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Lovesong
Novel dealing with memories, relationships and unfulfilled yearnings. Thomas Dalton, intent on making a fresh start in the community, takes a room in a boarding house and becomes trapped in a marriage to one of his fellow lodgers.
252 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 11, 2018
In Elizabeth Jolley’s darkly comic Lovesong Dalton Foster has been “returned” to his former community. We know there are various officials involved in this ‘return’: some sort of rehabilitation centre, a prison, and “Grayhead” a prison officer. We also know that there’s been “repeated sessions of cure, rehabilitation it was called,” and that a “sentence and a cure in various institutions” have taken up half of Dalton’s life so far. So now, Dalton is back living in his old neighbourhood, just around the corner from his former home. There’s been some sort of arrangement, and he’s living in a drab boarding house, Mrs Porter’s Establishment “a Home away from Home for Homeless Gentlemen,” along with a motley assortment of lodgers: a completely potty piano teacher named Miss Mallow, Miss Emily Vales (who is always on the lookout for “Mr Right”), several painted young men who work as dancers in “the entertainment line,” and two young men who live together–one a waiter with AIDS and TB and the other, a doorman who is “getting a bust.”
Dalton is alone, depressed, and let’s face: not all there. He’s been offered a segue into so-called ‘normal life’ and society following his “cure,” through the patronage of a local family who happen to live in his old family home. He’s supposed to visit them upon occasion, but the mother, in loud telephone conversations to her sister, calls him the DP, the Displaced Person. During conditioning, the rehabilitation officer told Dalton about the need for “being sensible or being watchful,” yet Dalton is compulsively drawn to children. …
Life at Mrs Porter’s, “a houseful of discarded men and women,” is bizarre. It’s a “temple devoted to regret,” and there’s the spectacle of dear, departed Mr Porter’s hairball kept under a glass bell. Poor Dalton must wait for hours for the bathroom to be free, and he’s frequently pounced upon by the mad klepto Miss Mallow who repeatedly insists on showing him her incomprehensible references. Dalton is suspicious that Miss Vale, hunting for Mr Right, still recovering from thwarting an attempted kidnapping, is breaking into his room and reading his journals. Perhaps she is….
There’s a deep opacity to the novel. Things are seen through Dalton’s eyes, but he’s at best disturbed and damaged, at worst, deranged. He vacillates, unreliably, between the past and the present with flashes of his childhood, and it’s NOT a childhood that has been illuminated by later adult understanding. The nomadic household was composed of his mother, his Aunt Dalton, and his father, named derisively Horsefly by his mother and aunt. What is going on between those two women as they shriek and intrigue, accompanied by the running joke that Horsefly is useless “The Excruciating Bore.”
“Like an officer’s boot, my dear,” Dalton’s mother screamed while they were dressing. “Like an officer’s thigh boot,” her voice intense with the pleasure of Aunt Dalton’s exquisite elegance resembling the handsome leg of a cossack, she said then, ‘”descending with virile intentions from his horse.”
Dalton’s mother and Aunt refer mockingly to Horsefly as the Consul, but this is yet another way to humiliate the timid, gentle man who supports the family through hard, humiliating work.
“A Consul, yes” his mother would say, “but oh! why Trade of all things!” Her wailings were heard frequently from behind closed doors in either rented houses or the less fashionable hotels where they were often obliged to stay.
There are some sections which are notes taken on events within the boarding house, and in other sections depicting Mrs Porter and other guests, speech is written phonetically, so this may be a difficult novel for non-English readers.
Jolley has a perceptive eye for irony, cruelty, and tragedy but laces it with human frailty and quirkiness. In Lovesong, it’s beyond eccentric, beyond quirky: it’s the Mad describing the Mad. Madness is the natural refuge for the human condition:
"The last time he saw Aunt Dalton she was sitting up close to a horrible little plastic table banging a dish with a spoon and wearing a bib decorated with provocative slogans."
Dalton is alone, depressed, and let’s face: not all there. He’s been offered a segue into so-called ‘normal life’ and society following his “cure,” through the patronage of a local family who happen to live in his old family home. He’s supposed to visit them upon occasion, but the mother, in loud telephone conversations to her sister, calls him the DP, the Displaced Person. During conditioning, the rehabilitation officer told Dalton about the need for “being sensible or being watchful,” yet Dalton is compulsively drawn to children. …
Life at Mrs Porter’s, “a houseful of discarded men and women,” is bizarre. It’s a “temple devoted to regret,” and there’s the spectacle of dear, departed Mr Porter’s hairball kept under a glass bell. Poor Dalton must wait for hours for the bathroom to be free, and he’s frequently pounced upon by the mad klepto Miss Mallow who repeatedly insists on showing him her incomprehensible references. Dalton is suspicious that Miss Vale, hunting for Mr Right, still recovering from thwarting an attempted kidnapping, is breaking into his room and reading his journals. Perhaps she is….
There’s a deep opacity to the novel. Things are seen through Dalton’s eyes, but he’s at best disturbed and damaged, at worst, deranged. He vacillates, unreliably, between the past and the present with flashes of his childhood, and it’s NOT a childhood that has been illuminated by later adult understanding. The nomadic household was composed of his mother, his Aunt Dalton, and his father, named derisively Horsefly by his mother and aunt. What is going on between those two women as they shriek and intrigue, accompanied by the running joke that Horsefly is useless “The Excruciating Bore.”
“Like an officer’s boot, my dear,” Dalton’s mother screamed while they were dressing. “Like an officer’s thigh boot,” her voice intense with the pleasure of Aunt Dalton’s exquisite elegance resembling the handsome leg of a cossack, she said then, ‘”descending with virile intentions from his horse.”
