Welcome to Litsy!

It‘s been a while since I read this but you can see from all the flags that I took note of many passages. Love the prose, love the dual story structure—one set in near future, one in the near past—and I love Michelle de Kretser‘s important themes & subjects: immigration, belonging, racism, ageism, and misogyny. I picked this up because I enjoyed her previous novels and because Ali Smith recommended it. Ali Smith never steers me wrong. #OzFiction

My latest Friday Reads video:

Friday Reads July 1 - My usual assortment of novels, short stories, poetry, audiobooks & nonfiction
https://youtu.be/Sq21eeBFfmo

Craig was still murmuring about his childhood in Canada. Stray words reached the rest of us: “kayak,” “chokecherry,” “a lethal politeness.”

#NetGalley

The scary monsters in this novel are the terrifying ways that racism, misogyny, and ageism play a role in two different time frames in Australia.

One part follows Lili in the early 80's and the other is about Lyle who lives in a near future Australia. The parts exist independently and can be read in any order.

The writing was good, but I would have liked more connection between both stories.

De Kretser plays with the dual narrative in this novel about the scary monsters that lurk in Australian society; past, present, and yet to come. De Kretser‘s protagonists as they grappled with scary monsters both personal, relational, and systemic. The most boldly present of these is racism, and particularly the way it builds into fear of migrants. De Kretser looks at Australian society with a very critical eye.