Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.
|
Loading... The Passage of Loveby Alex Miller
   No current Talk conversations about this book.  oldblack | Jan 26, 2018 |   Yes, I did, and it pains me to do it. See my post at ANZ LitLovers to see why: https://anzlitlovers.com/2017/12/01/the-passage-of-love-by-alex-miller/ (  ) anzlitlovers | Nov 30, 2017 | no reviews | add a review
Awards
Sitting in a New York park, an old man holds a book and tries to accept that his contribution to the future is over. Instead, he remembers a youthful yearning for open horizons, for Australia, a yearning he now knows inspired his life as a writer. Instinctively he picks up his pen and starts at the beginning...At twenty-one years, Robert Crofts leaves his broken dreams in Far North Queensland, finally stopping in Melbourne almost destitute. It's there he begins to understand how books and writing might be the saving of him. They will be how he leaves his mark on the world. He also begins to understand how many obstacles there will be to thwart his ambition. When Robert is introduced to Lena Soren, beautiful, rich and educated, his life takes a very different path. But in the intimacy of their connection lies an unknowability that both torments and tantalises as Robert and Lena long for something that neither can provide for the other. In a rich blend of thoughtful and beautifully observed writing, the lives of a husband and wife are laid bare in their passionate struggle to engage with their individual creativity. Alex Miller is magnificent in this most personal of all novels filled with rare wisdom and incisive observation. No library descriptions found. |
Current DiscussionsNonePopular covers
 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)823.914Literature English English fiction Modern Period 1901-1999 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage: (3.89)
Is this you?Become a LibraryThing Author. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wikipedia in English
1
On reflection, I wonder if there's a significant gender effect in the way the book doesn't appeal to some. It is very much written from the point of view of an old man who has been rather careless with relationships at times. Women might feel angry about that. I identify with the author.
About half way through the protagonist says to himself:
"Old age unseals the buried memories of our past and refuses to allow us to forget. In old age those things we refused to think about in our youth because they were too uncomfortable come out of the grave and stand before us and demand their right to a place in the story of our lives.....In old age, with death closing in upon us, we lose our power over these troubling memories and they command us. The tables are turned. Deal with me now, or go to your grave unshriven! That is the choice we are given."
It seems to me that is what this book is about. Miller is facing death and feels forced to face his past. I'm a little of that mind myself. He really wasn't very good at relationships. I understand that. and I think it's more a male situation than a female one. Your mileage may differ. (