The Deal

by Alex Miller

It's 1975, and at the threshold of his writing career Andy McPherson is navigating how to be fully present both for his partner, Jo, and their young daughter.

When forced to take a part-time teaching job Andy meets Lang Tzu, a charismatic and intriguing man. Andy is drawn deeper into a dangerous relationship when Lang asks him to prove his friendship by brokering a risky deal for a much-desired piece of art. Andy finally consents despite Jo's opposition. In the process, Andy is in fact negotiating his own deal with himself as an artist and is compelled to face up to the conflict between his conception of art as a creative gift and the realities of the art market.

Powerful and perceptive, Miller's profound and intimate depiction of Jo and her partnership with Andy, and his poignant portrait of Lang's troubled genius, form the beating heart of this beautiful novel.

Genres: Fiction, Australia, World War II, Book Club

304 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2024

About the author

Alex Miller is one of Australia's best-loved writers, and winner of the Melbourne Prize for Literature 2012.

Alex Miller is twice winner of Australia's premier literary prize, The Miles Franklin Literary Award, first in 1993 for The Ancestor Game and again in 2003 for Journey to the Stone Country. He is also an overall winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, in 1993 for The Ancestor Game. His fifth novel, Conditions of Faith, won the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction in the 2001 New South Wales Premier's Awards. In 2011 he won this award a second time with his most recent novel Lovesong. Lovesong also won the People's Choice Award in the NSW Premier's Awards, the Age Book of the Year Award and the Age Fiction Prize for 2011. In 2007 Landscape of Farewell was published to wide critical acclaim and in 2008 won the Chinese Annual Foreign Novels 21st Century Award for Best Novel and the Manning Clark Medal for an outstanding contribution to Australian cultural life. It was also short-listed for the Miles Franklin Award, the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, the ALS Gold Medal and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. Alex is published internationally and widely in translation. Autumn Laing is his tenth novel.

Reviews

[Marcus Hobson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn’t expecting another book from two-time winner of the Miles Franklin award, Alex Miller. Reading his autobiographical A Kind of Confession, published at the end of last year, we enter the world of a writer who takes a good length of time to complete a book. Multiple drafts and intense consideration of setting plot and characters. Not something that gets rushed.

The Deal is about a writer, Andy McPherson, at the beginning of his career. He is navigating a new relationship and then fatherhood for the first time. He takes on some teaching work to help make ends meet and there he encounters Lang Tzu with whom he builds an uneasy friendship.
Knowing Miller’s own biographical details it is easy to see parts of his own life reflected in the story. London-born, growing up in war-time London, teenage escape to Australia, a single daughter. How much of the detail is memory and how much is fiction? Even the name of his central character, Andy McPherson, is close to Miller’s own Christian names Alex McPhee. The final short chapter of the book leaps forwards in the life of Andy to when he is 87, Miller’s current age. Andy is surrounded by ghosts and hears the call of his long dead father. Something I hope is not prophetic for Miller himself.
The structure of the novel is in for parts, which the contents page calls ‘A true story in four parts’. The Boy is Andy, aged six, with his father in 1942. The Man is Andy aged 80 in 2016 and is narrated in the first person. The third section, called The Deal, is the majority of the book and is a third person telling that starts in 1975. The final section of six pages, The Time of Ghosts, is dated May 2023 and again reverts to the first person.

I often ask myself what it is exactly about Alex Miller’s writing that I enjoy so much. One element is the use of small details to bring a scene to life. Andy and his brother have talked over the phone about the younger brother’s cancer and how he has always found it odd to ring from the early morning in England and never be fully certain that it is evening in Australia. Or that the seasons are reversed. When the brother’s wife rings three weeks later with the news of his death she describes the fine summer evening in London, the young people still out in the streets enjoying themselves. She asks Andy to describe what it is like with him.

It’s a wintry day. The ice from last night’s frost has not yet melted in the birdbath. The blackbird has visited it several times, has looked at the ice then flown away.

This little detail is pitch perfect and amplifies the pathos. Even the use of a bird that is common to both countries adds an extra element. Many things are left unsaid. That is part of the skill.
The Deal as at its heart a scam. A lost and broken masterpiece, bought for a song, restored and then sold for a fortune to enable Lang Tzu to buy his dream painting; a nude by the English painter Walter Sickert. Perhaps an odd choice for a Chinese ex-pat in Australia, but Lang Tzu is an art expert and he uses Andy as his unknown buyer and seller to hide his own involvement. The scam seems minimal and Andy’s over the top guilt is perhaps the only element of the book which does not ring true. Other than that, every detail is pitch perfect.
Lang Tzu s a broken man, an outsider struggling to find his place away from his own origins. This theme is found in every book by Miller. But such broken men are well drawn, their anxieties and insecurities very believable. The alcohol and cigarettes are realistic along with the perceived failure to be an artist, although the one painting of a lost lover proves a talent that cannot be denied. The skills of the author is always to find these tantalising little details.
The tension and friendship between Andy and Lang Tzu allows Miller to develop themes about creativity and Andy’s desire to be a writer. Lang Tzu had tried to be an artist himself and his portrait of Agatha, his ex-lover, hangs in his house to constantly remind him that he did once have the skill to be a fine artist. As Andy walks through Lang Tzu’s empty house he sees the portrait:

He went in and closed the door behind him, and he stood in the hall in his own small silence, looking through the glass panels of the double doors into the sitting room on the left, the bronze lamp shedding its gentle light in the room, the portrait of Agatha gazing at him, her head turned, her features in quarter profile, beautiful and sad. And he thought again what a great painting it was, to have caught her likeness in that fleeting moment of her regretful departure. There was luck and there was genius in the achievement. His father had said, A portrait is always a disclosure of the artist’s self. Andy loved this other world of Lang’s. It stimulated in him a desire to write, to find the story latent within its confusion of facts and impressions. It was where he wished to be. To be familiar of the tragedy of failure and regret. To be its familiar, but not to be a part of it. To be the intimate voyeur of its hidden realities. The suffering of it. He wondered why the beauty and mystique of art and story must always carry the seeds of despair. As if beauty could not exist without reminding us of death. The dead, grey, desiccated blooms of the hydrangeas in the vase, waiting for Agatha’s return. The flowers of memory. The flowers of long ago. Was it possible to write such things with honesty and remain safe from the disaster of failure and despair oneself? How close could he get to that world without becoming its victim? Was the writer, like the artist, also doomed to failure in the reaching after something beyond their grasp? Or could the writer remain at a safe distance and be a commentator on the tragic struggles of others? A mere onlooker? Was that what the writer was? A person outside the dangerous seductions of the world of art?

The two men have a unsteady friendship, strained further as Andy agrees to be part of Lang Tzu’s art scam. It is a lovely book, easy to ready but pleasingly deep with emotions.

[Desney King · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant, deeply moving, raw and real.
I've loved all of Alex Miller's books and The Deal feels like a showcase for his genius as a writer.
Deceptively simple yet profound in characterisations, plot, voice and depiction of relationships, it's a must-read for aspiring writers.
Highly recommended.

[lyny · Rating 2 out of 5]

The blurb on the back of the book (about an art deal that is somewhat fraudulent) made this sound much more interesting than it turned out to be. First of all, although Miller is a very highly regarded and prize-winning writer, I find the tone of his writing off-putting – it is somehow disembodied and dated, and the central characters quite unsympathetic (from my point of view). Andy is a would-be writer who wants to lead a distinctive and artistic life and instead has found himself living as a father, living with his wife Jo and daughter Hennie, and working as a teacher in a tech school. His friend and teaching colleague Lang Tzu is an alcoholic painter with a somewhat romantic backstory, and draws Andy into lunch-time drinking, reveries about artistic life, and finally a deal that will allow Lang to acquire a painting that is his life’s dream. But the deal part of it is crammed into the final quarter of the book, any twists are very predictable, and I think it would have worked better as a short story. I think the enjoyment of the book depends on how strongly the reader identifies with Andy and his romantic dreams of the artistic life.

