Mirabell
04-Dec-2009, 00:59
In his afterword to his second novel, David Malouf, one of the best known and most celebrated Australian prose writers, states that he wanted to write ?neither a historical novel nor biography, but a fiction with its roots in possible event.? The result, An Imaginary Life, published in 1978, is an astonishing work of art, an enchanting, challenging, and poetical novel, that manages to sound exuberant and excessive while actually being fairly controlled and shrewd, moving and in the end even dazzling the reader. An Imaginary Life is a perfectly calibrated little book about something that probably didn?t happen, for various reasons, but is more an exploration of spiritual possibilities than real, historical ones, and whatever criticism could be leveled at it from that quarter it can dodge easily. (...) An Imaginary Life starts in an unassuming, a quiet manner. Malouf is an excellent writer, sure enough of his mind and his language that he?s never controlling, he?s a confident writer who doesn?t need to smother the reader with brilliance, he allows the reader to discover the book for himself. It?s a good read, and a superb book overall, that makes sense on many levels and will appeal to all kinds of readers. It?s a very strong recommendation, a genuinely good, nay, a great book.read the full review here
Possibilities: David Malouf?s ?An Imaginary Life? shigekuni. (http://shigekuni.wordpress.com/2009/12/04/possibilities-david-maloufs-an-imaginary-life/)
I really need to get these collected stories. he's such a damnably good writer...
Possibilities: David Malouf?s ?An Imaginary Life? shigekuni. (http://shigekuni.wordpress.com/2009/12/04/possibilities-david-maloufs-an-imaginary-life/)
I really need to get these collected stories. he's such a damnably good writer...