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Review
"Kate Grenville has transformed an Australian myth into a dazzling fiction of universal appeal. It is a pleasure to be able to praise a true novelist." Patrick White "Here is someone who can really write." Peter Carey "Lilian's Story... takes you into another world, which is rare." Guardian"
Vogue
This novel is bound for glory: it is original, moving, and
brilliantly convincing.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
brilliantly convincing.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
24 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is an extraordinary book, with a unique central character, Lilian Una Stringer who is also the narrator. Lilian is born to privileged parents in early twentieth century Australia but fails to live up to her father's expectations and eventually suffers his abuse and his devastating fury. Her mother meanwhile wiles away her hours with a stopwatch, timing the ferries that plough across the bay.
As a child, Lilian is an unappealing protagonist to the extent that I found myself wondering why I was bothering to read about her. But there was something compelling about her story and the unusual way in which she told it. She is outrageous, warm, lonely, and, beneath the apparently impregnable exterior, highly sensitive and longing for approbation from her fellow beings. Towards the end of the book I grew more and more fond of her and began worrying about how her days would end.
Kate Grenville's prose is described on the cover as 'breathtaking' - one of the reasons I bought the book as I love beautifully crafted, poetic writing. For the most part this does not fall into that category - some sentences even struck me as clumsy and contrived. Nevertheless the author's use of language is almost as unique as the heroine herself and will appeal to anyone interested in the way language is used and appreciative of an unusual style.
At the early stages of the book I remember thinking that this was only a two-star read. but as I became more and more absorbed my assessment changed to three and finally four stars. It's unusual, provoking, and certainly worth a read. Buy it and give it a try!
As a child, Lilian is an unappealing protagonist to the extent that I found myself wondering why I was bothering to read about her. But there was something compelling about her story and the unusual way in which she told it. She is outrageous, warm, lonely, and, beneath the apparently impregnable exterior, highly sensitive and longing for approbation from her fellow beings. Towards the end of the book I grew more and more fond of her and began worrying about how her days would end.
Kate Grenville's prose is described on the cover as 'breathtaking' - one of the reasons I bought the book as I love beautifully crafted, poetic writing. For the most part this does not fall into that category - some sentences even struck me as clumsy and contrived. Nevertheless the author's use of language is almost as unique as the heroine herself and will appeal to anyone interested in the way language is used and appreciative of an unusual style.
At the early stages of the book I remember thinking that this was only a two-star read. but as I became more and more absorbed my assessment changed to three and finally four stars. It's unusual, provoking, and certainly worth a read. Buy it and give it a try!
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
For me this is the sort of book which needs to be read over a relatively short period of time. It's not the kind to put down for a couple of weeks then pick up again. The narrator introduces and develops streams of thought throughout the book and it would be easy to lose these threads, and as a result much of the novel's impact.
The narrator, Lilian Una Singer, who is also the central character in the novel, is both frustrating and admirable. To begin with I found as a reader that I wanted her to take charge of doing something about those parts of her life which made her different, and an unhappy misfit. Gradually, however, I began to realise that many of her actions and reactions were quite deliberate, and later on in her life it was these very characteristics which liberated her - a liberation which she took great pleasure in flaunting at a society controlled by petty constraints. She came to relish the effect she had on others, unravelling their sense of what was right and normal. In the end she achieved her own version of immortality.
The narrator, Lilian Una Singer, who is also the central character in the novel, is both frustrating and admirable. To begin with I found as a reader that I wanted her to take charge of doing something about those parts of her life which made her different, and an unhappy misfit. Gradually, however, I began to realise that many of her actions and reactions were quite deliberate, and later on in her life it was these very characteristics which liberated her - a liberation which she took great pleasure in flaunting at a society controlled by petty constraints. She came to relish the effect she had on others, unravelling their sense of what was right and normal. In the end she achieved her own version of immortality.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Lilian's Story is Kate Grenville's first novel. Lilian Una Singer was born on the first day of 1900 and we follow her life's journey through childhood, maturity and into older age. Grenville weaves a tale around a figure whom all of us have encountered and probably tried to avoid (and whom some of us may even encounter daily), the "bag lady", the mad woman who seems to talk to herself in the street or on the bus/train/tram. She presents a highly plausible history for Lilian which helps explain how an eccentric young woman from a middle-class family becomes a Shakespeare-quoting bag-lady. Along the way, we watch Sydney changing during Federation, two World Wars and a Depression. Lilian tries to make her own decisions in life and ultimately brings a sort of happiness to others by being the type of person they can look at, remark upon and tell their own stories about. Grenville's descriptions are vivid; her characters, compelling and convincing; her dialogue, credible. Perhaps Lilian's Story will make the reader look at the eccentric bag-people in another light. An excellent read.
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