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Joyful Strains: Making Australia Home
Joyful Strains collects twenty-seven memoirs from writers describing their expatriation to Australia. These are stories about what they found, who they became and what they now think of Australia – stories that provide entertainment, perspective and cause to celebrate our increasingly diverse nation. This is an insightful, compelling and sometimes confronting collection for all Australians.
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
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April 23, 2013An eclectic range of perspectives from Australians born on other shores.
August 1, 2013
Enjoyable and insightful, for the most part. This country has gained a wealth of talent in its migrant writers.
December 9, 2024
Book #21 of 24 in '24
This anthology was given to me by a Dutch man while I was travelling the world continuously for over two years between 2017 and 2019, but it wasn't until four years later that I finally picked it up to read. Unfortunately, having read lots of Australian migrant voices compilations in the past year (mainly the fabulous SBS Emerging Writers anthologies), I found this one really tedious and ironically homogenous in its voices. Despite the racial, religious and ethnic diversity of the writers featured, they all spring from very similar privileged backgrounds and are drawn heavily from academia and high-brow literature, which makes for a very slow and ruminative reading experience, not what I was looking for at this time of year. The best thing for me was a previous owner's handwritten comments to her brother: "G—You have done this and it was good for you" (on ending where one began) and "G—DO NOT READ THIS ONE - IT IS BAD FOR YOUR MIND." (RE 'Sally' by Ali Alizadeh).
This anthology was given to me by a Dutch man while I was travelling the world continuously for over two years between 2017 and 2019, but it wasn't until four years later that I finally picked it up to read. Unfortunately, having read lots of Australian migrant voices compilations in the past year (mainly the fabulous SBS Emerging Writers anthologies), I found this one really tedious and ironically homogenous in its voices. Despite the racial, religious and ethnic diversity of the writers featured, they all spring from very similar privileged backgrounds and are drawn heavily from academia and high-brow literature, which makes for a very slow and ruminative reading experience, not what I was looking for at this time of year. The best thing for me was a previous owner's handwritten comments to her brother: "G—You have done this and it was good for you" (on ending where one began) and "G—DO NOT READ THIS ONE - IT IS BAD FOR YOUR MIND." (RE 'Sally' by Ali Alizadeh).
September 30, 2018
This book captures a range of memories of those who have experienced the ‘joys’ and ‘strain’ of making Australia their new home at various stages of their lives. Many make reference to the sense of loss that is felt on leaving behind both place and people. Other capture the loneliness of being the ‘other’ on their arrival. Even so, a number experience happiness and freedom in their new setting and come to love it.
December 25, 2020
I love the range of experiences in this collection of short memoirs. Non-migrant Australians should read to understand that stories of migrants differ greatly, and the power that we have to make their migration a positive transition.
I'm unable to speak on this myself, but those I know who have migrated to Australia and read this have spoken of the comfort it brought to feel understood by so many others who have also made the journey, experiencing both the joys and strains.
I'm unable to speak on this myself, but those I know who have migrated to Australia and read this have spoken of the comfort it brought to feel understood by so many others who have also made the journey, experiencing both the joys and strains.
October 25, 2021
Incredible book/ memoirs, esp for migrants and their families. So interesting to see different views about adapting and belonging to a brand new place
July 5, 2015
Joyful Strains, Making Australia Home is a recent book, but it hasn’t had as much attention as IMO it should have had, given the importance of the immigrant experience to our country. As Thuy On noted in her review for the SMH, it is apparently the first anthology to explore the experience of the expatriate, the refugee and the political exile, from authors who have variously made their home here. It’s a fascinating collection of memoirs by 27 authors from all over the world...
was an inspired choice to have indigenous author Alexis Wright write the Foreword of Joyful Strains to complement the introduction by Arnold Zable . She reminds readers that there is a shameful legacy – a history of dispossession and oppression – which is inherited by each person who arrives in this country to live, calling Australia home. But – in the spirit of generosity which seems to characterise so many spokespersons for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People – she also explains that the storytelling legacy that shapes their long history makes them open to stories from other cultures.
By reading each other, we grow our ability to understand, to acknowledge and to share one another’s joy, hope, grief, loss, and for many, the predicament of losing homes, lands, community, family and country. We are all people of stories.
Our stories define who we are and what we want to become, just as it was the stories of our ancestors that formed the basis of Aboriginal law, spiritual beliefs and an understanding of how to maintain a relationship with the land.
It is a basic human need to be offered hands in friendship, to be offered shelter and to live in peace with a sense of security. This is how we can welcome and acknowledge all stories, and give them hearth in our hearts. It would not be within us for it to be otherwise.
To read the rest of my review please visit http://anzlitlovers.com/2015/07/05/jo...
was an inspired choice to have indigenous author Alexis Wright write the Foreword of Joyful Strains to complement the introduction by Arnold Zable . She reminds readers that there is a shameful legacy – a history of dispossession and oppression – which is inherited by each person who arrives in this country to live, calling Australia home. But – in the spirit of generosity which seems to characterise so many spokespersons for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People – she also explains that the storytelling legacy that shapes their long history makes them open to stories from other cultures.
By reading each other, we grow our ability to understand, to acknowledge and to share one another’s joy, hope, grief, loss, and for many, the predicament of losing homes, lands, community, family and country. We are all people of stories.
Our stories define who we are and what we want to become, just as it was the stories of our ancestors that formed the basis of Aboriginal law, spiritual beliefs and an understanding of how to maintain a relationship with the land.
It is a basic human need to be offered hands in friendship, to be offered shelter and to live in peace with a sense of security. This is how we can welcome and acknowledge all stories, and give them hearth in our hearts. It would not be within us for it to be otherwise.
To read the rest of my review please visit http://anzlitlovers.com/2015/07/05/jo...
April 7, 2014
This book is a mixed bag. There are wonderfully moving, emotional, and inspiring stories, alongside stories that I found aimless or bland. In particular, I disliked the story that represents my home, the USA. It doesn't represent me - my experience, my perspective. Usually that is the benefit to reading someone else's perspective, but this one was uninspiring. My point is that it's important to realize these stories are personal, and reflect a personal legacy, that is steeped in a particular culture.
I would definitely recommend this book to any person that has an Australian connection, and the editors made sure to wrap the book on a selection of the best stories.
I would definitely recommend this book to any person that has an Australian connection, and the editors made sure to wrap the book on a selection of the best stories.
June 2, 2016
Definitely worth the read, enjoyed the personal insights and reflections, and the variety of perspectives and experiences. It was the little details I'd never have considered. A lot of the bigger things, one can imagine, but its those little details that add so much life to the struggle to stand between cultures and to learn to be at home, when 'home' is so far away.
I think this book was good for me. :)
I think this book was good for me. :)
August 21, 2016
I read this because it's new to the VCE text list. It's short stories and it has an interesting genre- place,identity, home, purpose, migration. The stories are sad, informative, reflective, retrospective and raw. Well written, well chosen and equally representative of the people who make up this nation. It's about dreams, hopes, found and lost, place and purpose. A good read.
October 3, 2013
A great collection of stories which made me refect on my experiences with migrants, particularly when I was in primary school in the 70s. The stand-outs for me were Amy Espeseth (heart-wrenching), Danny Katz (hilarious), Chris Flynn & Ali Alizadeh.
April 14, 2016
Meh. Blurbed by JM Coetzee who says it's great, but if the project was so great why didn't he contribute to it? Some of the pieces are nicely done, but the whole anthology tends to encourage a kind of sameness in people's migrant stories.
February 16, 2013
Brilliant... sobering... vastly engaging... encompasses the full range of the Expat Experience. Superb collection. It'll stretch your brain and urge you to use it!
July 26, 2016
A mixed bag, but so many voices. As an migrant to Australia I loved it.
November 9, 2018
This was a book I had to study for Year 12 English, and it was quite interesting. Some of the stories I found very interesting, others didn’t really grasp my attention. Overall it was an insightful view of the struggles of immigration, but after studying it over and over, I became over it rather quickly.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews