The Age
In his review of Steven Carroll's latest novel, The Time We Have Taken, Michael McGirr compares this third book in the author's trilogy with Elizabeth Jolley's work, favourably. "Carroll's trilogy is the equal of Jolley's. It has the emotional stamina needed to draw life from the same characters over three independent novels...Carroll writes the kind of still prose that invites the reader into a contemplative space. The irony is that his subject matter is restless." It's a major triumph of Carroll's that he has been able to produce novels whose surfaces reflect the period of the books, and yet have a lot of depth. "Carroll takes time to tell an untidy story with a gentle sense of wonder. His prose whispers loud."
Meme McDonald has a new young adult book out, Love Like Water, and Martin Flangan profiles the author, and, in the process, reviews the novel as well. "A lot of silly things are said about novels and art, but I do think this book goes somewhere new. To begin with, as a male reader, I find it an unusually compelling portrait of a man. Then there is the fact that the man happens to be Aboriginal. How many other white novelists are able to present Aboriginal Australia in the sort of depth and complexity this book does? This, truly, is a book about the meeting of two worlds."
The Australian
The paper must be saving itself for its March edition of "The Australian Literary Review", which is out tomorrow.