[Margaret Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been a huge fan of Alex Miller having read and loved all of his previous books. But disappointingly The Deal didn't live up to expectations for me. I tried to appreciate the slow build up and descriptions of everyday life but the characters and plot just didn't do it for me and the whole thing just felt a bit flat. It may benefit from a second reading as I can't help feeling I've missed something. 3 stars because it's Miller!

[Anne Fenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting to read the latest Alex Miller. I find some of his books fantastic, some of them plain unappealing, this one is unusually in between. The plot added up to something intriguing. Characters - most were well imagined, very authentically created as creatures of modern Australian urban life. However the friendship between Lang and Andy, although it was a key driver of the narrative, was unconvincing.

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read most of Alex Miller's books and have generally enjoyed them. I was looking forward to reading this one . I was underwhelmed. I found all the characters ( except the baby) to be frustratingly weak and annoying. I am glad that I persevered to the end as Jo's insight into Andy's character redeemed her for me.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alex Miller never disappoints. His characters are all interesting and his writing wonderful. Set in Melbourne, Andy is a writer who takes up teaching in order to make money. His focus is on his family and his writing.

[Sue · Rating 2 out of 5]

Couldn't engage with the characters. Plot underwhelming. Themes aplenty but only mildly interesting. I usually really like his books (though tend to find them difficilt to remember afterwards) but this was very disappointing.

[Nicole Sabbadin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exactly the literary novel I love. Written by a master, full of observations on art, life, death, the writing process, love. So measured and precise and moving.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have liked Alex Miller's writing style in all of his books that I've read. Through attention to tiny details it clearly articulates person and place and provides the reader (well me anyway) insight and understanding of what is taking place.
I warmed to Andy and his wife Jo and the honest way he described their relationship from their 'love at first sight' on an overnight bus and their straightforward discussions about how Andy should approach 'the deal'. I sympathised with Lang's troubled relationship with Australia and how it affected every part of him for his whole life.
The book discusses the place of art in our lives. Andy's father used it as recreation and also to help him heal in the aftermath of WWII. Lang, on the other hand experiences art as a deadly struggle both as an artist and as an art dealer. Andy himself, describes the tension that rises from needing time away from life's chores including holding a job in order to write. The pure pleasure he derives from writing (even anticipating writing) is also clearly evident on the page.
Other themes in the book include: parenthood, Melbourne in the 1970s, nature as healer, the experience of the immigrant and the burdens of teaching.
An easy read because the author has done all the hard work but one that compels the reader to think deeply.

[Carolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think it’s remarkable that Miller - now in his late 80s - is still writing - and writing such wonderful stories. He has always used his own life as the basis for his novels and The Deal goes back to his early years as a struggling writer. Apparently it reworks a lot of the material from his 1992 novel, The Ancestor Game. I have read that but can’t remember enough about it to compare it with The Deal, which seemed to me to work perfectly well as a stand alone.

The Deal of the title doesn’t happen until late in the book, when Andy (the ‘Miller’ character) is persuaded by his Chinese friend Lang to engage in a subterfuge to purchase a work of art Lang (a failed artist himself) desires. Andy is compelled not only by friendship but by his own artistic needs - he is finding Lang’s life and behaviour a fertile ground for his own work.

There is a lot more to the novel than this: Andy’s struggles to make a living as a writer, his love for his wife and child and his memories of his English mother and father. All these ingredients combined to make this a rich and satisfying read for me. Miller’s style, as always, is understated but powerful.

[Lyn Elliott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Miller writes with his usual precision; he's a writer whose intent is clear in every sentence.

Here, he has created characters who enable him to muse on the essence of what it is to be an artist and the place of art in life, whether it's writing or painting. Failure, the extent to which one is prepared to compromise ethical standards to succeed; the strains and pressures of close relationships are all examined in the Deal.

The book is divided in to four sections. The longest, devoted to the eponymous art fraud Deal, is the one I found least interesting perhaps because the narrative unfolds slowly and much time is spent on anxiety, uncertainty and emotional discomfort.

Miller will soon turn 89. He has written The Deal in the voice of an old man looking back on his life, reflecting on love, friendship and becoming an artist.
i didnt love it, as others have, but it will stay with me.

https://readingmattersblog.com/2024/1...

[Heidi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m sad to say that if THE DEAL had not been a bookclub book, I would probably have abandoned it halfway through. Despite Miller’s beautiful and evocative writing, the characters seemed wooden and uninteresting to me, and I did not understand their friendship. Where was the passion, the motivation, the hold Lang had over Andy? The deal itself wasn’t enough to inject excitement into this rather bland (to me) story, and the only interesting aspect of the book was Jo’s opinion of Lang as compared to her husband’s. All in all I felt left with a sense of disappointment and emptiness, wondering what I had missed.

[Anita C · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not the usual book that I tend to read, but I did enjoy this a great deal (sorry, not sorry).
The characters in this, mainly Andy and Lang, felt full and troubled, like real people you could meet. Each flawed in their own ways and making choices that determine their lives. I found it an interesting take on life in Australia from the recent past, especially about immigrants and how racism impacts immigrants differently (more of an undertone of the book than an outright statement the book makes).

Would recommend to anyone who is interested in books set in and around the Australian art community, and is interested in great characterisation.

[Bronwen Heathfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

A gentle book following the relationship between two men. One is an artist and the other a writer but neither see themselves as that as they have not made a career from it. Both are teaching. The artist asks the writer to do something for him…a deal. The book is written from the perspective of the writer whose father was an artist. The artist is more opaque but fascinating, a lonely man with passions. There is a lot of love in this book. The writing is beautiful

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve enjoyed Alex Miller’s work in the past, but this novel didn’t quite hold my interest. I DNF’d at 30%, finding the pace too slow and the tone overwhelmingly melancholic. Rather than an engaging story, it felt like a thinly veiled, ponderous reflection on Miller’s own life. While introspective, it lacked the depth or insight to make that reflection truly compelling. The narrative felt bland—thoughtful, yes, but without the spark to keep me invested.

[Lynne Benton · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Typically melancholic, but in some parts, esp relating to the relationship between Jo and Andy with Hennie beautifully described with such detail of their everyday lives. Yes Lang is discordant- meant to be- but somewhat annoying and distasteful .. so this coloured the book for me and I was a bit disappointed.

[Alison · Rating 3 out of 5]

I kept reading this for the domestic scenes - the deal is the boring bit. And the issue of art being creativity vs reality is banal too. I’m always undecided about whether to read another Alex miller book.

[Rosalie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quotes
"We must find our own style,...we find our way by searching for it"
'His father was not killed in the war but returned a changed man, wounded in his body and his soul, from which the innocence of art had been driven out. And that is how the boy lost his father."

[Chris Waterford · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favourite writers---but I felt this was not up with his best. The writing was beautiful as usual and I liked that some of it seemed to be autobiographical. However the story/plot seemed slight---and disappointing.
7/10

[Tracy Hollen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Ann Koenig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read about a strange friendship between two men.

[Toby · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have great admiration for Alex Miller's reality, not his name.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Began really well but, for me, lost its momentum in the middle when it became a different book

[Sue Gould · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Not my favourite from this author, but a good read nonetheless. Great characters - complex and relatable - except for Lang who remains an enigma.

[Brenda Rosser]

v. fine

[Chai1965 · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 A beautiful and gentle book.

[Ann Graham · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just 3 stars.

[Russell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boring story, total underwhelming and NOT up to his standard. Very disappointing.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Miller is such a great writer. His work just flows. my only reserve is that I was never comfortable with the relationship with Lang. I couldn't see why he would keep at it.