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Women of Letters: Reviving The Lost Art of Correspondence by Michaela McGuire, Marieke Hardy
jetsilver's review
3.0
I was excited to find this, during a post-Christmas Melbourne bookshop crawl. I'd wanted to go to one of the live Women of Letters events when they were on, but it was never possible. This is a project of Marieke Hardy (who I've followed since the days of her blog, Reasons You Will Hate Me and through her time as a presenter on Triple J breakfast radio) and Michaela McGuire. Even better, the Women of Letters project supports a charity I'm very fond of: Edgar's Mission.
I enjoyed this read. A collection of letters written on given topics by Australians of note, generally in the arts field, and organised into sections by those topics. Because of its letters format, it's easy to pick up and read a letter or two, then put down and let that process.
As is to be expected when 60+ different contributors are involved, I enjoyed some letters much more than others.
The topics ranged widely, and with varying numbers of responses to each one. The first section, "To the night I'd rather forget", sets up a common thread. Because the letters were originally written to be performed at the stage events, and because many of the contributors have a background in comedy (and Australian comedy does so love the mocking of the self), many of the letters are written as if they might be material for a stand up routine. Many of the contributions in the book hold the writer's failings up for ridicule, which is very well done in some cases, but is not something I enjoy very much of. I preferred the contibutions from women with different backgrounds, particuarly Noni Hazelhurst ("To my ghosts" and "To my first boss"), Megan Washington ("To the best present I ever received") and Joan Kirner ("To my turning point").
Certainly, some of the topics were more intruiging than others. "A love letter" was the most responded-to prompt, with seven contributors, and together with "To my twelve-year-old self" seemed the most overdone of the topics - which is not to say the letters were of a lower quality, just that the topics have been done so many times before.
I loved the sections for "To my first pin-up", "My first boss" and "The moment it all fell apart".
I thought that the collection could have done without the two sections for men, "To the song I wish I'd written", and "To the woman who changed my life". Two of the six letters in the "Changed my life" section are beautiful, true celebrations of a treasured woman in the writer's life - one a sister and one a wife, from Ben Salter and Eddie Perfect respectively. The other four are male-centred dreck, and the first one is for some reason written to Desdemona as if from Othello, by way of Paul Kelly. Why is a letter from a fictional man to the fictional woman he betrayed and murdered in here? Other highlights are the one to woman-as-monolith (No, really, the whole thing is addressed to "Woman"), the one about my-wife-is-awesome-because-otherwise-I'd-be-dead-of-my-own-stupidity-but-I-wish-we-had-more-kids (hi, Bob Ellis, you misogynist old asshat), the childish offering from John Saffran (parody song about thinking his girlfriend's mother is hot), and the self-indulgent plea to be forgiven by an ex courtesy of Tim Rogers.
I would have loved to have seen women's responses to the "To the woman who changed my life" topic.
Still, I very much liked this taste of so many different women's voices, some whose work I knew of, and others who were new to me. It's an engaging, funny, honest, shocking and beautiful collection of works.
I enjoyed this read. A collection of letters written on given topics by Australians of note, generally in the arts field, and organised into sections by those topics. Because of its letters format, it's easy to pick up and read a letter or two, then put down and let that process.
As is to be expected when 60+ different contributors are involved, I enjoyed some letters much more than others.
The topics ranged widely, and with varying numbers of responses to each one. The first section, "To the night I'd rather forget", sets up a common thread. Because the letters were originally written to be performed at the stage events, and because many of the contributors have a background in comedy (and Australian comedy does so love the mocking of the self), many of the letters are written as if they might be material for a stand up routine. Many of the contributions in the book hold the writer's failings up for ridicule, which is very well done in some cases, but is not something I enjoy very much of. I preferred the contibutions from women with different backgrounds, particuarly Noni Hazelhurst ("To my ghosts" and "To my first boss"), Megan Washington ("To the best present I ever received") and Joan Kirner ("To my turning point").
Certainly, some of the topics were more intruiging than others. "A love letter" was the most responded-to prompt, with seven contributors, and together with "To my twelve-year-old self" seemed the most overdone of the topics - which is not to say the letters were of a lower quality, just that the topics have been done so many times before.
I loved the sections for "To my first pin-up", "My first boss" and "The moment it all fell apart".
I thought that the collection could have done without the two sections for men, "To the song I wish I'd written", and "To the woman who changed my life". Two of the six letters in the "Changed my life" section are beautiful, true celebrations of a treasured woman in the writer's life - one a sister and one a wife, from Ben Salter and Eddie Perfect respectively. The other four are male-centred dreck, and the first one is for some reason written to Desdemona as if from Othello, by way of Paul Kelly. Why is a letter from a fictional man to the fictional woman he betrayed and murdered in here? Other highlights are the one to woman-as-monolith (No, really, the whole thing is addressed to "Woman"), the one about my-wife-is-awesome-because-otherwise-I'd-be-dead-of-my-own-stupidity-but-I-wish-we-had-more-kids (hi, Bob Ellis, you misogynist old asshat), the childish offering from John Saffran (parody song about thinking his girlfriend's mother is hot), and the self-indulgent plea to be forgiven by an ex courtesy of Tim Rogers.
I would have loved to have seen women's responses to the "To the woman who changed my life" topic.
