Latest news with #ThePretender
New York Post
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Post
What do tickets cost to see Jackson Browne on tour in 2025?
Vivid Seats is the New York Post's official ticketing partner. We may receive revenue from this partnership for sharing this content and/or when you make a purchase. Featured pricing is subject to change. One of rock's most enduring performers is going for another spin this year. From June through November, Jackson Browne will deliver his hits and deep cuts at theatres, chateaus, casinos, wineries, festivals and parks all over the U.S. That includes four concerts at New York City's Beacon Theatre on Tuesday, Aug. 12, Wednesday, Aug. 13, Friday, Aug. 15 and Saturday, Aug. 16. He's also slated to swing into Atlantic City's Hard Rock Hotel and Casino on Saturday, June 28. The run concludes with a five-show residency at Las Vegas' Venetian Theatre. While we can't guarantee what the Rock Hall of Famer will bring to the stage this time arond, it's likely he'll perform well-known classics like 'Doctor My Eyes,' 'Here Come Those Tears Again' and 'The Pretender' as well as tunes from his 2021 Grammy-nominated album 'Downhill From Everywhere' and maybe even his meditative 2024 single 'Everywhere I Look.' If you want to see Rolling Stone's 37th greatest guitarist of all time live, tickets are available for all 2025 Jackson Browne concerts. At the time of publication, the lowest price we could find on tickets for any one show was $62 including fees on Vivid Seats. Other shows start anywhere from $72 to $399 including fees. For more information, our team has everything you need to know and more about Jackson Browne's 2025 tour below. All prices listed above are subject to fluctuation. Jackson Browne tour schedule 2025 A complete calendar including all tour dates, venues and links to the cheapest tickets available can be found here: Jackson Browne tour dates Ticket prices start at June 12 at the Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara, CA with the Crosby Collective N/A June 13 at the Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara, CA with the Crosby Collective $399 (including fees) June 28 at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, NJ $251 (including fees) Aug. 12 at the Beacon Theatre in New York, NY $75 (including fees) Aug. 13 at the Beacon Theatre in New York, NY $72 (including fees) Aug. 15 at the Beacon Theatre in New York, NY $62 (including fees) Aug. 16 at the Beacon Theatre in New York, NY $90 (including fees) Sept. 6 at Humphreys Concerts by the Bay in San Diego, CA $388 (including fees) Sept. 7 at Humphreys Concerts by the Bay in San Diego, CA $396 (including fees) Sept. 9 at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga, CA $165.20 (including fees) Sept. 10 at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga, CA $151.56 (including fees) Sept. 12 at the Chateau Ste. Michelle in Woodinville, WA $117.06 (including fees) Sept. 13 at the Chateau Ste. Michelle in Woodinville, WA $80.67 (including fees) Oct. 11-12 at ShoalsFest in Florence, AL Two-day passes $338.80 (including fees) Oct. 11 at ShoalsFest in Florence, AL Single-day passes $218.11 (including fees) Oct. 31 at the Venetian in Las Vegas, NV $102 (including fees) Nov. 1 at the Venetian in Las Vegas, NV $106 (including fees) Nov. 5 at the Venetian in Las Vegas, NV $109 (including fees) Nov. 7 at the Venetian in Las Vegas, NV $112 (including fees) Nov. 8 at the Venetian in Las Vegas, NV $112 (including fees) (Note: The New York Post confirmed all above prices at the publication time. All prices are in US dollars, subject to fluctuation and, if it isn't noted, will include additional fees at checkout.) Vivid Seats is a verified secondary market ticketing platform, and prices may be higher or lower than face value, depending on demand. They offer a 100% buyer guarantee that states your transaction will be safe and secure and your tickets will be delivered prior to the event. Still curious about Vivid Seats? You can find an article from their team about why the company is legit here. The Crosby Collective Prior to his solo headlining run, Browne joins The Crosby Collective, which is 'a like-minded community of Grammy-nominated musicians, celebrated artists, close friends, and accomplished creatives who come together to create timeless sonic experiences that feed the soul with feelgood music.' The group mashes up rock's most iconic songs from iconic acts like The Grateful Dead, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Allman Brothers, The Beatles, and several other historic musical standouts. Tickets for all their shows can be found here. 2025 Shoals Fest Browne is one of the many exciting headliners taking part in Jason Isbell's annual Shoals Fest at Florence, AL's McFarland Park. Other big names on the lineup this year include Waxahatchee, MJ Lenderman, Patterson Hood, Dan Penn with Spooner Oldham and Garrison Starr. If you'd like to attend, single and multi-day Shoals Fest passes can be found here. Jackson Browne set list On Dec. 1, 2023, Browne headlined at Sydney, Australia's Aware Super Theatre. According to Set List FM, here's what he performed that evening (including a handful of exciting covers). 