Charmian Clift, this novel’s muse and model, was born the same year as Elizabeth Jolley. If she had lived to see the 1980s, that decade would almost certainly have given her a new lease of life as a writer. It was an idyllic time for Australian women writers; second-wave feminism brought in its wake a different kind of readership, a generation of adventurous publishers, and many opportunities for women writers to use new kinds of voices to say new kinds of things.
The 1980s offered these possibilities to women writers in their fifties and sixties, as well as to younger ones. Thea Astley’s writing, re-energised, took new directions; Olga Masters began to write superb fiction in the aftermath of her long career as a journalist; Jessica Anderson’s Tirra Lirra by the River (1978) made her name far more widely known than it had been hitherto; and publishers began to accept, for the first time, the fiction that Jolley had been writing and fruitlessly sending to them for years. Picture Clift in this company.
The Broken Book by Susan Johnson
Allen & Unwin, $29.95 pb, 311 pp
ABR receives a commission on items purchased through this link. All ABR reviews are fully independent.
If you are an ABR subscriber, you will need to sign in to post a comment.
If you have forgotten your sign in details, or if you receive an error message when trying to submit your comment, please email your comment (and the name of the article to which it relates) to ABR Comments. We will review your comment and, subject to approval, we will post it under your name.
Please note that all comments must be approved by ABR and comply with our Terms & Conditions.