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Australian Fiction

Foster’s Do – or how to kick your way to peace

‘Briskly paced, diverse in form and full of interesting information about dojangs, prawn-fishing and rubber-tapping, Foster's latest is uncompromising about male aggression.’

Mates of Mars by David Foster

by Andrew Peek
June 1990, no. 121

Mates of Mars by David Foster

Penguin, $14.95 pb, 383 pp

ABR receives a commission on items purchased through this link. All ABR reviews are fully independent.

David Foster has a way with subject matter in his novels. In his dealings with the arcane (The Adventures of Christian Rosy Cross and Rosicrucianism) and the quotidian (the postal protocol of Dog Rock) alike, he has consistently shown the knack of discovering new areas to entertain and inform us. He is mightily intolerant of the glib social overview by scientist or politician and, in his capacity as Juvenalian satirist, he possesses all the qualifications, including a keen eye for human folly, the ability to manipulate and hijack his audience, and a readiness to be mordant and merciless while at the same retaining an unrelenting hold over those who read his books.

 


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Mates of Mars by David Foster

Penguin, $14.95 pb, 383 pp

ABR receives a commission on items purchased through this link. All ABR reviews are fully independent.


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