01.) 'Don't Let Us Get Sick' (Warren Zevon cover) 02.) 'Downhill From Everywhere' 03.) 'For Everyman' 04.) 'Until Justice Is Real' 05.) 'Fountain of Sorrow' 06.) 'The Long Way Around' 07.) 'Somebody's Baby' 08.) 'The Indifference of Heaven' (Warren Zevon cover) 09.) 'For a Dancer' 10.) 'These Days' 11.) 'Boulevard' 12.) 'The Pretender' 13.) 'Call It a Loan' 14.) 'Too Many Angels' 15.) 'Cocaine' (requested by the audience) 16.) 'That Girl Could Sing' 17.) 'Doctor My Eyes' 18.) 'Running on Empty' Encore 19.) 'The Load-Out' 20.) 'Stay' (Maurice Williams & the Zodiacs cover) Encore II 21.) 'Take It Easy' (Eagles cover) 22.) 'Our Lady of the Well' Jackson Browne new music In August 2024, Jackson Browne dropped the four-minute single 'Everywhere I Look.' Over simple percussions and bluesy guitar, the 76-year-old singer-songwriter paints pictures of America and 'everywhere he looks.' It's a calming, reflective piece that works as a treatise on the state of the country and soothing background music. If you'd like to hear for yourself, you can find 'Everywhere I Look' here. Classic rockers on tour in 2025 Many of the folksiest stars from rock's heyday may be past retirement age but they're not going anywhere soon. Well, except for the road. Here are just five of our favorite troubadours that made their name in the '70s that you won't want to miss this year. • Yusuf/Cat Stevens • Paul Simon • James Taylor • Neil Young • Stevie Nicks Want to see who else is doing their thing this year? Check out our list of all the biggest classic rockers on tour in 2025 to find the show for you. This article was written by Matt Levy, New York Post live events reporter. Levy stays up-to-date on all the latest tour announcements from your favorite musical artists and comedians, as well as Broadway openings, sporting events and more live shows – and finds great ticket prices online. Since he started his tenure at the Post in 2022, Levy has reviewed a Bruce Springsteen concert and interviewed Melissa Villaseñor of SNL fame, to name a few. Please note that deals can expire, and all prices are subject to change
Winnipeg Free Press
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Pre-Tudor prose a royally good romp
Funny, clever and unapologetically filthy, English writer Jo Harkin's second novel explores the life of an obscure but fascinating figure in the 15th-century English royal court. Harkin debuted as a novelist in 2022 with Tell Me An Ending, a work of literary sci-fi. She easily proves her depth as a writer with her switch to historical fiction in The Pretender. Harkin's stark prose and unsentimental view of history will remind readers of fellow English author Hilary Mantel, best-known for her Wolf Hall series, set at the court of King Henry VIII of England. The Pretender Here the main character is Lambert Simnel, a pretender to the throne of King Henry VII of England (father of Henry VIII). The novel opens on a remote farm in England in 1483, introducing readers to 10-year-old peasant John Collan. When we first meet John, his biggest worry is avoiding the bad-tempered village goat on his way to collect water. This changes when a nobleman arrives one day with astonishing news: John is actually Edward, Earl of Warwick, a member of the ruling House of York, nephew to the current King Richard III, and secret son of Richard's long-dead brother George, Duke of Clarence. As the nobleman tells him, 'You are the earl of Warwick by title… and, after the present king and his progeny, you're next in line to the throne.' Codenamed Lambert Simnel for now, the bewildered child is whisked away and groomed to take his place as heir to the throne when the time arrives. Lambert is informally tutored by Joan, the daughter of one of his mentors, who is gifted with striking political savvy and a definite lack of conscience. When Henry Tudor arrives in England and takes the throne from Richard III, Lambert's mentors plot to overthrow Henry and crown Lambert as the true King of England. But meanwhile, Lambert and Joan plot to take control of their own lives. The best historical fiction not only explores the dynamics of the past, it draws parallels to present times. Harkins does this skilfully. She explores themes of identity, misogyny, freedom and the biases of recorded history. One passage even takes sly aim at the influence