Vanishing Points

by Thea Astley

Australia's acclaimed national treasure delivers two slyly linked novellas - The Genteel Poverty Bus Company and Inventing the Weather - in which "progress" vies unsuccessfully with more feral aspects of an untamed land. When would-be hermit Macintosh Hope, formerly of the Genteel Poverty Bus Company, settles down on a tiny Pacific isle off Australia's coast, he thinks he's found the perfect retreat from the workaday world. And he has - until neighboring Hummock Island is claimed by developer Clifford Truscott as a tourists' paradise. Thus sparks a confrontation pitting the thuggery of progress against the skills and wit of a lone man who proves uncannily adept at remaining the proverbial thorn in the magnate's side. Inventing the Weather finds the same developer's wife fed up and leaving her fatcat husband and their smug, precocious children. Julie Truscott's journey to independence takes her as far as a small mission run by nuns at Bukki Bay. But old ties aren't severed easily, and Clifford soon sets off tremors in the mission community, once he casts a profit-making eye on its enviable spot on the coast. With an unerring sense for language and a shrewd eye for human character and detail, Thea Astley sounds the territory and spirit of her native Gold Coast with the authority of a seasoned denizen of the terrain.

Genres: Fiction, Australia

Hardcover

First published September 16, 1992

About the author

Thea Astley was one of Australia's most respected and acclaimed novelists. Born in Brisbane in 1925, Astley studied arts at the University of Queensland. She held a position as Fellow in Australian Literature at Macquarie University until 1980, when she retired to write full time. In 1989 she was granted an honorary doctorate of letters from the University of Queensland.

She won the Miles Franklin Award four times - in 1962 for The Well Dressed Explorer, in 1965 for The Slow Natives, in 1972 for The Acolyte and in 2000 for Drylands. In 1989 she was award the Patrick White Award. Other awards include 1975 The Age Book of the Year Award for A Kindness Cup, the 1980 James Cook Foundation of Australian Literature Studies Award for Hunting the Wild Pineapple, the 1986 ALS Gold Medal for Beachmasters, the 1988 Steele Rudd Award for It's Raining in Mango, the 1990 NSW Premier's Prize for Reaching Tin River, and the 1996 Age Book of the Year Award and the FAW Australian Unity Award for The Multiple Effects of Rainshadow.

Praise for Thea Astley:

'Beyond all the satire, the wit, the occasional cruelty, and the constant compassion, the unfailing attribute of Astley's work is panache' Australian Book Review

Reviews

[Oanh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent, as always. Thea Astley writes so lyrically and evocatively. I don't need more grist for my ascetic, hermit mill, but this had me dreaming of ditching it all and finding myself an island. Yes, it all goes wrong. Thea Astley's characters are so outlandish, and yet, so well-drawn you believe them. And it's the peripheral characters who really intrigue. I like that their stories hang at the edge of these stories; I want to know more but I have been told, expertly, just enough.

[Tracey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Two novellas, The Genteel Poverty Bus Company and Inventing the Weather initially seem stand alone but quickly you realise the connections between the two.

In the Genteel Poverty Bus Company, Macintosh (Mac) Hope is seeking solace. We start with Mac attending a reunion of the last ever tour of his bus company. It becomes clear Mac has no interest in being with these people or any people and he quickly makes his escape. From here the timeline alternates from that last bus tour, Mac's failed marriage and his determination to lead a solitary life. Mac is able to secure an island off the Queensland coast and has found paradise until property developer Clifford Truscott establishes a resort on a nearby island. A battle between the two men then ensues. Mac takes to blasting classical music while Truscott uses violence.

Inventing the Weather, has Julie a housewife and mother trying to discover her identity after her marriage to Clifford Truscott ends. When Clifford announces he wants a divorce to be with his mistress, Julie does the unthinkable, she leaves him and her children. It is not an easy decision for Julie to make but she knows if she does not, Clifford will have no burdens, no cares and no obligations. As far as Clifford is concerned men can leave their families but women can not as it is unnatural. Julie's journey is claiming her identity back, she resumes her journalist career and crosses paths with some Nun's providing services to an indigenous community in a remote location. Clifford discovers the remote location and he can see the potential for development much to Julie's disgust.

There are themes, places and characters that run through both stories but there is also significant differences. Julie's story has her railing against the contradictions of how men and women are expected to behave during and after a divorce. Mac fights against progress, wanting to hold onto the simple pleasures of life, playing classical music, reading books and enjoying the environment.

Astley, I have always found to capture the very essence of small town Australian life. The descriptions are vivid and you can walk the streets in your mind. The island and the mission, you feel that you know every inch. The characters are deftly created, are complex and flawed. Astley truly is a master of the craft.

[Noah Melser · Rating 4 out of 5]

My last Astley novel on the shelves. You know her characters now and that same North Queensland landscape still so pleasant. There's some nice rain in this one, a lonely island and isolated cape life. Right from the hazy opening this one is dense with metaphors about meaning and interpretation. Never quite flawless novels, she nonetheless provides the best up in the night reading I've experienced. Classy characters who never quite figure it out.

[Sammy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two connected novellas written late in Astley's lifetime. To be honest, I thought the conceit of the first, The Genteel Poverty Bus Company was stronger than the execution, although it has its powerful moments. It is a story of missed connections, of humans attempting to retain individualism in the face of cultural flatness, of raging against the corporate storm, and of memory.

The villain of the first novella returns as a more-rounded character in the second, Inventing the Weather which is classic Astley. She remains one of the greatest writers Australia has yet produced, and - although it's a short and somewhat slight work - this is a very enjoyable meditation on what we try to achieve, and what we do if we fail.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like this book. Growing up on the coast of Australia in a regional town, you can't help but appreciate the characters Astley creates in this book which is actually two novellas. Recommended. Anyone with noisy neighbours will appreciate this book.