Ken Wark’s The Virtual Republic is an interesting discussion about contemporary Australian public culture. The main theme of this book is the current debate about what Australian national identity consists of, especially how this debate is documented in Australian literature and culture. To begin with Wark defines what he means by ‘virtual republic’, to do this he deconstructs the meanings that these two words have had from time to time. He defines Republic as meaning "the public thing" (xi) as derived from the literal latin meaning of the word, and Virtual as potential, the numerous potentials open to each and everyone of us. Therefore he defines the ‘Virtual Republic’ as being about creating "a people aware of itself as a people" about its potentials and not being tied to a fixed idea of itself (xvii). He goes on to discuss this in a two-part style. The first part he calls the roots, this deals with the bases of Australian public identity and culture as it has developed over time. The second part is called the aerial and deals with today and possibilities for the future.

Although Wark’s structure is quite solid and straight forward the discussion that takes place in its pages is far more eclectic, there is somewhat of the Pilger in its style. Like Pilger Wark uses a mixture of anecdotes, biographies and facts to get across his argument in a style that is, although rather circuitous, quite strong and pointed. Wark discusses everything from the Sydney Postmodernism and the Demidenko/Darville saga to the Whitlam ascendancy and Russian intellectuals. There are a number of recurring themes in this book, Demidenko/Darville making a few appearances, Manning Clarke and the divide between the Australian Meritocracy (multiculturalism and equal opportunities and all that) and the mates system (battlers, Hanson and the like) also make a number of appearances.

Anyone interested in the current debate about Australian identity, culture and the potential Australian republic will find this book a fascinating treatment of the subject. There is a certain eclectic approach that can at times be annoying and readers of John Pilger will be familiar with the style. The author also deals with various aspects of conflicting views of Australian identity and culture in a less than critical way making it difficult to discern whether he disagrees with any of these views, however, it is possible that this is the point the idea being to foster discussion on all the possibilities and potentials for Australian identity and culture. this book provides an extremely refreshing approach to a number of issues and discussions that have recently become, at least for me, stale and dull.