Matt over at A Novel Approach has brought to my attention the Australian Book Review’s poll to find our FAN, that is our Favourite Australian Novel. Not, they say, Australia’s favourite novel (which would end up with books like Lord of the Rings on the list), nor our favourite Australian book (which could very well result in memoirs like A fortunate life or Mao’s last dancer being on the list). No, we are talking our Favourite Australian (ie written by an Australian, however you personally define that) Novel (ie prose fiction of a certain length) of all time.
ABR is keen to get a good poll going: they are offering some rather nice bookish prizes. So, here is your chance to make a difference – and possibly win a very appealing prize!
I’ve voted. It was hard. I don’t really like making such judgements about something that is so subjective – but the prize was calling. Ha! I wondered whether to go political – and choose a novel by a minority author like a woman, an indigenous person, or a non-English speaking background (NESB I believe they are – or were – called) person. Or, should I be a little iconoclastic, and choose a favourite book that has been forgotten and/or ignored by the literary establishment? In the end, though, I went with my heart and voted for the first Australian novel to grab and inspire me when I was still at school. Care to guess what it was?
Whispering Gums 
My Brilliant Career or The Getting of Wisdom.
I chose Gerald Murnane’s Tamarisk Row because it was what I had just read and I thought it was fabulous. Then I read Patrick White’s The Tree of Man, again fabulous. Now I’m onto Henry Handel Richardson’s The Fortunes of Richard Mahoney and that is brilliant too. I have no discrimination, they are all good!
Is this the Meg I’ve met?? No, I have no discrimination either. Your suggestions are good but not the one. I read those two after I read the one I chose – it’s Patrick White’s Voss! I fell for it hook, line and sinker when I was 17. I loved its romance and mystery as well as its evocation of the landscape. I’ve read a few others of his – and I do like him. Haven’t read Murnane yet. Really must but!!
Voss?! Argh! I have a love-hate relationship with that book. At the moment, it’s hate. Maybe I’ll try again next year.
I think you should (of course)! What’s the love bit and what’s the hate? Did you go to the Voss Journey earlier this year?
My bad. That last Voss comment was mine, but I was logged in as the wrong person…
So. My Voss tale. I have read it all the way through – also when I was about 17. So, erm, 4 years ago. And I don’t think I really got it, so I tried again this year. And the first bit is brilliant – White showing off how well he does social satire, even in colonial Sydney. But then it teeters off a bit as it gets all weird and Voss and Laura have bizarre psychic conversations over hundreds of kilometers. Silly.
Maybe I just wasn’t in the mood?
Ah, I wondered who on earth that was. I have that problem more with blogger where it can log me in under other names.
I am hoping to reread Voss next year as I think I’ve convinced some of my bookgroup members to do it. I think my “intellectual” self loved the satire, my “romantic” 17 year old self loved the mystical communication, and my Aussie self loved the landscape and exploration (particularly as I did live on the Leichhardt River in my early teens). For me it was win win. I hope it doesn’t disappoint.