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Glenroy Series #2
The Gift of Speed
The history of his summer is written in the grass...
In 1960 the West Indies arrive in Australia, bringing with them a carnival of music, colour and possibility. Michael, who is sixteen, is enthralled. If, like his heroes, he has the gift of speed, he will move beyond his suburb into the great world.
And yet, as his summer unfolds, Michael realises that there are other ways to live. When the calypso chorus accompanying Frank Worrell and his team fades, Michael has learnt many things; about his parents, his suburb, a girl called Kathleen Marsden, and about himself.
In 1960 the West Indies arrive in Australia, bringing with them a carnival of music, colour and possibility. Michael, who is sixteen, is enthralled. If, like his heroes, he has the gift of speed, he will move beyond his suburb into the great world.
And yet, as his summer unfolds, Michael realises that there are other ways to live. When the calypso chorus accompanying Frank Worrell and his team fades, Michael has learnt many things; about his parents, his suburb, a girl called Kathleen Marsden, and about himself.
448 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
7 people are currently reading
103 people want to read
About the author
Steven Carroll
16 books30 followersSteven Carroll is an Australian novelist. He was born in 1949 in Melbourne, Victoria and studied at La Trobe University. He has taught English at secondary school level, and drama at RMIT. He has been Drama Critic for The Sunday Age newspaper in Melbourne.
Steven Carroll is now a full-time writer living in Melbourne with his partner, the writer Fiona Capp, and their son. As of 2019, he also writes the non-fiction book review column for the Sydney Morning Herald.
Steven Carroll is now a full-time writer living in Melbourne with his partner, the writer Fiona Capp, and their son. As of 2019, he also writes the non-fiction book review column for the Sydney Morning Herald.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
October 29, 2020
Setting: Melbourne, Australia; 1960-61. In a down-at-heel Melbourne suburb, 16 year old Michael is obsessed with cricket and dreams of being a pace bowler. Against a background of the West Indies cricket team touring Australia, Michael drives his parents and neighbours mad with his repeated bowling practice against the garden fence. During this summer, Michael learns a lot about himself, he also discovers what family really means and tastes love in the shape of Kathleen Marsden, a girl from the local orphanage.
Wonderfully descriptive and atmospheric writing - the characters and place come to life and I could really feel myself there in that hot and dusty Australian summer, with the sound of bat on ball - yet life in the suburb goes on much as normal, with only brief intrusions from the home team's test matches against the West Indies, led by Frank Worrell, the first black man to captain a West Indian cricket team. I found out later that this is the second book in a trilogy so have ordered the other two! - 9/10.
Wonderfully descriptive and atmospheric writing - the characters and place come to life and I could really feel myself there in that hot and dusty Australian summer, with the sound of bat on ball - yet life in the suburb goes on much as normal, with only brief intrusions from the home team's test matches against the West Indies, led by Frank Worrell, the first black man to captain a West Indian cricket team. I found out later that this is the second book in a trilogy so have ordered the other two! - 9/10.
December 15, 2012
Strange, I am almost sure that I marked this book as read here on GoodReads but it - and the review I presumably wrote - seems to have disappeared.
Anyway, this book fits into a rare category for me. It's about sport, but I liked it in spite of that. It's about an adolescent who's obsessed by cricket and for the first time, I got an inkling of the kind of emotion that being interested in cricket might arouse. In this, Book 2 of the so-called Glenroy Trilogy Carroll writes beautifully of a the recent past in an instantly recognisable Melbourne and he is one of our best authors.
Anyway, this book fits into a rare category for me. It's about sport, but I liked it in spite of that. It's about an adolescent who's obsessed by cricket and for the first time, I got an inkling of the kind of emotion that being interested in cricket might arouse. In this, Book 2 of the so-called Glenroy Trilogy Carroll writes beautifully of a the recent past in an instantly recognisable Melbourne and he is one of our best authors.
June 15, 2025
This tale reads like an extended scenario containing characters back stories with a central motif – the gift of speed. Speed which comes in several different forms: pace at the bowling crease, decisiveness in business and by way of contrast a lack of speed in relationships.
The following contains spoilers.
Unfortunately what could have been an interesting meditation turns into a series of hermetically sealed episodes with insufficient interaction between the protagonists. Even when they do occur they tend to be one–off occurrences, for instance when the teenage central character, Michael discovers a businessman with his secret E-type Jaguar and is implicitly sworn to silence, nothing develops from the encounter.