of misogynistic podcasters like Joe Rogan and incel culture: 'All the Roman poets hated women… Men who aren't wanted by women say women are shrews or strumpets,' points out Lambert's friend Joan. While we know very little about the real-life Lambert Simnel beyond his role as a threat to Henry VII's rule, Harkins goes beyond this one episode of his life to explore how it may have affected his psyche: 'More than anything, he (Lambert) feels a great hatred for himself. His self? What is that? What part of him is this? Does it come from John Collan, or Lambert, or Edward, or Simnel? Is he any of them, even? Who the f— is he?' Lambert frets. Harkins is gleefully dirty in her writing, dropping references to sex and bodily functions as often as horses drop, well, poop. While this adds humour and makes her writing stand out against dominant historical novelists such as Philippa Gregory and historian-turned-novelist Alison Weir, it does seem gratuitous at times. Kathryne Cardwell is a Winnipeg writer.
The Age
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
Searching for your next read? Here are 10 new books
From medieval world-building and early 2000s nostalgia to a seminal study of Palestine and the cultural significance of one of our great rivers, this week's books traverse time, subject and genre. FICTION PICK OF THE WEEK The Pretender Jo Harkin Bloomsbury, $32.99 The Pretender takes us into a late medieval England dominated by violence and political intrigue. As the dynastic bloodbath of the Wars of the Roses draws to a close, Henry Tudor snatches the crown from the corpse of Richard III on Bosworth Field. Meanwhile, a farm-boy is groomed for power – yet another pretender to the throne. Raised John Collan, the lad is told he is not in fact a commoner but Edward Plantagenet, Earl of Warwick. For his own safety, he must assume a third persona – that of Lambert Simnel – as he is shunted between unscrupulous powerbrokers jockeying for position in, and plotting to overthrow, the court of Henry VII. Jo Harkin reaches deeply into medieval (and classical) literature, language and thought in this rich novel that follows the fortunes of a character forced into three layers of identity. It's an unusually granular and imaginative act of historical world-building, attentive to the fabulism and flaw of history itself, and should appeal to fans of medieval fantasy as much as those who devoured Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall. A classic love triangle morphs into more multidimensional, non-Euclidian emotional geometry as Erich Puchner's Dream State unfolds. It opens with preparations for matrimony underway. Cece is to be wed to a brilliant young doctor, Charlie. She travels to her in-laws' majestic lake house in Montana to finalise details, together with Charlie's best friend (and best man) Garrett, whose own prospects as a baggage handler at a provincial airport can't compare to the bright future Charlie has mapped out for himself. From there, the course of their lives unfurls over decades. They have children whose lives will be marked in enigmatic, fateful ways by their parents' decisions, and against the family saga, told with winning humour and poignancy, the world around them runs not just to the present day but into a starkly imagined future. Destiny and human agency, a progression from innocence to experience, and the grim fate of the natural environment haunt this expansive and engaging work, which has the scope of a Victorian novel while remaining breezily contemporary in tone and style. Daughter to two Afghan doctors who fled to Germany before she was a thing, Nila is seized by a perverse desire to ruin her life. Sex, drugs and hedonism beckon her to the nightclubs of Berlin. Nila begins a romance with a celebrated American author, Marlowe Woods, that was always bound to exoticise her, even as it nurtures her desire for artistic expression (for which Marlowe, predictably, takes too much credit). She becomes a photographer, as acute at capturing the contradictions and piercing moments of life as it's experienced through images as the novel's author – clearly a poet – is through words. Good Girl might be slightly over-realised, tying up too many loose ends and drumming home answers to thematic questions, but only after it has seduced and shocked with its delirious honesty, its refusal to succumb to received ideas about race and racism, say, or to reduce the countershading and complexity of characters usually portrayed as either good or bad. A coming-of-age novel thrumming with the complications and ironies of desire, from a writer to watch. The Book of Guilt Catherine Chidgey Penguin, $34.99 New Zealand novelist Catherine Chidgey has penned a diverse corpus of fiction – everything from Holocaust novels to