Still, I very much liked this taste of so many different women's voices, some whose work I knew of, and others who were new to me. It's an engaging, funny, honest, shocking and beautiful collection of works.
gillyflake98's review
4.0
A fantastic collection of short writing pieces. Some are better then others, some real highlights are Megan Washington, Judith Lucy, Bob Ellis and Michelle Law. Very good.
librarykath's review
2.0
Nowhere near as good as I had expected it to be. There was so much potential there, but the letters were mostly silly and shallow and not even funny. A few exceptions, like those from Noni Hazelhurst and Alice Pung, but generally very boring,
eri_123's review
As a lover of letters I loved this book. The letters were often intensely personal which made for fascinating reading. I would've loved to have seen them 'performed', but equally, being able to read them as opposed to hearing them gave an appropriately letter-y experience.
It wasn't a difficult read and the format made it easy to dip into at a spare moment.
It wasn't a difficult read and the format made it easy to dip into at a spare moment.
babblingbooks's review
4.0
Women of Letters is a brilliant book to pick up and read a little of at a time. All profits go to an animal welfare centre and the book is a collection of 'letters' written by famous Australian women (and a few famous men, about the women in their lives). It is a celebration of the art of correspondence, and I enjoyed it immensely.
This book is all about reviving the art of writing letters, the art of sharing stories in more than 140 characters, perhaps even the art of living and appreciating life enough to fill this space. This is also a book filled with the lives of amazing Australian women, so this post is for my aunt Rachel, who is the bravest woman I know.
'Women of Letters' began as a creative fundraising event for Edgar's Mission animal rescue centre and has grown into a monthly event, with an online community, and of course, the book which I just read. Hardy and McGuire invite talented musicians, actresses, politicians, writers and comedians to write a letter to topics as varied as 'the moment it all fell apart' or 'the best present I ever received' and in the process revive the lost art of correspondence. At the monthly events, these writers then read their letters aloud to an audience, which lends a very intimate quality to the letters in this book, as each has a very distinct 'voice'.
This is a difficult book to comment on, as there are so many styles, and vastly different approaches to writing letters. But this is it's strength. It is a brilliant book to read a little at a time, I picked it up and read a couple of letters here and there, rather than from start to finish. Some of the letters were very candid, other were hilarious, and out of all the letters there were only two that I didn't like (and one of those was written by Paul Kelly).
I must admit that there are two things about this book which I would usually dislike. First is the 'celebrity factor'. Ever since I read a social science text with an infuriatingly pretentious introduction by Bono I have shied away from any kind of 'non literary' celebrity association. However, in this case I am willing to overlook this, because seeing Megan Washington's name was actually what made me pick up the book, and give it a proper look, rather than just a cursory glance. In addition, the actual idea behind the fundraising is based around famous Australia women, as so it isn't some tacked on celebrity endorsement.
Secondly, as any frequent reader of this blog will probably have noticed, I'm not really a reader of 'current' books. Those books that dominate newspaper columns and 'recommended this Summer' lists before falling into obscurity as mediocre. I had seen this book mentioned in a few Sunday newspaper reviews and there was a huge in store display, but I'm glad I swallowed my prejudices and gave it a try. 'Women of Letters' is something truly unique and well worth a read, it might even prompt you to see your own life in a different light.
This book is all about reviving the art of writing letters, the art of sharing stories in more than 140 characters, perhaps even the art of living and appreciating life enough to fill this space. This is also a book filled with the lives of amazing Australian women, so this post is for my aunt Rachel, who is the bravest woman I know.
'Women of Letters' began as a creative fundraising event for Edgar's Mission animal rescue centre and has grown into a monthly event, with an online community, and of course, the book which I just read. Hardy and McGuire invite talented musicians, actresses, politicians, writers and comedians to write a letter to topics as varied as 'the moment it all fell apart' or 'the best present I ever received' and in the process revive the lost art of correspondence. At the monthly events, these writers then read their letters aloud to an audience, which lends a very intimate quality to the letters in this book, as each has a very distinct 'voice'.
This is a difficult book to comment on, as there are so many styles, and vastly different approaches to writing letters. But this is it's strength. It is a brilliant book to read a little at a time, I picked it up and read a couple of letters here and there, rather than from start to finish. Some of the letters were very candid, other were hilarious, and out of all the letters there were only two that I didn't like (and one of those was written by Paul Kelly).
I must admit that there are two things about this book which I would usually dislike. First is the 'celebrity factor'. Ever since I read a social science text with an infuriatingly pretentious introduction by Bono I have shied away from any kind of 'non literary' celebrity association. However, in this case I am willing to overlook this, because seeing Megan Washington's name was actually what made me pick up the book, and give it a proper look, rather than just a cursory glance. In addition, the actual idea behind the fundraising is based around famous Australia women, as so it isn't some tacked on celebrity endorsement.
Secondly, as any frequent reader of this blog will probably have noticed, I'm not really a reader of 'current' books. Those books that dominate newspaper columns and 'recommended this Summer' lists before falling into obscurity as mediocre. I had seen this book mentioned in a few Sunday newspaper reviews and there was a huge in store display, but I'm glad I swallowed my prejudices and gave it a try. 'Women of Letters' is something truly unique and well worth a read, it might even prompt you to see your own life in a different light.
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