Before I wake

by John Alan Scott

Jonathan Ford, childless at 43, moves restlessly through other people's lives. From Australia to Europe, he pursues a series of ill-fated relationships with the vulnerable and the insecure. In turn, he is pursued by his past whose echoes he finds all around him; in Danielle, a young French poet condemned to perpetual childhood. In the ageing Violet, wickedly irreverent even as she struggles through her days alone in a council flat. In the flawed genius of the painter Malcolm Richardson.
In many lives, ordinary and extraordinary, that he changes in the profoundest ways. It is through two sisters, themselves once hostage to the past, that Ford finally awakens to the present.

This is a story to treasure, a journey through what it means to be human, told with exquisite feeling by the award-winning author of What I Have Written.

Genres: Novels, 20th Century

433 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

John Alan Scott (who has published under the names John A. Scott and John Scott) is an English-Australian poet, novelist and academic.

Scott was born in Littlehampton in Sussex, England, migrating to Australia during his childhood. Over several books of poetry his work developed in an 'experimental' direction unusual in Australian poetry, owing partly to his interest in translation. Indeed he has translated a volume, Elegies, of the contemporary French poet Emmanuel Hocquard. However since the 1990s he has concentrated on producing novels.

His work has won him the Victorian Premier's Award twice, in 1986 and again in 1994. The collection of novellas What I Have Written has been filmed from his own screenplay and he has been translated into French, German and Slovenian. He has taught in the Faculty of Creative Arts at Wollongong University but now writes full-time.

Reviews

[B the BookAddict · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book. I have added the wording from the back of the book because these details were not entered when added to Goodreads. And I hope that after people read this, they will read this treasure of book...

From back cover of Before I Wake...
Jonathan Ford, childless at 43, moves restlessly through other people's lives. From Australia to Europe, he pursues a series of ill-fated relationships with the vulnerable and the insecure. In turn, he is pursued by his past whose echoes he finds all around him; in Danielle, a young French poet condemned to perpetual childhood. In the ageing Violet, wickedly irreverent even as she struggles through her days alone in a council flat. In the flawed genius of the painter Malcolm Richardson.
In many lives, ordinary and extraordinary, that he changes in the profoundest ways. It is through two sisters, themselves once hostage to the past, that Ford finally awakens to the present.

I think Jonathan Ford is an extraordinary Australian writer. Before I Wake is written with exquisite feeling; a gift of words.

[Steven Brand · Rating 5 out of 5]

engrossing...the work of a gifted writer

[Simon Bate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poetic but confusing..
Too many 'I' characters...but that is perhaps the point...maybe.I should probably read it again...but then again in all likelihood not.

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