a book featuring a magpie narrator – and her ninth novel consciously echoes Kazuo Ishiguro's most renowned work, Never Let Me Go. Like that book, it's set in an institution for children, and follows three of them – teenage triplets Vincent, Lawrence and William – as the institution they live in is mothballed by guilt-ridden bureaucrats. Released into the community, they meet another child cut off from the world outside and discover sinister truths unknown to them. The Book of Guilt departs from Ishiguro in more fully articulating a dystopian vision. The history of this alternate, Thatcher-era England includes the successful assassination of Hitler in 1943, a rapidly negotiated conclusion to the war, and the global embrace of unethical medical experimentation. Chidgey is also more overtly political in her approach, incorporating other voices such as that of a government minister. It isn't a terrible book, but no one who's read the Ishiguro will be able to resist unfortunate comparison. The length of the literary shadow is too long. Deep Cuts Holly Brickley The Borough Press, $32.99 An homage to indie music of the early 2000s wrapped in a romance, Holly Brickley's Deep Cuts sees two young characters enmeshed in a fruitful creative embrace long before love takes over. Joe and Percy meet at Berkeley – the former is an emerging singer/songwriter, the latter is, well, a critic, among other things. Percy recognises Joe's talent and collaborates with him to develop it, although she refuses credit on the album when it is released and Joe's career takes off. When Joe's girlfriend Zoe announces she's gay, the space opens for Percy to make a move. A simmering attraction is placed on the backburner, however, as Joe values their creative bond and friendship too much to risk a relationship. Brickley immerses the reader in period pop-cultural references, as the world turns from 9/11 to the election of President Obama. Her book should find a ready audience in Millennials with a taste for having their nostalgia buttons pressed, even if the romance plot itself is less exciting than the period colour, or Percy discovering her own voice in the face of frustrated love. NON-FICTION PICK OF THE WEEK Trails to Freedom Simon Tancred Hardie Grant, $39.99 On September 3, 1943 Italy signed an armistice with the Allies, effectively ending its involvement in the war. Prison guards in the north of Italy released their captives, drinking and celebrating with them. Among them were four Australian POWs, who, a few weeks later, walked into neutral Switzerland along medieval paths – the eponymous trails to freedom. It was no stroll in the park, the Germans weren't happy, and they had to be guided by brave partisans. Tancred, who first heard of the Australians' escape from a friend, was inspired to walk the same trails, and as he follows in their footsteps he skilfully incorporates the tales of the partisans, German atrocities and the story of his uncle, a POW who drowned in the Mediterranean after his transport was torpedoed by an English sub, Tancred granting him another fate and imagining he too took that walk to freedom. It's a fascinating account of dangerously topsy-turvy times in one corner of Italy, Tancred vividly evoking the countryside as he completes the walk, topping it with a rolled ciggie in his uncle's honour. The Question of Palestine Edward W. Said Text, $36.99 With the slaughter in Gaza going on and on, the re-publication of this seminal 1979 study couldn't have come at a more critical moment. What distinguished it 45 years ago, among other things, was the fact that for the first time a lauded Palestinian writer, writing in English, presented the Palestinian story to the West to widespread acclaim. It was not so much a history of the country, as an attempt to convey the Palestinian experience to a largely ignorant world. Said, who died in 2003, was a towering figure in critical theory, his landmark work Orientalism essentially putting post-colonial studies on the map. And that whole notion of the oriental Other underpins his thinking here, for it is the Orientalist lens that frames Western and Zionist thinking about Palestinians, ultimately 'de-humanising' them. Not an easy book for him to write, he covers a highly complex situation from 1948 (the establishment of Israel, and the displacement of Palestinians) up to Camp David – also including the reasons for his shift from favouring a two-State solution to a bi-national Israeli-Palestinian one-state solution. The writing, fired by passion yet calmly stated, is masterly. The River Chris Hammer MUP, $36.99 In the summer of 2008-09, when journalist and author Chris Hammer embarked on a series of journeys through the Murray-Darling Basin, a 10-year drought had dried up many of its waterways – and the 