A Blast from the Past is a meme for people to review a book that they read before they started blogging. It doesn't have to be a favourite; it might be that you didn't enjoy it. It is about sharing a book from your past with others.
The Lost Dog by Michelle de Krestser
I think that I read this in 2008 but it has a book that has stayed with me since then, unfortunately for all the wrong reasons.
I was so excited when I purchased this book - it was an Australian novel that had been long listed for Man Booker Prize of 2008, and usually I am guaranteed to love any book up for the Man Booker. The fact that it was Australian made it even more exciting for me. Unfortunately, it fell way below my expectations.
Here is the back of the book: Tom Loxley is holed up in a remote bush shack trying to finish his book on Henry James when his beloved dog goes missing. What follows is a triumph of storytelling, as The Lost Dog loops back and forth in time to take the reader on a spellbinding journey into worlds far removed from the present tragedy. Set in present-day Australia and mid-twentieth century India, here is a haunting, layered work that brilliantly counterpoints new cityscapes and their inhabitants with the untamed, ancient continent beyond. With its atmosphere of menace and an acute sense of the unexplained in any story, it illuminates the collision of the wild and the civilised, modernity and the past, home and exile. The Lost Dog is a mystery and a love story, an exploration of art and nature, a meditation on ageing and the passage of time. It is a book of wonders: a gripping contemporary novel which examines the weight of history as well as different ways of understanding the world.
Sounds promising doesn't it? Don't let it fool you. There were 2 things that I was really disappointed about this book.
The first is the ending. Don't worry, I won't spoil it for you. But for me, this is one of those books that successfully creates mystery and leaves you wanting to know the ending - but then leaves you hanging. That is how I felt at the end of this book - like I was left hanging.
The second is the style of writing employed by de Kretser to tell the story. It is very stylistic writing, very individual and creative. It is a book where the style of writing is almost supposed to be as much the focus of the reader's attention as the story is. But for me, it just got in the way of the story. I just wanted to cut straight to the story instead of wading through all the language. Don't get me wrong, usually I like prose that takes you on a journey through the book in the same way that the story does - but this was just way too much for me.
It has won so many awards:
- Winner of the NSW Premier's Book of the Year Award 2008
- Winner of the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction (NSW Premier's Literary Awards) 2008
- Winner of the 2008 ALS Gold Medal
- Shortlisted for the Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction (VIC Premier's Literary Awards) 2008
- Shortlisted for the Western Australian Premier's Australia-Asia Literary Award 2008
- Shortlisted for the 2008 Commonwealth Writers' Prize (Best Book, Asia-Pacific Region)
- Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2008
The review in The Age puts into words what I am trying to say about the style of writing, but it does so far more eloquently and clearly with some literary perspective. For that reviewer, however, the style was obviously something they admired, whereas for me it was just frustrating.
If anyone is fascinated by this strange review - you can listen to an interview with de Kretser on ABC Radio National by clicking here.
Originally posted 4 April 2010 Page Turners
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