Triple Choice Tuesday: Genevieve Tucker

Welcome to Triple Choice Tuesday. This is where I ask some of my favourite bloggers and other bookish bods to share the names of three books that mean a lot to them. The idea is that it might raise the profile of certain books and introduce you to new titles and new bloggers.

Today’s guest is Genevieve Tucker, who orginally blogged at Reeling and Writhing but now concentrates mainly on Mulberry Road.

Genevieve has been blogging about books from Australia since the beginning of 2005. She has four children and has trained as a librarian, but spends most of her time keeping her 25-year-old autistic son cheerful and sensible, and trying to get him somewhere to live. When that’s sorted, she says she might have more time for reviewing books online.

Without further ado, here’s Gevevieve’s Triple Choice Tuesday selections:

A favourite book: The Girl Green As Elderflower by Randolph Stow

This is a brief but deceptively deep novella, a tapestry of old and new tales, framed by the device of a visitor settling into an ancient place, by recently deceased Western Australian author Randolph Stow.

I’m going to read this novel again right now. Unfortunately, I have heaps of favourite books, though, so that’s not exactly a representative choice. I also love The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald. They are possibly the only books with ‘flower’ in the title that I like, though, apart from botanical folios.

A book that changed my life: Rhyme and Rhythm (Green Book)

This is the poetry book my mother gave me for Christmas when I was twelve and which I still own. It’s a remarkably good collection for children of that age. I wonder if my grandmother helped her pick it. I have looked on Abebooks and found that it’s part of a series of school texts, published in the UK in the 1960s. There are about three of the Green books still around.

I studied poetry in two languages at university in my twenties and still read plenty of poetry. I think most of the books I read modify my life in some way. So many writers are just people to me, as I get older, rather than bards or sages, telling the stories I won’t hear anywhere else unless I’m really listening and watching. Most do that for me, if I am paying close enough attention to the person speaking.

A book that deserves a wider audience: The Delinquents by Criena Rohan

Well, I could have chosen all of Randolph Stow and Gerald Murnane’s books — and Carpentaria by Alexis Wright — but I am plumping firmly for something of broader appeal. The Delinquents, by Criena Rohan, is a novel about the 1950s in Brisbane and Melbourne by an Australian writer who tragically died very young, with her last work lost. It is a perfect little story of young love gone awry, and was made into a film starring Kylie Minogue, who surprisingly did a damn good job with what was left once the scriptwriters had finished with it. There is a magnificent tirade from the main character, Lola, about three-quarters of the way through, that is unforgettable.

Thanks, Genevieve, for taking part in my Triple Choice Tuesday!

I’m keen to read The Girl Green as Elderflower because I’ve read two of Randolph Stow’s novels in the past year and found them incredibly powerful. I read The Delinquents about the time the Kylie Minogue film came out circa 1989, but don’t remember that much about it!

What do you think of Genevieve’s choices? Have you read any of these books?