Struan 1962 - Adm.monash.edu.au

My Love Must Wait is a faithful retelling of the Matthew Flinders story, butit is tedious and flat in large tracts. A lesser writer who dramatizes hismaterial and slaps colour on with a heavy hand is Ion Idriess. Drums ofMer, Flynn of the Inland, Lassiter's Last Ride are his most popular books.Critics have acclaimed Henry Handel Richardson's long novel, TheFortunes of Richard Mahoney as the greatest novel by an Australian. It isa book on the grand scale of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. Modern readersreared on more slick techniques may find its Victorian tempo rather slow.It is, nevertheless, a superb book.In writing about the novelist's re-creation of history one can hardlyomit Marcus Clarke and Rolf Boldrewood, although they are outside thescope of a discussion on present-day novelists. For the Term of His NaturalLife and Robbery Under Arms are still the best novels of their kind. Whilewe are back in the Mechanics' Institute days, we must mention Henry Lawsonand Steele Rudd, both of whose short stories and sketches have become partof the Australian I~terary legacy.For those readers who enjoyed Jack London's White Fang and Call of theWild, Frank D. Davison's Manshy and Dusty will appeal. Katharine SusannahPrichard in Coonardoo and Xavier Herbert's Capricornia throw someinteresting light on the problem of the aborigines. Herbert's book is toughand angry and written with more passion than skill.Vance Palmer's careful technique is well in evidence in The SwayneFamily, a picture of an attempt to found a family in Melbourne (John Morrison'sThe Creeping City is an interesting book on the sprawling growth ofMelbourne). Palmer's most successful books are Golconda, The Passage andLegend for Sanderson. The theme of all these books is the effect of environmenton character.Patrick White's very large novel The Tree of Man, published first in theUnited States in 1955 and now available in Australia, seems to be one of themost important novels of recent years. His latest work, Riders in the Chariot,stamps him as a writer of world class.Alan Marshall is an interesting writer. His novel, How Beautiful AreThy Feet, is an indictment of the dehumanizing influence of the modernindustrial environment. The novel is a faithful and vigorous picture of lifein a boot fac.~pry during the depression. These Are My People, while not-..",.,..­ ­coming into the category of fiction, is a book too good to be omitted merelybecause it doesn't fit our classification.Page Fifty-Four STRUAN. 1962