Book Description
David Malouf is one of Australia's most popular novelists, and also one of its most elusive. Drawing on the whole range of his work, Indyk presents Malouf as both a primitive and a romantic--a writer who turns to the natural world for the expression of desires which are proscribed or not
recognized in the social realm. Indyk's study takes the form of a long essay or meditation, which explores the hidden logic of Malouf's art--as fiction, poetry, essay, drama, libretto--revealing an underlying technique which works through emblem and analogy, releasing energies that might be
inhibited by more direct forms of expression. This emblematic technique allows Malouf to probe the dark sides of desire, its relationship to violence, savagery, and even death, while on the other hand, it underwrites his moments of poetic illumination, as he strives toward a visionary apprehension
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Book Description
This digital document is an article from Australian Literary Studies, published by University of Queensland Press on October 1, 1997. The length of the article is 4345 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the supplier: David Malouf's 'The Conversations at Curlow Creek' is based on a traditional folklore narrative. The story of two men growing up together but of different temperaments choosing opposing life paths is a well-established fable in the Australian literary tradition. Henry Kingsley's 'The Recollections of Geoffry Hamlyn' and 'Ravenshoe' are among the novels in this tradition. The plot of establishing an identity and inheriting a fortune or of making one's fortune in Australia are recurrent in colonial fiction. These novels also explore themes such as changed social status and the link between the European past and the Australian present.

Citation Details
Title: Tales of old travel: predecessors of David Malouf's 'The Conversations at Curlow Creek.'
Author: Patrick Morgan
Publication: Australian Literary Studies (Refereed)
Date: October 1, 1997
Publisher: University of Queensland Press
Volume: v18Issue: n2Page: p174(6)

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Book Description
This digital document is an article from World Literature Today, published by University of Oklahoma on September 22, 2000. The length of the article is 899 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: ENCOMIUM David Malouf.(Brief Article)
Author: Ihab Hassan
Publication: World Literature Today (Refereed)
Date: September 22, 2000
Publisher: University of Oklahoma
Volume: 74Issue: 4Page: 710

Article Type: Brief Article

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Book Description
This digital document is an article from Australian Literary Studies, published by University of Queensland Press on May 1, 1999. The length of the article is 6331 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the supplier: David Malouf is not a historical novelist, although Australian history provides a background to his novel 'The Great World.' The Latin poet Ovid and the French linguist Ferdinand Saussure agree that language divides and differentiates. People search for significant moments of national origin, but locating personal moments of origin is difficult. Much of the plot of Malouf's novel 'The Conversations at Curlow Creek' takes place in memory.

Citation Details
Title: Origin, Identity and the Body in David Malouf's Fiction.
Author: Andrew Taylor
Publication: Australian Literary Studies (Refereed)
Date: May 1, 1999
Publisher: University of Queensland Press
Volume: 19Issue: 1Page: 3

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Book Description
This digital document is an article from Australian Literary Studies, published by Thomson Gale on October 1, 2005. The length of the article is 6828 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Imagining transcendence: the poetry of David Malouf.
Author: Natalie Seger
Publication: Australian Literary Studies (Magazine/Journal)
Date: October 1, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 22Issue: 2Page: 146(14)

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Book Description
This digital document is an article from World Literature Today, published by University of Oklahoma on September 22, 2000. The length of the article is 5912 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: ARMED ANGELS.(interpretation of David Malouf's "Remembering Babylon")
Author: Michael Mitchell
Publication: World Literature Today (Refereed)
Date: September 22, 2000
Publisher: University of Oklahoma
Volume: 74Issue: 4Page: 770

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Book Description
This digital document is an article from World Literature Today, published by University of Oklahoma on September 22, 2000. The length of the article is 7988 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: "A Delicate Business": DAVID MALOUF'S SHORTER PROSE.(Critical Essay)
Author: Paul Sharrad
Publication: World Literature Today (Refereed)
Date: September 22, 2000
Publisher: University of Oklahoma
Volume: 74Issue: 4Page: 759

Article Type: Critical Essay

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Book Description

Amazon.com
It is only natural for our eyes to wander into the circumstances of others and either count our blessings or rail at the injustice of fate. How we deal with the fate dealt us is the subject of David Malouf's shadowy novel. Having grown up in the same household, but under different circumstances, two foster-brothers respond to fate in radically different ways and with radically different results. While one takes kismet under his horsewhip, the other dares not rebel. This haunting replay of Greek tragedy will reverberate in your mind long after the last page is turned, for as with these men, fate is our habitat.Book Description
General FictionLarge Print EditionPrecise detail rewards the reader with resonating insights . . .starred, Publishers WeeklyAn evocative piece of fiction.New York TimesIn 1827 Australia, two men talk through the night. One is a convict waiting to be hanged at dawn; the other, the officer in charge of the execution. As they reveal more and more of their pasts, they discover unlikely connections between their lives. More than that, the conversation between these two very different men expresses the fear and isolation of individuals, as well as the experiences that unite us all. The Conversations at Curlow Creek is, ultimately, an exploration of nature and justice by one of the greatest novelists writing today. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

