Born: Established: 5 Aug 1943 Adelaide, South Australia, ; Died: Ceased: 29 Oct 2015
Gender:
Male
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BiographyHistory
Most Referenced Works
Awards for Works
-
y
Building on Sand
Sydney
:
Angus and Robertson
,
1988
Z356935
1988
single work
novel
'Mysteriously abandoned by his mother at an early age, torn between his loyalties to a nostalgic, Victorian grandfather and to a warm, Irish-Catholic grandmother, and completely captivated by the adolescent capers of his heroic footballer uncle, the young Jude [Watson] is forced to create many names for himself before he is able to carve his own place in the uncertain, adult world. Jude Rowe-Jones, St Jude Hope of the Hopeless, JRJ the dashing naval officer, Judd the failed schoolboy-poet, Judah the biblical lion ... The names accumulate, but a question constantly echoes behind all these facades and all through Jude's life: "Who the hell are you?" His world is the growing city of Adelaide in the nineteen-fifties. It's postwar Australia, new waves of European migration, the advent of American pop culture with souped-up FJ Holdens, rock-and-roll beach parties and teenage jiving at the drive-in ... It is a world that is rapidly changing, very much like the shifting sand that Jude played in as a child.' (Dustcover)
- 1989 shortlisted Miles Franklin Literary Award
Known archival holdings
University of New South Wales Australian Defence Force Academy Australian Defence Force Academy Library
(ACT)
Last amended 5 Apr 2016 11:06:10
