A Reflective Rarity in the Bearpit. "Thoughtlines: Reflections of a Public Man", by Bob Carr. [review]

Abstract

"Thoughtlines" is a pot-pourri, with some of the characteristics of the curate’s egg. There are speeches — in and out of parliament — book reviews, newspaper articles and extracts from his political diaries. There are even chapters from a political roman à clef in which a Carr lookalike begins his comic climb up the greasy pole. The diversity of Carr’s interests is extraordinarily wide: a sample ranges from the "Meditations" of Marcus Aurelius through Proust’s "In Search of Lost Time", to a cringe-inducing welcome for Margaret Thatcher — ‘when it comes to royalty lay it on with a trowel’.