'mighty' Murray didn't have the oomph to flow into the sea. As he observes in this up-dated version of his 2010 publication, 'The dams are (now) full, the rivers are flowing', but it's largely due to the luck of the weather and will only take the pendulum to swing back and Australia's largest, most vital river system will once again be in dire straits. And although some things have changed politically, not enough has. The River, a compelling record of those drought days that seemed to bring the apocalypse with them, is just the antidote for the 'complacency' that has since set in. It's a highly evocative catalogue of mud-baked rivers, tragically laughable signs indicating mooring sites and properties going bust (he interviewed numerous farmers), which also incorporates the cultural significance of the river system. A literary warning bell, often very moving and still resonant. Sarah Arachchi's memoir about becoming a paediatrician is as much a migrant tale as a first-hand account of the varied experience of being a female doctor of colour in Australia. Born in Kandy, Sri Lanka, her parents (in response to the dangers of civil war) immigrated to Australia, fetching up in Melbourne. It was the start of a protracted tug-of-war between one home and another, often played out in a number of schools both state and private (courtesy of scholarships she won), where she was bullied – the recurring question being 'Where are you really from?' Added to this is the gender prejudice she's continually faced as a woman doctor. But what really comes through is the complexity, the juggling act of coming from two cultures, both of which she embraces – fiercely proud of her Sri Lankan heritage, and an Aussie girl who played cricket against the boys and had, it seems, a particularly fine sweep shot as well as a crush on Shane Warne. A plain speaking but emotionally charged rites-of-passage portrait. Unveiled Vincent Fantauzzo Penguin, $36.99 This memoir, by portrait painter Vincent Fantauzzo, recalls among other things his time growing up in the tough environment of the Broadmeadows/Glenroy area in the late 1970s and '80s. Fights were an everyday occurrence, not to mention the violence and neglect of his father (a troubled relationship reflected in the son's ambivalent feelings on his death). He is also dyslexic and was written off as a lost cause in all the schools he attended. But he could draw and paint, and at 16, painted Albert Einstein, for whom he developed an affinity because Einstein emphasised imagination over knowledge. The story ranges from Broady to Britain and New York (where he had the dubious distinction of meeting Donald Trump), back to Melbourne, marriage and children. There are some pretty grim scenes here – brawls, drugs and the occasional creative use of a baseball bat – but it's also a classic tale of a seemingly lost soul finding his life-saving métier.
Sydney Morning Herald
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
Searching for your next read? Here are 10 new books
From medieval world-building and early 2000s nostalgia to a seminal study of Palestine and the cultural significance of one of our great rivers, this week's books traverse time, subject and genre. FICTION PICK OF THE WEEK The Pretender Jo Harkin Bloomsbury, $32.99 The Pretender takes us into a late medieval England dominated by violence and political intrigue. As the dynastic bloodbath of the Wars of the Roses draws to a close, Henry Tudor snatches the crown from the corpse of Richard III on Bosworth Field. Meanwhile, a farm-boy is groomed for power – yet another pretender to the throne. Raised John Collan, the lad is told he is not in fact a commoner but Edward Plantagenet, Earl of Warwick. For his own safety, he must assume a third persona – that of Lambert Simnel – as he is shunted between unscrupulous powerbrokers jockeying for position in, and plotting to overthrow, the court of Henry VII. Jo Harkin reaches deeply into medieval (and classical) literature, language and thought in this rich novel that follows the fortunes of a character forced into three layers of identity. It's an unusually granular and imaginative act of historical world-building, attentive to the fabulism and flaw of history itself, and should appeal to fans of medieval fantasy as much as those who devoured Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall. A classic love triangle morphs into more multidimensional, non-Euclidian emotional geometry as Erich Puchner's Dream State unfolds. It opens with preparations for matrimony underway. Cece is to be wed to a brilliant young doctor, Charlie. She travels to her in-laws' majestic lake house in Montana to finalise details, together with Charlie's best friend (and best man) Garrett, whose own prospects as a baggage handler at