In Response To: Kafka With Kangaroos
‘Unfortunately the book is superb.’ Hilarious.
The publication of Wake in Fright is not the cynical marketing exercise David imagines it to be. Text re-published the novel in 2001, long before the film was found let alone restored, and pressed the reprint button when the film was re-released this year. We added a new jacket because our 2001 copy was looking tired, and asked David Stratton to write an Afterword to give the reader an understanding of the book and film’s second lives.
David probably thinks poor old Jane Austen and all those Penguin Classics are just being exploited as well, with everyone making money except the reader and author. We tend to think it’s a great thing to bring old books to a new generation.
Kirsty Wilson, Text Publishing
David Free’s review of Kenneth Cook’s Wake in Fright can be read here.
Kafka With Kangaroos - “Wake in Fright”
- David Free
Wake in Fright by Kenneth Cook
Text Publishing, $24.95
So here’s why you’re reading a review of a novel written fifty years ago by a man who’s been dead since 1987. Ten years after its original publication the book got made into a movie. The movie got recognized, after a while, as a landmark of Australian cinema. Then some moron went and lost the negatives, so nobody got to see the movie for a really long time. And then, in 2004, some intrepid fellow tracked the negatives down. So now the movie has been digitally restored, and given a fresh outing in cinemas, and will soon be released on DVD; and the book has been relaunched with a still of the guy from the movie on the cover, and an Afterword by David Stratton. Read more
She Had Satanic Powers
After confirming last week that four women had been taken into custody and were being questioned in relation to the brutal stabbing murder of a father of five, police have chosen to release further details of the crime. Civil rights groups had protested on behalf of the accused, claiming that prejudicial stereotyping in early police statements had intentionally set the tone for the media coverage that has inflamed public opinion. Answering the charge by referring to two headlines in particular - “Lesbian vampire Killers Slay Defenceless Family Man” and “Bloodsucking Freaks” – the police insisted that they had merely released the facts of the case. Read more
A Blood Hunger Wakes
A spate of blood thefts in three inner-city hospitals has ended with the arrest of a 30 year old man after close scrutiny of surveillance images allowed police to identify the culprit. The security footage showed the man removing a number of glass sample vials containing blood from refrigerated storage. While making a cautious retreat through the hospital corridors, the man drank the blood directly from the vials. Read more