Magpie

by Peter Goldsworthy, Brian Matthews

Bennett jogs along the country bitumen an anxious man, his CRETE hat guarding against the magpie's deadly swoop. Who is he, where has Jasmine gone, why is he overwhelmed by a sense of doom? Pat-pat, pat-pat, pat-pat his dogged feet propel him inexorably into a comic nightmare.

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Peter Goldsworthy grew up in various Australian country towns, finishing his schooling in Darwin. After graduating in medicine from the University of Adelaide in 1974, he worked for many years in alcohol and drug rehabiiltation. Since then, he has divided his time equally between writing and general practice. He has won major literary awards across a range of genres: poetry, short story, the novel, in opera, and most recently in theatre.

Reviews

[notgettingenough · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not one of my GR friends has read this! Not one person on GR has reviewed it. It's an even worse cold-shouldering than Australian books get in general and I'm guessing that's because it has the wrong number of authors. Don't let that put you off, this is a hilarious short novel - I would have called it a novella, but I guess that's the kiss of marketing death along with joint authorship.

Spoilers follow.

Should you happen to be an Adelaide person, then the particulars of the university merger will seem somewhat prescient. I loved the description of the military influence on the merger - no doubt this is the case, some 32 years later as it actually unfolds. Oh, and the tone of the book has it all just right. Apparently it is no accident that in the real world now, the joint committee calls their get-togethers the Future University meetings. Magpie gets the FU tone perfect. Talk about crystal ball.


But this is just a small aside in the book. The major theme is writing and publishing, and in this case, I think it's better to stay schtum, other than to say it's clever, witty, and if you have ever wondered if fictional characters should have rights, then this is the book for you. Highly recommended.

[Manny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dontcha just hate it when you're the protagonist of some poorly realised campus novel, bored to death with your stereotypical colleagues and the beautiful implausibly compliant women who keep throwing themselves at you, and then you find you're being alternately written by two people who are having creative differences? Yeah, me too.

[JESH · Rating 3 out of 5]

Funny book by two authors who seem to have taken turns writing this campus novel. The ‘ hero’ has incomplete split memory and works out eventually what’s happening to him during a uni merge and threatened transfer to Woomera. Reminded me of David Lodge