This is Volume 3 of the Meredith Trilogy
An outstanding writer! A thoughtful book!
This 110 page unfinished treasure, the final volume of a trilogy, has a total plot amounting to no more than a short stroll down a suburban street, yet it is so intriguing, with all its varied themes and rich prose. I read it when it was first published, and 40 years later it remains a satisfying read. Johnston died in 1970 at only 59.
It is essentially a work of fiction, with David Meredith speaking as the main character, in the first person, but it is to a great extent George Johnston's own life story. The Meredith trilogy is a reflection of the writer's own life - as a child/young man in Melbourne, as a journalist/war correspondent, as a family man married to Charmian Clift, on a Greek island, and here finally - as an ailing man testing the route his daughter plans to walk, Greek-style, to her wedding.
As he walks and rests on a bench, his thoughts wander; he recalls his past and weaves a complex reverie. You experience subjective time, his scraps of memory are analysed, the "mischiefs of time", life's tricks and associations. He describes the new Australia of the 50s and 60s, when he returned from"exile" in Greece - "callous architecture....scar tissue of urban development"...."young men no longer lean and hawky...." The whole narrative is made up of inner thoughts and layered memories. I loved the characters of The Ocker and Miss Aubrey the music teacher. Words are so carefully chosen, almost poetic.
My Brother Jack (Vol 1) and Clean Straw for Nothing (Vol 2) both won the Miles Franklin Award. Maybe you'll be tempted to read all three?
Janet S
An outstanding writer! A thoughtful book!
This 110 page unfinished treasure, the final volume of a trilogy, has a total plot amounting to no more than a short stroll down a suburban street, yet it is so intriguing, with all its varied themes and rich prose. I read it when it was first published, and 40 years later it remains a satisfying read. Johnston died in 1970 at only 59.
It is essentially a work of fiction, with David Meredith speaking as the main character, in the first person, but it is to a great extent George Johnston's own life story. The Meredith trilogy is a reflection of the writer's own life - as a child/young man in Melbourne, as a journalist/war correspondent, as a family man married to Charmian Clift, on a Greek island, and here finally - as an ailing man testing the route his daughter plans to walk, Greek-style, to her wedding.
As he walks and rests on a bench, his thoughts wander; he recalls his past and weaves a complex reverie. You experience subjective time, his scraps of memory are analysed, the "mischiefs of time", life's tricks and associations. He describes the new Australia of the 50s and 60s, when he returned from"exile" in Greece - "callous architecture....scar tissue of urban development"...."young men no longer lean and hawky...." The whole narrative is made up of inner thoughts and layered memories. I loved the characters of The Ocker and Miss Aubrey the music teacher. Words are so carefully chosen, almost poetic.
My Brother Jack (Vol 1) and Clean Straw for Nothing (Vol 2) both won the Miles Franklin Award. Maybe you'll be tempted to read all three?
Janet S
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