And What Do You Do Mr. Gable? by Richard Flanagan | Goodreads

And What Do You Do Mr. Gable? by Richard Flanagan | Goodreads






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And What Do You Do Mr. Gable?

by
Richard Flanagan
3.86 · Rating details · 79 ratings · 12 reviews
From the winner of the Man Booker Prize. The collected short pieces of nonfiction from one of Australia's best novelists.

‘And what do you do, Mr Faulkner?' asked Clark Gable after being introduced to William Faulkner at a party.
‘I write,' replied Faulkner.
‘And what do you do, Mr Gable?'

Over the years, Richard Flanagan's non-fiction has gained a major reputation.

Gathered here in this updated edition are the best of his writings on everything from directing film to a near fatal kayak trip, from Jorge Luis Borges to baking bread. Included is his celebrated Perth Writers' Festival closing address on love stories and the murder of Reza Barati, along with his famous essay on Gunns that set in train the end of the woodchipping giant. (less)

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Paperback, 384 pages
Published May 1st 2015 by Vintage Australia (first published August 31st 2011)
ISBN
0857989243 (ISBN13: 9780857989246)
Edition Language
English

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Sep 19, 2013Danielle Netherclift rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
This was the best book that I read in 2012. Full of short, previously published pieces of non fiction on a diverse range of subjects, from a near death experience on a kayak in Bass Straight (an account which made me cry), to following Mark Latham on the campaign trail, to the healing properties of baking bread, and onto the extraordinary career of Bob Brown and of the heartbreaking and outrageous case of Gunns Mill in Flanagan's beloved Tasmania, this is the kind of writing that reminds us of the importance of passion, and a sense of humanity in our lives. (less)
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Nov 16, 2015Steve lovell rated it really liked it
Although neither of us these days reside there, I suspect that he, like I, still regards the North West Coast as the homelands. So I liked this bit:- 'She would sometimes halt our car...on the side of a new highway cutting that had sliced open the red earth of Tasmania’s north west coast, a flick-knife (great metaphor RF) of progress slashing the land. After looking furtively up and down the road, she would get out of the boot old fertiliser bags and order us children to fill them with that rich and sweating red earth. We would take that dirt all the way south to our Hobart home, where she would empty it over that part of our backyard she decreed would be a vegetable garden...With her foot she would scuff back the surface of some of the sour grey clay of southern Tasmania, and say:
'Smell that son.'
And we would smell the richness together as she let it fall through her fingers, a shower of red earth saying:
'Now that's what I call soil.'

That red earth is the stuff of miracles; the same red earth that grows the world's best spuds. I've a good life here in the sour-soiled south, but that dirt from the opposite end of the state, good enough to be placed on a plate and be served as a meal - well, I miss it, I really do. That, as well as the homeland's accompanying fecundity, lushness, greenness. It's a part of my soul, as it is for Richard Flanagan.

'The Australian Disease' is a short - and cheap at less than ten bucks - mash-up of several of the essays featured in the Man-Booker winning author's 'And What Do You Do Mr Gable? Much of the latter, particularly his railing against the obscenity that was the hold Gunns had on both sides of government here on our island for many years, I'd read before. And I do admit I found some of the other offerings too cerebral for my aged and addled brain. Others, though, I enjoyed immensely - some even moving me to the core, such as the reminiscence that contained the extract I used in the intro, simply entitled 'Bread'. In this the great man writes of his fondness for 'roo and wallaby chorizo (I wonder where he sources that from?) and gives us his own recipe for a loaf - so simple; its perfection being in the love imparted from maker to dough. And then there's the view that the rot first set in on humankind when we transformed ourselves from hunter-gatherers to reapers of grains. Hmmm!

He also gifts us his reflection on how Peter Dombrovskis' images of wilderness changed the way we looked at wild places, Tasmanian or otherwise. In turn that camerasmith took his cues from the ground-breaking Olegas Truchanas - and uncannily both died in much the same way, out doing what they loved. 'They created another Tasmania; an invitation to a dream open to all.'Another image poignantly features in his 'Family is Everything', his take on the 2001 election campaign when a Kim Beazley decision to align his party to Howard's hard-line attitude to legal refugee seekers, trying to find a better life for themselves and their children in our previously welcoming country, grew into the great shame that was the culmination of that policy under the thankfully now departed Abbott. Shorten has attached himself to that too - it is to be hoped that Turnbull can usher in a softer stance.

