Tracy Flick Can’t Win by Tom Perrotta

From memory, I enjoyed Election (many, many years ago). I loathed the last Perrotta I read, so I wasn’t busting to read his latest… but I was prepared to chance it again for Tracy.

Perrotta brings Tracy firmly into the here-and-now – she’s grown-up; has a job as an acting principal in a school she loves; and has her share of adult problems. The plot relates to #MeToo and violence in schools, and while there was interesting character development (adult Tracy is believable), Perrotta strays too far into making a political statement – it meant there was very little to laugh about by the end.

2.5/5

Graft by Maggie MacKellar

I loved the gentle, meditative quality of MacKellar’s writing in this memoir that describes a year on a Merino wool farm on the east coast of Tasmania. Her observations on landscape, farming, motherhood, grief, weather, and animals were engrossing. As she weaves her past experiences through descriptions of the lambing seasons, I was reminded of Katherine May’s Wintering – both books are soothing in such an unexpected way.

I’m not sure who to recommend this book to, and I fear it will slip under the radar but if you need a reading balm, let this be it.

4/5

Rental Person Who Does Nothing by Shoji Morimoto

Initially I thought the concept behind Morimoto’s memoir – ‘renting’ himself out as a person who ‘does nothing’ – was interesting but actually, the detail was tedious. Morimoto launched his business via Twitter and has undertaken a huge range of tasks from standing in queues on behalf of others to having someone send a picture of their pet to which he was to reply, “That is unbelievably cute!”.

Morimoto does not expect payment, although asks that costs associated with the task are covered. I understand that at the broadest level, he is making a point about the transactional nature of society, and the measure of ‘worth’ but it lost me when I listened to the long, flat account of the gift cards he’s been given (and that he has no use for the Starbucks credit). 

2/5