Published 6 August 201010 August 2010 · Main Posts Failed novels Georgia Claire So last month the girlfriend and I went to see Christopher Hitchens talk about his new book of memoirs. I’m not really into memoir so probably missed out on some of what he said, however, did get one real gem out of the evening. Among other things, he and school friends – and later, other friends, including Salman Rushdie – used to play a game of inventing titles of books that didn’t quite make it. The favored example given was Mr Gatsby. This has of course inspired us to come up with as many failed book titles as we can. I’ve started with the following: Alice in an Interesting Place The Conjuror of Oz The Moderately Well Known Five Diary of a Prostitute Anne of the Green Roof (and the sequel, Anne from a Small Town) The Manipulative Mr Ripley The Unconcluded Novel Older Girls American Lunatic A Long While Alone The challenge is to guess all of the above titles – and come up with more failed novels. Georgia Claire More by Georgia Claire › Overland is a not-for-profit magazine with a proud history of supporting writers, and publishing ideas and voices often excluded from other places. If you like this piece, or support Overland’s work in general, please subscribe or donate. Related articles & Essays First published in Overland Issue 228 28 March 202428 March 2024 · Main Posts Why we should value not only lived experience, but also lived expertise Sukhmani Khorana In the wake of this year’s International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, I want to extend the central idea of El Gibbs’s 2022 essay on 'lived expertise' and argue that in media accounts of racism, analytical expertise and lived experience ought to be valued together and even in the same body. First published in Overland Issue 228 5 March 2024 · Main Posts Andrew Charlton’s school assignment Alex McKinnon Australia's Pivot to India exists for three reasons: so that when Andrew Charlton is interviewed on the radio or introduced on Q+A, his bio includes the phrase "he has written a book about Indian-Australian relations"; to fend off accusations that he is another Kristina Keneally engaging in electoral colonialism in western Sydney; and to help the Albanese government strengthen economic and military ties with Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.