Alex Miller (1) (1936–)

The Passage of Love is 600 pages of fictionalised biography, a very iffy genre. Miller has left us a biased and uncharitable portrait of his first wife, so we can remember her not as a complex human being but as as a crazed dilettante with an eating disorder. Miller concentrates on superficial aspects of women's appearances, and shows no compassion or understanding. He whines that his first wife didn't understand him. I really disliked this book!

“The way I saw it was that Daniel and Esme never thought too much about how it was going to be for them coming in to police a town like Mount Hay from the outside the way they did.” p13

Told in the first person, Coal Creek begins in the late 1940′s and is the story of twenty year old ‘Bobby Blue’, born and raised in the back country of the Queensland Highlands. In need of a way to make a living after the death of his father, Bobby gets a job with the the new police sergeant of Mount show more Hay, Daniel Collins. Daniel and his family are ‘coastal’ people who struggle to understand life amongst the ranges and Bobby Blue observes silently as the Collins’ ignorance leads them all inexorably into tragedy.

While it took me a little while to connect to the rhythm of Bobby Blue’s idiosyncratic ‘voice’, I was soon captivated by the story Bobby Blue had to tell. It is a tale that meanders through memories of his childhood, the land he loves and the community he was born into as he relates his fate and the way it intertwines with the Collins’.

Though the language is spare, Miller is able to evoke people, places and emotions with a deceptively simple turn of phrase. Reflecting Bobby Blue’s laconic nature, the pace of the novel is restrained. The tension builds from Bobby Blue’s hints of impending tragedy, foreshadowed by his friendship with wild bushman, Ben, and his growing infatuation with Daniel and Esme’s young daughter, Irie.

Coal Creek is a quiet but powerful novel of family, friendship and loyalty, tested by betrayal and tragedy. This is a book destined to be another awarded literary triumph for Alex Miller. show less

Almost-retired author Ken (do storytellers ever really retire?) becomes friends with a local family, and slowly teases out their story. Sabiha and John met, and fell in love, in Paris. But their lives did not go according to what they planned: Sabiha misses the child she feels she is destined to have; while John pines for his missing life in Australia. It was a rather nice meditation on how life can sometimes pass you by. And a rather scary demonstration on how to stop that from show more happening.

I'm not a big fan of Alex Miller's books (he's a contemplative writer, and I prefer more plot), but this was a very good read. I especially enjoyed being inside the mind of an author, planning and jealously guarding his story.

After finishing it, I did pick it apart a bit - same quibbles as with his previous book I'd read (Landscape of Farewell): the motivations of his characters didn't always convince me, they do tend towards the dramatic act, which makes for good reading, but it doesn't always ring true. Does that make it good literature? Or is that a failing? It's not like I'm always convinced of the motivations of the people around me, either, so maybe he's just capturing reality. show less

Best book I've read all year! OK, the year is only 11 days old, but this is going to take some beating. Miller writes voices so well I am sucked into the mind and heart of Bobby Blue. Wonderfully evocative of Australia's Outback and skilfully plotted and paced, with the occasional teaser drawing toward its dramatic climax. Is Alex Miller our best living writer?