The end of the novel has the feel of the author rather running out of steam. I could have accepted that if the end result hadn't been that everything eventuality peters out rather inconsequentially. Having invested so much in the relationships between the characters and in their progress in the race, this shift in direction comes as something as a jolt. When events divide the three characters, the race becomes entirely peripheral and the focus becomes Willie's journey into his own history and that of his country. Or at least that is the subject of about two thirds of the novel, until it changes to become something completely different. This then, is the story of their involvement in the race and the developing relationships between the three of them. He is now a schoolteacher, suspended from work for hanging a pupil out of the window. He has run away from a life in which the paternity of his son is in doubt. Willie is a man with a troubled past and present. Before embarking, they recruit, as navigator, Wille Bachuber, their teutonic neighbour. He is a gifted car salesman who is desperate to escape from the influence of his overbearing, outwardly charismatic, but inwardly jealously competitive father Dan.Īs part of their attempts to set themselves up as independent car dealers, free from Dan, they leave their children in the care of Irene's feckless sister Beverley, they enter the Redex Trial, a gruelling automotive circumnavigation of Australia. Diminutive Irene defied both her own father and her future father in law to marry the equally tiny Titch. It starts off as the story of Titch and and Irene Bobs. Add to that characters who are either unremittingly unpleasant, emotionally stupid or frequently both, and the result is a novel to which I found it difficult to warm. It is a polemic about a well deserved target, but in its polemicism it seems to lose its narrative direction. I'm afraid that while there is much to enjoy in A Long Way from Home, it won't, in my mind, be joining the upper echelons of his work.I'm afraid I don't think it is a terribly well structured novel. Illywhacker, Oscar and Lucinda and the True History of the Kelly Gang are particular favourites. I have consistently enjoyed reading Peter Carey's novels. To learn more about how and for what purposes Amazon uses personal information (such as Amazon Store order history), please visit our Privacy Notice. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie Preferences, as described in the Cookie Notice. Click ‘Customise Cookies’ to decline these cookies, make more detailed choices, or learn more. Third parties use cookies for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalised ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. This includes using first- and third-party cookies, which store or access standard device information such as a unique identifier. If you agree, we’ll also use cookies to complement your shopping experience across the Amazon stores as described in our Cookie Notice. We also use these cookies to understand how customers use our services (for example, by measuring site visits) so we can make improvements. We use cookies and similar tools that are necessary to enable you to make purchases, to enhance your shopping experiences and to provide our services, as detailed in our Cookie Notice.
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