News and Reviews
Reviews for Night Fishing
Vicki Hastrich and the pleasures of looking
Rebecca Johinke
The Sydney Morning Herald, 22 August 2019
Rebecca Johinke
The Sydney Morning Herald, 22 August 2019
After her first two well-received works of fiction, Swimming with Jellyfish (2001) and The Great Arch(2008), Vicki Hastrich takes us back to her childhood via the waterways of the Brisbane Water estuary, near Woy Woy on the NSW central coast.
This shimmering book of personal essays examines the pleasures of fishing, writing and thinking. To paraphrase an observation that Hastrich makes about Galileo, her great achievement is to show us what is already in plain view.
The essays remind us to appreciate the natural beauty of our environment, but also the galleries, books and libraries around us; and they encourage us to peer more intently, and to be inventive but respectful about the ways we go about looking... Every wet word glistens and shines... more...
This shimmering book of personal essays examines the pleasures of fishing, writing and thinking. To paraphrase an observation that Hastrich makes about Galileo, her great achievement is to show us what is already in plain view.
The essays remind us to appreciate the natural beauty of our environment, but also the galleries, books and libraries around us; and they encourage us to peer more intently, and to be inventive but respectful about the ways we go about looking... Every wet word glistens and shines... more...
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Heartaches of sweet little fish
Gretchen Schirm The Weekend Australian, 26-27 October 2019 '... there is a strong pioneering spirit here; many of these essays reject convention, chief among them the idea that a single woman cannot live a rewarding life. This is what makes Hastrich's closing image of the young girl waving from the shore to herself in the boat so moving. The self is a continuous feedback loop formed out of memory and external input, and, exploiting these tools, Night Fishing becomes a triumph of form.' more... |
Vicki Hastrich's collection of essays, Night Fishing, covers art, nature, fishing, family and language
Christine Kearney
The Canberra Times, 14 September 2019
Christine Kearney
The Canberra Times, 14 September 2019
A fishing spot on the Brisbane Water north of Sydney frames the span of essays in Night Fishing. The spot, known locally as The Hole, is 37 metres deep. While Vicki Hastrich's father would sometimes fish there, she was never taken to The Hole as a child. It was treacherous and known for its huge tidal forces.
As an adult, and after a fruitless day out on the water, she and her brother decide to try fishing at The Hole, still mindful of that childhood prohibition. What she catches for us in this collection - just like the enormous flathead she brings up after finally fishing The Hole - is surprising and immensely satisfying.
The topics in Night Fishing range over the natural world, art and art history, fishing, family, writing, language, the Sydney boat show, the baroque and the troubled history of land ownership in this country. Hastrich has a unique knack of deftly balancing European, Australian and Indigenous thinking, and rendering each in complementary ways. So there's a pleasingly rounded and very Australian sensibility to her inquiry in this joyful book... more...
As an adult, and after a fruitless day out on the water, she and her brother decide to try fishing at The Hole, still mindful of that childhood prohibition. What she catches for us in this collection - just like the enormous flathead she brings up after finally fishing The Hole - is surprising and immensely satisfying.
The topics in Night Fishing range over the natural world, art and art history, fishing, family, writing, language, the Sydney boat show, the baroque and the troubled history of land ownership in this country. Hastrich has a unique knack of deftly balancing European, Australian and Indigenous thinking, and rendering each in complementary ways. So there's a pleasingly rounded and very Australian sensibility to her inquiry in this joyful book... more...
Vicki Hastrich, Night Fishing
Fiona Wright
The Saturday Paper, 7 September 2019
...Many of the essays are about boating and fishing – about sitting in a patched-up fibreglass dinghy (called, wonderfully, The Squid) and watching the watery landscape change according to the tide or time of day, observing and recording the sea life and seaweed that the boat passes by. Vicki Hastrich’s writing is often lyrical, and beautifully attentive, making a case for the importance of this kind of consideration and care, especially in a world where our climate and environment are so terribly threatened... more...
Fiona Wright
The Saturday Paper, 7 September 2019
...Many of the essays are about boating and fishing – about sitting in a patched-up fibreglass dinghy (called, wonderfully, The Squid) and watching the watery landscape change according to the tide or time of day, observing and recording the sea life and seaweed that the boat passes by. Vicki Hastrich’s writing is often lyrical, and beautifully attentive, making a case for the importance of this kind of consideration and care, especially in a world where our climate and environment are so terribly threatened... more...