Tag: fiction
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The Truest Thing I Know
How do you write what people actually want to read? I don’t try to write what people want to read. That might sound strange. After all, if you are going to write something and put it out into the world, you hope that somebody will want to read it. I certainly do. It is satisfying…
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Muttley
If you could pick any fictional animal to be your lifelong companion,what would it be? If I could choose any fictional animal as a lifelong companion, I’m not sure I’d go for a dragon, a Pokémon, or some majestic creature from a fantasy world. I think I’d choose Muttley. Muttley is the scruffy cartoon dog…
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The Shipping News
If you had to switch lives with a fictional character for a week,who would you choose? I was asked an unusual question by an international student this week. They had identified Canada and Australia as two popular study destinations. Then came the personal question: If you could live anywhere, would you choose Australia or Canada?…
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Voss
What’s the longest book you’ve ever read? I read Patrick White’s Voss many years ago. At around 450 pages, it is not especially long. But Patrick White is not light reading. His writing is dense, demanding and full of things to think about. I loved it. Every spare minute I could find, I was reading…
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The Unconsoled
Have you ever regretted reading a book — which one and why? I read Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Unconsoled when it first came out. I’m not entirely sure why I picked it up, except that everyone seemed to be reading Ishiguro at the time. The Remains of the Day had appeared a few years earlier and…
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The Book That Beat Me
What’s a book you never finished but still think about? Many years ago I took The Brothers Karamazov on holidays because I thought this was what holidays were for. I imagined lazy afternoons with Dostoyevsky. A chair somewhere quiet. Maybe a cup of coffee. Enough uninterrupted time to wrestle with God and freedom and suffering…
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Happy Feet
Which fictional world would be the most fun to vacation in? If I could vacation in any fictional world, I think I’d choose Happy Feet. Partly because it would be fun. Antarctica, but with dancing penguins. Vast sheets of ice, deep blue water, enormous skies, music everywhere. There would be something wonderfully ridiculous about sliding…
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The Dancing Man
If you could go back and witness any historical event,which one would you pick? If I could go back and witness any historical event, I think I’d like to be standing in George Street in Sydney on 15 August 1945. There are bigger moments. More important places. More famous people. But I think I’d rather…
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John Ames
Who is the fictional character you relate to the most? Of all the fictional characters I have encountered, John Ames in Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead may be the one I relate to most. Ames is an ageing minister writing to his young son. He is gentle without being sentimental, devout without being coercive, and deeply attentive…
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Lunch with the Cat in the Hat
If you could have dinner with any fictional character who would it be? If I could have lunch with any fictional character, I would choose the Cat in the Hat. He would arrive without being invited. “You were thinking of me,” he would say, stepping through the door with his striped hat brushing the frame.…
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Ira’s Version
What is a book you think deserves a sequel? Some books do not need a sequel. They need another perspective. I wrote recently about how much I enjoyed Anne Tyler’s Breathing Lessons https://theafterword.blog/2026/05/16/a-single-day/. It is a novel about one ordinary day in the life of a middle-aged married couple, Maggie and Ira Moran, as they…
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When the Villain Tells the Truth
What villain actually had a good point? I love the movie, Driving Miss Daisy. The characters are wonderful. Their relationships are beautiful. And it is funny as well. There is no straightforward villain in that film. Hoke is not the villain. Boolie is not the villain. Miss Daisy is flawed, proud, defensive, and shaped by…
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Watership Down
What is a piece of media (book, movie, song)that changed how you see the world? I loved Watership Down when it came out in 1978. I saw the film first, and was so affected by it that I went on to read the book. That is very rare for me. Usually, if I have seen…
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The Wisdom of Unfinished Endings
If you could change the ending of any book, which one would it be? I must admit that I baulk at the question. The reason is simple. I respect art too much. A book is not a product for my satisfaction. It is the work of another person’s imagination. So whether I like the ending…
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Lord of the Flies
What is the first book you ever finished and still remember to this day? I was sixteen when I read Lord of the Flies. It is the first book I remember finishing. It was set reading at school. Not the first book I started. The first one I remember getting to the end of. What…
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Green Wing
What’s a show that had the perfect series finale? I am not really a series person, which makes this prompt harder than it should be. There is really only one show we binge watched: Green Wing. It was a British comedy set in a fictional hospital, East Hampton Hospital. On the surface, it was a…
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A Single Day
What’s a book that completely surprised you? Years ago, a writing teacher recommended Anne Tyler’s Breathing Lessons. It had won the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, so I knew it came well regarded. Even so, I read it mostly out of respect for my teacher. Then I loved it. I wrote a few days ago…
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Ordinary Life Is Strange Enough
What is a classic book that you think is overrated? I read Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Unconsoled in 1995 because, at the time, it seemed to be the book everyone was reading. It was described as a modern classic. It had literary ambition, critical attention, dream logic, and enough bafflement to make you wonder whether the…
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The Mystery of Grace
What’s a mystery from your own life that you’ve never solved? My father is ninety-six and still does not know why his mother left. He was seven years old. There was an argument in the kitchen. Plates and condiments went flying. His mother stormed out the door and walked up the road to stay with…
