Kenneth Mackenzie (1) (1913–1955)

Summary: Fine Writing. Dense metaphors and many of them.
I had mixed feelings about reading this in the first place, and different mixed feelings afterwards. First, the topic concerns "erotic wakening" according to the cover note and it is set in a boy's grammar school. You can read between the lines here and you would be right. However, the material is handled with such delicacy and objectivity I could hardly be concerned. Also, the characters are mostly dealing with emotional confusion show more rather than action. It's not some kind of "50 Shades of..." There is also, and perhaps this is the main theme, the beautifully rendered infatuation the main character has with his first girlfriend.
The book it modern in style. Echoes of Joyce, Woolf, Proust, etc. And not a little Shakespearean in language. In fact, Mackenzie's metaphors are frequently startling in their freshness. And sometimes obscure in their meaning. This latter fault, if one considers it so, renders the climax rather ambiguous. Probably Mackenzie intended this, but it left me unsatisfied. I do like a nicely wrapped up ending. There is not one here.
Fortunately, Malouf's introduction is clear as stream water. I read it before and after and it helped. show less