The Revenge Club

Kathy Lette writes humorous books about the challenges of older women, often their relationships with men,  and The Revenge Club continues this trend. Four older women - Matilda (Tilly), Jo, Penny and Cressida (Cressy) - meet one day after thirty years apart and discuss problems they are facing in their work opportunities or in marriage. 

Jo has discovered that dressing as a man and calling herself Joseph allows her to continue working at the job she enjoys in the film industry. Penny, a respected reporter and television host, loses her job on a television show as she is considered to be too old while her male co-host, who is the same age, hosts the show on his own. Cressida gave up her job when she married to support her husband and bring up their four daughters. Now that the girls are no longer at home she starts looking for acting work again but is considered too old for most jobs. Then she discovers that her husband, an influential lawyer, has been dating a younger woman. When she tries to divorce him she discovers that he has taken total control of the family property and financial accounts. Matilda, a successful author, discovers that her publisher is refusing to publish her new book because he considers that she is too old and unappealing to look at.

The four women therefore decide to create the Revenge Club.

Kathy Lette has created an often amusing and sometimes raunchy tale of how the four women set out to achieve revenge for themselves and other women in a similar situation.

HRT Husband Replacement Therapy

This title has caused discussion in our male dominated house resulting in a post on my husband's Facebook page asking should he be concerned that I was reading this book. The post caused some amusement among his Facebook friends, including one whose wife had already read it.

Ruby thought that her marriage was fine until the day of her 50th birthday when she discovered that her husband was having an affair. Then she received communication from her doctor's surgery informing her that she had terminal cancer. Consequently after consuming too much alcohol she caused a stir at her birthday party when she told her friends and family what she thought of them. All in all it was not a good day.

To say that Ruby's extended family is dysfunctional would be an understatement. Her two older sisters, Emerald and Amber do not talk to each other and their mother is demanding and seems determined to extend the rift between her daughters. When Ruby first received the medical diagnosis (she later discovered there was an error) she booked three passages on the first cruise ship leaving Sydney so that she and her sisters could have a holiday away from their families and reconcile their differences. Ruby also decided that she needed some husband replacement therapy. The sisters eventually all agree to go but when on board they discovered that their three week relaxing holiday was a Cougar Cruise. This was when the fun started.

Kathy Lette has created a career writing quirky, over the top, but humourous books about women and female issues and I have enjoyed three other titles in the past. In recent interviews the author has described the characters in this novel as 'women ageing disgracefully'.

All in all the book provides many laughs and is a good way to escape for an hour or two, especially during the challenging times of 2020.

Dymock's Chapter One - Kathy Lette talking about her new book, Husband Replacement Therapy 22 May 2020 - video

Kathy Lette also launched HRT Husband Replacement Therapy from London on the Better Reading Facebook page on 6 May.

War of the sexes

Australian author, now living in England, Kathy Lette, entertains her predominantly female audience writing books describing the battle of the sexes within and outside marriage. Recently I have read three of her books, Dead sexy, How to kill your husband (and other handy household hints) and To love, honour and betray (till divorce do us part).

In Dead Sexy music teacher Shelley discovers that her students have entered her in reality television program where, based on computer matching, she will meet her perfect man. Substantial prize money will be provided if she and Kit Kincade decide to marry and enjoy a honeymoon on a French run African island, observed of course by a film crew for a television program. Shelley decides to take the risk but then the intrigue starts. Who really is the man she married? Why does he disappear immediately after the wedding and then insist on separate rooms on the island? With the obnoxious television crew attempting to follow her every move Shelley encounters betrayal, revolution, a cyclone and a volcanic eruption as she discovers the true story of Kit Kincade and also re-evaluates her life.

