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Extinctions
He hated the word 'retirement', but not as much as he hated the word 'village', as if aging made you a peasant or a fool. Herein lives the village idiot.
Professor Frederick Lothian, a retired engineer, world expert on concrete and connoisseur of modernist design, has quarantined himself from life by moving to a retirement village. His wife, Martha, is dead and his two adult children are lost to him in their own ways. Surrounded and obstructed by the debris of his life - objects he has collected over many years and tells himself he is keeping for his daughter - he is determined to be miserable but is tired of his existence and of the life he has chosen.
When a series of unfortunate incidents forces him and his neighbor, Jan, together, he begins to realise the damage done by the accumulation of a lifetime's secrets and lies and to comprehend his own shortcomings. Finally, Frederick Lothian has the opportunity to build something meaningful for the ones he loves.
Humorous, poignant and galvanising by turns, Extinctions is a novel about all kinds of extinction - natural, racial, national and personal - and what we can do to prevent them.
Professor Frederick Lothian, a retired engineer, world expert on concrete and connoisseur of modernist design, has quarantined himself from life by moving to a retirement village. His wife, Martha, is dead and his two adult children are lost to him in their own ways. Surrounded and obstructed by the debris of his life - objects he has collected over many years and tells himself he is keeping for his daughter - he is determined to be miserable but is tired of his existence and of the life he has chosen.
When a series of unfortunate incidents forces him and his neighbor, Jan, together, he begins to realise the damage done by the accumulation of a lifetime's secrets and lies and to comprehend his own shortcomings. Finally, Frederick Lothian has the opportunity to build something meaningful for the ones he loves.
Humorous, poignant and galvanising by turns, Extinctions is a novel about all kinds of extinction - natural, racial, national and personal - and what we can do to prevent them.
286 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2016
144 people are currently reading
1908 people want to read
About the author
Josephine Wilson
13 books36 followersJosephine Wilson is a Perth-based writer. Her writing career began in the area of performance. Her early works included The Geography of Haunted Places, with Erin Hefferon, and Customs. Her first novel was Cusp, (UWA Publishing, 2005). Josephine has lectured and taught in the tertiary sector. She is the busy parent of two children and works as a sessional staff member at Curtin University, where she teaches in the Humanities Honours Program, in Creative Writing and in Art and Design history. She completed her Masters of Philosophy at Queensland University and her PhD at UWA. Her novel Extinctions (UWA Publishing, 2016) was the winner of the inaugural Dorothy Hewett Prize and has been shortlisted for the 2017 Miles Franklin Award.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 283 reviews
December 20, 2018
4.5 Fred is in the latter part of his sixties, living in a senior village, and not very happy about that fact. His wife has died, and though we know he has two children, their is a rift between them, though the details are not yet apparent. Those are revealed as we read further. His thoughts are at times amusing, but he seems stuck on himself, or within himself. Quite pompous, and wants to keep away from most of the other residents, not get involved in this life he now finds himself within.
This is one of those quiet books that slowly works its way into the heart of the reader. A family, missed opportunities, regrets, blindness, and an inability to see what went wrong. This changes as almost against his will he is bull dozered by the wonderful elderly lady who lives in the small house, next to his. Jan, is amazing, doesn't let Fred off with his excuses, but eventually has a most positive influence on his life. Quite amusing at times, sad too, when we find out more about his past.
Alienation, the sense of never belonging. Australia's indigenous people, and the harm done to them in the past, that carried into the present. Strong characters, strong writing. A story of moving forward, finding ones place, and finally forgiving oneself. A lovely, heartfelt story.
ARC from Edelweiss.
This is one of those quiet books that slowly works its way into the heart of the reader. A family, missed opportunities, regrets, blindness, and an inability to see what went wrong. This changes as almost against his will he is bull dozered by the wonderful elderly lady who lives in the small house, next to his. Jan, is amazing, doesn't let Fred off with his excuses, but eventually has a most positive influence on his life. Quite amusing at times, sad too, when we find out more about his past.
Alienation, the sense of never belonging. Australia's indigenous people, and the harm done to them in the past, that carried into the present. Strong characters, strong writing. A story of moving forward, finding ones place, and finally forgiving oneself. A lovely, heartfelt story.
ARC from Edelweiss.
November 27, 2018
I read a good review of this book in a local newspaper and luckily our local library had it. I have just finished it and I really enjoyed it, 4.5* is my rating. Fred Lothian is a retired university professor in engineering whose wife Martha passed away some two years ago, He’s 69yo and living in a retirement village in Perth, Western Australia and by chance he gets to know his next door neighbour in the retirement village, Jan, and a somewhat strained friendship begins.
Fred’s best friend Ralph has separated from his wife Veronica and has married a much younger woman and he doesn't have much contact with him anymore, nor anyone else for that matter. Fred has plenty of time on his hands to reflect on the important things in life – his marriage, his children Caroline and Callum and his work. For a variety of reasons, he is not altogether happy with how he’s behaved and how things have panned out. The book is well written, quite witty and insightful, though for me at times it was stretching the imagination to fully believe in the circumstances surrounding Fred and Jan’s lives, perhaps my life is too boring!!
In the acknowledgements the author tells us that while writing the book she lost both her parents and mother-in-law and that her father was an engineer so I wonder how much is based on her personal experiences. I really recommend this book, especially if you’re around retirement age (and maybe male) though I do think it's an enjoyable read regardless of your age and gender.
Fred’s best friend Ralph has separated from his wife Veronica and has married a much younger woman and he doesn't have much contact with him anymore, nor anyone else for that matter. Fred has plenty of time on his hands to reflect on the important things in life – his marriage, his children Caroline and Callum and his work. For a variety of reasons, he is not altogether happy with how he’s behaved and how things have panned out. The book is well written, quite witty and insightful, though for me at times it was stretching the imagination to fully believe in the circumstances surrounding Fred and Jan’s lives, perhaps my life is too boring!!
