Variously:
1. Recommended by Nicolette a while back, and I've been seeing in it Readings too.
2. The prologue bears some distressingly close similarities to that of my own in-progress, not least with the arrival of a letter driving the (recollective) narrative.
3. It's a well-worn device - the relatively conventional narrator enchanted by, and granted entry to, an exotically fascinating group or milieu and serving as reader's window into same (see also: Nick Carraway, Charles Ryder, Richard Papen). Put to good work here.
4. Mood and setting are particular strengths; the various pieces of Melbourne that make their way in - albeit from either the 1930s or the 80s - don't hurt a bit. The characters are generally well rendered - poignant and crisply defined without being either sentimentalised or caricature (the renditions of Heloise and Evan Trentham, respectively, risking but avoiding those vices).
5. It's very well crafted, which works in its favour. I wonder whether it's maybe too modest - if I would've had a stronger reaction to it had it tried for more. That's probably unfair, though - taken on its own terms, it doesn't do too much wrong, and I did enjoy it.
6. One of those little artifacts - written on a small piece of paper tucked in the back of the library copy that I read (sounds like its author enjoyed the book less than I did ... assuming they were indeed notes for a review of The Strays):
FOR REVIEW:
Comment on child narrator, how complex, that narration, needs to be (present-tense: child's voice)
The structure: acts as a crutch for a story not thought out
For a trip that crosses Australia, everyone is white, stereotypes stay as stereotypes
Watch the Australian Story
Something about character's (woman) [couldn't read the next two words]
1. Recommended by Nicolette a while back, and I've been seeing in it Readings too.
2. The prologue bears some distressingly close similarities to that of my own in-progress, not least with the arrival of a letter driving the (recollective) narrative.
3. It's a well-worn device - the relatively conventional narrator enchanted by, and granted entry to, an exotically fascinating group or milieu and serving as reader's window into same (see also: Nick Carraway, Charles Ryder, Richard Papen). Put to good work here.
4. Mood and setting are particular strengths; the various pieces of Melbourne that make their way in - albeit from either the 1930s or the 80s - don't hurt a bit. The characters are generally well rendered - poignant and crisply defined without being either sentimentalised or caricature (the renditions of Heloise and Evan Trentham, respectively, risking but avoiding those vices).
5. It's very well crafted, which works in its favour. I wonder whether it's maybe too modest - if I would've had a stronger reaction to it had it tried for more. That's probably unfair, though - taken on its own terms, it doesn't do too much wrong, and I did enjoy it.
6. One of those little artifacts - written on a small piece of paper tucked in the back of the library copy that I read (sounds like its author enjoyed the book less than I did ... assuming they were indeed notes for a review of The Strays):
FOR REVIEW:
Comment on child narrator, how complex, that narration, needs to be (present-tense: child's voice)
The structure: acts as a crutch for a story not thought out
For a trip that crosses Australia, everyone is white, stereotypes stay as stereotypes
Watch the Australian Story
Something about character's (woman) [couldn't read the next two words]
