Summerland

by Malcolm Knox

Every year since he can remember, Richard had spent his holidays on the sun-drenched shores of Palm Beach with his wife and two friends. Now a hollowed-out man, he remembers his paradise, their immaculate lives and the tales that can exist only between the most intimate of friends. As Richard reminisces, we begin to wonder whether he is reliving a lost paradise or actually reinventing it.

Genres: Fiction, Literature

272 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Malcolm Knox was born in 1966. He grew up in Sydney and studied in Sydney and Scotland, where his one-act play, POLEMARCHUS, was performed in St Andrews and Edinburgh. He has worked for the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD since 1994 and his journalism has been published in Australia, Britain, India and the West Indies.

His first novel Summerland was published to great acclaim in the UK, US, Australia and Europe in 2000. In 2001 Malcolm was named one of the Sydney Morning Herald's Best Young Australian novelists. He lives in Sydney with his wife Wenona, son Callum and daughter Lilian. His most recent novel, A Private Man, was critically acclaimed and was shortlisted for the Commomwealth Prize and the Tasmanian Premier’s Award.

Reviews

[The Frahorus · Rating 2 out of 5]

Richard e Hugh sono amici fin dall'infanzia. A soli diciassette anni Hugh incontra Helen, giovanissima e di una bellezza da togliere il fiato; poco dopo anche Richard incontra l'amore, Phillippa, detta Pup. Le due coppie si sposano e diventano inseparabili. Belli e ricchi, conducono una vita spensierata, fatta di feste e di lunghe estati trascorse nella loro villa sul mare. Ma non tutto è realmente come sembra e piano piano Richard, il narratore, rivela le crepe nascoste nelle loro vite apparentemente perfette. Fino al verificarsi della tragedia finale che rivoluzionerà e sconvolgerà per sempre il loro mondo.
Summerland (titolo originale del romanzo) ci presenta in maniera lucida e direi cinica la upper class australiana, ben pennellata dall'autore (australiano anch'esso) che si rivela un buon scrittore e tessitore dell'intera trama che nulla ha di meno di Beautiful. Come avrete capito da queste prime brevi riflessioni, non mi è piaciuta l'opera, ma non posso negare che l'autore abbia talento. La storia si ispira (alla lontana) al mitico romanzo di Fritzgerald Il grande Gatsby, infatti anche qui c'è un ragazzo molto ricco ma solo, che vive in maniera vuota e superficiale sia la sua vita che il rapporto con i suoi amici. Anche qui, come in Gatsby, a narrare la storia è il suo migliore amico, Richard, depresso per quello che è accaduto a sua moglie e a Hugh stesso. E ci narra tutta la storia, dall'inizio, da quando fanciullo viveva ogni estate con Hugh, le loro marachelle, le loro amicizie, fino al loro matrimonio. La storia, secondo me, manca di tensione (come invece viene promesso da Booklist "un romanzo insieme raffinato e pieno di suspense") e spesso si perde nelle descrizioni psicologiche del protagonista, quasi idolatrato dal suo migliore amico, nonostante le cose che man mano scoprirà su di lui. Vorrei concere, comunque, all'autore una seconda possibilità, non appena scriverà un'altra opera sicuramente la leggerò. Concludo questa breve riflessioni sulla novella citando l'ironica frase che l'autore ha scelto di inserire all'inizio del romanzo: "Se per nove anni io ho posseduto una bella mela che dentro era marcia, e questo marciume l'ho scoperto soltanto dopo nove anni e sei mesi meno quattro giorni, non è forse giusto dire che per nove anni ho posseduto una bella mela?" (Ford Madox Ford, Il buon soldato). A proposito, Pup, quella che diventerà la moglie di Richard, è una scrittrice sfortunata che non riesce a sfondare, e prova a riscrivere proprio il romanzo appena citato, fallendo in todo, porella!!!

[Allison baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the most incredible fiction novels I have read. The unreliable narrator brings so many questions to mind on how the wealthy live, and who you can trust, I just think it is an amazing read. Love it! Its a mix between The Good Soldier(the 1930's book, not the new movie) and the Great Gatsby, with a bit of the movie Closer mixed in!

[Arjadi · Rating 4 out of 5]

"We all loved Hugh," the narrator says of his best friend, Hugh Bowman Jr., a handsome, engaging, wealthy yet utterly amoral and feckless heir who is the focus of this Australian take on "Gatsby." Richard loves Hugh, his lifelong "best friend," more than he loves his wife, Pup, so much that he will forgive him any transgression, including a longstanding affair with her. This story of a doomed quartet, narrated by the "ignorant, happy boy" they conspired to deceive, is a compelling read despite the fact that there are no sympathetic characters in this tale. It's a love story with a tragic ending, but well worth seeing through to the bitter end.

