Struan 1962 - Adm.monash.edu.au

The Australian literary landscape ...The social problem novel enjoys the greatest popularity with our contemporarywriters. With one or two exceptions, they prefer to depict action,character and incident, rather than to dwell on spiritual development, psychologicalpenetration or subtle introspection. There are few novelists likeHenry James among us. This is comprehensible in a young country onlyrecently emerging from its pioneering days. Material problems seem morereal to us than metaphysical or psychological subtleties. So we have RuthPark's Harp in the South as an example of this genre. It is a story of poverty,ignorance and immorality, but the author's accent is on the loyalty andcourage of the under-privileged denizens of Sydney's slums. Poor Man'sOrange carries on the story of the Darcy family and puts Miss Park (Mrs.Darcy Niland) in the front rank of socially-conscious Australian novelists.Both novels are well worth reading. Another interesting present-day writerin the same field is Kylie Tennant. Her canvas is the outback slum. In suchnovels as Tiberon and The Battlers she paints a realistic picture of thedepression victims in Australia's rural areas. Readers who like Steinbeckwill find similarities in Miss Tennant's novels. The Battlers is an AustralianGrapes of Wrath.If you are the kind of person who believes that a novel should help oneto escape from reality instead of reflecting it, there are the detective storiesof Arthur Upfield, a former resident of Airey 's Inlet , who has created inNapoleon Bonaparte, a half-caste sleuth who wouldn't need to genuflect tosuch masters as Father Brown, Ellery Queen or Inspector Maigret. TheBone is Pointed, Wings of Evil, Deatb of a Swagman are some of Upfield'sbest. June Wright'S Murder in tbe Telephone Exchange has become the mostpopular Australian mystery story since the Mystery of a Hansom Cab.One of the most promising writers in this country is Tom Hungerford.Ex-servicemen who sweated out the war in New Guinea will relish TheRidge and tbe River, a thrilling account of a jungle patrol's clash with theJapanese. More significant is his second novel, Riverslake, in which hedepicts the impact of Australian life on immigrants at a migrant hostel inCanberra. This book is an indictment of our treatment of new-comers fromEurope. Sowers of the Wind is a novel of the Australian troops in Japan.Hungerford's is an authentic Australian voice.For readers who like their history in novel form there is a wide choice.Eleanor Dark's trilogy, Timeless Land, Storm of Time and No Barrier, is a----~caieTmIY""w rouglif"Piaure-=Of ~ t he-e1'i tl y-d ay s- i n-New- Sou t h-W a les~ Jn":,,more--""'''''''''''-dpopular style are E. V. Timms' historical romances set against the goldrushes,the convict days and the pioneer settlements. Forever to Remain describes'in detail the experiences of the new settlers on an immigrant ship during thefour months' voyage from England to Swan River in 1831. Ernestine Hill'sSTRUAN. 1962Page Fifty-Three