Last night I finished the 700 page epic novel The Persimmon Tree, by Bryce Courtenay. I zipped through it in just under a week! And yes, I have been going to work, so it was a pretty intense week of reading in the evenings. But I have to say, that this book of his was not totally to my taste. It was an interesting enough story set in the Pacific during WW2. But it was not at all a subtle read - to me, a bit like the difference between watching an action-packed blockbuster movie and standing quietly in an art gallery and spending time mulling over a beautiful painting. There are no layers of meaning with Courtenay - he's very much in your face, leaves nothing much to the imagination; what you see is what you get... But of course, that's only one of his books and I will be more informed in my opinion when I have read a few more.
This morning, I started Tirra Lirra By the River (Jessica Anderson) which by contrast is a quiet, reflective book. The title comes from the poem The Lady of Shalott by Tennyson, so straight away there is allusion to other literature - not that I have read Tennyson. But it again appears that I perhaps should have! And how about this from the very first page of the book: "I am exhausted, holding myself by will-power above a black area of total collapse." It's just such a wonderful, accurate image. I also already love this book as it's set in Queensland. According to the back-cover blurb of the book, Anderson's style is that of "lyrical brevity" and I'll have that any day over a blockbuster war (and love) story!
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