Reviewed: Being Anti-Social by Leigh K Cunningham

Throughout 2014, Eliza will be participating in the Australian Women Writers Challenge on behalf of Hopscotch Friday.

Mace Evans, the female protagonist of Leigh K Cunningham's award winning Being Anti-Social, could be described as an Aussie Bridget Jones. She's in her late thirties, single, has an interfering family, dysfunctional group of friends, a slight drinking problem and an unfortunate habit of sleeping with her co-workers.

However, Mace is also mourning the love of her life – her ex-husband Ben, who died from leukaemia. Mace struggles through life as she watches her friends and family find love and contentment, which now seem to elude her. She’s still carrying the guilt of the affair she had that led to her marriage breakdown, and her inability to make it right with Ben before he died.
 

Being Anti-Social is about the loneliness of grief and what happens when you find great love and happiness only to lose it. Although it brought me close to tears at one point, this novel also has a great sense of wit that made me laugh out loud. I found familiar the group of girlfriends who you’ve known so long that sometimes you don't remember why you’re still hanging out with them, but still you love them like the sisters you never had. I could also relate to Mace’s tactics for getting through tedious work meetings; 'I slip in and out of awareness, returning only when I hear a C-level voice, in particular the CFO, my boss. For the rest of the time, I nod and make to-do lists, for example, grocery lists, holiday plans, Oscar quotes etc.'
 

In fact, I think it is the author's firsthand experience as a lawyer and senior executive that makes her descriptions of life in the modern workplace all the more real, and her takes on the characters found in nearly every office, a humorous edge. It’s nice to know even the senior echelons of organisations feel the same as us filling out the ranks. This has to be one of my favourite aspects of the book.
 

There are a lot of great moments in Being Anti-Social, and the tone is near perfect blend of cynicism, humour and emotional depth. However, for me its downfall is that some of the characters are not as well developed as I would like, such as ex-boyfriend Rudy and Mace's sister Shannon. Also some aspects of the plot are not wrapped up in a way that left me satisfied. In the end this left me wondering about some of the characters, why they were included at all, and what happened to make them act the way they did?

Being Anti-Social is no Bridget Jones' Diary. It is an enjoyable read and an interesting exploration of how someone might deal with life when it doesn't turn out the way they planned. It’s a book that managed to make me laugh and cry, and any book that can do that is worth a read.

Being Anti-Social by Leigh K Cunningham is independently published through Vivante Publishing.

-Eliza Murphy

read more

Deep Sea and Foreign Going: A Review

I must admit that a non-fiction book about shipping is not something I would ordinarily pick up to read. As Deep Sea and Foreign Going reveals, this is perhaps not a reflection of my interests but the low profile of the shipping industry in our everyday lives - even though it brings us '90 per cent of everything'.

In an effort to find out more about an invisible industry that has such a significant role in bringing us the goods we use every day, UK writer Rose George boards the container-ship Maersk Kendal at the English port of Felixstowe. From here she travels through the Suez Canal and treacherous Somali waters, eventually finishing her journey in Singapore. Interviewing the ship's crew, captain, and various other players in the modern shipping industry - from chaplains to pirate negotiators - George has written a book that is both intriguing and informative.

Ships bring us everything from mobile phones to furniture, cars and food, but most of us know very little, if anything, about it. The book opens with a discussion of how the shipping industry has largely been removed from our everyday consciousness. This is partly because ports are no longer part of residential neighbourhoods, and in a post-9/11 world, security concerns make them nearly impossible to visit (when was the last time you saw a container-ship up close?). Even though we don't see it, the magnitude of the modern shipping industry is astounding - if all the containers of shipping company Maersk were lined up, they would stretch half way around the world.

It is no surprise then that this book taught me a lot about aspects of shipping I would normally not think about. For example, in many cases seafarers work for months at sea with very little contact with home, few recreation or support services and, until 2012, international standards allowed them to work a 98-hour week. In heartbreaking interviews the seafarers talk of their experiences with search and rescue missions at sea and offer anecdotes of modern shipwrecks, which although sad are nonetheless fascinating.

By evanblaser via Flickr

One aspect of modern shipping that perhaps more of us are aware of is the rise of piracy. As George travels through the Somali waters she gives a thorough insight into the dirty and desperate trend that in 2010, Harvard Business School called the 'best business model of the year'. Surprisingly, shipping companies are forced to negotiate with pirates using expert consultants such as John Chase, whose interview paints a chilling picture of the business. George finds that pirates are rarely prosecuted due to the mobile nature of witnesses and the need to find a nation willing to try them as incidents often take place in international waters. As a result, stamping out piracy is a real challenge.

