Sean O’Beirne

Nov 29, 2024 | thesaturdaypaper.com.au | Sean O’Beirne

If anyone was wondering whether Helen Garner, at the age of 79, was still able to write a strong, beautiful book, rest assured: she can, she has. The Garner of The Season is the Garner her readers know, with her exceptional control over language, her exceptional skill at observing and describing. Here, she can give us a skyscraper, at sunset, with its “ethereal mineral glow”, or just her dog, sleeping on the couch, with the “stringy tendons of his hind legs and the coarse, dry pads of his paws”.

Oct 31, 2024 | themonthly.com.au | Sean O’Beirne |Don Watson |Anna Krien |Jason Koutsoukis

The Irish author’s tendency to blend literary and popular fiction is again evident in her latest novel, another tidy love story Reading Sally Rooney’s books is a chance to think about the difference between literary and popular fiction, and why literary fiction is not better, exactly, but rarer, harder to appreciate, absolutely necessary. Popular fiction, no matter how “dark” or “complicated” it can be, often provides too much reassurance.

May 30, 2024 | themonthly.com.au | Sean O’Beirne |Laura Tingle |Kate Manne |Katherine Wilson

The British author’s latest novel finds fresh ways to express the fear of not making enough of oneself, as well as the feeling of not being wanted by one’s mother The deepest fear, expressed again and again in different places in Rachel Cusk’s books, is that it is possible to never make enough of a self.

Oct 26, 2023 | themonthly.com.au | Sean O’Beirne |Don Watson |Elizabeth Finkel |Sarah Krasnostein

The latest from the acclaimed Australian author throws scorn at those who claim virtue and the complete control of their desires Christos Tsiolkas is still so good at arranging the elements of a literary story: its necessary detail, its necessary drama.

Aug 24, 2023 | themonthly.com.au | Sean O’Beirne |Joelle Gergis |George Megalogenis |Jackson Ryan

The acclaimed English writer’s latest book employs its 19th-century setting to interrogate the form of the novel For years, Zadie Smith has been thinking hard about whether literature itself is a kind of fraud.