In the acknowledgements the author tells us that while writing the book she lost both her parents and mother-in-law and that her father was an engineer so I wonder how much is based on her personal experiences. I really recommend this book, especially if you’re around retirement age (and maybe male) though I do think it's an enjoyable read regardless of your age and gender.
February 1, 2018
There are several book prizes where I read at least the short list and, in some cases, the full long list. There are other book prizes that I follow and where my own reading overlaps with the selected books. And there are others that I look at with interest but make no effort to read the books. So, when I came across Extinctions on NetGalley which won a prize that I have never (knowingly) engaged with, I decided it was worth taking a look at and submitted a request.
The prize we are talking about is the Miles Franklin Award and it is given to "a novel which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases". It is no surprise, then, to learn that this book is set (mainly) in Australia. The blurb gives you the basics of how the book starts. Fred Lothian is settling into a retirement village. He is the quintessential “grumpy old man” (although he hates being told he is old - he is only 69, after all). Events around him unfold in a way that forces him into contact with his neighbour, Jan. The blurb then goes on to say that "…he begins to realise the damage done by the accumulation of a lifetime's secrets and lies, and to comprehend his own shortcomings. Finally, Frederick Lothian has the opportunity to build something meaningful for the ones he loves."
For me, this blurb does the book a huge disservice. Mainly I say this because Fred is not the only subject of the book. Indeed, if he was, I doubt very much that I would have finished it. I read the first quarter of the book and nearly gave up. At that point, I looked at some of the reviews for some help in deciding whether to carry on. That was a bad idea because a lot of them seemed to say the first part of the book was the good part! I decided to keep going anyway.
Once the book stops focussing on Fred, it becomes a lot more interesting. This might be me being oversensitive, but the female protagonists are a lot better realised than the male (of whom Fred is the main one). But the main reason it becomes more interesting is because the subject matter seems to change. Instead of a miserable old man bemoaning his lot and reminiscing about his past, we move to his daughter Caroline who is adopted and comes from an Aboriginal heritage. It becomes a book about identity and acceptance, not just regarding Caroline, but also Fred’s son, Callum, who is brain damaged after a traffic accident. The stories of peripheral characters also contribute to this.
So, for a while, at least, it looks like it is heading towards being a much more interesting book.
But the biggest issue I had with the book is that it leaves so much unresolved. I am normally a great fan of loose ends in a novel: I like being able to speculate about what happens to characters and I enjoy making up continuations for some of the stories that aren’t quite resolved. But this is a whole new ball game. I spent a bit of time in a Google-led search trying to find out if perhaps this is the first of a planned series of books. It would make sense to me if it is. I can’t really explain why without introducing spoilers, but I will simply say that there are several key plots that are introduced and then not developed. There are several key decisions characters make or are about to make that have significant implications. If there is a part two, it sort of makes sense. If there isn’t, it feels to me like a very incomplete book. Given that I can’t discover at the moment whether or not there is a part two, I can only rate it on the basis that it is a standalone book.
My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
The prize we are talking about is the Miles Franklin Award and it is given to "a novel which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases". It is no surprise, then, to learn that this book is set (mainly) in Australia. The blurb gives you the basics of how the book starts. Fred Lothian is settling into a retirement village. He is the quintessential “grumpy old man” (although he hates being told he is old - he is only 69, after all). Events around him unfold in a way that forces him into contact with his neighbour, Jan. The blurb then goes on to say that "…he begins to realise the damage done by the accumulation of a lifetime's secrets and lies, and to comprehend his own shortcomings. Finally, Frederick Lothian has the opportunity to build something meaningful for the ones he loves."
For me, this blurb does the book a huge disservice. Mainly I say this because Fred is not the only subject of the book. Indeed, if he was, I doubt very much that I would have finished it. I read the first quarter of the book and nearly gave up. At that point, I looked at some of the reviews for some help in deciding whether to carry on. That was a bad idea because a lot of them seemed to say the first part of the book was the good part! I decided to keep going anyway.
Once the book stops focussing on Fred, it becomes a lot more interesting. This might be me being oversensitive, but the female protagonists are a lot better realised than the male (of whom Fred is the main one). But the main reason it becomes more interesting is because the subject matter seems to change. Instead of a miserable old man bemoaning his lot and reminiscing about his past, we move to his daughter Caroline who is adopted and comes from an Aboriginal heritage. It becomes a book about identity and acceptance, not just regarding Caroline, but also Fred’s son, Callum, who is brain damaged after a traffic accident. The stories of peripheral characters also contribute to this.
So, for a while, at least, it looks like it is heading towards being a much more interesting book.
But the biggest issue I had with the book is that it leaves so much unresolved. I am normally a great fan of loose ends in a novel: I like being able to speculate about what happens to characters and I enjoy making up continuations for some of the stories that aren’t quite resolved. But this is a whole new ball game. I spent a bit of time in a Google-led search trying to find out if perhaps this is the first of a planned series of books. It would make sense to me if it is. I can’t really explain why without introducing spoilers, but I will simply say that there are several key plots that are introduced and then not developed. There are several key decisions characters make or are about to make that have significant implications. If there is a part two, it sort of makes sense. If there isn’t, it feels to me like a very incomplete book. Given that I can’t discover at the moment whether or not there is a part two, I can only rate it on the basis that it is a standalone book.
My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
February 11, 2019
I don’t often get a chance to read the wonderful-sounding Australian books I see on prize shortlists or on friends’ blogs, so I was delighted when Extinctions, which won the 2017 Miles Franklin Literary Award, was published in the UK last year. It may just be my mind making easy associations, but Josephine Wilson’s second novel indeed reminded me of other Australian fiction I’ve enjoyed, including The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt by Tracy Farr, Salt Creek by Lucy Treloar, and The Singing Ship by Rebecca Winterer. I can’t quite put my finger on what these novels have in common despite their disparate time settings. A hot and forbidding landscape? An enduring sense of pioneer spirit, of survival against the odds? All four, to an extent, pit an explorer’s impetus against family trauma and/or racial difference.
