Disquieting and indeed thoroughly confronting, and thereby very effective in its rendition of the deep and enduring misogyny in Australian society; it's the sense of deeply unpleasant realness, with an element of the abject, that gives this novel its unsettling power. A strong sense of place, and also of the universal, with characters who come to life primarily via the things that drive them, in a way that feels aptly allegorical rather than underdeveloped.