Michael is trying to bowl fast, hurling countless deliveries against the back fence. Ultimately he hurts himself in his first big match as he realizes some people naturally have the gift of speed, others do not. At least he learns from the experience, unlike the businessman, who fangs his E-type once too often.
The young man’s injury is partly caused by wearing the wrong boots, batsman’s boots rather than bowlers, purchased from the Lindsay Hassett Sports Store in Melbourne, despite the advice of the great ‘Puck’ himself. I myself have visited the Lindsay Hassett Sports Store as a very young boy, in the company of my father. We were lucky enough to spot the man himself sitting at his desk in his office. I had no idea who he was, but I soon learned, which leads me to some aspects of the story which were disappointing. First off, Lindsay Hassett was famous for his irresistible sense of humour, but not here, Carroll misses an opportunity, I feel.
Apart from one chilling character who makes a most memorable appearance then disappears completely, one irritating decision is the deliberate anonymising of the specific location of the action - always the author refers somewhat awkwardly to 'the suburb’. The events take place during the 1960-61 tour of Australia by the West Indies cricket team, led by Frank Worrall, an epic series with several of the most thrilling test matches ever played. They exist here as background only with a number of standalone moments with Worrall as he faces the loneliness of command. This is strange as he has in his team the fearsome and charismatic Winston Wesley Hall, extreme fast bowler and an obvious choice when the subject is the gift of speed. But we just get a lot of Worrall alone in his room.
By way of contrast with the speed issue is the slow death of the boy’s parents relationship and much sweeter, a nice moment of adolescent attraction between the boy and an orphan girl, where restraint serves them rather better than haste.
The following contains spoilers.
Unfortunately what could have been an interesting meditation turns into a series of hermetically sealed episodes with insufficient interaction between the protagonists. Even when they do occur they tend to be one–off occurrences, for instance when the teenage central character, Michael discovers a businessman with his secret E-type Jaguar and is implicitly sworn to silence, nothing develops from the encounter.
Michael is trying to bowl fast, hurling countless deliveries against the back fence. Ultimately he hurts himself in his first big match as he realizes some people naturally have the gift of speed, others do not. At least he learns from the experience, unlike the businessman, who fangs his E-type once too often.
The young man’s injury is partly caused by wearing the wrong boots, batsman’s boots rather than bowlers, purchased from the Lindsay Hassett Sports Store in Melbourne, despite the advice of the great ‘Puck’ himself. I myself have visited the Lindsay Hassett Sports Store as a very young boy, in the company of my father. We were lucky enough to spot the man himself sitting at his desk in his office. I had no idea who he was, but I soon learned, which leads me to some aspects of the story which were disappointing. First off, Lindsay Hassett was famous for his irresistible sense of humour, but not here, Carroll misses an opportunity, I feel.
Apart from one chilling character who makes a most memorable appearance then disappears completely, one irritating decision is the deliberate anonymising of the specific location of the action - always the author refers somewhat awkwardly to 'the suburb’. The events take place during the 1960-61 tour of Australia by the West Indies cricket team, led by Frank Worrall, an epic series with several of the most thrilling test matches ever played. They exist here as background only with a number of standalone moments with Worrall as he faces the loneliness of command. This is strange as he has in his team the fearsome and charismatic Winston Wesley Hall, extreme fast bowler and an obvious choice when the subject is the gift of speed. But we just get a lot of Worrall alone in his room.
By way of contrast with the speed issue is the slow death of the boy’s parents relationship and much sweeter, a nice moment of adolescent attraction between the boy and an orphan girl, where restraint serves them rather better than haste.
May 10, 2019
I'm re-reading Carroll's Glenroy series. This, the second, I enjoyed even more than I did when I first read it and bought it for my son, a cricket tragic in 2009. The main character focus is Michael and his love of cricket (the historical background is the 1960/61 West Indies cricket tour of Australia, which I remember well). Carroll explores the idea of speed. Firstly, there's bowling (either as a cricket professional or as a boy incessantly bowling a ball against a backyard fence in an outer Melbourne suburb). Secondly there's the speed at which time goes by, when an adolescent's passion for sport propels him into some poor decisions and an inkling about the values of the adult he is to become. There’s also the successful businessman, Webster, who finds in the speed of his car an escape from the demands - or meaninglessness - of his life. There are some aspects of the novel that may not appeal to readers who do not have an interest in cricket or Melbourne in the 60s but there are enough universal elements there for all to find something to appreciate.
August 17, 2019
Even though I was around during the 50s and 60s evoked, quite accurately, in this novel, I'm apparently the odd man out in finding the book a bit tedious. I don't doubt that lots of people will enjoy it, but I found the writing rather slow and there's a wry repetitive streak throughout that loses its efficacy after a few smiling moments. For the many lovers of Steven Carroll I can only ask for your sympathy.
August 21, 2019
I found this sooooo slow going. Maybe if I liked cricket I’d have enjoyed it more?!
August 21, 2020
The Gift of Speed is Steven Carroll's sequel to his 2001 novel The Art of the Engine Driver, which was also shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award. The current novel is set against the backdrop of the 1960-61 West Indies cricket tour of Australia, a tour that is forever etched in cricket history in this country: the tour of the Tied test, Frank Worrell and Richie Benaud.
Michael, the twelve-year-old of the first book, is now sixteen and fixated on the concept of speed. In this case the speed of a fast bowler. He practices in his backyard continuously, shattering the side fence, and driving the neighbours and the others in his family to distraction with the thump of leather ball on wooden picket. Everyone in this novel is obsessed with speed, in one form or another: Webster, the local factory owner, hides his secret passion, a sportscar from his wife and drives it through the outer suburbs of Melbourne at night; Vic, the ex-train driver and Michael's father, loves the sound of diesels in the distance and dreams of slowing down and moving to a town on the coast; Rita, Michael's mother, is tired of the slow life but is doomed to live it; and Mary, Michael's grandmother, is old and just slowing down.
Carroll has drawn an image of an Australian suburb that is calm and ordered, slow-paced and friendly, and he infuses it with a texture that is autobiographical in nature. It was a time when it was possible to stop in the street and listen to the cricket coming from windows and shops. Maybe even the last time this was possible. And this is the impression the author gives: by extending the characters' inner worlds out into the wider physical landscape the novel is told in a languid prose that flows with the speed of contemplation.
I suppose it's possible that some readers will be put off by the cricket motif running throughout the book. I hope that isn't the case. You have to read the cricket as a reflection of Michael's life and times. It fits beautifully.
Michael, the twelve-year-old of the first book, is now sixteen and fixated on the concept of speed. In this case the speed of a fast bowler. He practices in his backyard continuously, shattering the side fence, and driving the neighbours and the others in his family to distraction with the thump of leather ball on wooden picket. Everyone in this novel is obsessed with speed, in one form or another: Webster, the local factory owner, hides his secret passion, a sportscar from his wife and drives it through the outer suburbs of Melbourne at night; Vic, the ex-train driver and Michael's father, loves the sound of diesels in the distance and dreams of slowing down and moving to a town on the coast; Rita, Michael's mother, is tired of the slow life but is doomed to live it; and Mary, Michael's grandmother, is old and just slowing down.
Carroll has drawn an image of an Australian suburb that is calm and ordered, slow-paced and friendly, and he infuses it with a texture that is autobiographical in nature. It was a time when it was possible to stop in the street and listen to the cricket coming from windows and shops. Maybe even the last time this was possible. And this is the impression the author gives: by extending the characters' inner worlds out into the wider physical landscape the novel is told in a languid prose that flows with the speed of contemplation.
I suppose it's possible that some readers will be put off by the cricket motif running throughout the book. I hope that isn't the case. You have to read the cricket as a reflection of Michael's life and times. It fits beautifully.
December 27, 2020
Halfway through this book and close to giving up.
If it was a good cricket-based book celebrating fast bowling, I'd start the review with a cricket pun like 'Carroll comes in off his long run and delivers a bouncer right at the minds of readers of this fast-paced yet cerebral book reflecting Australian life 60 years ago through the life of a cricket-tragic teenage boy, against the background of the Australian tour by the West Indies team of that era'.
1
However the pace of the book is as laboured and dragging as an innings by Bill Lawry of the same era, or hearing Bill give a talk about his beloved racing pigeons.
Carroll takes incidents like the dismissal of WI's Joe Solomon whose cap fell off and dislodged a bail, and tries to invest it with significance by drawing it out over a couple of pages. It results only in tedium.
Sorry Steve. You overstepped. No ball.
If it was a good cricket-based book celebrating fast bowling, I'd start the review with a cricket pun like 'Carroll comes in off his long run and delivers a bouncer right at the minds of readers of this fast-paced yet cerebral book reflecting Australian life 60 years ago through the life of a cricket-tragic teenage boy, against the background of the Australian tour by the West Indies team of that era'.
1
However the pace of the book is as laboured and dragging as an innings by Bill Lawry of the same era, or hearing Bill give a talk about his beloved racing pigeons.