The antihero of Extinctions is widower Frederick Lothian, who at age 69 is a reluctant resident of St Sylvan’s Estate retirement village. It’s January 2006, the middle of a blistering Australian summer, and amid his usual morbid activities of reading the newspaper obituaries and watching his elderly co-residents fall over outside his air-conditioned unit, he has plenty of time to drift back over his life. A retired engineer, he’s an expert on concrete construction as well as a noted collector of modernist furniture. But he’s been much less successful in his personal life. His son is in a care home after a devastating accident, and his adopted daughter Caroline, who is part Aborigine, blames and avoids Fred. A run-in with a nosy neighbor, Jan, forces him to face the world – and his past – again.
Meanwhile, Caroline is traveling in the UK to secure specimens for a museum exhibit on extinct species, and the idea of feeling utterly lonesome, like the last of one’s kind, recurs: Frederick sits stubbornly on his own at St Sylvan’s, pondering the inevitability of death; Caroline and Jan, both adopted, don’t have the comfort of a family lineage; and the museum specimens whose photographs are dotted through the novel (including the last passenger pigeon, Martha, which also – not coincidentally, I’m sure – was Fred’s wife’s name) represent the end of the line.
I loved pretty much everything about this book: the thematic connections, the gentle sense of humor (especially during Fred and Jan’s expensive restaurant dégustation), the chance for a curmudgeonly protagonist to redeem himself, and the spot-on writing. Highly recommended.
A favorite passage:
“Like many educated people, Frederick had his opinions, most of which were set in concrete so as to render them more akin to truths, but in reality politics and modern history were his weak points – along with poetry. Where poetry and politics were concerned he feared a lack of foundation, which left him vulnerable to challenge. Deep down he knew that opinion – like concrete – was most resilient when well founded and reinforced.”
Other readalikes: Darke by Rick Gekoski & Ok, Mr Field by Katharine Kilalea
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
The antihero of Extinctions is widower Frederick Lothian, who at age 69 is a reluctant resident of St Sylvan’s Estate retirement village. It’s January 2006, the middle of a blistering Australian summer, and amid his usual morbid activities of reading the newspaper obituaries and watching his elderly co-residents fall over outside his air-conditioned unit, he has plenty of time to drift back over his life. A retired engineer, he’s an expert on concrete construction as well as a noted collector of modernist furniture. But he’s been much less successful in his personal life. His son is in a care home after a devastating accident, and his adopted daughter Caroline, who is part Aborigine, blames and avoids Fred. A run-in with a nosy neighbor, Jan, forces him to face the world – and his past – again.
Meanwhile, Caroline is traveling in the UK to secure specimens for a museum exhibit on extinct species, and the idea of feeling utterly lonesome, like the last of one’s kind, recurs: Frederick sits stubbornly on his own at St Sylvan’s, pondering the inevitability of death; Caroline and Jan, both adopted, don’t have the comfort of a family lineage; and the museum specimens whose photographs are dotted through the novel (including the last passenger pigeon, Martha, which also – not coincidentally, I’m sure – was Fred’s wife’s name) represent the end of the line.
I loved pretty much everything about this book: the thematic connections, the gentle sense of humor (especially during Fred and Jan’s expensive restaurant dégustation), the chance for a curmudgeonly protagonist to redeem himself, and the spot-on writing. Highly recommended.
A favorite passage:
“Like many educated people, Frederick had his opinions, most of which were set in concrete so as to render them more akin to truths, but in reality politics and modern history were his weak points – along with poetry. Where poetry and politics were concerned he feared a lack of foundation, which left him vulnerable to challenge. Deep down he knew that opinion – like concrete – was most resilient when well founded and reinforced.”
Other readalikes: Darke by Rick Gekoski & Ok, Mr Field by Katharine Kilalea
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
December 10, 2016
Extinctions, by Josephine Wilson, won the 2015 Dorothy Hewett Award for an Unpublished Manuscript, and I am not surprised: it is an utterly absorbing novel that I was sorry to finish. Do not let this book slip under your radar just because you’re busy with the Silly Season!
Professor Frederick Lothian, a man so given to discontentment that he complains about his own name, is a retired engineering expert on concrete and a pompous hoarder of modernist furniture. He has finally given in to the exhortations of his daughter Caroline and moved into a retirement village but he hates it and he despises all the other ‘inmates’, all moving inexorably towards the annihilation of aged care, and death. (He’s only 69!) And as we read on, we realise that the way he has quarantined himself from any relationships in the village is exactly what he has done throughout his life, even in his own home…
His wife, Martha, is dead, but Wilson’s pen makes her a lively character through Fred’s memories. Based on his experience with the evidently long-suffering Martha, Fred is fond of making generalisations about women, and his default mode is criticism. But there is much more to Fred than being a ‘crusty old gent’, and before long the reader is puzzling about what’s gone wrong in his relationship with Caroline, and about what might have happened to his son. Since the narrative offers only Fred’s perspective we soon realise that he is suppressing his thoughts so much that often he cannot even mention the boy’s name. And in his loneliness he is starting to lose his grip on reality:
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2016/12/11/e...
Professor Frederick Lothian, a man so given to discontentment that he complains about his own name, is a retired engineering expert on concrete and a pompous hoarder of modernist furniture. He has finally given in to the exhortations of his daughter Caroline and moved into a retirement village but he hates it and he despises all the other ‘inmates’, all moving inexorably towards the annihilation of aged care, and death. (He’s only 69!) And as we read on, we realise that the way he has quarantined himself from any relationships in the village is exactly what he has done throughout his life, even in his own home…
His wife, Martha, is dead, but Wilson’s pen makes her a lively character through Fred’s memories. Based on his experience with the evidently long-suffering Martha, Fred is fond of making generalisations about women, and his default mode is criticism. But there is much more to Fred than being a ‘crusty old gent’, and before long the reader is puzzling about what’s gone wrong in his relationship with Caroline, and about what might have happened to his son. Since the narrative offers only Fred’s perspective we soon realise that he is suppressing his thoughts so much that often he cannot even mention the boy’s name. And in his loneliness he is starting to lose his grip on reality:
Stalked by the ghost of his own unoriginality. Every day it was the same. He woke up – if he had slept at all – with an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach, and the distinct sense that there was something obscure, malevolent and obsessive lying in wait for him, ready to ambush him when he was at his weakest. Thoughts were ghosts. They were zombies. They wafted about in the white heat and dark stillness of St Sylvan’s Retirement Village, tapping on windows, whispering forgotten lines, staging scenes that were supposed to have been deleted from the script long ago. (p.93)
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2016/12/11/e...