[Harry Ramble · Rating 2 out of 5]

Man, this is one talky book. For long stretches, our narrator talks more about the telling of the story than of any events occurring in the story. There's a reason for this, obviously. Summerland is intended as an homage to Ford Madox Ford's The Good Soldier -- in style, substance, and in specific references. (In an ultimately unnecessary metafictional twist, one of the four protagonists here is plagiarizing The Good Soldier in order to secure a publishing deal.)

So what you get is more of a formal writing exercise than straight-up fiction. Knox certainly gets the tone right -- an arch, florid, genteel, early 20th-century wordiness -- but to what end? Who writes like this anymore? Maybe Martin Amis, who is also referenced briefly here. Summerland, published in Australia in 2000 and America in 2001, was Knox's first and best (probably only) crack at the American market, but this scholarly gambit didn't win over much of an audience.

[Hae-Lyun Kang · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like a sleepwalking novel of two couples with one of each sleeping with the other. It is narrated in telling which doesn't quite cut it. The problem is the narrator Richard is someone who the two people get involved with instinctively know that he would not hit the roof and react over the top homicidially to the affair of each other's spouses. Hugh the other main character is essentially a mediocre privileged, laid back, easy going uber rich guy. Or obscenely rich as my partner would say. So Hugh doesn't have an angst to drive him or to compel him to end up in jail for any reason from age 23, not even for a political cause - like saving whales in an extreme way like climate change activist Greta Thunberg. There essentially is no butting of heads, of values between the two main male characters. The author doesn't allow Hugh to have a voice, there is not much dialogue or action to convey what really is going on in the mind of Hugh by the author. Seems like Hugh could have looked like a version of James Franco or Harry Styles who was known to the author since age 6 from school days. Another thing is that the recall of the author is that of the distant past so his memory comes across as hazy of some events that could have actually taken place in real life. Very likely Hugh actually is the alter ego of the author disguised as Richard as being the one who had the actual affair, fling with the Palm Beach RSL club girls - at least with the blonde, buxom girl. Plus it was the author who was the patron of some establishments in Surry Hills to his much enjoyment. Basically Hugh is no Palm Beach Unabomber and Pup is no Palm Beach Unabomber either with no over riding angst of any kind. Another thing is the name Pup which is infuriatingly annoying on the part of the author of women being referred to as dog or insect so the book rating should really be of one star only. Seems like the author got a writer's block in how to bring about an ending which is a convenient cop out. There is no major confrontation, show down, blow up between the infidelity of the other spouses. Author, narrator is also being contradictory to say of the character Helen that she is attractive but was not attracted to her but ends up with her as is this what Richard truly desires or is it score pointing on his part. The ending could have been better off with Hugh and Pup surviving the accident but it is a wake up call for them to go their separate ways perhaps. Also for Richard to move on and find someone new through some other means instead of hooking up with Helen as does this imply that because you are familiar and comfortable with someone it can translate into something further. Seems like the obscenely rich purchases are double what the average middle class like driving a Jaguar car if it is worth about $98 000 compared to a Volkswagen family sedan car worth $55 000. The only bizarre thing about the family of Hugh is the gift giving ritual. How very inversely assertive and stridently selfish of the siblings. There is no indication of how many sisters exactly but at least two. Mentioning 14 brothers is way too many, perhaps for a sense of proportion 4 or 5 if do have alot of male siblings on the part of Pup as character for other family members. Otherwise a rather tedious, yawn boring book. Have found to have a tendency to read ahead to see how the books of the author unfold which is not a good sign. There was no dialogue, description, action, thoughts or feelings on the parts of the siblings on some massive fight in the back of the car for the trip back home to the holiday residence of Palm Beach. Also rather rude and insulting of the father's part, parents to generalise Korean as Chinese or infer Chinese broadly to apply to all other Asians. Hmmph. The author needs some electric shock therapy or torture in real life to activate gripe in overdrive to relay a stronger narrative of showing characters interplay dynamic. How Helen is indifferent and tolerates the affair of Hugh with Pup make the storyline very plateauing and anticlimatic and drudgery. Ploddying yawn of sleepwalking tale of cork bobbing on the ocean scenarios for the duration of the book. Some stormy tempests is in order to make things more cataclysmic for any future novels. Even Hugh is not caught in any tragic Swiss chalet fire or Helen in some Hong Kong apartment fire for an invite for a friends or relative wedding. Very hum drum the lives of the upper north shore and northern beaches residents of Sydney. Yawn boring. Also Pup the character had a tendency to pretend that everything was okay and that also was the dynamic between her and Richard which doesn't cut it for a novel. There has to be more direct, active conflict with character and plot driven scenarios if it actually even exist in this novel. As well Hugh was not part of any nightclub scandal like what went on with the Burning Sun nightclub in Seoul nor was part of any cult like that of the Baby Garden cult by Kim Ki-Soon. So no major dysfunctional dynamic or feud between Hugh and his parents or his younger siblings or with Richard. More like not all is revealed between Richard and Hugh and in parts a case of smoke and mirrors and sliding door moments of Richard missing the crucial moments to catch things before it spirals not catastrophically out of control. Nor does the saga between the four of the characters involve kidnapping and extortion similar to the K film Snowball directed by Lee Woo-jeong.

