Back to Bool Bool

by Miles Franklin

A great portion of the book is devoted to the reactions of Freda and Dick to this country after an absence of many years. The poet in Dick is depressed by the absence of trees in Hyde Park, Sydney, the invasion of human habitations on the shores of the harbour, and the general de^ parture from the spirit of the bush as he knew it in his younger days. The social critic in Freda rebels at the in flow; of undesirable immigrants to Australia, and the reconstruction here of all the unwanted sordidness of the old world.

Australia, she maintains, should be kept until the world is sufficiently educated to make of it a model continent. We hear less of the opinions of the Major-General and Austra, they being too successful and busy to be critical. On landing we are introduced to the Mazere family and lat er to others who have followed the fashion and migrated from Bool Bool to the city, there to live in an endless round of social sacrifice. This part of the book very carefully reveals the provincialism of suburban life. The author deftly peels off the veneer and shows us just where we are and what we are.

554 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 25, 2012

About the author

Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin was born in 1879 in rural New South Wales. My Brilliant Career , her first novel, was published to much excitement and acclaim. She moved to Sydney where she became involved in feminist and literary circles and then onto the United States of America in 1907.

She was committed to the development of a uniquely Australian form of literature, and she actively pursued this goal by supporting writers, literary journals, and organisations of writers. She has had a long-lasting impact on Australian literary life through her endowment of a major literary award known as the Miles Franklin Award.

Reviews

[Julie Bye · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't find this the equal of other Miles Franklin novels. She seems preoccupied with social change than her art. It featured characters struggling to escape from general Aussie life to take a place in the arts world. A number of romances feature in the story with the result that you're not quite sure which is the focus. Franklin's prose is elegant as always, but read with a dictionary beside you. The dictionary in my kindle only found 50 per cent of the words.