Perth: A Guide for the Curious

by Terri-ann White (Editor)

Where do you find a city's soul? Where is its pulse, its personality? When we walk across the skin of a city, do we listen for its laugh? Terri-ann White draws together an eclectic group of Perth people in this collection to share their insights on a rapidly evolving city. From an architect's perspective on heritage to a historian's ruminations on Perth's swampy origins; from a walk down streets that don't exist to Noongar place names; from the union movement to public art to criminal Perth to conversational Perth, this book encourages new encounters with the city. Perth: a guide for the curious traverses social, cultural and political spaces as the reader traverses the streets, kindling a sense of curiosity about a city by unearthing buried treasure. This is not a book of nostalgia. It doesn't posit a golden age or list a series of laments. This is a book about continuities and unfolding narratives. Perth situates the present in the past and illuminates possible futures. Perth: a guide for the curious is meant to be thumbed through in cafes, stuffed into satchels and walked around the city like a tireless companion. Perth promises to delight and inspire both visitor and local alike. *** "Thoroughly 'reader friendly' in tone, commentary, organization and presentation, 'Perth: A Guide for the Curious' is unreservedly recommended for another living in and/or anticipating visiting the ever-evolving city of Perth, Australia." -- Midwest Book Review, Wisconsin Bookwatch: August 2016, The Travel Shelf [Subject: Travel, Australia]

330 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2016

Reviews

[Stefani Akins · Rating 2 out of 5]

From the back cover: "Perth: a guide for the curious is meant to be thumbed through in cafes, stuffed into satchels and walked around the city like a tireless companion." Translate that into "read in the bookshop, steal but don't waste your money, and if you need help drowning yourself in shallow water, feel free to use as weight in your backpack." The title makes a promise that the content of this erratic, badly edited and boringly illustrated tome cannot keep. For one thing, not a thought was wasted on who the intended audience might be. Some of the essays are entirely pointless drivel that provide neither illumination nor illustration of the nature of this most isolated capital city. Few of them bother to scratch up any substance beyond flimsy personal anecdotes that cannot remotely be connected to Perth as it exists today, partly because the photo material is so tiny, one needs a magnifying lens to make out any detail, partly because the included "maps" are merely strip maps of the former wetland glory dotted with random landmarks, as if someone had invited a drunken darts player to create illustrations. So, if the "curious" addressed in the title are already familiar with Perth, it is doubtful they would bother purchasing this book, and if it is aimed at a broader audience, I recommend buying an additional road map.

Somewhere in the book, the authors claim that content goes beyond nostalgia, but the old-fashioned photographs dividing individual sections say otherwise. All these points, together with the ridiculous foreword by current Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi, who is clearly creating credentials for a future career in tourism marketing, should have been enough to warn me to keep the credit card in the wallet and run, not walk, to the nearest exit of the bookshop. Perhaps the final review copy of the book was a bit of a rush job, or else Terri-Ann White should have spent more time with actual proof-reading, because when I said "badly edited" before, that is just what I mean.

Some of the essays are rambling pieces that provide no clear connection to Perth at all, and sadly, that does include the mumbo-jumbo chapter on Nyoongar place names. If you cannot get enough quality submissions for a whole book, look further or print a magazine instead. Page 143, in Peter Kennedy's chaotic piece on local politics and name-dropping, features two whole lines, neatly enclosed in parentheses, that clearly constitute a text correction of some sort. Geoffrey London's Urban Reflections not only boast a sadly obvious grammatical mistake ("...becoming a keen student of the city and it's architecture", p. 183) but also a complete disconnect from Perth then and now, as it is wholly unillustrated. Websites such as Lost Perth feature vast vaults of photographic material that could have been used to bring these remembrances to life for those readers who are not old or local enough to be familiar with the city at that time.

All in all, this collection reads like a hurried assembly of random writings without direction. The small handful of actually insightful and interesting articles cannot balance out the rest, and one must look very, very closely to "find the city's soul" or discover anything about its personality. Save your money for the excellent Perth by David Whish-Wilson, instead and satisfy your curiosity by visiting the local tourist office and exploring on your own.

Postscript: today I actually officially finished the book. I stand by my original assessment. The only reason to elevate the rating at all would be that David Whish-Wilson's essay was a fabulous example of what the book could have been, had standards for content been set and applied.

[Sammy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Other reviewers have covered the clear limitations of this volume. Commissioned by the Perth City Council, this features 20 short essays by various contributors focusing primarily on the inner city. As mentioned by others, there are numerous issues including limited proofreading, a vagueness in some of the pieces which is inevitable given their length, and a slightly overmarketed feel. (It's not all marketing though; if anything a few of the essays go too far, I'd almost argue, in their insistence on the "white invasion" angle at the expense of actually saying anything.)

I'm still glad I read this. As a newcomer to Perth, the small stories and the cultural resonances are what tend to slip through the cracks in official histories. This has certainly helped me better understand the attitudes of Perth's residents at the start of the 21st century, in an era when so much focus has been on the future rather than the past or even (sometimes) the present.

[Jen Mactaggart · Rating 3 out of 5]

It feels like this book was rushed into publication: not even proof read and many of the articles missed the brief ("a guide for the curious"). I was hoping this would illuminate some hidden histories or stories of Perth and locate them geographically, like when you go on walking tours in other cities. However, this was rarely the case, a missed opportunity. But in a way, this is Perth - celebrating mediocrity and parochialism rather than striving for a high standard.

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

A real missed opportunity of a book. Typographical and formatting errors abound, and many of the contributing authors required more guidance from the editor to stay on topic and remain accessible to a popular audience. There are a few pieces that are really good, but they are in the minority. Topics are covered shallowly multiple times in multiple sections leaving the reader unsatisfied. I expected better of UWA Press.

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

It would benefit from another proof-read and would be enhanced immensely by labeled pictures and a 'proper' map. Otherwise it was an interesting read/topic!