Possible spoilers below:

After reading and greatly enjoying Sons and Lovers, Women in Love and The Rainbow, Kangaroo was a massive disappointment.

The heart of the book focuses on a trip to Australia taken by Richard Lovat Somers and his wife, Harriett. Well, it’s more than just a “trip.” Somers had seen his ideals shattered by World War I and is spending the years afterward traveling the globe, essentially trying to re-find them.

In Australia, Somers gets involved with an underground group of neo-fascists, led by the titular “Kangaroo,” that plans on reconfiguring Australia into something like a benevolent dictatorship. But Somers also meets up with the competition, in this case the Socialists, who also have their own plans for the future of Australia.

After much much metaphysical whining on the nature of humanity, and a deadly riot started by Kangaroo’s lot during a meeting of the Socialists, Somers decides he’s not going to find what he wants in Australia, and he and his wife hop a slow boat to America.

But the problem with the book is that Somers is an insufferable racist, anti-Semite and elitist. He actually sat out the war for medical reasons, although he did have to put up with abuse from overzealous “patriots” on the home front and go through a mildly humiliating ordeal while being examined (with many others) for his conscription status.

His great disillusionment with the world comes down to the fact that he had to stand semi-dressed with a group of the great unwashed during this examination and then have a semi-public prostate exam. During which the doctor, obviously a low-class sort, laughed. Because Somers is the kind of person who doesn’t like to be touched. And I suppose it wouldn’t be a reach to say he doesn’t like to be touched metaphorically, either.

Lawrence’s writing, close to poetry in other of his books, is mostly mere doggerel here, sometimes slipping over into what seems like a pure caricature of his style.

The best I can say for the book is that somewhere inside it a decent short story is struggling to get out. But I can’t recommend it to anyone beside Lawrence completists. ( )

Flashes of brilliance as Lawrence reflects on Australian's "aggressive friendliness" interspersed by long, long, looooooong essays on relationships, love and mateship. John Howard (Oz PM) should read this. Does make me realise why I like Lawrence's short stories best. ( )

Ghastly. Lawrence at his worst! ( )