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Robert Lukens

๐Ÿ‘ค Speaker
541 total appearances

Appearances Over Time

Podcast Appearances

The Bookshelf
On Caoilinn Hughes' Orchid & the Wasp, Steven Carroll's The Year of the Beast, John Lanchester's The Wall and Graeme Simsion's The Rosie Result

And the other one that really stood out for me was Kathleen O'Connor of Paris by Amanda Curtin.

The Bookshelf
On Caoilinn Hughes' Orchid & the Wasp, Steven Carroll's The Year of the Beast, John Lanchester's The Wall and Graeme Simsion's The Rosie Result

Amanda Curtin, the Western Australian writer.

The Bookshelf
On Caoilinn Hughes' Orchid & the Wasp, Steven Carroll's The Year of the Beast, John Lanchester's The Wall and Graeme Simsion's The Rosie Result

She was, and I was thinking about that earlier.

The Bookshelf
On Caoilinn Hughes' Orchid & the Wasp, Steven Carroll's The Year of the Beast, John Lanchester's The Wall and Graeme Simsion's The Rosie Result

It was interesting because I went to describe her as Western Australian author, but I don't know why I feel compelled to do that because I don't do that when I describe my Sydney or Melbourne writing friends, but it is interesting.

The Bookshelf
On Caoilinn Hughes' Orchid & the Wasp, Steven Carroll's The Year of the Beast, John Lanchester's The Wall and Graeme Simsion's The Rosie Result

Yeah, and it's such a wonderful book, really, and book's the only word I can really come...

The Bookshelf
On Caoilinn Hughes' Orchid & the Wasp, Steven Carroll's The Year of the Beast, John Lanchester's The Wall and Graeme Simsion's The Rosie Result

to describe it because it's part biography, part art history, part travel memoir, but really it's just great storytelling.

The Bookshelf
On Caoilinn Hughes' Orchid & the Wasp, Steven Carroll's The Year of the Beast, John Lanchester's The Wall and Graeme Simsion's The Rosie Result

It's a story of Kathleen O'Connor, who was an Australian, I guess you'd call her an impressionistic artist, who left conservative Perth at the beginning of the 20th century and went to

The Bookshelf
On Caoilinn Hughes' Orchid & the Wasp, Steven Carroll's The Year of the Beast, John Lanchester's The Wall and Graeme Simsion's The Rosie Result

to try and live out this bohemian Paris artist's life, which she did.

The Bookshelf
On Caoilinn Hughes' Orchid & the Wasp, Steven Carroll's The Year of the Beast, John Lanchester's The Wall and Graeme Simsion's The Rosie Result

And she exhibited in Paris for five decades, I believe.

The Bookshelf
On Caoilinn Hughes' Orchid & the Wasp, Steven Carroll's The Year of the Beast, John Lanchester's The Wall and Graeme Simsion's The Rosie Result

And it's also the story of Amanda Curtin, this almost detective story of tracing this elusive, mysterious character and her elusive relationships with other people, but also her relationship with Australia.

The Bookshelf
On Caoilinn Hughes' Orchid & the Wasp, Steven Carroll's The Year of the Beast, John Lanchester's The Wall and Graeme Simsion's The Rosie Result

She had an almighty chip on her shoulder about Perth and about Australia.

The Bookshelf
On Caoilinn Hughes' Orchid & the Wasp, Steven Carroll's The Year of the Beast, John Lanchester's The Wall and Graeme Simsion's The Rosie Result

And

The Bookshelf
On Caoilinn Hughes' Orchid & the Wasp, Steven Carroll's The Year of the Beast, John Lanchester's The Wall and Graeme Simsion's The Rosie Result

Some of that comes from tragedy of her childhood where her father, who was a famous Western Australian engineer and town planner, there's beaches and statues named after.

The Bookshelf
On Caoilinn Hughes' Orchid & the Wasp, Steven Carroll's The Year of the Beast, John Lanchester's The Wall and Graeme Simsion's The Rosie Result

And also he was Charles O'Connor, who was the subject of The Drowner by Robert Drew of his life.

The Bookshelf
On Caoilinn Hughes' Orchid & the Wasp, Steven Carroll's The Year of the Beast, John Lanchester's The Wall and Graeme Simsion's The Rosie Result

That's C.Y.

The Bookshelf
On Caoilinn Hughes' Orchid & the Wasp, Steven Carroll's The Year of the Beast, John Lanchester's The Wall and Graeme Simsion's The Rosie Result

O'Connor.

The Bookshelf
On Caoilinn Hughes' Orchid & the Wasp, Steven Carroll's The Year of the Beast, John Lanchester's The Wall and Graeme Simsion's The Rosie Result

I didn't realise.

The Bookshelf
On Caoilinn Hughes' Orchid & the Wasp, Steven Carroll's The Year of the Beast, John Lanchester's The Wall and Graeme Simsion's The Rosie Result

Yeah, and the tragedy of his tragic passing and the treatment of him by the Australian press and in Kathleen O'Connor's eyes by Australia left this shadow on Kathleen as part of the reason she wanted to go and later in life she had to sort of, with her tail between her legs, come back to Perth.

The Bookshelf
On Caoilinn Hughes' Orchid & the Wasp, Steven Carroll's The Year of the Beast, John Lanchester's The Wall and Graeme Simsion's The Rosie Result

But it's just such a magical story of a life devoted to art and it's just a magical book.

The Bookshelf
On Caoilinn Hughes' Orchid & the Wasp, Steven Carroll's The Year of the Beast, John Lanchester's The Wall and Graeme Simsion's The Rosie Result

Yeah, you'd think so, wouldn't you?