a provincial airport can't compare to the bright future Charlie has mapped out for himself. From there, the course of their lives unfurls over decades. They have children whose lives will be marked in enigmatic, fateful ways by their parents' decisions, and against the family saga, told with winning humour and poignancy, the world around them runs not just to the present day but into a starkly imagined future. Destiny and human agency, a progression from innocence to experience, and the grim fate of the natural environment haunt this expansive and engaging work, which has the scope of a Victorian novel while remaining breezily contemporary in tone and style. Daughter to two Afghan doctors who fled to Germany before she was a thing, Nila is seized by a perverse desire to ruin her life. Sex, drugs and hedonism beckon her to the nightclubs of Berlin. Nila begins a romance with a celebrated American author, Marlowe Woods, that was always bound to exoticise her, even as it nurtures her desire for artistic expression (for which Marlowe, predictably, takes too much credit). She becomes a photographer, as acute at capturing the contradictions and piercing moments of life as it's experienced through images as the novel's author – clearly a poet – is through words. Good Girl might be slightly over-realised, tying up too many loose ends and drumming home answers to thematic questions, but only after it has seduced and shocked with its delirious honesty, its refusal to succumb to received ideas about race and racism, say, or to reduce the countershading and complexity of characters usually portrayed as either good or bad. A coming-of-age novel thrumming with the complications and ironies of desire, from a writer to watch. The Book of Guilt Catherine Chidgey Penguin, $34.99 New Zealand novelist Catherine Chidgey has penned a diverse corpus of fiction – everything from Holocaust novels to a book featuring a magpie narrator – and her ninth novel consciously echoes Kazuo Ishiguro's most renowned work, Never Let Me Go. Like that book, it's set in an institution for children, and follows three of them – teenage triplets Vincent, Lawrence and William – as the institution they live in is mothballed by guilt-ridden bureaucrats. Released into the community, they meet another child cut off from the world outside and discover sinister truths unknown to them. The Book of Guilt departs from Ishiguro in more fully articulating a dystopian vision. The history of this alternate, Thatcher-era England includes the successful assassination of Hitler in 1943, a rapidly negotiated conclusion to the war, and the global embrace of unethical medical experimentation. Chidgey is also more overtly political in her approach, incorporating other voices such as that of a government minister. It isn't a terrible book, but no one who's read the Ishiguro will be able to resist unfortunate comparison. The length of the literary shadow is too long. Deep Cuts Holly Brickley The Borough Press, $32.99 An homage to indie music of the early 2000s wrapped in a romance, Holly Brickley's Deep Cuts sees two young characters enmeshed in a fruitful creative embrace long before love takes over. Joe and Percy meet at Berkeley – the former is an emerging singer/songwriter, the latter is, well, a critic, among other things. Percy recognises Joe's talent and collaborates with him to develop it, although she refuses credit on the album when it is released and Joe's career takes off. When Joe's girlfriend Zoe announces she's gay, the space opens for Percy to make a move. A simmering attraction is placed on the backburner, however, as Joe values their creative bond and friendship too much to risk a relationship. Brickley immerses the reader in period pop-cultural references, as the world turns from 9/11 to the election of President Obama. Her book should find a ready audience in Millennials with a taste for having their nostalgia buttons pressed, even if the romance plot itself is less exciting than the period colour, or Percy discovering her own voice in the face of frustrated love. NON-FICTION PICK OF THE WEEK Trails to Freedom Simon Tancred Hardie Grant, $39.99 On September 3, 1943 Italy signed an armistice with the Allies, effectively ending its involvement in the war. Prison guards in the north of Italy released their captives, drinking and celebrating with them. Among them were four Australian POWs, who, a few weeks later, walked into neutral Switzerland along medieval paths – the eponymous trails to freedom. It was no stroll in the park, the Germans weren't happy, and they had to be guided by brave partisans. Tancred, who first heard of the Australians' escape from a friend, was inspired to walk the same trails, and as he follows in their footsteps he skilfully incorporates the tales