David Malouf
I am not going to give you a summary of the book, but it does have very good plot and detailed characters.The book describes characters through flashbacks on their past and what they've had to deal with in the past.I usual like a book with a little more actual conversations and I did find it confusing at time when flashbacks became reality again.I did the author did a good job showing the emotions of each character, you could easily which character was the angry one, the friendly one, and so on and so forth.Overall it wasn't my favorite book just because the dialogue was weak but it is a good read.

A night of memories
Michael Adair is far from his native Ireland. In the scrub of New South Wales, he's been assigned the supervising of the execution of a bushranger. With no priest present, Adair undertakes the task of providing company, if not consolation, for the doomed raider. Carney, an Irishman like Adair, was a member of a gang led by a renowned leader, Dolan. Dolan, famous for his physical stature and cunning, is of particular interest to Adair. The last survivor of the mob, Carney seeks some level of absolution for his sins, which appear minimal. Frontier justice is always grim and Carney expects no favours from his watcher.

As the night progresses, Adair's mind drifts back to his childhood in Ireland. An orphan taken in by a comfortable, if troubled, family, he reflects on his foster parents' son. From early days when Adair was caregiver to Fergus to later, more competitive times, the relationship of the two boys was close. It became strained only as they achieved maturity and Virgilia, a neighbour, becomes a tutor to the pair. Carney, it appears, may be a link to that distant past. A link less remote and vague than the circumstances of the lonely night suggest. Reminiscing may lead to connections both men may not welcome, yet each reaches tentatively for the other regardless of the outcome. The dynamics of this tale are intense and compelling.

In Australia, there's a long-standing tradition of the "bush ballad" - a mix of fable, poetry and music. The ballads reflect the stark, unforgiving land and the lives of the people coping with it. The verses are wistful with longing for better times and places, yet reflect the "battler's" striving to overcome adversity. Malouf's prose reflects that tradition in both style and content. He's parsimonious with words, yet precise and vividly descriptive. He's presented us with a story of profound depth and wide-reaching scope, yet managed it within an astonishing few pages. No words are wasted, but each conveys the fullest meaning within the story. Malouf is a masterful writer, and this book will long stand as a sterling example of his abilities. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

Fade To Gray
David Malouf is not only a novelist, but a published poet as well. His work, "The Conversations At Curlow Creek", contain passages that could stand alone as solitary poems with little change to their form. This is only the third work of his I have read, so even if combined with the fourth I am reading, I still feel this Author's range is remarkable. Australia is not a place where the word confine would seem to be appropriate, however with this story Mr. Malouf creates a very intimate setting that even when expanded, rarely grows larger.

As he has done before he brings people from Scotland, or Ireland and tells his story in Australia. When I said he expands the setting without literally enlarging it as well, I meant that his players might roam their memories and share those of others, while remaining all but immobile during the tale. Two men from Ireland share an evening. One represents the authority of law in its most final form, the other a man whose outlaw life should hold values in complete opposition to his jailer. An then there is a third man, also from Ireland, raised as a brother to the lawman, and the possible leader of the group the prisoner is the only surviving member of.

The night can be a strange time for thoughts and memories, and when one of the men is supposed to be hung at dawn, every minute is arguably critical. The passage of time seems to obsess the jailer more. When asked the time he wonders if he should just say the half hour, or the actual 28 minutes past. He contemplates the value these 2 additional minutes would mean to the condemned. He uses time to gain information about this man's leader, probing to see if the man is his foster brother last seen when 16 years of age. The jailer sensitive to the man's diminishing time is desperate for the knowledge, but becomes increasingly respectful of the convict.

The travels outside the room they share often read as a recollection, until the waking of the dreamer disturbs the memory. It's a more subtle form of recall than just turning the page and finding you are jumping back and forth between dates. As the night passes the ides of forgiveness, redemption, and morality are discussed with the jailor playing the reluctant philosopher/priest. Mr. Malouf is very clever in taking issues that seem so black and white, and making them gray. He examines the two paths in life these men have followed, and the possible life of the third man. All three are very different, but two may have decided to live outside the confines of society's laws, while the third became a custodian of the same society's structure.

