![]() ![]() When the story opens in 1941 the Japanese have yet to bomb Darwin ( that happens in February 1942) but the threat feels very real. It’s a beautiful, somewhat nostalgic look at what it was like to grow up in one of the most remote areas on the planet, sandwiched between the desert and the Indian ocean, at a time when the Second World War was raging in Europe, and the Japanese were getting closer and closer to invading Australian soil. It has a truly authentic feel for the time and the place, and it’s easy to find yourself entirely immersed in this world, smelling the eucalyptus wafting on the breeze and feeling the hot sand of the beach between your toes. Although my Penguin Modern Classics edition claims it is “not a self portrait” there’s no mistaking The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea‘s semi-autobiographical roots. ![]() It is set in Geraldton, Western Australia, where the author, who now lives in England, was born. It’s one of those beautiful stories that’s easy-to-read but if you dig a little deeper you’ll unravel layers of meaning.Įssentially the book, which was first written in 1965, is a coming-of-age story. I’m sure I could read it a third time (a fourth time, a fifth time… you get the idea) and not grow sick of it. And on both occasions I found myself falling in love with the story and wishing it would never end. ![]() ![]() I loved Randolph Stow‘s The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea so much I read it twice. Fiction – paperback Penguin Modern Classics 408 pages 2008. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |