Andy McPherson is, at his core, a creative person. His father taught him an appreciation of art, although his own skills lean more towards writing. Sadly, Andy is a frustrated novelist, with his work as yet unpublished. Andy meets Jo on a bus from Melbourne to Sydney. They form an instant attraction to each other and are soon married. Jo was travelling to visit her gravely ill Aunt Hennie in Sydney. After her aunt’s death, Jo receives money from the will, and she and Andy purchase their first home back in Melbourne.
With the birth of their daughter, also called Hennie, Andy must – despite his writerly desires – work to support his family. He finds a casual teaching position at a local Technical College, where he meets Lang Tzu, the art teacher. Lang is a loner, and the inference is that his Chinese heritage sets him apart from his colleagues. He calls himself a failed artist; Andy sees parallels with his own creative life. Andy and Lang form a friendship which, from the reader’s perspective, is one-sided. This is a transactional relationship in which Lang asks for support from Andy, who provides it, usually at the most inconvenient time for his wife and child. The title refers to a proposal Lang has to make money from an Arthur Streeton painting with dubious provenance. This ‘deal’ is not exactly illegal, but Andy knows that it’s morally suspect.
Besides creativity, the narrative examines the isolation of the ‘other’. Unfortunately, some of this examination is via long-winded and unnaturally formal dialogue. Miller has long had a fascination with art (think Prochownik’s Dream and Autumn Laing). This book, despite its promise, lacks their depth.
Reviewed by Bob Moore
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Alex Miller deals with ideas, moral choices and the direction of society. He writes of our interior lives within the artful carapace of story. Miller is a storyteller.
He has won the Miles Franklin Literary Award twice, for Miller is twice winner of the Miles Franklin Literary Award, for The Ancestor Game and for Journey to the Stone Country. The Ancestor Game also won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. Conditions of Faith and Lovesong are both winners of the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction in the NSW Premier’s Awards. Landscape of Farewell was awarded the Chinese 21st Century Weishanhi Best Foreign Novel of the Year and the Manning Clark Medal for Miller’s outstanding contribution to Australian cultural life. With Autumn Laing, he was awarded the Melbourne Prize for Literature. Coal Creek won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award. Alex’s twelfth novel, The Passage of Love is his most autobiographical work, a deeply moving masterpiece of the writer’s early struggles and loves from the vantage of old age. A Brief Affair, published in 2022 is ‘ A richly satisfying and luminous novel.’ – Tom Griffiths, historian and author of The Art of Time Travel.
Miller’s work of non-fiction, Max, based on the life of his friend and mentor, Max Blatt, was shortlisted for the National Biography Award in 2021. The Simplest Words is a collection of short pieces, fiction and non-fiction. A Kind of Confession, a selection of letters and notebook entries from 1961 to 2023.
0 Comments