“This is the story of a man's hard times, but it is not a tale of gloom. There is a strength and a spirit in the Mayhew family that carries them through their troubles, and there are good friends who stand by them. There is even comedy in the history of their difficult years, when the bodgie gang makes a spectacularly unsuccessful raid on a shop and on other occasions.
But the book is, in its essence, about the loneliness of a man thrown out of the work in an Australian city by the "too old at forty" faith that has invaded industry. In an outwardly prosperous community he seems to himself to be the only man for whom there is no place.”
