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Author: Peter Craven

  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Jordan Peterson wrestles with God

    • Peter Craven
    • 06 December 2024

    As an outspoken psychologist and best-selling author, Jordan Peterson become a lightning rod for debate on culture, gender, and the meaning of life itself. His newest book, We Who Wrestle With God, attempts to reinterpret the Bible through a psychological lens. Yet, some critics question whether his explorations of scripture offer revelation or revisionism.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Tom Hughes, legend of Australian politics and law, farewelled

    • Peter Craven
    • 05 December 2024

    Tom Hughes, who passed away at 101, was a towering figure in Australia’s legal and political history. A barrister of dazzling skill, an Attorney-General with a penchant for reform, and a man of unshakable conviction, Hughes combined wit, charm, and grit to shape justice and inspire a legacy beyond party lines.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Disclaimer in a streamer world

    • Peter Craven
    • 15 November 2024

    Starring Cate Blanchett at the height of her powers, Disclaimer, the new streamer by Alfonso Cuarón, has already been dubbed the finest thing ever made for the new television, with the director claiming not to have made a serial, but a continuous film. 

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Sonny Boy: A Memoir by Al Pacino review

    • Peter Craven
    • 08 November 2024

    Al Pacino is an actor we’re inclined to take for granted, given his presence in some of the greatest popular films of the last half century, not least his Michael Corleone in Coppola’s Godfather trilogy, which revealed an actor of extraordinary stature. Sonny Boy is a consistently diverting and illuminating book by a man who has little pomp and circumstance about him. 

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    In Juice, Tim Winton turns to mad dystopian climate fiction

    • Peter Craven
    • 25 October 2024

    In Juice, Tim Winton crafts a haunting world where climate apocalypse and moral ambiguity collide. This monolithic novel depicts a dystopian future scarred by climate change, with Winton’s intricate prose showcasing his mastery and leaving readers to grapple with its fierce ethical landscape.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Songs of Cretan liars and the rambling voice of truth

    • Peter Craven
    • 09 October 2024

    With moments of shared perspective and common ground, the weird thing about the CBS debate the debate between the two putative vice-presidents, J.D. Vance and Tim Walz, was how civil and considerate it was and (in its way) how impressive.  

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Remembering Maggie Smith’s enduring magic

    • Peter Craven
    • 02 October 2024
    1 Comment

    If you care about theatre and film and television you should be grateful to have lived at the same time as Maggie Smith. She was an artist of incomparable power and nuance, of tremendous wit and complementary poignancy. The Harry Potter kids are lucky to have experienced such style and know-how and grace. 

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Only in America

    • Peter Craven
    • 25 July 2024

    It’s easy, isn’t it – much too easy – to invoke the standard response that only in the so-called Land of the Free could these things transpire. A vulgar, mendacious man who has refused to believe that he lost the last election is now the improbable victim of an assassination attempt. And the incumbent president, who has not done badly at his impossible job, surrenders his chance at re-election.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    John Grisham and the Camino literary caper

    • Peter Craven
    • 05 July 2024

    For a long time now, John Grisham has been part of the air we breathe. He's one of those writers who’s all things to all people. His latest Camino books are books about books;  a form of meta crime writing and you have to admire the move on the chessboard they represent. Can John Grisham be self-reflexive?

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Requiem in a dawn light

    • Peter Craven
    • 24 April 2024
    1 Comment

    For those born in the wake of World War II, war stories seemed the greatest fun on earth. But the pity of it is monumental and we come to take it – if not for granted – then at least as part of the fabric of minds that had met with all that was terrible in human experience and all that called out for reverence.  

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Nam Le's 36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem

    • Peter Craven
    • 05 April 2024
    1 Comment

    Nam Le is one of the strangest writers in the history of Australian literature and is also one of the most incandescently brilliant — which is very weird if you bear in mind that his primary claim to legendary status is a book of short fiction published in 2008. With 36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem, Le returns with a new work that encapsulates the brilliance and complexity that fans and critics have come to expect.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    The Crown: As Diana, Elizabeth Debicki is 'a thing of wonder'

    • Peter Craven
    • 15 December 2023

    The Crown, that extraordinary TV series about the British Royal Family, is drawing to a close, with the final six episodes released in the prelude to Christmas. In the meantime, the producers have shrewdly done a quartet of episodes about Diana, with Australia's Elizabeth Debicki giving a dazzling performance as ‘the People's Princess’.

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