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Turning Point
290 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2014
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September 7, 2015
Don Aitkin is a friend of mine and I found that my knowledge of him as a person changed the way I read his novel and made it difficult for me to be objective. The book often read more like a memoir than a novel, even though the narrator, Richard Hogarth, is unlike the author in many ways. Don has always wanted to be a writer but has mainly written essays or non-fiction books about his academic interests. This novel was sound but I felt it could have done with a good literary editor to make it tighter and to create stronger narrative tension.
This is the second novel of a proposed trilogy set in the mid-60s and has three strands – one about Hogarth’s troubled marriage and his attraction to other women, one about Australian politics and one about academic life, particularly the way in which university administration and staff selection works. I wasn’t particularly interested in the last strand and found it dull. The strand about the machinations of politics, in the lead up to Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam war, was quite well done but it was the strand about human relationships that I found most interesting. Don has good insights into human nature and writes in a competent, direct style.
I’m pleased to have read the novel and think it was well worth publishing.It certainly took me back to the 1960s, a period on the cusp of political and social movements that changed Australia profoundly.
This is the second novel of a proposed trilogy set in the mid-60s and has three strands – one about Hogarth’s troubled marriage and his attraction to other women, one about Australian politics and one about academic life, particularly the way in which university administration and staff selection works. I wasn’t particularly interested in the last strand and found it dull. The strand about the machinations of politics, in the lead up to Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam war, was quite well done but it was the strand about human relationships that I found most interesting. Don has good insights into human nature and writes in a competent, direct style.
I’m pleased to have read the novel and think it was well worth publishing.It certainly took me back to the 1960s, a period on the cusp of political and social movements that changed Australia profoundly.
Displaying 1 of 1 review