The book comes to an ending that I doubt many will find expected, and some may argue is ambiguous. Mr. Malouf leaves a great deal of room for his readers to either find the thread he leaves, or to allow space to be filled by the reader. His writing is unique and compelling, and will either hold great appeal, or certain frustration for readers.

A moral masterpiece
This is one of my all time valued books. A splended writer, Malouf uses language as a poet, brings his two main characters to vivid life, makes the reader care about both of them...the convict and the soldier (possibly hisexecutioner). What particularly moved me and sets this book above most ishow skillfully Malouf raises the question of morality (without moralizing)relative to the judgement of others...Who is not guilty? Or if guilty, whatabout the compassion of another.These are to me primary questions in aworldwhere finger-pointing is so prevalent.Malouf is a man whose breadthand depth of insight deserve much attention and applause.

Thought-provoking
The suspense of the novel is provided by the reader's wondering if Adairwill hang an illiterate Irish convict at dawn or if he will yield tocompassion after talking and reminiscing with the man through the night. The convict relates a story about a time that he was given a job toimpersonate someone under very mysterious circumstances which turned out tobe the only instance in the man's life that he was ever treated with anykind of tenderness.This story is marvelously told and does arouse thereader's sympathy. Soldier and convict are united by their Irishbackgrounds and the fact that they were both orphans whose fortunes,however, were widely divergent. The reader comes to wonder which positionis more difficult: the convict's necessity of facing death at dawn or thesoldier's duty to be the executioner.The author uses this situation as afocus for a meditation on mortality that is philosophical and sometimesmysterious. This would be a good selection for a book group as multipleinterpretations of the meaning of the book are certainly possible. ... Read more

Book Description
Brought back to Australia by the death of his father, Dante is sorting through his father's belonging when he comes across a photograph of Johnno, a long-time friend. The photograph stirs up a lifetime of memories for Dante, leading him to finally set Johnno's story--which has haunted him for years--on paper. An outrageous character of legendary proportions, Johnno is brought top life in all his complexity, beginning with his days at Brisbane Grammar School, when he and Dante first become friends, to the days they spend together in Paris, Johnno's inexplicable rages and periodic transformations are recounted until we come to know him--without ever quite understanding him. Daring, impossible, and unpredictable, Johnno is a fascinating character. His shocking behavior awes some, annoys others, and provokes a good many more. Above all, though, he is thoroughly unforgettable. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Wonderful
In less than two-hundred pages, Malouf manages to capture the coming-of-age angst of the entire Australian post-war generation. Only Malouf could be telling the story of two youths and, virtually on the same page, effortlessly synthesize the realities of Australian experience with European philosophical themes, and connect them both to the whole tangled mess of our national identity. And yet for all its efficiency and high intent, 'Johnno' still reads like an affectionate and deeply-felt memoir, never shying away from the emotional, physical and sexual confusion of youth, nor from the contradictions inherent in what it means to be an 'Australian man'. But that's the genius of Malouf, and it's something we find him doing again and again: telling an apparently simple story about ordinary people, yet with this richly poetic, philosophical undercurrent which can suddenly reach up and pull you under. For Australian readers, this is a particularly important skill. Not only does Malouf deal with significant human issues, but he brings them home. He takes them out of the realm of abstract philosophy and makes them implicit in this place.This makes his work at once deeply personal and resolutely public in the best sense: he has something to share with all of us, something important, and he shares it beautifully.

Slow Moving, but Worth It
It took me a while to get through Johnno, despite its less than 200 pages, but I must say I thoroughly enjoyed each page.The slowness was more a function of my available time than of the novel's quality.Johnno is a little gem, a wonderful chronicling of a young man's coming of age, and his relationship with Johnno, a slightly troubled young man, in Brisbane right after World War II.David Malouf is a wonderful writer.Each sentence is a work of art--but nothing is too precious, too anything.It's an enjoyable book that I highly recommend.

Bloody good
I read this book in 1997, having avoided studying it a dozen years earlier in school.Since leaving school I had inexplicably held out on reading what is regarded as the best work of fiction set in and about my home town of Brisbane.Once I started reading I could not stop.In amongst thebeautiful prose and vivid description lies Johnno, a character we all know,love, loathe, and long for.

An excellent book.As it turns out I'm gladI held out until I was old enough to really appreciate David Malouf'sstyle, which is rich, evocative and so very (tempted to say 'real', butthis is fiction) believable. ... Read more