November 11, 2020
Nope. Just nope.
November 22, 2017
Since reading Extinctions I have learnt that two strands of personal experience informed Josephine Wilson’s writing of this novel - the illness and death of both her parents and the adoption of her second child. Extinction is explored through themes of ageing, adoption, aboriginality and extinct species. Fred has entered a retirement village after the death of his wife; Caroline, Fred and Martha’s first child is Aboriginal and has been adopted. Caroline works on exhibitions of extinct species. Wilson weaves these strands together skilfully although at times I feel she attempts too much and it doesn’t quite hang together.
Frederick (Fred) is a deeply flawed character but very believable to me. We gradually learn of his traumatic childhood - abandonment by his beloved Gran, the death of his brother (for which he feels responsible), a violent father and a passive mother. This has left him unable to express his emotions even though he is obviously an attractive and interesting man who appealed to Martha to the extent that she left America and came to Australia to live. Fred also feels responsible for his son Callum’s life-destroying injury.
When I met the character Jan (Fred’s neighbour in the retirement village) I thought her pushy and difficult - a good foil for Fred - but not very likeable either. As the novel progressed I thought her one of Wilson’s best achievements in the novel, becoming a rounded character and the catalyst for change and hope. The novel’s ending is uplifting, if rather fantastical.
The opening engaged me from the start with many laugh-out-loud moments. Strands of humour continued even when the themes of the novel became deeply serious. It was a very good read overall, keeping my interest throughout. I wanted to know what had happened - to Fred in his childhood, how the death of his brother Virgil had occurred, the inner story of his marriage, what had happened and would happen to Callum, more about Caroline. There were many clever scenes in the novel too - a Japanese restaurant scene in particular, with both humour and symbolic meaning. Wilson can certainly write.
For me the biggest flaw in the novel was the timescale (just one week) and the shifts in time through flashbacks. I was often confused, especially as I was reading on a Kindle and it wasn’t easy to check what was happening when. The novel satisfied me in many ways but in my opinion not up to the standard of other recent Miles Franklin winners. I think I will remember a good deal about it but I’ll have to see if that holds up over time. I'm stretching this to four stars.
Frederick (Fred) is a deeply flawed character but very believable to me. We gradually learn of his traumatic childhood - abandonment by his beloved Gran, the death of his brother (for which he feels responsible), a violent father and a passive mother. This has left him unable to express his emotions even though he is obviously an attractive and interesting man who appealed to Martha to the extent that she left America and came to Australia to live. Fred also feels responsible for his son Callum’s life-destroying injury.
When I met the character Jan (Fred’s neighbour in the retirement village) I thought her pushy and difficult - a good foil for Fred - but not very likeable either. As the novel progressed I thought her one of Wilson’s best achievements in the novel, becoming a rounded character and the catalyst for change and hope. The novel’s ending is uplifting, if rather fantastical.
The opening engaged me from the start with many laugh-out-loud moments. Strands of humour continued even when the themes of the novel became deeply serious. It was a very good read overall, keeping my interest throughout. I wanted to know what had happened - to Fred in his childhood, how the death of his brother Virgil had occurred, the inner story of his marriage, what had happened and would happen to Callum, more about Caroline. There were many clever scenes in the novel too - a Japanese restaurant scene in particular, with both humour and symbolic meaning. Wilson can certainly write.
For me the biggest flaw in the novel was the timescale (just one week) and the shifts in time through flashbacks. I was often confused, especially as I was reading on a Kindle and it wasn’t easy to check what was happening when. The novel satisfied me in many ways but in my opinion not up to the standard of other recent Miles Franklin winners. I think I will remember a good deal about it but I’ll have to see if that holds up over time. I'm stretching this to four stars.
June 13, 2017
Extinctions is a bit of a curate’s egg. Parts of it are excellent. Specifically the first bits.
Frederick Lothian is a retired academic who is seeing out his remaining years in a retirement village outside Perth, Western Australia. He has known better times; he has lived in Britain and the US; he has been a world authority on engineering; he has a fine collection of collectible furniture stacked up in his retirement village unit. And he hates his existence. He is lonely, bored and confined. He lives in fear of the day he is deemed unfit for independent living and shunted across the lawn to the supported living area. He vaguely knows one of his neighbours and has never spoken to the other. We feel for him, especially when we learn that his wife has died and his daughter lives interstate and travels often overseas.
Fairly soon on, though, we start to wonder whether Frederick isn’t the architect of his own misfortune. We start to see that he is vain and judgemental. He has little sensitivity to the impact of his actions on those around him; he has chosen to ignore his neighbour Jan because he believes she is common, and, worst of all, he seems to have abandoned both of his children.
This feels well set up for an interesting story.
Unfortunately, I’m not sure it completely delivered on this potential. In very broad terms, Frederick is forced to meet Jan, and this triggers something in him that makes him want to reconnect with the world. That’s all well and good, but it didn’t feel authentic. It is difficult to believe that an encounter with a stranger could have caused such a complete alteration of character and behaviour. Moreover, the timeline feels fuzzy and events seem to develop out of sequence. This leads to the whole narrative starting to crumble even as it starts to speed wildly out of control.
