Sheep And The Diva

by David Brooks

Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

David Brooks has published several collections of poetry, short fiction and essays, and four novels, The House of Balthus (1995), The Fern Tattoo (2007), The Umbrella Club (2009) and The Conversation (2012). His work has been highly acclaimed, widely translated and anthologised, and shortlisted for the Miles Franklin, New South Wales Premier’s, Adelaide Festival and many other awards. In 2011 he published The Sons of Clovis: Ern Malley, Adoré Floupette, and a secret history of Australian poetry. He teaches Australian literature at the University of Sydney, is co-editor of the journal Southerly, lives in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, and spends a small part of each year in a village on the sea coast of Slovenia.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name.

Reviews

[Rhonda · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazingly, incredibly beautiful work. Appearing fictional but, by the end, not; entirely. One of those rare works where you start reading and the struggle to continue happens early but you hang in as beneath the weird tangle of seemingly fictional mass something has taken and continues to hold tight. I didn't have to struggle to read this work so much as struggle and fail to be able to put it down. The simplest way I can describe it is to say it is about simple, everyday, recognizable things but viewed as if from beneath. Not simply related but explored in an entirety that is both stationary and shifting, encompassing secrets and hidden linkages. I moved from annoyance at its repetition of theme and lack of transparency to a growing awareness that the repetition was different aspects of the same thing and the same thing seemed to encapsulate all of everything life and non-life is. There is a potential spoiler in the last pages but you have to read - in my case slowly as concentration and perseverance was essential - to the end. Its being a spoiler means I can't say what it is and nor do I want to; it is something you can't get fully unless you do the trek. Loved it and deeply moved by its beauty. To anyone reading this I just hope you can find it.