By Grolltech via Wiki.

Being an animal lover, one of the most disturbing revelations was the impact that the growth in the shipping industry, and our increasing intrusion on the oceans, is having on marine life. George's research describes how we are not just polluting the oceans with plastic and chemicals, but also with noise from thousands upon thousands of ships. This comes from the use of seismic surveys and echoes from fish finders, which disturb and disrupt marine animals that are sensitive to sound waves. Research shows that every ten years the noise from commercial shipping doubles, and that this increasing disturbance has effects on the communication and feeding habits of whales, dolphins, fish and other species.

Deep Sea and Foreign Going is a fascinating book if you want to know how your iPhone, television or even baked beans made it into your home, and the incredible stories surrounding its journey. Pick it up and give it a go, even if it is a topic that wouldn't usually be on your radar.

Deep Sea and Foreign Going: Inside Shipping, the Invisible Industry that Brings You 90% of Everything by Rose George is published by Allen & Unwin and available for purchase here.

-Eliza Murphy

read more

The Superficial: The Bling Ring Reviewed

One of my favourite guilty pleasures is to sit down with a big block of chocolate and a juicy gossip magazine. It is fun to peek into the world of the rich and famous, to catch up on who is dating who, the latest teen singing sensation in a fast lane to rehab (cough, Miley Cyrus, cough). I particularly enjoy admiring their designer outfits and how they manage to look so perfect all the time. However, for the four Los Angeles teenagers in Sofia Coppola’s latest film The Bling Ring, the life of celebrity and high-end luxury is more than a passing interest – it is an obsession.

When Marc (Israel Brussard) begins at a new high school, he is shunned by everybody except the pretty and confident Rebecca (Katie Chang).  Marc is pleased when they discover a mutual interest in fashion, and Rebecca is excited to find that Marc’s father is ‘in the biz’ as a film distributor. What begins as a typical teenage friendship made up of parties, trips to the beach and smoking weed, quickly becomes something more serious when they embark on a series of burglaries, accompanied by ditzy Nicki (Emma Watson), her adopted sister Sam (Taissa Famiga) and fellow party girl Chloe (Claire Julien).  They don’t just rob any old homes, though.

The Bling Ring is based on the real life events described in the Vanity Fair article, ‘The Suspects Wore Louboutins’. The article details the crime spree that saw the teens steal US$3 million worth of jewellery and designer clothing from the mansions of celebrities they admired, including Paris Hilton, Orlando Bloom and Lindsay Lohan during 2008 and 2009.  The ‘Bling Ring’, as they became known, used the internet to research the addresses of their favourite celebrities and targeted them on nights they’d be away filming or attending events. They got in using keys hidden under doormats or via unlocked doors. Who knew it would be so easy?

Co-written by the article’s author Nancy Jo Sales, the film is relatively close to the events as described. Taking the perspective of the teens involved, it follows them as they ransack one celebrity home after another. However, there wasn’t much else to it, and without a fuller storyline it struggled to maintain my interest.

For a film, the story needed to be more substantial. Although the opportunity to develop the characters presents itself, this is where the film falls flat. We really know nothing about them, apart from Nicki and Sam bring products of their mother's (Leslie Mann) misguided home schooling curriculum based on The Secret, that Rebecca comes from a broken home, and that Marc has anxiety issues garnered via a passing remark. Also not revealed are their motives for partaking in this series of audacious crimes.

What the film does say about these characters is that they reflect a generation that is narcissistic, superficial and obsessed with fame. In the world of The Bling Ring, having a ‘DUI’ (driving under the influence) conviction like Lindsay Lohan is something to be celebrated, and life goals include owning a collection of Louboutin shoes, appearing on TMZ or having your own reality TV show. On the one hand, the film’s visual style is very reflective of this and looks like a television advert or gossip magazine, interspersed with Facebook profiles and pics, white at other times it has a very dreamy feel more akin to Coppola’s Lost In Translation.

What I most enjoyed about the film was Emma Watson’s performance as Nicki, who is perhaps the most superficial and fame obsessed of the bunch. My favourite line in the whole film, sadly based on an actual quote by one of the real-life Bling Ring members, is delivered by Watson, surrounded by paparazzi as she enters the courthouse to face trial:

“I’m a firm believer in Karma and I think this situation was attracted into my life because it was supposed to be a huge learning lesson for me to grow and expand as a spiritual human being...God didn’t give me these talents and looks to just sit around being a model or being famous. I want to lead a huge charity organization. I want to lead a country, for all I know.”

God help us all.