Meanwhile, the text is interspersed with pictures of bridges, engineering plans and pictures. Presumably this is intended to remind us that we are dealing with a logical man of learning, and one or two of the earlier illustrations augment references in the text. But by the end, it is difficult to see those links. They just serve (somewhat mercifully) to give the reader a free ride for half a page. And when you’re celebrating white space and pages that turn quickly, you know the story is in trouble.
Frederick Lothian is a retired academic who is seeing out his remaining years in a retirement village outside Perth, Western Australia. He has known better times; he has lived in Britain and the US; he has been a world authority on engineering; he has a fine collection of collectible furniture stacked up in his retirement village unit. And he hates his existence. He is lonely, bored and confined. He lives in fear of the day he is deemed unfit for independent living and shunted across the lawn to the supported living area. He vaguely knows one of his neighbours and has never spoken to the other. We feel for him, especially when we learn that his wife has died and his daughter lives interstate and travels often overseas.
Fairly soon on, though, we start to wonder whether Frederick isn’t the architect of his own misfortune. We start to see that he is vain and judgemental. He has little sensitivity to the impact of his actions on those around him; he has chosen to ignore his neighbour Jan because he believes she is common, and, worst of all, he seems to have abandoned both of his children.
This feels well set up for an interesting story.
Unfortunately, I’m not sure it completely delivered on this potential. In very broad terms, Frederick is forced to meet Jan, and this triggers something in him that makes him want to reconnect with the world. That’s all well and good, but it didn’t feel authentic. It is difficult to believe that an encounter with a stranger could have caused such a complete alteration of character and behaviour. Moreover, the timeline feels fuzzy and events seem to develop out of sequence. This leads to the whole narrative starting to crumble even as it starts to speed wildly out of control.
Meanwhile, the text is interspersed with pictures of bridges, engineering plans and pictures. Presumably this is intended to remind us that we are dealing with a logical man of learning, and one or two of the earlier illustrations augment references in the text. But by the end, it is difficult to see those links. They just serve (somewhat mercifully) to give the reader a free ride for half a page. And when you’re celebrating white space and pages that turn quickly, you know the story is in trouble.
March 22, 2017
I enjoyed reading this book and did get caught up with the characters, but it does seem overly hopeful that a grumpy emotionally stilted retired engineering prof can change his ways and become self reflective, sensitive, sociable and caring over the course of one day. Optimistic also that he and his grown up disabled son can live together with 60yo Jan and her 5yo abused grandson. Happy families or deluded fantasy? I think perhaps the book could have ended when daughter Caroline got on the plane. Much better to imagine possible endings than to have everything neatly tied up, and the didactic dialogue over foster care, drug abuse, suicide, stolen generations, disability care etc etc. so many issues over such a short time. Great writing tho.
July 28, 2017
Really enjoyed this, my final read for the @milesfranklinliteraryaward. It's one of those books that tries to sum up a life - the regrets, secrets and clutter - and in doing so makes you reflect on your own. The theme of extinction was brilliantly utilised in many different ways. I found the first third of the book quite hard going but once it hits its stride I was completely absorbed.
September 11, 2017
I downloaded this onto my iBook, mainly as it had just been awarded the Miles Franklin literary award.
However, I should have known better than to expect a literary work to be readable. The writing is stodgy and the plot unwinds at a pace slower than any old person on a walking frame could move. By about half way through I gave up caring and just wished for a couple of sudden heart attacks to put us out of our reading misery.
It was not helped by the poor production quality of the ebook, which was simply a PDF in disguise, formatted at the wrong size for online reading. So for each page you have to drag and scroll the page to fit the screen. A decent publisher would have formatted it as a true ePub
However, I should have known better than to expect a literary work to be readable. The writing is stodgy and the plot unwinds at a pace slower than any old person on a walking frame could move. By about half way through I gave up caring and just wished for a couple of sudden heart attacks to put us out of our reading misery.
It was not helped by the poor production quality of the ebook, which was simply a PDF in disguise, formatted at the wrong size for online reading. So for each page you have to drag and scroll the page to fit the screen. A decent publisher would have formatted it as a true ePub
October 26, 2017
I read this book a few weeks ago and was not disappointed. It dealt with big issues in a very warm humane way and the voice of the narrator is male while the author is female giving it an unusual sympathy. It deals with important questions, getting older, our children and what we do right and in this case so wrong, and the precipitous way we either kid ourselves or face the world. It is never too late.
March 1, 2017
"fathers are such a great danger to their sons". So many layers in this book. I was intrigued and involved from page one.
May 6, 2018
Couldn't put it down. Deeply moving and wonderfully complex.
June 11, 2017
The last review on my list of books longlisted for this year’s Miles Franklin Literary Award is Extinctions (UWA Publishing 2016) by Josephine Wilson. Extinctions is an unusual hybrid of a novel – on one level it is the story of retired engineer 69-year-old Professor Frederick Lothian and his reduced circumstances in his new accommodation in a retirement village. But on another, deeper, level, it is a story about the extinction of a whole host of things, not just his career and his marriage and his way of life. The narrative charts the endings of so much more: relationships, animals, structures, habits, cultural decline.
I found it difficult to engage with the first 20 or 30 pages of this novel – I found myself somewhat confounded by what appeared to be a mixing of the present and the past, of what was happening now with the memory of what had happened long ago. Added to this is the book’s unusual addition of illustrations – an eclectic collection of photographs, plans, and architectural and structural designs that add a slightly haunted ambience. But once I had settled into the story and could begin to decipher fact and ongoing plot from memory and conjecture, I was thoroughly engaged with Frederick and the conundrum of his life.
His wife, Martha, died some years previously. His two adult children are key figures in the story – some of the chapters are from his daughter, Caroline’s, perspective. She was adopted by Fred and Martha when she was only two, and has experienced her share of troubles. The other child, Callum, is also lost to Fred, but in a different way. A large part of the story is about Fred reconnecting with his two children and navigating a relationship with them based on truth and trust rather than a lifetime of lies and avoidance. Fred’s circumstances are complicated further by a colourful past, including the untimely death of his brother when they were both children, and the complex knot of relations he and Martha shared with their friends Ralph and Veronica. The woman he meets in the retirement village – Jan – comes with her own set of difficulties, including a five-year-old grandson abandoned by his parents. Jan is a strong, feisty and determined character who acts as ballast to Fred’s inertia and misery. Surrounded by objects he has collected over a lifetime, and wallowing in his knowledge of concrete and modernist design, Fred is drawn back into the real world by Jan, whose attitude of carpe diem introduces some much-needed joy and appetite into Fred’s world.
While I found some of the plot developments towards the end a little implausible, and also found the ending a bit too neatly tied up, on the whole this is a book that is moving, encouraging and often very funny. The nature of extinction – of the self, of the soul, of a species or a race – is presented and examined from many different viewpoints. The process of aging, and of the aged, is viewed through a prism of kindness and empathy. The book tackles some of the big issues of life: adoption, disability, aging, and the complications of family dynamics. (It is almost a call to arms for the aging in our community: do not go gentle into this good night!) The many curveballs thrown at us by life are catalogued with a sensitivity to difference and a compassion towards those who try their best, but don’t always do their best, and aren’t always able to be their best.
I found it difficult to engage with the first 20 or 30 pages of this novel – I found myself somewhat confounded by what appeared to be a mixing of the present and the past, of what was happening now with the memory of what had happened long ago. Added to this is the book’s unusual addition of illustrations – an eclectic collection of photographs, plans, and architectural and structural designs that add a slightly haunted ambience. But once I had settled into the story and could begin to decipher fact and ongoing plot from memory and conjecture, I was thoroughly engaged with Frederick and the conundrum of his life.
His wife, Martha, died some years previously. His two adult children are key figures in the story – some of the chapters are from his daughter, Caroline’s, perspective. She was adopted by Fred and Martha when she was only two, and has experienced her share of troubles. The other child, Callum, is also lost to Fred, but in a different way. A large part of the story is about Fred reconnecting with his two children and navigating a relationship with them based on truth and trust rather than a lifetime of lies and avoidance. Fred’s circumstances are complicated further by a colourful past, including the untimely death of his brother when they were both children, and the complex knot of relations he and Martha shared with their friends Ralph and Veronica. The woman he meets in the retirement village – Jan – comes with her own set of difficulties, including a five-year-old grandson abandoned by his parents. Jan is a strong, feisty and determined character who acts as ballast to Fred’s inertia and misery. Surrounded by objects he has collected over a lifetime, and wallowing in his knowledge of concrete and modernist design, Fred is drawn back into the real world by Jan, whose attitude of carpe diem introduces some much-needed joy and appetite into Fred’s world.
While I found some of the plot developments towards the end a little implausible, and also found the ending a bit too neatly tied up, on the whole this is a book that is moving, encouraging and often very funny. The nature of extinction – of the self, of the soul, of a species or a race – is presented and examined from many different viewpoints. The process of aging, and of the aged, is viewed through a prism of kindness and empathy. The book tackles some of the big issues of life: adoption, disability, aging, and the complications of family dynamics. (It is almost a call to arms for the aging in our community: do not go gentle into this good night!) The many curveballs thrown at us by life are catalogued with a sensitivity to difference and a compassion towards those who try their best, but don’t always do their best, and aren’t always able to be their best.
March 12, 2020
I usually support a same state writer and I also like to read prize winners. In relation to this book Extinctions, a Dorothy Hewett ms award winner and the 2017 Miles Franklin award, I am going to stick my neck out, and say sorry folks! but I thought this book was disappointing :( It was mainly driven by backstory, ie all the relies of Frederick Lothian and Jan's - Fred's neighbour thrown into the mix. The surface level (ie. the literal level) was more interesting, two people meeting in a retirement village, both having adoptees in the family. Or as they say in academia the inclusion of "the other". I wanted more of this interesting story than finding out about the characters' past lives. I also wanted a better ending of Callum, Morrison, Jan and Fred finally moving into Fred's family home and how they coped nicely (or not) with each other. I felt bogged down reading all the backstory and, at times, skim read to get to the surface action/problem/quest/whatever! And the title? Extinctions? It would have been better if rather than an engineer/lecturer Fred, per se, might have been an archaeologist/scientist/paleontologist, and even though retired still interested in anything worth saving or on the endangered list. Okay, so Caroline was into studying the end of certain species, but did that have any effect on the two main characters who were driven towards each other? I don't think so. All I can say is the "pictures" helped me whiz through the pages much quicker. On a positive note, the writing was excellent...er...to a point...so many similes...like, like, like, like. Are they supposed to make a good book? Obviously the judges of the Dorothy Hewett and the Miles Franklin thought so.
Helen Hagemann
Book Reviewer
* wait for e-book or library to save money!
Helen Hagemann
Book Reviewer
* wait for e-book or library to save money!
January 29, 2017
This is an engaging story that avoids the cliches of the ageing character- Fred Lothian is a complex man, whose rigidity and avoidance of relationships makes him hard to sympathise with, but whose belated struggles toward honesty and atonement eventually lead to an empathic understanding. Jan's refusal to let him off the hook, or to be stereotyped herself provides the catalyst for change. The pictures are a fascinating alternative messaging - the significance of some of them was not apparent to me, but I enjoyed them nonetheless.
I felt that the character of Caroline was not as well drawn and although she was clearly important, with a counterpoint view, she was not engaging enough and so to give her the final say seemed inappropriate.
I felt that the character of Caroline was not as well drawn and although she was clearly important, with a counterpoint view, she was not engaging enough and so to give her the final say seemed inappropriate.