of the partisans, German atrocities and the story of his uncle, a POW who drowned in the Mediterranean after his transport was torpedoed by an English sub, Tancred granting him another fate and imagining he too took that walk to freedom. It's a fascinating account of dangerously topsy-turvy times in one corner of Italy, Tancred vividly evoking the countryside as he completes the walk, topping it with a rolled ciggie in his uncle's honour. The Question of Palestine Edward W. Said Text, $36.99 With the slaughter in Gaza going on and on, the re-publication of this seminal 1979 study couldn't have come at a more critical moment. What distinguished it 45 years ago, among other things, was the fact that for the first time a lauded Palestinian writer, writing in English, presented the Palestinian story to the West to widespread acclaim. It was not so much a history of the country, as an attempt to convey the Palestinian experience to a largely ignorant world. Said, who died in 2003, was a towering figure in critical theory, his landmark work Orientalism essentially putting post-colonial studies on the map. And that whole notion of the oriental Other underpins his thinking here, for it is the Orientalist lens that frames Western and Zionist thinking about Palestinians, ultimately 'de-humanising' them. Not an easy book for him to write, he covers a highly complex situation from 1948 (the establishment of Israel, and the displacement of Palestinians) up to Camp David – also including the reasons for his shift from favouring a two-State solution to a bi-national Israeli-Palestinian one-state solution. The writing, fired by passion yet calmly stated, is masterly. The River Chris Hammer MUP, $36.99 In the summer of 2008-09, when journalist and author Chris Hammer embarked on a series of journeys through the Murray-Darling Basin, a 10-year drought had dried up many of its waterways – and the 'mighty' Murray didn't have the oomph to flow into the sea. As he observes in this up-dated version of his 2010 publication, 'The dams are (now) full, the rivers are flowing', but it's largely due to the luck of the weather and will only take the pendulum to swing back and Australia's largest, most vital river system will once again be in dire straits. And although some things have changed politically, not enough has. The River, a compelling record of those drought days that seemed to bring the apocalypse with them, is just the antidote for the 'complacency' that has since set in. It's a highly evocative catalogue of mud-baked rivers, tragically laughable signs indicating mooring sites and properties going bust (he interviewed numerous farmers), which also incorporates the cultural significance of the river system. A literary warning bell, often very moving and still resonant. Sarah Arachchi's memoir about becoming a paediatrician is as much a migrant tale as a first-hand account of the varied experience of being a female doctor of colour in Australia. Born in Kandy, Sri Lanka, her parents (in response to the dangers of civil war) immigrated to Australia, fetching up in Melbourne. It was the start of a protracted tug-of-war between one home and another, often played out in a number of schools both state and private (courtesy of scholarships she won), where she was bullied – the recurring question being 'Where are you really from?' Added to this is the gender prejudice she's continually faced as a woman doctor. But what really comes through is the complexity, the juggling act of coming from two cultures, both of which she embraces – fiercely proud of her Sri Lankan heritage, and an Aussie girl who played cricket against the boys and had, it seems, a particularly fine sweep shot as well as a crush on Shane Warne. A plain speaking but emotionally charged rites-of-passage portrait. Unveiled Vincent Fantauzzo Penguin, $36.99 This memoir, by portrait painter Vincent Fantauzzo, recalls among other things his time growing up in the tough environment of the Broadmeadows/Glenroy area in the late 1970s and '80s. Fights were an everyday occurrence, not to mention the violence and neglect of his father (a troubled relationship reflected in the son's ambivalent feelings on his death). He is also dyslexic and was written off as a lost cause in all the schools he attended. But he could draw and paint, and at 16, painted Albert Einstein, for whom he developed an affinity because Einstein emphasised imagination over knowledge. The story ranges from Broady to Britain and New York (where he had the dubious distinction of meeting Donald Trump), back to Melbourne, marriage and children. There are some pretty grim scenes here – brawls, drugs and the occasional creative use of a baseball bat – but it's also a classic tale of a seemingly lost soul finding his life-saving métier.
