jacob, in a remote rural area of the country. Jacob’s mother has died, and he lives alone with his father on their small, decaying farm, entirely removed and protected by him from the outside world. That outside world, portrayed by his father, is a post-pandemic, postapocalyptic zone of societal breakdown and roaming infection to be feared and repelled. It allows ample space for youthful imagination. Compounding this, the hard scrabble life they live leaves little room for wide-eyed innocence as Jacob navigates the uncertain territory of self-sustained survival and his father’s capricious moods. The threats, it seems, are both within and without. There are terrible things in the world, things that Jacob recognises should neither be written down nor remembered but which will forever make everything different. Jacob seeks solace in learning and recording, as well as companionship with some of the animals who share his existence (those inching towards vegetarianism are likely to find their journey fast-tracked by these pages). That these small, fiercely burning lights can shine amid such swelling malevolence, unpredictability and dread is testament to the resilience of youth and no small literary feat. The author’s growing reputation will be enhanced by this latest offering, with its careful pacing and compelling narration. As Jacob diarises, ‘you can’t look away, even when you want to.’
