Cirrus@Austlit

'This is a most unusual literary study in that, offering more than textual analysis (in which it also engages), it maps the trajectory of Thomas Keneally’s career successes, and his very strange eclipse in the Australian literary firmament. It asks a very uncomfortable central question: how possible is it in Australia to earn a living as a literary novelist, and is it feasible, without a solid capital base, to gain a wide enough readership to survive as a professional writer? The answer is a qualified yes. A lot of subsidiary questions flow from each of these and they lead the author to some less than flattering insights into the way in which the Australian literature machine has operated and probably still does, and suggests its parochial nature.' (Introduction)