The Guardian
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
The Pretender by Jo Harkin review – a bold and brilliant comedy of royal intrigue
One day in 1484, strange men arrive at the Oxfordshire farm where 10-year-old John Collan lives. They've come to carry him away to a new life, for he is not, after all, the farmer's son; in fact, he's Edward Plantagenet, Earl of Warwick, spirited away in infancy to keep him safe ahead of the day he might return to claim the throne of England. That day is now in sight. He can't call himself John any more, but he can't yet be announced as Edward, Earl of Warwick. In the meantime he'll be given a third name: Lambert Simnel. Over the course of this fantastically accomplished novel, the many-named boy will travel from Oxford to Burgundy then Ireland, and at last into the paranoid and double-crossing heart of Henry VII's court. The tail end of the Wars of the Roses – with Richard III's crown snatched from the mud of Bosworth by Henry Tudor – is a foment of plot and counter-plot, and our hero spends his adolescence being passed around scheming factions who go so far as to hold a coronation for him. What a painful life this is for a boy 'so grateful for any amount of love' as he falls in and out of favour, uncertain of his own parentage, gaining and losing relatives as their interest turns to other plots and other pretenders. He's heard stories of changelings, but at least those strange children come with the clarity of a straight swap: Simnel is all his past selves, and none of them. He thinks of John, the sweetly priggish little boy from the farm, who loves mystery plays and football and fairy stories, 'bricked up like an anchorite' inside his new self. One character describes him as a changeling in reverse, 'for changelings are dark and wicked things and Edward a fair prince' – but once he's demoted back to Simnel and becomes embroiled in the machinations of the Tudor court, those 'dark and wicked' elements are revealed as inextricable from the 'fair prince'. At least he has the consolation of an education. Hothoused in the ways of nobility, our hero '[eats] up every learning he's been given like a chicken after grasshoppers'. His intellectual world is communicated impeccably and with purpose. Simnel rejoices in books, begs for them, is 'astonied', outraged and aroused by their contents. The Pretender is scattered with fine knobbly period language ('dole', 'maigre', 'puissant', 'wroth') and witty dialogue, and this stylish delivery brings with it considerable substance. Simnel's reading of Chaucer, Dante, Malory, John Gower and John Lydgate alongside classical works of Boethius, Juvenal, Horace, Ovid and Apuleius isn't included simply to pay lip service to historical research. There's a deep love for literature here, and a desire to showcase the formation of the late-medieval mind, which elevates The Pretender above other novels about this period. Simnel, wrestling with all manner of rhetorical devices, discovers bocardo syllogism: 'All kings are of noble birth. You become a king. You are of noble birth.' In interludes, he attempts to write about himself. He tries fairytales and romances, but when attempting satire he comes to the realisation that if 'satire is written by the noble, in service of the social order', then as upstart pretender to the throne, 'he's exactly the thing they're complaining about'. Delving into history books, 'the fragility of the past horrifies him'. It turns out facts are far more mutable than he'd imagined: 'some dead historians have lied, or guessed, and now nobody knows what's true'. When it comes to reading autobiography, he finds authors 'making an argument for their selves', but by this time he has no self of his own to argue for. In fact, he's already signed a prepared confession renouncing his alleged identity. Is he now complicit in his own disappearance? There are few historical eras as passionately disputed as the Wars of the Roses. Much ink and emotion has been spilt in debate of its perceived heroes and villains. Harkin's version of Simnel and his world, therefore, will not necessarily please every reader – but this is a feature rather than a bug. The Pretender is a novel about uncertainty. 'Only kings write history', perhaps, but when those kings are so busy deposing one another, 'history is written in wax'. This doesn't happen in the rustling domain of documents preserved or burned, copied out or left to rot: John/Edward/Simnel shows us what happens when it's your own life being revised and rewritten even as you live it. A traditional Bildungsroman concerns an individual's process of becoming. What is the name for a tale of unravelling? 'In a few hundred years,' our hero says, 'Richard [III] will be a hunchback and I'll be a scoundrel.' This bold, brilliant and deeply compassionate treatment restores a life to Simnel. Was it the life he lived? None of us will ever know. Sign up to Inside Saturday The only way to get a look behind the scenes of the Saturday magazine. Sign up to get the inside story from our top writers as well as all the must-read articles and columns, delivered to your inbox every weekend. after newsletter promotion The Pretender by Jo Harkin is published by Bloomsbury (£18.99). To support the Guardian order your copy at Delivery charges may apply
