Ebook242 pages3 hours
Australian, The
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
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About this ebook
In her humorous and emotionally resonant debut, Emma Smith-Stevens follows the exploits and evolution of a young man - known only as “the Australian” - over the course of a dozen years, from his time posing for tourist photos as Superman to his life in New York, chasing fame and fortune. Married to a woman he barely knows and struggling to forge a relationship with his son, the Australian travels between the U.S. and Melbourne, seeking to reconnect with his deceased parents through his father’s Australian Outdoor Geographic magazines and the Dreaming Tracks, sacred landmarks his mother longed to explore.
Through this quest for self-discovery, the Australian becomes both more and less enigma: “the idea of this guy you could find in any city, a hostel anywhere in the world, smiling, suntanned, hauling a backpack.” A poignant and at times satirical meditation on masculinity, fatherhood, isolation, New York City, fame, and loss, The Australian examines the human tendency to fall in love with the idea of another person and the importance of knowing one’s essential nature.
Through this quest for self-discovery, the Australian becomes both more and less enigma: “the idea of this guy you could find in any city, a hostel anywhere in the world, smiling, suntanned, hauling a backpack.” A poignant and at times satirical meditation on masculinity, fatherhood, isolation, New York City, fame, and loss, The Australian examines the human tendency to fall in love with the idea of another person and the importance of knowing one’s essential nature.
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Reviews for Australian, The
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
2 ratings1 review
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Emma Smith-Stevens presents the restless, agonizing quest for identity and connection in The Australian in prose sparkling with superb analogies, densely packed and yet airy and flowing. The book is heart wrenching and a fine work of the imagination. Forget about strict realism and relax into the bizarre rushing world of its exposition and then its alternating waves and its buildup to a striking climax.
These are my favorite sentences in the novel:
“Through one half-opened eye, the Australian beholds the stillness of her form as she nurses Maximus, awash in the oceanic light of an early morning. In this moment, Fiona seems ancient and unknowable” (29-30).
“The warm breeze is a drug of mercy” (96).
“He sits down, letting his feet dangle over the lip of the volcano’s crater, and drops a pebble—a pockmarked fragment of black volcanic rock—into the blue lake below. Indigo storm clouds hang low in the sky” (223-24).
And I won’t quote it here, but the final paragraph of the book is pure nectar.
Book preview
Australian, The - Emma Smith-Stevens
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