In July at Matilda Bookshop Book Club, we chatted about Charmian Clift's riven love story between a sponge-diver and an upper class Australian woman recuperating on the Greek Island of Kalymnos, in the classic Honour's Mimic (1964). With renewed interest in the work of talented women who have been overlooked/overshadowed as demonstrated by recent exhibitions such as Dangerously Modern (AGSA), Clift's solo novels have been reissued recently to a new generation of readers. At book club we considered the ways in which the novel as artefact has shifted (and is always shifting) since 1964. For instance, Clift's use of language is both exhilarating and dense, and the careful structure shows a fine craftsperson at work, but sometimes kept us from getting close to the narrative. Then we asked, do we need to be close? Is that a contemporary concern?

The passionate unravelling between Fotis and Kathy—in a Byzantine ruin, a riverbed, a cliff ledge, a ship-yard—is both transgressive and transformative. Opinions were varied as to whether the depiction of the relationship held up, but all agreed that distinctions in class, wealth, tradition, opportunity put the lovers in peril. Clift's writing of a Greek island, and of sponge diving, especially, is vivid, brilliant and compelling. The exposure of marriage as drudgery for all the women in the novel, Greek and foreign, pointed to Clift's own struggles as a wildly talented writer, mother, wife, and expat. This was a fascinating discussion. MOLLY

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Articles, reviews, and interviews referenced/mentioned in the July sessions:

Return to paradise: Charmian Clift’s Greek odyssey revisited by Heidi Maier in In Daily

‘A woman ahead of her time’: remembering the Australian writer Charmian Clift, 50 years on by Tania Dalziell and Paul Genoni in The Conversation

Charmian Clift: Honour’s Mimic by Carmel Bird in The Saturday Paper  (can register for some free articles)

The best new books released in June, from Charmian Clift, Gail Jones and more by By Kate Evans for The Bookshelf; Claire Nichols and Sarah L'Estrange for The Book Show; Nicola Heath; Declan Fry and Rosie Ofori Ward 

Charmian Clift, ‘radicalising force’ for feminism, finally gets to shine by Garry Maddox in The Sydney Morning Herald  (can register for some free articles)

‘I want to be a Clifty’: Charmian Clift’s unfinished last novel finally gets its moment by Walter Marsh in The Guardian

Other books, poems, media mentioned:

Mermaid Singing & Peel Me a Lotus by Charmian Clift [book]

The End of the Morning by Charmian Clift [book]

My Brother Jack by George Johnston [book]

Theatre for Dreamers by Polly Samson [book]

The Sun Rising by John Donne [poem]

Life Burns High [documentary]

So Long, Marianne [miniseries]

Dangerously Modern [Exhibition at AGSA]

Thank you to all the recent newcomers to book club, and of course, our longtermers: you all contribute in making this a dynamic celebration of books and shared reading.

If you didn't make it but you are intrigued by the discussion of the book, you can get a 20% book club discount by using the code BOOKCLUBJULY when you purchase Cure online. 

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