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A Stuga On the Cusp of the Orust Riviera, tucked away next to a hobbit hole in the woods.
The Hanging Garden by Patrick White
bookshelves: autumn-2014, nutty-nuut, unfinished-by-author, under-500-ratings, published-2012, wwii, nobel-laureate, australia, tbr-busting-2014
Read from November 12 to 13, 2014
Description: Two children are brought to a wild garden on the shores of Sydney Harbour to shelter from the Second World War. The boy's mother has died in the Blitz. The girl is the daughter of a Sydney woman and a Communist executed in a Greek prison. In wartime Australia, these two children form an extraordinary bond as they negotiate the dangers of life as strangers abandoned on the far side of the world.
With the tenderness and rigour of an old, wise novelist, Patrick White explores the world of these children, the city of his childhood and the experience of war. The Hanging Garden ends as the news reaches Sydney of victory in Europe, and the children face their inevitable separation.
White put the novel aside at this point and how he planned to finish the work remains a mystery. But at his death in 1990 he left behind a masterpiece in the making, which is published here for the first time.
Opening: Mama had been taken into the saloni. She was sitting talking to the Englishwoman.
Unedited, unfinished and unpublished at the time of the autor's death in 1990 so there is a reason why it does feel that we are reading snippets - individual jigsaw pieces that strive to make up a whole that is ultimately incomplete.
Personally, I think this had all the makings of a blindingly good novel and it was a telling touch that Mr White chose Neutral Bay* as the setting.
*The name "Neutral Bay" originates from the time of the early colonial period of Australia, where different bays of Sydney harbour were zoned for different incoming vessels. This bay was where all foreign vessels would dock, hence the name neutral. (wiki sourced)
4* Fringe of Leaves
3* The Hanging Garden
3* The Twyborn Affair
With the tenderness and rigour of an old, wise novelist, Patrick White explores the world of these children, the city of his childhood and the experience of war. The Hanging Garden ends as the news reaches Sydney of victory in Europe, and the children face their inevitable separation.
White put the novel aside at this point and how he planned to finish the work remains a mystery. But at his death in 1990 he left behind a masterpiece in the making, which is published here for the first time.
Opening: Mama had been taken into the saloni. She was sitting talking to the Englishwoman.
Unedited, unfinished and unpublished at the time of the autor's death in 1990 so there is a reason why it does feel that we are reading snippets - individual jigsaw pieces that strive to make up a whole that is ultimately incomplete. Personally, I think this had all the makings of a blindingly good novel and it was a telling touch that Mr White chose Neutral Bay* as the setting.
*The name "Neutral Bay" originates from the time of the early colonial period of Australia, where different bays of Sydney harbour were zoned for different incoming vessels. This bay was where all foreign vessels would dock, hence the name neutral. (wiki sourced)
4* Fringe of Leaves
3* The Hanging Garden
3* The Twyborn Affair
8