"Acknowledges Keneally's seeming contradiction of being both a popular and serious novelist. Yet argues that in spite of the popular elements in his work, Keneally shows a keen awareness of the individual's precarious position in 'the scheme of things,' and directs each novel toward a search for surety amid uncertainties, for comprehension of the inexplicable, for an affirmation of decency and integrity" (Annotation in R. Ross, Australian Literary Criticism - 1945-1988, 241).