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A review by fergster
The Sea and Summer by George Turner
5.0
Probably only really 4, maybe 4.5 stars for the story itself (it lags somewhat in the middle, but does finish strongly), but I'm giving this 5 stars for three main reasons:
1. It's set in Melbourne, and at one point two of the characters visit the "old public library" which is my current place of occupation (I'm especially fond of the passage wherein the mere intimation that the books are "not worth a glance, much less the reverent handling by library staff" brings "a curl to the antiquarian lip" - Gold!).
2. One evening whilst reading on the train home, I came across the section of the story where one of the characters makes his way to Richmond along the disused railway line that runs past Jolimont Park, then through a tunnel to West Richmond station; I read this while the train I was on made its way past Jolimont station and through the very same tunnel I was reading about. A genuinely surreal moment.
3. The final paragraph in the postscript, which, although written c1986, is undeniable more apt now than ever:
1. It's set in Melbourne, and at one point two of the characters visit the "old public library" which is my current place of occupation (I'm especially fond of the passage wherein the mere intimation that the books are "not worth a glance, much less the reverent handling by library staff" brings "a curl to the antiquarian lip" - Gold!).
2. One evening whilst reading on the train home, I came across the section of the story where one of the characters makes his way to Richmond along the disused railway line that runs past Jolimont Park, then through a tunnel to West Richmond station; I read this while the train I was on made its way past Jolimont station and through the very same tunnel I was reading about. A genuinely surreal moment.
3. The final paragraph in the postscript, which, although written c1986, is undeniable more apt now than ever:
We can be sure only that enormous changes will take place in the next two or three generations, all of them caused by ourselves, and that we will not be ready for them. How can we be? We talk of leaving a better world for our children, but in fact do little more than rub along with day-today [sic] problems and hope that the longer-range catastrophes will never happen.
Sooner or later, some of them will.