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1915: A Novel
The tragedy and violence of that event provide the climax to this very personal, moving and surprisingly romantic story. With remarkable skill and in achingly beautiful prose, Roger McDonald takes the reader on an archetypal Australian journey which parallels the nation's progress from its country childhood, through the adolescent exuberance of its young cities, to initiation on one of the world's ancient battlefields. It is a vital journey, haunted by menace and disillusionment, one embedded in our national mythology.
This astonishing first novel, published to great critical acclaim in 1979 and since then selling over 100,000 copies, tells the story of two boys from the bush, the thoughtful and awkward Walter and his knowing friend Billy Mackenzie, and their girls Frances and Diana. Together they discover a future which seems full of promise, drawing them into the exciting turmoil of passion and war. But theirs is a fateful alliance, in a world all too quickly, with an outcome they never could have foreseen.
This astonishing first novel, published to great critical acclaim in 1979 and since then selling over 100,000 copies, tells the story of two boys from the bush, the thoughtful and awkward Walter and his knowing friend Billy Mackenzie, and their girls Frances and Diana. Together they discover a future which seems full of promise, drawing them into the exciting turmoil of passion and war. But theirs is a fateful alliance, in a world all too quickly, with an outcome they never could have foreseen.
426 pages, Hardcover
First published April 28, 1979
85 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
February 16, 2013
1915, A Novel (1979) was McDonald’s first novel, and it’s brilliant. I think it probably had to be, to find a publisher in that fiercely anti-war era in the wake of the moratorium marches and the withdrawal from Vietnam in 1975. My memories of that time are that it wasn’t just Lefties who were opposed to war: RSL branches were closing (or widening their membership base to ward off closing); Anzac Day marches were fading away and the notion of a war hero was fraught in the light of disclosures about the My Lai massacre.
And then in 1979 the University of Queensland Press published this debut novel by an unknown author. (Not entirely unknown: McDonald was awarded an Australia Council Senior Writer’s Fellowship to write it. Perhaps on the strength of his poetry collections Citizens of Mist (1969) and Airship (1975)?) The book won the ‘Age Book of the Year’ and the South Australian Biennial Literature Prize in 1980. In 1982 it was made into a seven-part ABC-TV television series. Peter Weir made his film Gallipoli in 1981. The Anzac legend was resurgent…
1915 tells the story of two lads from the bush, Billy Mackenzie and Walter Gilchrist, and how their not-always-friendly rivalry plays out from childhood to their war service on the battlefield in Gallipoli. The novel is a little hard to follow in the beginning as the large cast of characters are introduced, but it’s well worth persisting. Billy, a rough-and-tumble lad with a cocky confidence but few real prospects, squares off with Walter, who’s an on-again-off-again friend in the way of boys who take offence over this-and-that and sort it out with a punch-up. Walter’s prospects are better: he goes away to boarding-school, occasioning mild resentment from Billy, but what really causes conflict between them is a girl. Billy is a larrikin in the original sense of the word (see my review of Melissa Bellanta’s Larrikins, A History) and his sense of entitlement extends to casually taking his way with women. He expects Frances Reilly to be his, but Walter hesitantly likes her too, and has the opportunity to know her better on the train back to their respective schools. To restore his sense of pride Billy ends up making do with Diana, best friend of Frances, and later finds himself surprised by the way events turn out.
To read the rest of my review please visit http://anzlitlovers.com/2013/02/16/19...
And then in 1979 the University of Queensland Press published this debut novel by an unknown author. (Not entirely unknown: McDonald was awarded an Australia Council Senior Writer’s Fellowship to write it. Perhaps on the strength of his poetry collections Citizens of Mist (1969) and Airship (1975)?) The book won the ‘Age Book of the Year’ and the South Australian Biennial Literature Prize in 1980. In 1982 it was made into a seven-part ABC-TV television series. Peter Weir made his film Gallipoli in 1981. The Anzac legend was resurgent…
1915 tells the story of two lads from the bush, Billy Mackenzie and Walter Gilchrist, and how their not-always-friendly rivalry plays out from childhood to their war service on the battlefield in Gallipoli. The novel is a little hard to follow in the beginning as the large cast of characters are introduced, but it’s well worth persisting. Billy, a rough-and-tumble lad with a cocky confidence but few real prospects, squares off with Walter, who’s an on-again-off-again friend in the way of boys who take offence over this-and-that and sort it out with a punch-up. Walter’s prospects are better: he goes away to boarding-school, occasioning mild resentment from Billy, but what really causes conflict between them is a girl. Billy is a larrikin in the original sense of the word (see my review of Melissa Bellanta’s Larrikins, A History) and his sense of entitlement extends to casually taking his way with women. He expects Frances Reilly to be his, but Walter hesitantly likes her too, and has the opportunity to know her better on the train back to their respective schools. To restore his sense of pride Billy ends up making do with Diana, best friend of Frances, and later finds himself surprised by the way events turn out.
To read the rest of my review please visit http://anzlitlovers.com/2013/02/16/19...
October 13, 2023
Another case of the series or film being better than the novel. Maybe having Sigrid Thornton in the mini series helped. Just couldn`t get into it.
August 18, 2018
One of the rare times that I think a book has been underrated by the readers and those who have rated it. Eloquently written tale of two young men in the Australian bush who go to World War I and the Battle of Gallipoli. Occasionally McDonald gets bogged down in the most minute of details, but for the most part this is an exciting, frightening look at the battle the British Empire fought against the Ottoman Empire in the early days of the war. It is a battle that few people today know about. I found out about it years after my formal education was finished, having never read a word about it in any text book. Incredible book about a too often forgotten battle, which was a rare bloodbath loss against the inferior forces of the Ottoman Empire.
January 31, 2021
Rather hard at times but interesting read.
May 2, 2024
This book has sold over 100,000 copies since its publication in 1979, it was nominated for the Miles Franklin award, won The Age Book of the Year award, and was made into a television miniseries. It's a book that I've been meaning to read for about twenty years, and have finally got around to it.
And, I have to state, it was a disappointment. The plot is not quite banal, but fairly predictable, the structure is at times confusing, the writing is over-florid for the subject matter, and the characters alternate between unbelievable, unlikeable and unrealised.
The problems in the construction of the novel mainly come with linking the beginning, set in Central New South Wales, to Walter and Billy's time at Gallipoli. The reader is dropped from one place, where Walter and Billy were the main protagonists, straight into the middle of the other, where Billy has disappeared without explanation, and many new characters confusingly appear and are written about as if we the reader should already know about them. It almost feels like a section of the novel has been chopped out. It takes the reader some time to pick up the threads of where the book is going in terms of plot. In fact it's a double blow in some ways, as the first section of the novel does not develop the characters in a way that makes them attractive or even that interesting to the reader. We have Walter the thinker, Billy the doer, Frances the rebel and Diana who wants a normal life, but these traits are put on these characters, rather than coming from within them. They are not quite cardboard cut-outs, but they are not far from it.
Then there is the writing. McDonald is a poet and he has unfortunately used too much of that sensibility in the book, particularly in the parts about Gallipoli. The florid nature of the writing doesn't really fit with the action, or the characters. Quite a few of the metaphors are clumsy, or inappropriate, viz. - " ' We lost half our men,' said Hurst. He studied Walter's face. 'It all happened in a dream, beyond recall.' He sighed, a young man, then shifted on his haunches, glassy eyes searching for a window on sanity with the slick desperation of air bubbles in a spirit level." - when this sort of stuff goes on for a few pages, rather than being carried away, the reader tends to get lost. A rewrite or severe edit would not have been out of place in these sections.
By the end of the book, after things have happened to all of the main protagonists, the reader just doesn't care anymore, which is a sign that the book has failed. I can't even recommend it as an insight into the fighting at Gallipoli, or farm life at the turn of the twentieth century. I keep wondering why it has sold so many copies (it's still in print now). I wonder if people who consider themselves Australian literature buffs feel that they must have a copy on their shelves. Of course the human race is wonderfully varied, and no doubt there are people who love this book. As for me, I'm left thinking that the Age Book of the Year Award panel must have had slim pickings in 1979...
Check out my other reviews at http://aviewoverthebell.blogspot.com.au/
And, I have to state, it was a disappointment. The plot is not quite banal, but fairly predictable, the structure is at times confusing, the writing is over-florid for the subject matter, and the characters alternate between unbelievable, unlikeable and unrealised.
