On Lust and Longing

AUTHOR: Blanche d’Alpuget PUBLISHER: MUP RRP: $14.99 REVIEWER: Mary Ann Elliott

AWARD-WINNING writer Blanche d’Alpuget has written 11 books; her biography of Bob Hawke published in 1982 was a national bestseller.

These little books on big themes include On Rage by Germaine Greer and On Humbug by Robert Dessaix.

Blanche’s well-chosen topic is one that she is very familiar with; the power and powerlessness of love. Her introduction to sin taught her not to be awed by status; because a man wears tailor-made suits does not make him sane, good or sincere. She also discovers the face of hypocrisy in the process of growing up and wanting to be an adult.

In an age of misogyny, her robust, fearless father taught his daughter how to defend herself.

Her first chapter is on lust, which focuses on her childhood, teenage and early adult years; her second chapter is on longing, where she quotes from Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, “I have immortal longings in me”.

Here she talks about her first husband, their life in Jakarta and her longing for a child.

In the end, as a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy she met the love of her life, her husband Bob Hawke, but not before years of thwarted desire.

Blanche d’Alpuget bares her soul in this no-holds-barred account of her life.