The Bling Ring is out on DVD and Blu-Ray through Roadshow.

-Eliza Murphy

read more

Am I Old Yet?

I can’t escape the fact that I am fast approaching thirty.

Now, I know it’s not exactly what you would call old in the scheme of things, or at least I hope you wouldn’t, but for some reason entering your thirties feels like a point where a lot of things will change. We leave behind the carefree days of our twenties and often find ourselves taking on responsibilities and obligations like mortgages, marriages, and kids (although not necessarily in that order).

They say there are a lot of 'advantages' to being in your thirties, like more self-confidence; having smaller, closer groups of friends; getting somewhere in your career; maybe even finding your ‘life partner’ or becoming parents. But as my friends and I discussed at a recent thirtieth birthday party, there are some common tell tale signs that you have started the transition to becoming old (and maybe, dare I say it, a bit like your parents):

1. A ‘big night’ is leaving a bar/club/ party around midnight, just as your younger friends are starting to arrive.

2. Hangovers from said big nights no longer mean feeling a bit seedy, but involve days of dark sunglasses, no loud noises and Berocca for recovery.

3. You buy clothes for their warmth, comfort and practicality rather than to make fashion and style statements. Seriously, where the hell can I find a coat with a decent wool content these days?

4. You drink wine that costs above $20 a bottle and eagerly discuss the ‘blackberry notes’ and ‘smoothness of flavour’.

5. You enjoy blue cheese.

6. You spend most of your weekends at weddings, baby showers or birthday parties for the offspring of friends.
7. A get together with more than three friends is no longer a spontaneous gathering at the local pub, instead taking months of meticulous planning and several rounds of date/time/venue deliberations.

8. They remake your favourite television shows or movies, and teenagers call the originals ‘retro’.
9. An expansion on point 8; flavour of the month boy bands cover your favourite tunes and ruin them. Worse still, their fans have never heard the originals. Who is The Who, anyway?
10. What the hell is YOLO? Totes!
11. You take up gardening, sewing, crafts, photography, furniture restoration, baking or gourmet cooking.
12. You listen to new music on the radio and lament that it all sounds the same.
13. You remember using VHS tapes fondly, when really, they were crap. Oh, and the Betamax debate, you remember that.
14. You realise the 1980s was thirty years ago, and kids born in the early 1990s are now adults.
15. And where the hell is my hoverboard?

So there it is. If six or more of these ring true for you then I’m sorry but you are no longer young, hip and happening but are now transitioning into an old fart.

But on the bright side, at least you’re not in your forties (apparently that’s a whole other list).

-Eliza Murphy

read more

Rock n Roll Wannabe

Like many with good intentions I bought an acoustic guitar because ‘someday’ I was going to learn to play. Instead, for a couple of years, it became a hipster accessory, gathering dust in the corner of my lounge room, looking cool but sadly under utilised. However, at the start of 2013 I decided to make learning guitar my New Year’s resolution.

So why does a girl in her late twenties with no musical experience suddenly decide to learn the guitar? I’ve never been in a band and haven’t touched an instrument since the Yamaha recorder in 1994 (although back then I could really rock a rendition of Hot Cross Buns). So, I guess the reason is: because I could. Life had become a lot like Groundhog Day, and I needed something to shake it up a bit. That something is my guitar.

I decided to try group lessons, which I thought would be much less confronting than the solo kind. My teacher isn’t scary, but like a kindly primary school music teacher (maybe because he is a kindly primary school music teacher).However, what is embarrassing about learning in a group is when you have a steel string guitar (like me), which plays louder than nearly everyone else with nylon strings, and you hit the wrong note (like me, often).

I didn’t even know there was a difference, and when asked if mine was steel, answered ‘no, I own mine’.

Actually, the most intimidating part of learning an instrument is not even the lessons; it’s going into music shops. When you wander in, there’s some middle-aged bloke with a pot belly and black Def Leppard t-shirt who finally decides to serve you after you’ve been standing there for a sufficiently uncomfortable amount of time. You know what he’s thinking. He’s thinking, ‘you don’t belong here’. Ok, so I have no idea that soft guitar cases are called ‘gig bags’ but do you really have to correct me on that?

Anyway, I’m proud to say I’m slowly building up a repertoire of campfire songs and elevator music, including such classics like Greensleeves and Minuet in G. Even though it really hasn’t made me any cooler, I’m so glad I’ve started to learn to play the guitar. There’s just something about plucking those strings after a long day at work that helps you relax. And you never know, I might even graduate to learning an actual, real, rock n’roll song one day. Stay tuned.

-Eliza Murphy

The always inspiring, John Lennon

read more