The Passage of Love

By Alex Miller

Robert Crofts, a young Englishman, arrives in Australia in the 1950s, determined to inhabit the outback. After five years of life on the land, he makes his way to Melbourne where, living in a boarding house, working as a cleaner, he finds himself consumed by a burning need to read, write, draw, create. When he meets the enigmatic Lena, she instantly becomes his staunchest champion but as their tortured marriage evolves and gradually erodes she ultimately becomes an obstacle.

This intensely autobiographical novel has much to say about the compulsion to create, and the fundamental unknowability of even our most intimate partners. As the reader sinks into the text of this singular book, the artifice of fiction gradually melts away, leaving nothing but truth on the page. In The Passage of Love Alex Miller has given us a masterful work which will come to define his career as one of the great writers of our time.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Allen & Unwin
• Release date: Mar 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9781760638252

Alex Miller

ALEX MILLER is the author of ten novels, including The Ancestor Game and Journey to the Stone Country, both winners of the prestigious Miles Franklin Literary Award; Conditions of Faith, nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award; Lovesong, winner of the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction; and most recently, Autumn Laing.

Reviews for The Passage of Love

[oldblack-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

There have been very mixed reviews about this book. Lisa Hill gives it a caning, and she would be much more insightful & thoughtful than me, so I suspect most rigorous reviewers will line up on her side, but I liked it. I was somewhat daunted by the 600 page length before I started, but in the end I didn't have any trouble finishing it. Actually, the line spacing is quite large and it could have easily been packed into a much smaller volume. On reflection, I wonder if there's a significant gender effect in the way the book doesn't appeal to some. It is very much written from the point of view of an old man who has been rather careless with relationships at times. Women might feel angry about that. I identify with the author.About half way through the protagonist says to himself:"Old age unseals the buried memories of our past and refuses to allow us to forget. In old age those things we refused to think about in our youth because they were too uncomfortable come out of the grave and stand before us and demand their right to a place in the story of our lives.....In old age, with death closing in upon us, we lose our power over these troubling memories and they command us. The tables are turned. Deal with me now, or go to your grave unshriven! That is the choice we are given."It seems to me that is what this book is about. Miller is facing death and feels forced to face his past. I'm a little of that mind myself. He really wasn't very good at relationships. I understand that. and I think it's more a male situation than a female one. Your mileage may differ.