In 'Sheep Management' Flanagan makes a case for fiction as opposed to the prevailing plethora of factual tomes. Yet another campaign is covered when he joins the media pack following a Mark Latham trying to convince that being a nut case shouldn't exclude one from being PM ('The Rohypnol Decade').

'The Australian Disease' gives a synopsis of the bigger collection, being the transcript to his Alan Missen Oration', again from 2011. Back then there was a possibility, that he touches on, of a ticket of Putin/Palin ruling the world. What could be worse? Dare I suggest - Putin/Trump? (less)
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Apr 18, 2017Haydon rated it really liked it
A wonderful collection of essays which, alongside an enriched understanding of art, politics and literature, offers a profound insight into Australian culture and society.
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Mar 01, 2018Sam rated it really liked it
Shelves: male-author, australian-author, non-fiction, borrowed, essays-short-stories
I liked this collection of essays a lot, some of which I had read before. The thread of corruption in Tasmanian (& Australian) politics throughout history and his sense of injustice and outrage at Australia's treatment of boat refugees is particularly interesting. Read this next time you need a strong argument when debating these topics! He is such a great writer, and I really enjoy how he weaves several threads into his stories to make his point. The profile of David Walsh, the Australian disease, the Gunns essay and the final essay on love are particularly good. And any of the essays involving the Franklin River. I borrowed this book from the library however this is a book worth owning, to dip into whenever you wish. (less)
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Dec 08, 2013Michael Robotham rated it liked it · review of another edition
It's a patchy collection of essays, but the best of them make the whole package worthwhile.
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Apr 23, 2019Kamil rated it liked it
A collection of Flanagan's non-fiction writings, ranging from book reviews to political opinion pieces. Although generally interesting throughout, at times Flanagan's style threatens to overwhelm his subjects, as though writing not in their service but for the sake of the writing itself. He is at his best when speaking passionately about his homeland of Tasmania, with the courage to squarely point a finger at much of what is wrong with Australian politics and society.
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Aug 04, 2018Simon Fenton rated it liked it
It’s a mixed collection. Some pieces haven’t aged well, but then they weren’t really written to do so. Some pieces are fantastic, especially those digging into Australia’s history and relating it to contemporary events. Flanagan’s love of Tasmania and the stories that each person carriers in their head are evident in many of the pieces.
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Jun 29, 2018Sarah Jones added it
3.5/5 some great essays but I thought some were a bit boring
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Nov 01, 2015Robyn Philip rated it it was amazing
This is a superb collection of Flanagan's writing. The book includes articles written for The Age, the Sydney Morning Herald and sundry writers' festivals, 1995 -2014. Each piece moves you physically through space and time, and philosophically. One story was about his crazy near fatal kayaking venture across Bass Strait. Another about busing around with a pack of journos and political staffers in the entourage of then Labor political star, Mark Latham. Flanagan is such an imaginative and eloquent writer. Concerned with the big issues of life. Whatever he's talking about, he takes you on a journey of mind and spirit. I was left thinking about each chapter for hours afterwards. Highly recommended. (less)
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Jun 04, 2016Lee Belbin rated it liked it
This is an erudite suite of newspaper columns and essays on a broad range of topics. Some of the offerings were gems and well worth the book, but some also left me cold. This simply reflects the breadth of issues covered rather than any limitations of Richard. On his 'green' feelings, and as a fellow Tasmanian, I am with him 100%. This is the idea book to read between books, sort of "now for something short, invariably stimulating and totally different". If a chapter doesn't 'click', the next one probably will.(less)
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Oct 31, 2014Woflmao rated it liked it · review of another edition
Shelves: reviewed
This book contains a collection of Richard Flanagan's essays on anything that interests him, mostly art (in particular literature, of course), Australian politics and Tasmania. Flanagan writes very elegantly, which makes the essays easy to read. He is a keen observer of his surroundings, even though I can't help feeling that sometimes his interpretations of things are spiced up by some literary imagination. As for the content, it depends of course on the readers preference whether one particular essay is deemed interesting. (less)
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Nov 11, 2011Karen rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
What can I say. Wonderful, informative, opinionated, policital. Love short pieces, this was a breath of fresh air blowing through the window of Richard Falangan's writings. The curtains were flapping and I was refreshed by their breeze. What did you do Mr Flanagan, you captivated and stired my sole.
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