How to kill your husband follows the realtionships of three friends aged 40 + years who regularly meet to gossip and discuss their families. Cassie is a school teacher and mother and is married to a vet who does not see the need to help her with household chores. Hannah owns an art gallery and is married to a young artist who enjoys spending the money she earns. Jazz is married to a doctor well known for his medical work in Africa as well as running his practice. She does not need to work and they have a teenage son. When Jazz is accused of murdering her husband Cassie agrees to help her clear her name. The realtionships of the three women are tested in this amusing commentary men and sex and expectations in marriage.

In To love, honour and betray, Lucy, Jasper and their two daughters have moved to Australia where Jasper has a new job. Once settled at Cronulla Lucy discovers that Jasper has also brought his mistress who Lucy thought was her best friend. Lapsing into a world of self pity Lucy is determined to win Jasper back. Further complicating her life is the challenge of bringing up two daughters, one a rebellious teenager. With new friends and the attempt to win her bronze medallion she eventually regains some self respect as she attempts to sort out her life and protect her family.

Kathy Lette's are humourous chic lit providing commentary on domestic and sexual discord and concentrating on the differences between the sexes.

Water, water everywhere

Landscape plays an important part in many novels, especially in Australian novels, and in Australian fiction water is often a theme. The large coastline of the island continent ensures that much Australian fiction is set near beaches. As well as physical descriptions of the landscape the power of water, especially of the ocean, can be viewed as a force to be challenged, a world of freedom or as an opportunity for escape. It can also be portrayed as part of the Australian psyche.

Two authors whose books often feature water in their books are Robert Drewe and Tim Winton.

Most of the short stories in Robert Drewe's latest book, The Rip, involve water in some way. In a number of the stories water is in the background, not a dominant force, but in some of the stories water is a central character. The author examines a range of relationships in the stories and the reactions of people to situations but in many of the stories the catalyst for the events that occur is water. The analogy of a prison to an aquarium, the reactions to a possible tsunami, the escape of swimming laps in a pool, the need to impress someone by challenging the sea are a few of the scenarios in this book of Australian short stories.

In 1993 Robert Drewe edited The Penguin book of the beach, a collection of 25 short stories written by authors from many countries including Australia. In the introduction Robert Drewe writes that he chose these stories "not only because I think they represent the best of contemporary shorter fiction writing about the beach - the coasts, ocean shores, bays, dunes, lagoons and rivers... They share a concern with pressing personal, social and political questions,, their satiric, humorous or fantastic sidelong glance often revealing more than direct realistic examination. ... The role of the beach in contemporary fiction may be literally gauged by the stories' subject matter. The vast majority deal with escape, often from the next most possible category - family and sexual relationships. These are followed in popularity by drowning, growing up and the mysterious voyage/journey to the Apocalypse." (p 4-5) Authors in this anthology include Graham Swift, Ian McEwan, Frank Moorhouse, Helen Garner, David Malouf and Tim Winton.

Water is a theme in much of the writing of Tim Winton. This is particularly the case in his latest novel, Breath. Set in Western Australia two young boys, Pikelet and Loonie, enjoy taking risks first in the river and then in the surf some miles from where they live. The book deals with relationships between the two boys and Sando and Eva but it also revolves around the relationship of the boys with the surf - the power of the surf, the danger of the surf, the allure of the surf. The need to conquer bigger and bigger waves. The need to take risks, to face death, to survive. The novel also explores sexual risk taking. Throughout the book there are references to breathing, the necessity for life. This is a beautifully written book.

The power of the surf to take over one's life is also observed in Di Morrissey's latest novel, The Islands. A love story set in Australia and in Hawaii, primarily in the 1970s, Catherines' life changes when she discovers the freedom brought about learning to surf and meeting challenges. The power of the ocean over the lives of many of the characters that Catherine meets when living in Hawaii is a major component of this book.

Learning to conquer fear of the ocean and learning to surf is a also a theme in Kathy Lette's new book, To love, honour and betray, a zany account of coping with a broken marriage and living with teenage daughters. Set in Sydney much of the action occurs at the local surf club where Lucy faces the challenges of gaining the Bronze Medallion as well as travelling down the hard road of self discovery.