Dalton’s mother and Aunt refer mockingly to Horsefly as the Consul, but this is yet another way to humiliate the timid, gentle man who supports the family through hard, humiliating work.
“A Consul, yes” his mother would say, “but oh! why Trade of all things!” Her wailings were heard frequently from behind closed doors in either rented houses or the less fashionable hotels where they were often obliged to stay.
There are some sections which are notes taken on events within the boarding house, and in other sections depicting Mrs Porter and other guests, speech is written phonetically, so this may be a difficult novel for non-English readers.
Jolley has a perceptive eye for irony, cruelty, and tragedy but laces it with human frailty and quirkiness. In Lovesong, it’s beyond eccentric, beyond quirky: it’s the Mad describing the Mad. Madness is the natural refuge for the human condition:
"The last time he saw Aunt Dalton she was sitting up close to a horrible little plastic table banging a dish with a spoon and wearing a bib decorated with provocative slogans."
November 10, 2025
3.5 stars. An original, character based,beautifully written novel about Thomas Dalton, a man who moves to a new town for a fresh start. He finds accommodation in a boarding room and caught up in a life he doesn’t want but cannot free himself from as he is weak willed and not all there.
This book is not an easy read as it randomly jumps backwards and forwards in time. The world seen through Thomas is a little surreal. His lack of clarity produces an air of unreliability to the narrative.
Thomas Dalton is alone, depressed and mentally unstable. He regularly recalls his past life with his mother, aunt and father. When Thomas was a younger person he went to music concerts. We learn that he had been in some sort of rehabilitation centre for half of his life. Now he is back living in his old neighbourhood, just around the corner from his former home. He is now living in a drab boardiing house. Mrs Porter’s Establishment is a home away from home for homeless gentlemen, with a number of lodgers. Miss Marlow is a disorientated piano teacher, Miss Emily Vales is on the lookout for a husband, several ‘painted’ young men who work as dancers, and two young men who live together, one a waiter with AIDS and TB and the other, a doorman.
A novel that explores memories, relationships and unfulfilled yearnings.
This book was shortlisted for the 1998 Miles Franklin Award.
This book is not an easy read as it randomly jumps backwards and forwards in time. The world seen through Thomas is a little surreal. His lack of clarity produces an air of unreliability to the narrative.
Thomas Dalton is alone, depressed and mentally unstable. He regularly recalls his past life with his mother, aunt and father. When Thomas was a younger person he went to music concerts. We learn that he had been in some sort of rehabilitation centre for half of his life. Now he is back living in his old neighbourhood, just around the corner from his former home. He is now living in a drab boardiing house. Mrs Porter’s Establishment is a home away from home for homeless gentlemen, with a number of lodgers. Miss Marlow is a disorientated piano teacher, Miss Emily Vales is on the lookout for a husband, several ‘painted’ young men who work as dancers, and two young men who live together, one a waiter with AIDS and TB and the other, a doorman.
A novel that explores memories, relationships and unfulfilled yearnings.
This book was shortlisted for the 1998 Miles Franklin Award.
May 16, 2019
A tragic and troubling story of the darkness beneath respectable veneers.
It ends of a hopeful note of a redemption so universal I can't quite accept it. The attempt to find something redeeming in the ordinary is all very well but people have been hurt and twisted throughout the book. I don't know what to say really, it was so well written but quite depressing for most of the book and very troubling in its entirety.
It ends of a hopeful note of a redemption so universal I can't quite accept it. The attempt to find something redeeming in the ordinary is all very well but people have been hurt and twisted throughout the book. I don't know what to say really, it was so well written but quite depressing for most of the book and very troubling in its entirety.
September 20, 2017
One of the creepiest intense Jolley book, about a 40ish man who has been rehabilitated from experiencing beauty and sweetness with inappropriate others, who mourns the loss of his father, and whose social ineptness finds a home in a boarding house full of strange people. Humans are so complex and Jolley is do good at evoking this.
February 19, 2023
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A review by you!
Lovesong, by Elizabeth Jolley
challenging dark reflective slow-paced
Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Very disturbing. Dalton Foster goes from a prison to a boarding house. He does lots of physical and mental wandering. He interacts with the people in the boarding house, reconnects with one of his childhood homes, and explores his relationship with his father, mother and aunt.
His crime is never explicit, yet his yearnings and the 're-training' are enough for the reader to make suppositions and be disturbed. Lots of hints about things. Sometimes hard to know if it's real, imagined, past, present... also lots of literary and musical references. Quite eclectic - like Jolley herself.
I liked the hopeful ending and appreciate the understandings he came too. Not realistic, but not supposed to be.
Open main menu
A review by you!
Lovesong, by Elizabeth Jolley
challenging dark reflective slow-paced
Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Very disturbing. Dalton Foster goes from a prison to a boarding house. He does lots of physical and mental wandering. He interacts with the people in the boarding house, reconnects with one of his childhood homes, and explores his relationship with his father, mother and aunt.
His crime is never explicit, yet his yearnings and the 're-training' are enough for the reader to make suppositions and be disturbed. Lots of hints about things. Sometimes hard to know if it's real, imagined, past, present... also lots of literary and musical references. Quite eclectic - like Jolley herself.
I liked the hopeful ending and appreciate the understandings he came too. Not realistic, but not supposed to be.
April 8, 2014
This is difficult book to read for sure but the fragmented phrases and sentences are a reflection of the state of mind of the main character. It's well worth reading to the end. This is not a book that retells a story but one which whisks up emotions, colours and thoughts and presents them to us .... I feel like I've dreamt this book not read it.
June 20, 2012
Self-conscious. Poorly written. Confusing.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews