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growlcat's review against another edition
3.0
Not his best. Very introspective and takes quite a long time to say very little.
dingusdaemonicus's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
windy_witch's review against another edition
2.0
I really struggled to enjoy this book, I felt it was very slow going and I didn’t really understand where the story was going.
The main character Kif was a difficult one to get onboard with and I found him more and more frustrating towards the end of the book. Overall it took me an age to finish this book and I wanted to quit a few times but I did finish it without any sense of satisfaction. It just wasn’t for me.
The main character Kif was a difficult one to get onboard with and I found him more and more frustrating towards the end of the book. Overall it took me an age to finish this book and I wanted to quit a few times but I did finish it without any sense of satisfaction. It just wasn’t for me.
sardine164's review against another edition
4.0
There's not much action in this book. And it's not what I'd call an 'enjoyable' read.
Still, it was a fascinating, 'un-put-downable' story of the relationship between a manipulative con-man and the ghost-writer of his autobiographer. The relationship is a difficult one right from the start, and the writer, Kif, becomes more and more frustrated with Ziggy's evasions. In the end, the line between truth and lies becomes very blurred. (I think this is fascinating itself, in today's era of fake news!)
There's some blackly funny moments along the way, too.
Recommended for those who like a bit of introspection.
Still, it was a fascinating, 'un-put-downable' story of the relationship between a manipulative con-man and the ghost-writer of his autobiographer. The relationship is a difficult one right from the start, and the writer, Kif, becomes more and more frustrated with Ziggy's evasions. In the end, the line between truth and lies becomes very blurred. (I think this is fascinating itself, in today's era of fake news!)
There's some blackly funny moments along the way, too.
Recommended for those who like a bit of introspection.
tevreads's review against another edition
3.0
What seemed more like an introspection into the main character than a substantial story, there were moments that stuck with me throughout the book, however not overall.
stanro's review against another edition
4.0
I always find Richard Flanagan’s books a satisfying read. He creates his characters so well, I think. And he has a great facility with applying a turn of phrase - arresting and thought provoking without literary pyrotechnics.
When he introduced in this book another apparently immigrant Eastern European character, I anticipated with reduced pleasure further exploration of a theme from other books.
I was wrong! This is an extraordinary book in many ways. What is true? What is not? What are the consequences and should we care?
Who or what is a writer? How can they be made?
How do we create our world, and at what cost?
When he introduced in this book another apparently immigrant Eastern European character, I anticipated with reduced pleasure further exploration of a theme from other books.
I was wrong! This is an extraordinary book in many ways. What is true? What is not? What are the consequences and should we care?
Who or what is a writer? How can they be made?
How do we create our world, and at what cost?
djb21au's review against another edition
4.0
Ghostwriter characters don't make it into fiction very often, but when they do they always seem to find themselves in jeopardy.
In the 2010 Roman Polanski film The Ghost Writer, Ewan McGregor plays a ghostwriter working for a former British prime minister. In the end he knows too much and ... it doesn't end well.
In the Netflix series House of Cards, Paul Sparks plays ghostwriter Thomas Yates who, after struggling to extract a decent memoir out of the president, fails to keep his professional distance, you might say. It takes a while – three seasons in fact – but it doesn't end well for him either.
And now we have Australian writer Richard Flanagan's latest novel, First Person, in which the narrator is a ghostwriter hired to author the memoir of a notorious conman. The story was inspired by Flanagan's own experience, very early in his career, of ghostwriting the autobiography of fraudster John Friedrich) in 1991.
Given Flanagan's protagonist Kif Kehlmann is telling the story himself, I don't think it's giving too much to say that this particular ghostwriter survives this particular tale. For me, at least, that was a relief. Though he goes close to not doing so.
First Person is not a comfortable read – which is not a criticism. It was probably intended that way. Kif's narration has a resigned feel to it throughout. You don't get the sense that he so much as smiles the whole way through, and he has some disturbing traits as a person which make him hard to like. In fact I don't think any of the characters is particularly likeable.
The book doesn't have the atmospheric feel of much of Flanagan's other work. While Flanagan does portray the dreariness of the main setting – light-industrial Port Melbourne and an off-the-shelf modern office – very well, it's simply not as nice a place for us to be as, say, the Tasmanian bush portrayed in The Sound of One Hand Clapping, my favourite of Flanagan's works.
The story moves fairly slowly, and ultimately there isn't a whole lot that happens. That's fine for the most part, except that it goes on a bit long. The last act in particular is excessively drawn out.
However, First Person gives us a convincing insight into the publishing world and into the process of ghostwriting. As a ghostwriter myself, I could relate strongly to the challenges Kif faced in extracting his subject's story (though thankfully I've never had an assignment quite as challenging as this one). His portraits of people in publishing are caricatures to some extent, but they also feel real and they had me laughing out loud at times.
So despite the challenges of this book I won't forget it in a hurry, and I would still recommend it to lovers of Australian literature – and to other ghostwriters. I just look forward to the day when I can read the story of a ghostwriter who lives happily ever after.
(I listened to the Bolinda Digital audiobook of this title very well narrated by David James.)
In the 2010 Roman Polanski film The Ghost Writer, Ewan McGregor plays a ghostwriter working for a former British prime minister. In the end he knows too much and ... it doesn't end well.
In the Netflix series House of Cards, Paul Sparks plays ghostwriter Thomas Yates who, after struggling to extract a decent memoir out of the president, fails to keep his professional distance, you might say. It takes a while – three seasons in fact – but it doesn't end well for him either.
And now we have Australian writer Richard Flanagan's latest novel, First Person, in which the narrator is a ghostwriter hired to author the memoir of a notorious conman. The story was inspired by Flanagan's own experience, very early in his career, of ghostwriting the autobiography of fraudster John Friedrich) in 1991.
Given Flanagan's protagonist Kif Kehlmann is telling the story himself, I don't think it's giving too much to say that this particular ghostwriter survives this particular tale. For me, at least, that was a relief. Though he goes close to not doing so.
First Person is not a comfortable read – which is not a criticism. It was probably intended that way. Kif's narration has a resigned feel to it throughout. You don't get the sense that he so much as smiles the whole way through, and he has some disturbing traits as a person which make him hard to like. In fact I don't think any of the characters is particularly likeable.
The book doesn't have the atmospheric feel of much of Flanagan's other work. While Flanagan does portray the dreariness of the main setting – light-industrial Port Melbourne and an off-the-shelf modern office – very well, it's simply not as nice a place for us to be as, say, the Tasmanian bush portrayed in The Sound of One Hand Clapping, my favourite of Flanagan's works.
The story moves fairly slowly, and ultimately there isn't a whole lot that happens. That's fine for the most part, except that it goes on a bit long. The last act in particular is excessively drawn out.
However, First Person gives us a convincing insight into the publishing world and into the process of ghostwriting. As a ghostwriter myself, I could relate strongly to the challenges Kif faced in extracting his subject's story (though thankfully I've never had an assignment quite as challenging as this one). His portraits of people in publishing are caricatures to some extent, but they also feel real and they had me laughing out loud at times.
So despite the challenges of this book I won't forget it in a hurry, and I would still recommend it to lovers of Australian literature – and to other ghostwriters. I just look forward to the day when I can read the story of a ghostwriter who lives happily ever after.
(I listened to the Bolinda Digital audiobook of this title very well narrated by David James.)
bookpossum's review against another edition
3.0
Some people tell stories lightly, a trotter with a light sulky racing along behind. Others are like an elephant slowly dragging a train, but slowly the train moves. And then there are the truly great storytellers like Heidl. They ride you, and you gallop faster and faster, thinking only ever that is what you want and you are never aware - until it is too late, far too late - that on your back is a rider, that you are being ridden to your death, and that there is now no way of stopping the story becoming you.
This paragraph encapsulates for me what happens in the book as the narrator Kif gradually finds himself somehow taken over by the man whose autobiography he has been hired to ghostwrite.
I found the book difficult because for me the narrator was such an unsympathetic person - a boy who had shot animals and watched them die, later a young man (admittedly stressed by poverty) turning on his pregnant wife as if his situation is her fault.
So I can't say I enjoyed it, but I admired what Flanagan achieved. One thing made me curious: why did he refer to a bird which appears at a crucial moment in the story as a black jay? Perhaps the White-winged Chough is known in Tasmania by this alternative name.
This paragraph encapsulates for me what happens in the book as the narrator Kif gradually finds himself somehow taken over by the man whose autobiography he has been hired to ghostwrite.
I found the book difficult because for me the narrator was such an unsympathetic person - a boy who had shot animals and watched them die, later a young man (admittedly stressed by poverty) turning on his pregnant wife as if his situation is her fault.
So I can't say I enjoyed it, but I admired what Flanagan achieved. One thing made me curious: why did he refer to a bird which appears at a crucial moment in the story as a black jay? Perhaps the White-winged Chough is known in Tasmania by this alternative name.
tasmanian_bibliophile's review against another edition
4.0
‘They say there are only three rules for writing a book.’
In 1992, Kif Kehlmann was young, broke, married with one child and twins on the way. He was living with his wife Suzy and three-year-old daughter in Hobart, trying to finish the novel he’d been writing for years. The need to make some money was becoming urgent. And then, Kif is approached to ghost-write a memoir. Siegfried Heidl is a notorious conman and corporate criminal: about to go on trial for defrauding the banks of $700 million. Kif will receive $10,000 if he can ghost-write Heidl’s memoir in six weeks.
Kif moves to Melbourne, leaving his heavily pregnant wife and daughter behind. Sure, he’ll travel home on weekends, and the babies aren’t due just yet. In Melbourne, Kif hooks up with his old mate Ray. It’s thanks to Ray that he’s been offered this job, and $10,000 will be very handy. But trying to get any information out of Heidl is difficult. And the publisher, Gene Paley, is pushing Kif for progress. After all, in this part of the publishing world, timing is everything.
‘This too you learnt from Heidl: how easy it is to remember; how hard to know if there is truth in even one memory.’
As the story unfolds, as Heidl’s trial date approaches and is then brought forward, Kif is under increased pressure to deliver. It’s difficult to sort fact from fiction in what Heidl tells him, especially when Heidl turns Kif’s questions and suggestions into his own experiences. Is Kif writing Heidl’s memoir, or is Heidl reshaping Kif’s life? If Kif has done a deal with the devil, how will he survive it?
’My first novel, I was aware, had suffered from being autobiographical, but now I feared my first autobiography was becoming a novel.’
I found this novel intriguing. The story opens with Kif reflecting on 1992 with the events around ghost-writing Heidl’s memoir. It then shifts to Kif’s present, to the changes in his life and circumstances. Kif may have survived the experience, but he’s not unscathed by it.
I wondered how much of the material for this novel was drawn from Richard Flanagan’s own experience of ghost-writing John Friederich’s autobiography ‘Codename Iago: The Story of John Friedrich’ in 1991.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
In 1992, Kif Kehlmann was young, broke, married with one child and twins on the way. He was living with his wife Suzy and three-year-old daughter in Hobart, trying to finish the novel he’d been writing for years. The need to make some money was becoming urgent. And then, Kif is approached to ghost-write a memoir. Siegfried Heidl is a notorious conman and corporate criminal: about to go on trial for defrauding the banks of $700 million. Kif will receive $10,000 if he can ghost-write Heidl’s memoir in six weeks.
Kif moves to Melbourne, leaving his heavily pregnant wife and daughter behind. Sure, he’ll travel home on weekends, and the babies aren’t due just yet. In Melbourne, Kif hooks up with his old mate Ray. It’s thanks to Ray that he’s been offered this job, and $10,000 will be very handy. But trying to get any information out of Heidl is difficult. And the publisher, Gene Paley, is pushing Kif for progress. After all, in this part of the publishing world, timing is everything.
‘This too you learnt from Heidl: how easy it is to remember; how hard to know if there is truth in even one memory.’
As the story unfolds, as Heidl’s trial date approaches and is then brought forward, Kif is under increased pressure to deliver. It’s difficult to sort fact from fiction in what Heidl tells him, especially when Heidl turns Kif’s questions and suggestions into his own experiences. Is Kif writing Heidl’s memoir, or is Heidl reshaping Kif’s life? If Kif has done a deal with the devil, how will he survive it?
’My first novel, I was aware, had suffered from being autobiographical, but now I feared my first autobiography was becoming a novel.’
I found this novel intriguing. The story opens with Kif reflecting on 1992 with the events around ghost-writing Heidl’s memoir. It then shifts to Kif’s present, to the changes in his life and circumstances. Kif may have survived the experience, but he’s not unscathed by it.
I wondered how much of the material for this novel was drawn from Richard Flanagan’s own experience of ghost-writing John Friederich’s autobiography ‘Codename Iago: The Story of John Friedrich’ in 1991.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
mswm36's review against another edition
A mesmerising journey to a dark, dark place. Brilliant.