[Brandy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book took me forever to read. It was a short book also. The author tried to write real fancy, with big words, etc...The story was good but he would go off on these tangents about stuff I thought didn't matter. About halfway through the book I figured out whey were going to die in the end.

[Shane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though I read Ford Madox Ford’s The Good Soldier (1915) after Summerland (2000), which unashamedly borrows its structure, Malcolm Knox’s knock-off has left me with a more vivid impression than did Ford’s classic. This may be due to my familiarity with Summerland’s setting – Sydney’s northern beaches – and possibly also to Knox’s style. His playful if earnest homage lacks the gravity (and perhaps also the universality) of Ford’s tragedy, yet betrays the social justice concerns that make Knox one of Oz’s best investigative journalists.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating perspective, point of view of author/character.
Such flawed people, but so interesting.

[Arista · Rating 2 out of 5]

Australia.

[Kashmira Majumdar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes, the urge to track down a book you borrowed once from the library as a teenager sticks in your brain. And it doesn’t go away for almost ten years.

Thanks to this brain parasite, I’ve racked up quite the collection, including the complete set of Nancy Drew & Hardy Boys Supermysteries, but Summerland was the hardest one to track down yet. It arrived mid-lockdown and nostalgia demanded I read it cover-to-cover instantly, and I think it obliterated whatever little serotonin I had.

This book begins on the perfect note: “Nobody can feel sorry for our type. We’ve been robbed of a sacred human right—the right to whinge.”

Several people have described this as the Australian Great Gatsby, which sounds about right. I don’t remember the original well, but you’re not supposed to root for anyone in it, are you? (Except Jordan Baker but only because she’s swell.) Summerland is the slightly watered-down, meandering slice of life story of two couples: both white, rich, and experts in making themselves miserable. It’s like The Secret History for adults, but with a different kind of pretension. And this was possibly the preppiest book I’ve ever read. It was like looking at a Pinterest board.

Which is not to say that their misery wasn’t engrossing—it has tremendous Re-read Bonus, and so many passages and side characters are just very intelligently written. It’s a compulsively readable book that scratches an itch at the back of my brain. In other places, its metaphors are bloated, the narrator trying too hard, and its treatment of the non-elite (read: the narrator’s own middle-class parents and foibles) really fucking mean. I want to give the Unreliable Narrator the benefit of the doubt. There are places where his blinkered, biased worldview shines through. In other places, I think it’s the author’s attachment to the main characters that’s influencing the story.

There are four leads: Hugh and Helen (the matched set of bluebloods) and Pup and Richard (the reacher and the settler). Everything in their world revolves around Hugh because he’s rich, fashionable, and subtly domineering. The plot is ostensibly about Richard writing his memoir in the wake of discovering the long-standing affair between his hero Hugh and his goddess Pup. But the real MVP is Helen, who might be married to a degenerate but absolutely gets her revenge on every single character. And she doesn’t even resort to poisoning anyone’s dinner to do it.

Would I read this again, now that I’ve satisfied my nostalgia? Very much so. But just with a bigger pinch of salt this time.

[goose loose · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hmm - saw author speak yesterday re new book but thought I'd try an old one first. Struggled through first 2 chapters and decided I would read something else. I normally finish whatever I start but time is precious and if I'm not drawn in then that's a big problem. ps the author is a hugely entertaining bloke to listen to when talking ..... his writing just doesn't connect with me though.

[Brett Myer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Finished this book after a hiatus. It is depressing. Interesting enough to finish reading, but quite sad and existentially downer (the life sucks so kill yourself take on existentialism). It reminded me of an Australian The Great Gatsby with a modern twist.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remember this book to be disjointed and confusing most of the time. I finished, but still had questions. Not worth reading again.

[Ingrid Cortiana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deep, heart felt and the imagery and descripitions are beautiful and enthralling. I loved it.

[Kathleen Calbay · Rating 3 out of 5]

hum-hum. so-so.