May 10, 2025
An engaging novel with interesting characters, exploring ageing, adoption, grief, remorse, empathy and one’s self. The book is set in a Perth suburb in 2006. Professor Frederick Lothian, a retired engineer, world expert on concrete, is living alone in a retirement village. Martha, his wife, died two years ago. His son Calum, has been in a care facility for fifteen years after a car accident left him a totally dependent individual who cannot communicate. Frederick’s adopted daughter, Caroline, is light skinned. Her mother was an aborigine. Caroline was two and a half years old when the Lothian’s adopted her. As a two and a half year old, she was a badly bruised child. Caroline was adopted when the Lothian’s thought they could not have a child, but three years after Caroline was adopted, Calum was born. Martha at the time, was forty years old.
Frederick struggled to cope with the infirmity of his son and since Martha’s death, Frederick had avoided people and any responsibilities. A next door retirement home neighbour, Jan, with many pet birds, and a grandson to take care of, speaks to Frederick and makes Frederick face some home truths.
This novel was an enjoyable, satisfying reading experience.
This book won the 2017 Miles Franklin Award.
Frederick struggled to cope with the infirmity of his son and since Martha’s death, Frederick had avoided people and any responsibilities. A next door retirement home neighbour, Jan, with many pet birds, and a grandson to take care of, speaks to Frederick and makes Frederick face some home truths.
This novel was an enjoyable, satisfying reading experience.
This book won the 2017 Miles Franklin Award.
November 12, 2018
I loved this story about a retired professor of engineering who, now widowed and living in a retirement village, begins to review his life and the mistakes he's made. Brilliant characterisation and humour, and the ending is very satisfying. My husband has labelled it the 'best book ever'.
February 5, 2017
Professor Fred Lothian is a sixty-nine years old former engineer, and has recently moved into a retirement village following the death of his wife Martha. Despite his relatively young age (a statement, I suspect, that says more about me than him!), he is thoroughly encased in old-man-curmudgeonliness, hemmed in by the modernist furniture from his large former home that he was unable to relinquish, disdainful of his neighbours and generally not looking after himself. He is estranged, for varying reasons, from his adult children Caroline, a museum display curator and Callum, once a promising sportsman and architect. Looking out his window, he sees another resident collapse in the courtyard, and this sparks a conversation with his next-door neighbour Jan. All he knows of Jan is that she keeps many budgerigars, much to his disgust. He comes to find that she is much more than this, and she brings him to the point where he is forced to face many of the silences and blockages in his life.
It’s not common to have a book set in a retirement village, with such fully realized older characters. (I wonder if we’ll see more as the baby boomer generation ages?) The story is set over a one-week period in January 2006 in Perth. The author, herself resident in Perth, captures the starkly sun-bleached and open nature of the Perth suburbs well, and her ear for dialogue is finely-tuned.
There’s multiple themes and metaphors woven throughout the book- teetering almost on too many. There’s the Stolen Generations, genocide and extinction, adoption, domestic violence and its intergenerational effects, regret and the fissures in family relationships. This sounds a rather grim menu, but it’s leavened by little touches of humour over our shared human foibles. It’s a very accomplished book, and its apparent ease belies careful plotting and a nuanced reading of regret and experience.
For my full review see:
https://residentjudge.wordpress.com/2...
It’s not common to have a book set in a retirement village, with such fully realized older characters. (I wonder if we’ll see more as the baby boomer generation ages?) The story is set over a one-week period in January 2006 in Perth. The author, herself resident in Perth, captures the starkly sun-bleached and open nature of the Perth suburbs well, and her ear for dialogue is finely-tuned.
There’s multiple themes and metaphors woven throughout the book- teetering almost on too many. There’s the Stolen Generations, genocide and extinction, adoption, domestic violence and its intergenerational effects, regret and the fissures in family relationships. This sounds a rather grim menu, but it’s leavened by little touches of humour over our shared human foibles. It’s a very accomplished book, and its apparent ease belies careful plotting and a nuanced reading of regret and experience.
For my full review see:
https://residentjudge.wordpress.com/2...
May 5, 2018
I wondered for quite some time where this story might be headed and it was not in the direction I expected. It seemed at first to be the musings of a widower in his later years, not a very likeable character mulling over the behaviour and circumstances that had brought him to a lonely life in a retirement village surrounded by people he disdained. There is the sense throughout the early chapters that there are events he is repressing and it is only when his gregarious neighbour Jan foists herself upon him and gets him talking and thinking that we start to understand what those events might be. His poor wife - what a monstrously selfish and insensitive husband and father he was. Slowly he comes to realise this and at the same time the trauma of his own childhood is revealed. I began to sympathise with him. He begins to try to make amends, too late for his wife but perhaps not for his son and daughter. I liked the open ending, so much to hope for.
The major niggle for me is the daughter Caroline. In her we have a character who is not sufficiently realised for my taste - she represents an aspect of the story (and the extinctions references) but doesn’t really come into her own. Apart from that, though, I enjoyed this book and would recommend it.
With thanks to Profile Books/Serpent's Tail via NetGalley for the opportunity to read an ARC.
The major niggle for me is the daughter Caroline. In her we have a character who is not sufficiently realised for my taste - she represents an aspect of the story (and the extinctions references) but doesn’t really come into her own. Apart from that, though, I enjoyed this book and would recommend it.
With thanks to Profile Books/Serpent's Tail via NetGalley for the opportunity to read an ARC.
September 19, 2017
Despite being shortlisted for the Franklin, I just cannot share in the judge's enthusiasm.
It's only ok for me. Once I realised it was about a bitter, lonely and guilt-ridden old man, estranged from his family, abandoning his brain damaged son to a care facility and driving his daughter away, who lived in a retirement village next door to Mary Poppins, it was easy to guess the outcome.
However, congratulations on your Miles Franklin prize, Josephine Wilson, you sound like a lovely person. Speaking of the Franklin Prize, was there a bit of a theme happening?? Waiting, Last Days and Extinctions........
It's only ok for me. Once I realised it was about a bitter, lonely and guilt-ridden old man, estranged from his family, abandoning his brain damaged son to a care facility and driving his daughter away, who lived in a retirement village next door to Mary Poppins, it was easy to guess the outcome.
However, congratulations on your Miles Franklin prize, Josephine Wilson, you sound like a lovely person. Speaking of the Franklin Prize, was there a bit of a theme happening?? Waiting, Last Days and Extinctions........
May 12, 2019
3.5
Wilson is a very advanced writer. Never clumsy, always shrewd, and doubtless knowledgeable on a range of subjects.
"Extinction" is the theme of the book, though it didn't stand out to me as such.
Some parts were a thrill to read; I devoured them with relish. Other parts -- particularly Fred's childhood flashbacks -- would halt the pace; but of course, character-driven fiction needs some history.
This was almost a 4, except I struggled to remain engaged the whole way through.
Wilson is a very advanced writer. Never clumsy, always shrewd, and doubtless knowledgeable on a range of subjects.
"Extinction" is the theme of the book, though it didn't stand out to me as such.
Some parts were a thrill to read; I devoured them with relish. Other parts -- particularly Fred's childhood flashbacks -- would halt the pace; but of course, character-driven fiction needs some history.
This was almost a 4, except I struggled to remain engaged the whole way through.
January 4, 2019
This one was interesting. My first thought on finishing was "Where's the rest of it?". Mulling it over a bit I guess it was an ending but I was quite into it by that point.
The book starts out with the main character being so unlikeable it is almost unbearable. I think this is written well, even if it is hard to read. Then he meets another character that inspires him to change (the characters are quite good). The change itself happens really fast though so... not really the most believable? Overall, there is a lot of good stuff in here I just think it felt rushed?
I would read more of this author's work.
The book starts out with the main character being so unlikeable it is almost unbearable. I think this is written well, even if it is hard to read. Then he meets another character that inspires him to change (the characters are quite good). The change itself happens really fast though so... not really the most believable? Overall, there is a lot of good stuff in here I just think it felt rushed?
I would read more of this author's work.
Read
August 28, 2018I LOVED this book. I can see why it won the Miles Franklin. The writing in parts is breathtakingly beautiful. I fell in love with these very real characters who made me laugh out loud. I particularly liked the use of imagery. Another brave small press stepping out there and taking a chance that paid off. Well done all involved.
October 10, 2024
Wowzers
October 6, 2024
Absolutely broken.
Oh my god.
Oh my god.
June 4, 2019
3.5 stars. This ended in a confusing and abrupt manner and there was a whole lot of varying issues and stories going on inside. I enjoyed it but then there was the feeling that I had to wade through so much to get to the parts that I felt were better parts of the book.
Since this was an Australian book, (winner of the Miles Franklin Award) it wasn't readily available. It was available for Kobo so that's how I ordered it. Unfortunately, this books comes with photographs, images and illustrations. They never appeared where they were supposed to and it didn't bring the impact because of that - which is a bummer. I liked it, but overall it wasn't that great read that I was hoping for.
Since this was an Australian book, (winner of the Miles Franklin Award) it wasn't readily available. It was available for Kobo so that's how I ordered it. Unfortunately, this books comes with photographs, images and illustrations. They never appeared where they were supposed to and it didn't bring the impact because of that - which is a bummer. I liked it, but overall it wasn't that great read that I was hoping for.
September 6, 2017
What a great read! Wilson has packed a lot of serious issues into a relatively short book and has done so with humour and warmth. Well deserving of its place on the 2017 Miles Franklin Award shortlist I thoroughly enjoyed it.
May 24, 2018
The first few pages of Extinctions reminded me of A Man Called Ove — a cantankerous old man, Frederick Lothian, former concrete engineer, living in a retirement "village," too grumpy to tolerate his neighbors, shunning his daughter and son. His complaints about the life in the village are amusing and I thought the story would continue in the same vein as Ove , but the similarities ended quickly and the book took on a more serious tone.
A widowed neighbor in the village, Jan, insinuates herself into Frederick's life. Her life story that she reveals to Frederick is full of regrets and failings, which causes him to reconsider his own choices and behavior. He finds himself reluctantly revealing his past to Jan, and over the course of a couple of days, reinvents himself and changes his path.
This book won the Miles Franklin award in 2017, and there are discussions about the recent history of Australian Aborigines (of which my knowledge is sadly lacking). The book is interspersed with photos of architecture and engineering marvels that I found enhanced the story.
It’s the story of Frederick Lothian, but also of the life of his late wife, Martha, who had a vibrant life that he never knew about, and his daughter Caroline and son Callum, who faced battles he never understood or acknowledged. Extinctions revolves around the struggle to be a good parent, when to cling and when to let go, and the unwitting impact that the personal struggles of parents have on their children. The theme of extinctions —the metaphorical deaths of career, adoption, and marriage —runs throughout.
An insightful book with strong character development.
I vacillated between a 3 and 4 star rating for this one, but it is worth reading.
Many thanks to Edelweiss and Tin House Books (W W Norton) for this advance copy.
A widowed neighbor in the village, Jan, insinuates herself into Frederick's life. Her life story that she reveals to Frederick is full of regrets and failings, which causes him to reconsider his own choices and behavior. He finds himself reluctantly revealing his past to Jan, and over the course of a couple of days, reinvents himself and changes his path.
This book won the Miles Franklin award in 2017, and there are discussions about the recent history of Australian Aborigines (of which my knowledge is sadly lacking). The book is interspersed with photos of architecture and engineering marvels that I found enhanced the story.
It’s the story of Frederick Lothian, but also of the life of his late wife, Martha, who had a vibrant life that he never knew about, and his daughter Caroline and son Callum, who faced battles he never understood or acknowledged. Extinctions revolves around the struggle to be a good parent, when to cling and when to let go, and the unwitting impact that the personal struggles of parents have on their children. The theme of extinctions —the metaphorical deaths of career, adoption, and marriage —runs throughout.
An insightful book with strong character development.
I vacillated between a 3 and 4 star rating for this one, but it is worth reading.
Many thanks to Edelweiss and Tin House Books (W W Norton) for this advance copy.
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