Good morning. I’m back with some juicy reads from around the Guardian this week: something to curl up with over a cup of coffee, mug of soup or … tin of tomatoes? And next time, my wonderful colleague Emma Elsworthy will be taking the reins – enjoy.
1. Palestine’s paradoxical pop star
Saint Levant’s detractors say he shouldn’t make pop in times of war and destruction. But millions of fans say he has given them permission to celebrate their culture and cause. Nesrine Malik goes deep on the passionate fandom and bitter disapproval elicited by the young star.
A pun for a name: Saint Levant is a play on Saint Laurent – the icon of western style, Malik notes, Arabised in homage to the Middle East’s Levant region.
A flashpoint: “The few Palestinian artists who had made it big before him had done so through rousing political anthems,” Malik observes, explaining the “now canonical songs of yearning and lament” produced by older generations of Arab artists. “A singer who was of Palestine, but broke with the sobriety of expression about it, was a shock to the system in a way that was invigorating and scandalising.”
How long will it take to read: 12 minutes
2. ‘The reaction to the budget has revealed Australia’s warped priorities’
“Nation Realising Our Politicians Have Zero Fucken Clue How To Debate Economic Policy After 20 Years Of Culture Wars,” read a recent headline on satirical news site the Betoota Advocate. Tackling an unexpected dentist’s bill, Guardian columnist Greg Jericho (also chief economist at the Australia Institute) landed in a similar place. “As I paid the bill, not for the first time did I realise how fortunate I was to be able to do so but also just how screwed the debate over the budget is.”
Distorted mirror: Australians with disabilities were hit by the biggest cuts, he points out – “while the wealthiest in society lose some tax breaks and they are apparently the group most deserving of our concern. What a society of ghouls we are if we let that be the truth.”
How long will it take to read: three minutes
Further reading: We’ve had a lot of budget coverage, and will continue to report on how these economic decisions affect people. Josh Butler’s analysis on the challenge Labor faces in selling its (modest) changes is a good place to start.
3. Alan Davies on booze, ego, comedy and cancer
Panel show mainstay and Jonathan Creek star Alan Davies is such a constant feature of peaceful British telly that he starts to feel like a family member. However – like most family members, I suppose – he’s had his share of dark days. Sam Wollaston interviews the writer and comedian about booze-fuelled rows, blackouts, violence and the after-effects of abuse.
***
“I want to be famous because of the events of my childhood and I can’t tolerate being famous because of the events of my childhood.” – Alan Davies
A useful book: Davies tells Wollaston he found Bessel van der Kolk’s The Body Keeps the Score helpful. If you could count the number of times this book gets mentioned in interviews it would be, I imagine … very high.
How long will it take to read: four or five minutes
4. Selecting the bonkbuster nonpareil
Trying to pick your favourite Jilly Cooper novel is like trying to pick your favourite pet – something, incidentally, the author and most of her characters would flatly refuse to do. But Zoe Williams has done her valiant best to rank Cooper’s top 10 books, coinciding with the release of season two of the TV adaptation of Rivals.
How long will it take to read: three minutes.
Did she get it right? Tell us your favourite, by emailing australia.newsletters@theguardian.com.
Further reading: All 10 of these novels, obviously. But you may also enjoy Guardian readers and writers waxing lyrical on what the Cooper canon means to them.
5. The taste test that ended one writer’s long-term relationship with Mutti
Food writer Nick Jordan (who is, disclaimer, a friend) goes through a lot of tinned tomatoes, but he’d never given much thought to which he chose, or why. Considering the number of people likely to be in the same boat, he realised the stakes were high: by identifying the best (and worst) he could, arguably, “improve the standard of weekly cooking Australia-wide, or at least make it cheaper”.
The conditions: Jordan and his team of six reviewers tasted 26 cans of diced, chopped or pulped tomato – all blind, and all twice: straight but heated through, and cooked into a sauce.
What did they find? I won’t spoil it, but instead leave you with a comment overheard in the newsroom. “He took a story where nothing happened, and created … a masterpiece.”
How long will it take to read: about five minutes
Further reading: While we’re ranking things, John Fordham dug into the remarkable catalogue of Sonny Rollins after the jazz great’s death this week, and pulled out 10 of his best songs.
If it’s raining when you get this (as it is while I write it, in Sydney), they make for good listening. Have a lovely weekend.
Sign up
If you would like to receive these Five Great Reads to your email inbox every weekend, sign up here. And check out out the full list of our local and international newsletters.
