'Fat of the Land charts three generations of South Australian merchants who move between Adelaide, London and their mining company in New Caledonia. The original partners are Thomas Rutland, a bluff Bedford farm boy with a beautiful voice and ambitions to found a dynasty and Robert Grahame, a dour Scot and pastoralist. We see his son, John Grahame, take over the reins of the growing empire and guide it through hard times despite the tragedies in his personal life, only to hand over to a man of the new breed, Victor Godwin, to whom the actual business of the company means little other than the satisfaction of his own lust for money, power and flesh.
'In a novel which sweeps from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day, it becomes clear that even the best of business interests have their roots in exploitation, not only of natural resourcs but of the women who love the men at the top.' (Publication summary)
'Australian culture is frequently described as materialistic, hedonistic and fun-loving, and no doubt it is, in some respects, all those things. The 'land of the long week-end', its 'great stupor' perhaps, even the 'lucky country' - all these more or less flattering tags suggest, sometimes in the face of what their authors intended, that nothing can go seriously wrong in Australia, where life cannot be but easy-going and enjoyable. And so it would appear that, as Craig McGregor observed, 'the Australian race is engaged in a whole-hearted pursuit of happiness without guilt. The beach, in particular, has been for several decades one of the major symbols of the Australian way of life, the locus of Australian hedonism, where people worship the sun, display their near-naked bodies, and ogle other people's...' (p. 81)
'Australian culture is frequently described as materialistic, hedonistic and fun-loving, and no doubt it is, in some respects, all those things. The 'land of the long week-end', its 'great stupor' perhaps, even the 'lucky country' - all these more or less flattering tags suggest, sometimes in the face of what their authors intended, that nothing can go seriously wrong in Australia, where life cannot be but easy-going and enjoyable. And so it would appear that, as Craig McGregor observed, 'the Australian race is engaged in a whole-hearted pursuit of happiness without guilt. The beach, in particular, has been for several decades one of the major symbols of the Australian way of life, the locus of Australian hedonism, where people worship the sun, display their near-naked bodies, and ogle other people's...' (p. 81)