The problems in the construction of the novel mainly come with linking the beginning, set in Central New South Wales, to Walter and Billy's time at Gallipoli. The reader is dropped from one place, where Walter and Billy were the main protagonists, straight into the middle of the other, where Billy has disappeared without explanation, and many new characters confusingly appear and are written about as if we the reader should already know about them. It almost feels like a section of the novel has been chopped out. It takes the reader some time to pick up the threads of where the book is going in terms of plot. In fact it's a double blow in some ways, as the first section of the novel does not develop the characters in a way that makes them attractive or even that interesting to the reader. We have Walter the thinker, Billy the doer, Frances the rebel and Diana who wants a normal life, but these traits are put on these characters, rather than coming from within them. They are not quite cardboard cut-outs, but they are not far from it.
Then there is the writing. McDonald is a poet and he has unfortunately used too much of that sensibility in the book, particularly in the parts about Gallipoli. The florid nature of the writing doesn't really fit with the action, or the characters. Quite a few of the metaphors are clumsy, or inappropriate, viz. - " ' We lost half our men,' said Hurst. He studied Walter's face. 'It all happened in a dream, beyond recall.' He sighed, a young man, then shifted on his haunches, glassy eyes searching for a window on sanity with the slick desperation of air bubbles in a spirit level." - when this sort of stuff goes on for a few pages, rather than being carried away, the reader tends to get lost. A rewrite or severe edit would not have been out of place in these sections.
By the end of the book, after things have happened to all of the main protagonists, the reader just doesn't care anymore, which is a sign that the book has failed. I can't even recommend it as an insight into the fighting at Gallipoli, or farm life at the turn of the twentieth century. I keep wondering why it has sold so many copies (it's still in print now). I wonder if people who consider themselves Australian literature buffs feel that they must have a copy on their shelves. Of course the human race is wonderfully varied, and no doubt there are people who love this book. As for me, I'm left thinking that the Age Book of the Year Award panel must have had slim pickings in 1979...
Check out my other reviews at http://aviewoverthebell.blogspot.com.au/
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 8, 2012
Every once in a while I get to thinking I'm smart...and then I read a book like this. Half the time I had no idea what was going on, who was talking, what they were describing or what day it was. In this context it was a little like The Sound and the Fury (This isn't a good thing). Deep down, I just want a good yarn to enjoy. Literature is great, but it needs to actually be enjoyable. And that's the weird part of this book...it is a good yarn. But, you need to stick it out for a while to get to the good parts. I don't think I even got engaged for 200 pages or so. Stick with it and the story comes through and the writing gets less...thick. Overall, not sure I'd recommend per se, but I did enjoy it.
If you like a good war story, this probably is not it. Some decent camaraderie based banter, but any action scenes were fairly obtuse and difficult to follow. If you like a good story about an unappealing female and the rather awkward guy who's obsessed with her, this one will do. But if this IS your angle, go for "Of Human Bondage" for a better experience. I could also send you some woeful tales from my personal history.
Note that I am not Australian and have no prior knowledge of Gallipoli, despite some knowledge of World War I. Perhaps if I knew more about it or the people, this may have been more appealing. Unclear.
If you like a good war story, this probably is not it. Some decent camaraderie based banter, but any action scenes were fairly obtuse and difficult to follow. If you like a good story about an unappealing female and the rather awkward guy who's obsessed with her, this one will do. But if this IS your angle, go for "Of Human Bondage" for a better experience. I could also send you some woeful tales from my personal history.
Note that I am not Australian and have no prior knowledge of Gallipoli, despite some knowledge of World War I. Perhaps if I knew more about it or the people, this may have been more appealing. Unclear.
July 10, 2011
I did not finish this book!! I tried very hard but the eloquent prose was just too much for me and I gave up after getting to part 3. I thought I would be reading a good war story yarn but it was to me, eloquent crap. This author should have stuck to his poetry.
July 17, 2010
An interesting tale of two young men swept up in the excitement of war, leaving behind their farm lives, and the women they were just starting to know.
December 9, 2012
This book is fine in so many ways, but I never understood the characters, despite plenty of insight from the author.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews