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Success dogged him. Image of Alfred Deakin
Arts & Letters / Books

Success dogged him

Judith Brett’s ‘The Enigmatic Mr Deakin’ is a skilful portrait of Australia’s second prime minister
Mark McKenna
Arts & Letters / Music

Torch songs

Lana Del Rey gets a little happier on ‘Lust for Life’
Anwen Crawford

Risky business

‘American Made’ provides more subversive smarts than you’d expect from a Tom Cruise vehicle
Harry Windsor
The Nation Reviewed

A beautiful chaos

The Artful Dodgers Studios is a haven for young artists and musicians
Jaye Kranz
Arts & Letters / Books

A certain madness

Beneath the surface comedy of Samuel Beckett’s ‘Watt’ lies a metaphysical quest to know the unknowable
JM Coetzee
Noted

‘Whipbird’ by Robert Drewe

Hamish Hamilton; $32.99
Louise Swinn

Most Popular

  1. A love of the past
    ‘Mischka’s War’ is a historian’s honest attempt at preserving both love and objectivity
    Emily Gallagher
  2. Arts & Letters / Books
    A certain madness
    Beneath the surface comedy of Samuel Beckett’s ‘Watt’ lies a metaphysical quest to know the unknowable
    JM Coetzee
    A certain madness. Image of Samuel Beckett
  3. Risky business
    ‘American Made’ provides more subversive smarts than you’d expect from a Tom Cruise vehicle
    Harry Windsor
  4. Arts & Letters / Art
    What must be said
    Australia’s Tracey Moffatt leads the way at the 57th Venice Biennale
    Julie Ewington
    What must be said. Rock Shadow from the series Body Remembers, 2016, Tracey Moffatt, © / Courtesy of the artist and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney and Tyler Rollins Fine Art, New York  
  5. The Monthly Essays
    The gambler
    At home with David Walsh
    Richard Flanagan
    The gambler. David Walsh

Books

‘Home Fire’ by Kamila Shamsie. Cover of Home Fire
Noted
‘Home Fire’ by Kamila Shamsie
Bloomsbury; $22.49
Helen Elliott
‘Forest Dark’ by Nicole Krauss. Cover of Forest Dark
Noted
‘Forest Dark’ by Nicole Krauss
Bloomsbury; $24.99
Stephanie Bishop
Sly late style. Cover of JM Coetzee’s ‘Late Essays: 2006–2017’
Arts & Letters / Books
Sly late style
JM Coetzee’s ‘Late Essays: 2006–2017’
Barry Hill
The crankhandle of history. Image of Alice Springs
The Monthly Essays
The crankhandle of history
Thirty years on, what should we make of Bruce Chatwin’s song to the songlines?
Richard Cooke


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Music

In search of the ecstatic at Supersense . Image of Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U
In search of the ecstatic at Supersense
Sophia Brous assembled another magnificently eclectic program for her festival’s second outing
Jenny Valentish
On the road again. Image of Jen Cloher
Arts & Letters / Music
On the road again
Jen Cloher’s self-titled album is a unique take on the trials of a touring musician
Anwen Crawford
The Monthly music wrap: July 2017. Simon Holmes in the film clip for The Hummingbirds’ ‘Alimony’
The Monthly music wrap: July 2017
Vale Simon Holmes and Dr G Yunupingu
Anwen Crawford
Beyond the notes. Illustration
The Nation Reviewed
Beyond the notes
Venezuela’s Simón Bolívar String Quartet meet some of Melbourne’s youngest musicians
Chloe Hooper


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Film

Blurring the lines. Still from The Silent Eye
Blurring the lines
‘The Silent Eye’ is the latest of Amiel Courtin-Wilson’s films to resist easy categorisation
Lauren Carroll Harris
The united colours of Besson
Luc Besson discusses humanity, utopia and his latest film, ‘Valerian’
Luke Goodsell
Arts & Letters / Film
Under the covers
David Lowery’s ‘A Ghost Story’ successfully combines sorrow, absurdity and the supernatural
Luke Davies
Bleak house
‘Lady Macbeth’ is a cold and confronting take on the period drama
Harry Windsor


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Art

Where we live. Ian Strange, SOS, 2015-2017, archival digital print
Where we live
Ian Strange’s latest exhibition, ‘ISLAND’, explores our complex relationship with the family home
Richard King
Wonder, invention, anger and dejection. Reko Rennie, ‘OA_RR’ (detail), 2017
Arts & Letters / Art
Wonder, invention, anger and dejection
‘Defying Empire: 3rd National Indigenous Art Triennial’ at Canberra’s National Gallery of Australia
Sebastian Smee
Country needs people. Image of Yarrkalpa – Hunting Ground, Parnngurr Area, 2013
The Monthly Essays
Country needs people
Mapping and minding shared lands
Kim Mahood
What is art for anyway?. John Akomfrah ‘Vertigo Sea’ (film still) 2015 © Smoking Dogs Films, Courtesy Lisson Gallery
What is art for anyway?
Ian Potter Museum for Art’s ‘Vertigo Sea’ and ‘I was born in Indonesia’ are very different answers to the same question
Quentin Sprague


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Theatre

A family in flux. Kurt Pimblett, Greg Stone and Michael Whalley in HIR
A family in flux
Taylor Mac’s ‘HIR’ at Belvoir is not your average kitchen-sink drama
Fiona McGregor
Looking for Joseph Merrick. Image of Daniel Monks as Joseph Merrick
Looking for Joseph Merrick
Malthouse Theatre’s ‘The Real and Imagined History of the Elephant Man’ runs the risk of erasing its protagonist
Alison Croggon
A crucible of memory. Image of The Rabble’s ‘Special’
Arts & Letters / Theatre
A crucible of memory
La Mama, one of Australia’s most influential theatre companies, turns 50
Alison Croggon
Bold as ‘SHIT’
Susie Dee and Patricia Cornelius deliver the wake-up call Australian theatre needs
Fiona McGregor


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Dance

‘Bennelong’ by Bangarra Dance Theatre. Beau Dean Riley Smith in Bangarra Dance Theatre’s Bennelong
Noted
‘Bennelong’ by Bangarra Dance Theatre
Sydney Opera House (touring Canberra, Brisbane, Melbourne)
Fiona McGregor
The Nation Reviewed
Destiny’s children
Body Electric’s jazz ballet for adults
Nikki Lusk
The best of Australian arts 2014. Tammy Wynette (2014) by Linda Marrinon
The best of Australian arts 2014
Critics give their picks for the year’s top ten
The Monthly
First contact. Jasmin Sheppard as Patyegarang
Arts & Letters / Theatre
First contact
The secret history of Bangarra Dance Theatre’s ‘Patyegarang’
Steve Dow


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Architecture

SOS. Illustration
The Nation Reviewed
SOS
Brutalist masterpiece or harbour eyesore? Sydney’s Sirius building faces an uncertain future
David Neustein
Murcutt’s mosque. Roof detail of the Australian Islamic Centre
Arts & Letters / Architecture
Murcutt’s mosque
The Australian Islamic Centre is notable for what it isn’t as much as for what it is
David Neustein
The Nation Reviewed
Compressed contemporary
Durbach Block Jaggers is a practice in argument
Erik Jensen
Twelve of a kind. Crown Sydney image
Arts & Letters / Architecture
Twelve of a kind
Why is Australia planning so many new casinos?
David Neustein


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Fashion

The artisan. Tanel Bedrossiantz, in a dress from the Jean Paul Gaultier Barbès collection, ready-to-wear, Autumn–Winter 1984–85
Arts & Letters / Fashion
The artisan
‘The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier’ at the National Gallery of Victoria
Karen de Perthuis
‘Modern Love: Fashion visionaries from the FIDM Museum LA’ . Sarah Caplan’s World Trade Center dress
Arts & Letters / Fashion
‘Modern Love: Fashion visionaries from the FIDM Museum LA’
At the Bendigo Art Gallery
Karen de Perthuis
The Nation Reviewed
RM Williams and haute couture
Karen de Perthuis
Arts & Letters / Masterpieces
Fashion masterpiece
Romance was born - ‘The Oracle’, 2011
Clare Press


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Fiction

Noted
‘Clade’ by James Bradley
Hamish Hamilton; $32.99
Michael Lucy
Josephine Rowe
Story
Sinkers
The pencil and the damage done. Self-portrait with Easel and Mirror (1646), by Johannes Gumpp
Arts & Letters / Books
The pencil and the damage done
The perverse attraction of autobiographical fiction
Ceridwen Dovey
Arts & Letters / Noted
‘Golden Boys’ by Sonya Hartnett
Penguin; $29.99
Robyn Annear


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Poetry

Arts & Letters / Poetry
Late styles
Clive James’ ‘Sentenced to Life’ and Les Murray’s ‘Waiting for the Past’
Justin Clemens
Majesty and burning. The young Dylan Thomas
Arts & Letters / Books
Majesty and burning
A century of Dylan Thomas
Kevin Rabalais
Wild Pilgrim. Ko Un, with his books
Arts & Letters / Poetry
Wild Pilgrim
Meeting Ko Un
Barry Hill
'Radar' by Kevin Brophy and Nathan Curnow. 'Radar' by Kevin Brophy and Nathan Curnow, Walleah Press; $25
'Radar' by Kevin Brophy and Nathan Curnow
Geoff Lemon


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