16 Oct 2016

The New Torchlight List - New Zealand and Australia

From Sunday Morning, 8:40 am on 16 October 2016

Jim Flynn and Wallace Chapman discuss local literature in the latest chapter of 'The New Torchlight List' podcast, shining the light on New Zealand and Australian authors.

Eleanor Catton.

Eleanor Catton. Photo: ROBERT CATTO

Wallace takes on Jim over Eleanor Catton's The Luminaries - which was too long, says Jim. That's not so, says Wallace, and Jim replies with his theory that Catton can write, but she needs to get her talent under control - and she has "too much good material".

Listen to the full podcast here:

Jim believes Janet Frame also can write, "but a lot of it is spoiled by schoolgirl emotive prose".

Among Australian writers Jim rates highly were Thomas Keneally with Schindler's Ark, Peter Carey and Hannah Kent - a writer with an impressive first novel, Burial Rites, that has won nine literary awards.

"Watch for Kent's next novel," Jim says.

Listen to more episodes of 'The New Torchlight List', a 10-part series based on Jim Flynn's book for Penguin