"He had spent so many hours in the consideration of it because the law she had lived by was so like his own. What he was left wonder was how, when the time came, he might let go of things without believing, as she had, that he was not only losing them but had never in any real sense had them. "

Insulation against power, Geilston Bay, February 2021.

The Great World by David Malouf

I am glad to have turned to David Malouf at this stage in life. Others I know recoil at his name, having suffered through dreary forced reading in high school. While I love how he vividly writes of physical spaces and their relationship with a character's inner journey, there is little more tiresome than being forced to decode and recite back the tricks of the authorial trade just before lunchtime in a broiling schoolroom.

The Great World is a fantastic read. As ever, Malouf writes in a lyrical and mesmerising tone. He beautifully ties together several markedly different stories across decades and continents. Moreover, he humanised the inhuman, and while there is a great deal of pain and trauma here, it's conveyed with such a lightness of touch and loving tone that you suspect some alchemy at play.

Can you guess that I loved this book?

Although utterly different in approach, tone and subject matter, I couldn't help but think of Sally Rooney's Normal People, which I felt a worthy but flawed novel. What made me think of this was the relationship between Digger and Vic, two traumatised characters with whom we share their rich and nuanced inner lives, yet remain burdened by the lack of a capacity to articulate their thoughts, pain and dreams with those around them. Where I was never quite convinced by Rooney's book, this one had me utterly compelled.

A beautiful novel.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