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. 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".
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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.
