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y separately published work icon The Chantic Bird single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 1968... 1968 The Chantic Bird
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'I’m only telling you this to let you know what a silly thing it is to live like I do. What it was, I got sacked from my seventeenth job for fighting or gambling—I don’t know which—and because I was hardly ever there. I was gambling all right, but someone called me a cheat and swung at me, I moved my head and swung back and this kid went in to one of the bosses with blood coming out of his mouth saying I was a standover man.

'The Chantic Bird is the confession of a teenage anarchist, who combines a contempt for contemporary society with a great tenderness and warmth for his younger siblings and for Bee, the girl who looks after them.

'The first of David Ireland’s masterful novels, The Chantic Bird contains the same characteristic indictment of the bovine mindlessness of collective humanity, and the home-owning wage slaves.

‘It has been my aim to take apart, then build up piece by piece, this mosaic of one kind of human life…to remind my present age of its industrial adolescence.’ David Ireland

'This edition of The Chantic Bird comes with a new introduction by Geordie Williamson.' (Text Classic summary)

Notes

  • Also available in sound recording and braille formats.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

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Works about this Work

Ken Kesey, David Ireland and a Portrait of Australian Freedom Jessica Brooks , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Sydney Studies in English , vol. 37 no. 2011; 'David Ireland's 'The Unknown Industrial Prisoner' was an important novel of its day that has been somewhat forgotten in more recent years. It won the Miles Franklin award in 1971 and created some controversy amongst reviewers regarding its unconventional narrative technique, which had little, if any, Australian precedent. It did, however, have an American precedent in the works of the Beat generation. Foregrounding issues of freedom and individualism, Ireland's novel closely parallels Ken Kesey's 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' (1962), not only in its themes but also through its use of metaphors and character studies. Like Kesey's mental hospital, Ireland's Puroil refinery offers an example in microcosm of society's ills. Ireland's obvious use of 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' suggests that he found in Kesey's work a certain resonance with the Australian experience. Yet the differences between the two novels are more telling. This article explores the possibility that Ireland intentionally wrote an adaptation of Kesey's novel in order to highlight differences between American and Australian cultural attitudes towards freedom and individualism.' (Author's abstract)
y separately published work icon Atomic Fiction: The Novels of David Ireland Ken Gelder , St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 1993 Z435693 1993 multi chapter work criticism
Gerrymander : The Place of Suburbia in Australian Fiction Robin Gerster , 1990 single work criticism
— Appears in: Meanjin , Spring vol. 49 no. 3 1990; (p. 565-575) Populous Places : Australian Cities and Towns 1992; (p. 19-30)
[Review] The Chantic Bird Helen Daniel , 1989 single work review
— Appears in: The Good Reading Guide 1989; (p. 125)
— Review of The Chantic Bird David Ireland , 1968 single work novel
Double Agencies : David Ireland Helen Daniel , 1988 single work criticism
— Appears in: Liars : Australian New Novelists 1988; (p. 111-137)
Recent Novels John McLaren , 1968 single work review
— Appears in: Overland , Summer (1968-1969) no. 40 1968; (p. 39-41)
— Review of Montgomery and I Geoff Baker , 1968 single work novel ; The Chantic Bird David Ireland , 1968 single work novel ; Three Persons Make a Tiger Dal Stivens , 1968 single work novel ; Count Your Dead : A Novel of Vietnam John Rowe , 1968 single work novel ; A Boat Load of Home Folk Thea Astley , 1968 single work novel ; Tell Morning This Kylie Tennant , 1967 single work novel ; The Wine of God's Anger Kenneth Cook , 1968 single work novel
[Review] Charco Harbour [and] The Puzzleheaded Girl [and] The Chantic Bird Robert Ward , 1968 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , June vol. 7 no. 8 1968; (p. 143)
— Review of Charco Harbour : A Novel of Unknown Seas and a Fabled Shore Passaged with Coral Reefs and Magnetical Islands, of Shipwreck and a Lonely Haven -- the True Story of the Last of the Great Navigators, His Bark and the Men in Her Godfrey Blunden , 1968 single work novel ; The Puzzleheaded Girl : Four Novellas Christina Stead , 1967 selected work novella ; The Chantic Bird David Ireland , 1968 single work novel
Writer and Reader Michael Wilding , 1970 single work review
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 30 no. 1 1970; (p. 70-74)
— Review of A Boat Load of Home Folk Thea Astley , 1968 single work novel ; The Chantic Bird David Ireland , 1968 single work novel ; Count Your Dead : A Novel of Vietnam John Rowe , 1968 single work novel ; Where a Man Belongs : A Novel David Martin , 1969 single work novel ; The Survivor Thomas Keneally , 1969 single work novel
Angry Rooster Nancy Keesing , 1968 single work review
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 6 April vol. 90 no. 4596 1968; (p. 73)
— Review of The Chantic Bird David Ireland , 1968 single work novel
[Review] The Chantic Bird Helen Daniel , 1989 single work review
— Appears in: The Good Reading Guide 1989; (p. 125)
— Review of The Chantic Bird David Ireland , 1968 single work novel
Butterflies Flew Free : David Ireland's Australia Colin John Partridge , 1984 single work criticism
— Appears in: True North/Down Under , no. 2 1984; (p. 75-86)
Ken Kesey, David Ireland and a Portrait of Australian Freedom Jessica Brooks , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Sydney Studies in English , vol. 37 no. 2011; 'David Ireland's 'The Unknown Industrial Prisoner' was an important novel of its day that has been somewhat forgotten in more recent years. It won the Miles Franklin award in 1971 and created some controversy amongst reviewers regarding its unconventional narrative technique, which had little, if any, Australian precedent. It did, however, have an American precedent in the works of the Beat generation. Foregrounding issues of freedom and individualism, Ireland's novel closely parallels Ken Kesey's 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' (1962), not only in its themes but also through its use of metaphors and character studies. Like Kesey's mental hospital, Ireland's Puroil refinery offers an example in microcosm of society's ills. Ireland's obvious use of 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' suggests that he found in Kesey's work a certain resonance with the Australian experience. Yet the differences between the two novels are more telling. This article explores the possibility that Ireland intentionally wrote an adaptation of Kesey's novel in order to highlight differences between American and Australian cultural attitudes towards freedom and individualism.' (Author's abstract)
The Picaresque Mode in Contemporary Australian Fiction Helen Daniel , 1978 single work criticism
— Appears in: Southerly , September vol. 38 no. 3 1978; (p. 282-293)
Paranoia as a Way of Life Xavier Pons , 1982 single work criticism
— Appears in: Quadrant , January-February vol. 26 no. 1-2 1982; (p. 96-103)
Disconnecting Reality Helen Daniel , 1982 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Age Monthly Review , vol. 2 no. 2 1982; (p. 11-12)
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Awards

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Last amended 14 Apr 2015 15:05:08
Subjects:
  • Sydney, New South Wales,
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