The reader: Huon Curtis

Huon is the only person I know who has been asked to leave a pub for "dancing too hard". When he is not being a threateningly good dancer he is working very hard doing his PhD in political economy. I'm not going to attempt to do any more explaining about it than that. Let's just say he's really clever. His three favourite books should prove my point.

The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh

The Loved One is a dark little novella about a English poet who goes to live in Los Angeles and ends up working in a pet cemetery called Happier Hunting Grounds. Of course, this isn't the end of the story as our gentle hero encounters the sinister Mr. Joyboy - a talented mortician who works at a mortuary called 'Whispering Glades' and who is able to give the 'Loved Ones' who arrive in his mortuary the final gift of looking content and peaceful. There is also a bit of romance thrown in to the story to really spice things up, as Aimee, the cosmetician who works with and greatly admires Mr. Joyboy is seduced by the English poet with poetry that he claims as his own but are in fact famous lines from English poets that Aimee, because she is American, fails to recognise. It is, in the end, a deeply funny, and darkly satirical romp which explores the obsession with death in Hollywood, California and America generally.  Key Quote " The leave-taking is a very, very great source of consolation. Often the Waiting Ones last saw their Loved One on a bed of pain surrounded by all the gruesome concomitants of the sick room or the hospital.  Here they see them as they knew them, buoyant with life, transfigured with peace and happiness. At the funeral they have time only for a last look as they file past. Here in the Slumber Room they can stand as long as they like, photographing a last beautiful memory on the mind'.

Mr. Galliano's Circus by Enid Blyton

This was my favourite book as a child. I don't know how many times I read it, but it was a lot. It's about this kid Jimmy who runs away with the circus - I can't remember really what happens in the story - he trains his dog to walk the tightrope and they become a successful circus act. I always wanted to join the circus because of this book, and every time a circus would visit my town I would go and cartwheel around the entrance as much as possible in the vain hope that the ringmaster would notice how talented I was and ask me to be in the show. The kids from these circuses that would visit town would sometimes come to our school for the week or so that the circus was in town - but they were always scruffy, alien little things who smelled like sawdust and kind of represented the sad demise of the carny lifestyle. I was also once ripped off by a carny when I managed to get a quoit over a stick but the carny wouldn't give me the 50 dollars I should have been due. This probably made me think that Enid Blyton was slightly duplicitous in her presentation of the exciting world of the circus.  Carny's are desperate and wild-eyed and probably addicted to drugs or alcohol. Although I didn't ever live my dream of running away with the circus, my brother actually did join a circus - but he is not desperate, wild-eyed or addicted to drugs...

Jung Frau by Dymphna Cusack

Although I complain a lot about Australian writing, I actually mostly love Australian literature - even though most of it is crap! Anyway, Jung Frau by Dymphna Cusack was written in the 1930s and its about 3 women who meet at Sydney University - one is a doctor (Eve), another is a masters student in English Literature (Thea), and the last is a social worker (Marc).  This book is way ahead of its time and the chief drama revolves around Thea who has an affair with her married English professor and then debates whether to have an abortion. She asks Eve for counsel - but Eve is a big Catholic and can't go against her faith. And Marc is much more open with her sexuality but still can't offer Thea the kind of advice or support she needs. I think my favourite type of books is those that are set at universities, and this one feels so ahead of its time in regards to its exploration of the lives of modern Australian women.  I think I like it also because it's not exploring some falsehood about Australia's mythologized bush past. Australia has been pretty urbanized for much of its white settler history but for some weird reason we get all of these settler fantasies about life on the farms and battling the drought.