Carroll takes incidents like the dismissal of WI's Joe Solomon whose cap fell off and dislodged a bail, and tries to invest it with significance by drawing it out over a couple of pages. It results only in tedium.
Sorry Steve. You overstepped. No ball.
February 13, 2021
I loved 'The Art of the Engine Driver' so I was thrilled to discover that there were more books in the series.
This is the second one in the 'Glenroy' series.
The Gift of Speed features Michael, Rita, Vic and Vic's mother, as well as the man from the factory (forgotten his name).
They are all looking for the gift of speed in different ways.
Michael wants to be a fast bowler
Vic's mother sees how quickly her life has gone by and is looking for a speedy end to it
Vic wants to speed away to his retirement home on the coast
The factory manager wants to drive his car fast.
I enjoyed the language and insights in this book -- some of them were so pithy and concise.
However, I found the book a little slow, which is why only 4 stars.
I want to read the third book but will have a little rest and read something less tiring first.
This is the second one in the 'Glenroy' series.
The Gift of Speed features Michael, Rita, Vic and Vic's mother, as well as the man from the factory (forgotten his name).
They are all looking for the gift of speed in different ways.
Michael wants to be a fast bowler
Vic's mother sees how quickly her life has gone by and is looking for a speedy end to it
Vic wants to speed away to his retirement home on the coast
The factory manager wants to drive his car fast.
I enjoyed the language and insights in this book -- some of them were so pithy and concise.
However, I found the book a little slow, which is why only 4 stars.
I want to read the third book but will have a little rest and read something less tiring first.
August 20, 2024
Well not much happens in this book, and the things that do happen do so at a very gentle pace and those events are recounted in a very passive way..and hence the great irony in the title. “The Gift of Speed” could be just as aptly called “The Gift of Slow”
If you love cricket, writing about cricket, childhood memories of backyard cricket, and the way other events in your life evolve and revolve around cricket then this one’s for you.
This reader really likes this book..mind you I also love cricket.
Number 11 (fittingly for cricket lovers) in my ever evolving all time list of “Great Australian Novels “
😎👍📚✅🏏
If you love cricket, writing about cricket, childhood memories of backyard cricket, and the way other events in your life evolve and revolve around cricket then this one’s for you.
This reader really likes this book..mind you I also love cricket.
Number 11 (fittingly for cricket lovers) in my ever evolving all time list of “Great Australian Novels “
😎👍📚✅🏏
July 9, 2021
An author who can have his reader in love with his descriptions of engine driving and the innermost thoughts of a West Indian cricket captain fully deserves 5 stars. An amazing writer and I really want to go back and experience an outer Melbourne suburb in the 50's and 60's and meet all the people !
March 16, 2024
A slow moving novel, like the hot summer it is set in. Featuring not much action, but enough to get the reader to realise that sometimes things happen or don't happen for a reason.
March 23, 2016
A great book, maybe not as good as "The Art of Engine Driver" but it so captures Melbourne in 1960 and how cricket was then played by gentlemen.
Vic, Rita and Michael again form the centre of the story. This time the focus is on Michael and his dream of becoming a fast bowler. Michael discovers his first love, there is death and there is a future.
Carroll writes so well it probably does not matter what the plot is. His words just flow.
Vic, Rita and Michael again form the centre of the story. This time the focus is on Michael and his dream of becoming a fast bowler. Michael discovers his first love, there is death and there is a future.
Carroll writes so well it probably does not matter what the plot is. His words just flow.
February 8, 2015
At first I didn't know if this was a sequel to 'The Art of the Engine Driver' or not but it was. I didn't enjoy this one as much as the first and it might have been that the style of writing was starting to grate on me. Steven Carroll repeats a lot of sentiment and I think I got a bit sick of it.
February 3, 2009
sad and cynical but absorbing written by an Aussie I got it on a trip down the Nile and offered to swap books with a fellow travelor- I was desperate so this was a gold nugget!
December 12, 2012
It had such promise but the repetitive nature of various lines coming again and again depressed me. I am left wondering what it was all about although not in a way that means it wasn't good??
July 30, 2011
A lovely book about growing up in suburban Melbourne. Delves deep into the many complexities behind seemingly simple lives.
Read
September 20, 2011September 14th, 2k11 - one of the books I took from the recommended shelf at the library.
Jeff and I read a few pages.
Jeff and I read a few pages.
March 2, 2015
Having just read the Art of the Engine Drive I found it curious that the three main characters had the same names and similar interests.
June 14, 2019
Too slow...
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews