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Chameleon

A memoir of art, travel, ideas and love
3.48 goodreads logo

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( 21 ratings, 6 reviews)
Brief Description
Robert Dessaix’s Chameleon is about everything that matters, a book of memories that flow so freely they seem to happen as we read. Cartwheeling from story to story, Dessaix describes an identity in flux: his beginnings as an adopted child named Thomas Robert Jones, his youthful... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$4100
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$4500
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Robert Dessaix's testament to a wonderful life is funny, incisive and literary. His voice is completely distinctive and utterly compelling

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Robert Dessaix’s Chameleon is about everything that matters, a book of memories that flow so freely they seem to happen as we read. Cartwheeling from story to story, Dessaix describes an identity in flux: his beginnings as an adopted child named Thomas Robert Jones, his youthful interest in religious thinking, his obsession with all things Russian, his marriage to Lisa and divorce, and his discovery of travel.

In North Africa, he finds different ways of feeling and being, and in Australia, he begins his abiding relationship with his partner Peter Timms. At every point, he muses on pleasure, art, sex, literature, infatuation, happiness, music, life, death and all the rest.

Chameleon is a virtuoso performance of self-revelation, as Dessaix explores how the restless mind takes constant detours to search for what makes life good, a place of wisdom and love.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781923058279

Publisher: Text Publishing

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 04 March 2025

Country: Australia

Imprint: The Text Publishing Company

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Width: 153.0mm

Height: 234.0mm

Weight: 250g

Pages: 288

About the Author

Robert Dessaix is a writer, translator and broadcaster whose best-known books are the autobiography A Mother’s Disgrace, the novels Night Letters and Corfu, and the travel memoirs Twilight of Love and Arabesques. From 1985 to 1995 he presented the weekly ‘Books and Writing’ program on ABC Radio National. His books have been published in a number of languages. His most recent publications are his memoirs What Days Are For (a meditation on what makes for a good life in the face of death) and The Time of Our Lives (which focuses on ageing well), along with Abracadabra, a collection of his recent writings. He lives in Hobart, Tasmania.

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    The Pleasures of Leisure is Robert Dessaix's guide to work and play in the 21st century. 'Almost everybody I know has done it at least once. Some of my friends indulge on a regular basis. Women seem especially susceptible to giving it a go. I've been at it since I was at least five. What on earth do we imagine...
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    As I Was Saying is a swirling conversation with the reader on everything from travel to dogs and cats, from sport and swearing to the pleasures of idleness. Punctuated at regular intervals by talks Dessaix has given on a wide range of subjects, as well as by some of his most incisive journalism, the conversation invites the reader to join...
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