y separately published work icon Perfect Love : A Novel single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 1983... 1983 Perfect Love : A Novel
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Notes

  • Dedication: To my mother, and to the memory of my late father

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Sydney, New South Wales,: Fontana , 1985 .
      Extent: 287p.
      ISBN: 0006160344 (pbk), 9780006160342 (pbk)
Alternative title: Sann kärlek
Language: Swedish

Works about this Work

‘Everything Is Visible’ : Considering Laurie Clancy’s Perfect Love Hermina Burns , 2014 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 14 no. 4 2014;

'By the time Laurie Clancy’s second novel Perfect Love was published in 1983, Clancy had established himself as an academic, critic, short story writer and novelist. Westerly had published his first short story ‘The Wife Specialist’ in 1971. A debut novel The Collapsible Man followed in 1975, to some critical acclaim. It was to share the National Book Council Award of that year. A collection of short stories under the title of his first published short story appeared in 1978. He was already working on his Reader’s Guide to Australian Fiction, though it took a decade to complete, being published in 1992. ' (Author's introduction)

Laurie Clancy as Novelist of the Secular City John McLaren , 2014 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 14 no. 4 2014;

'Laurie Clancy is very much a writer of the modern secular city. Although he was brought up in a Catholic household, he had left the Church well before he left school. The world he describes in his fiction is a post-modern world, where there is no God to offer comfort or authority to offer meaning. Clancy approaches this world from a realist perspective, but his realism breaks down as his characters find their efforts to make sense or to find fulfilment break down into fragmentary episodes of frustration or futility. Indeed he published many of these individual scenes as separate short stories. Even in the novels the narratives tend to collapse into series of fragments, rather than follow any kind of progression towards unity. These fragments record the frustrated attempts of his characters to create a unity in their experience, or to bend the outer world to their desires. Their constant failures produce an absurdity that ranges from the farcical to the tragic. ' (Author's introduction)

Untitled Jamie Grant , 1989 single work review
— Appears in: The Good Reading Guide 1989; (p. 44-45)

— Review of Perfect Love : A Novel Laurie Clancy , 1983 single work novel ; A Collapsible Man Laurie Clancy , 1975 single work novel
Staying in the Reserves Gerard Windsor , 1985 single work review
— Appears in: Overland , April no. 98 1985; (p. 68-69)

— Review of Perfect Love : A Novel Laurie Clancy , 1983 single work novel ; Bill's Break 'Alistair Skelton' , 1983 single work novel ; Uphill Runner James McQueen , 1984 selected work short story ; The Bellarmine Jug : A Novel Nicholas Hasluck , 1984 single work novel
Australian Convention and Catholic Dilemma Susan McKernan , 1983 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 31 December, 1983; (p. 11)

— Review of Perfect Love : A Novel Laurie Clancy , 1983 single work novel
A Family Chronicle Steeped in Realism Judah Waten , 1983 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 24 September, 1983; (p. 16)

— Review of Perfect Love : A Novel Laurie Clancy , 1983 single work novel
Women's Dreary and Hard Lives Barbara Jefferis , 1983 single work review
— Appears in: The Australian , 5-6 November, 1983; (p. 19)

— Review of Perfect Love : A Novel Laurie Clancy , 1983 single work novel
It's No Good Being Glum : We Want Motivation Rhyll McMaster , 1983 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 19 November, 1983; (p. 41)

— Review of Perfect Love : A Novel Laurie Clancy , 1983 single work novel
Australian Convention and Catholic Dilemma Susan McKernan , 1983 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 31 December, 1983; (p. 11)

— Review of Perfect Love : A Novel Laurie Clancy , 1983 single work novel
Staying in the Reserves Gerard Windsor , 1985 single work review
— Appears in: Overland , April no. 98 1985; (p. 68-69)

— Review of Perfect Love : A Novel Laurie Clancy , 1983 single work novel ; Bill's Break 'Alistair Skelton' , 1983 single work novel ; Uphill Runner James McQueen , 1984 selected work short story ; The Bellarmine Jug : A Novel Nicholas Hasluck , 1984 single work novel
Clancy of the Fiction Flow Stuart Sayers , 1983 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Age , 5 November, 1983; (p. 14)
Laurie Clancy as Novelist of the Secular City John McLaren , 2014 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 14 no. 4 2014;

'Laurie Clancy is very much a writer of the modern secular city. Although he was brought up in a Catholic household, he had left the Church well before he left school. The world he describes in his fiction is a post-modern world, where there is no God to offer comfort or authority to offer meaning. Clancy approaches this world from a realist perspective, but his realism breaks down as his characters find their efforts to make sense or to find fulfilment break down into fragmentary episodes of frustration or futility. Indeed he published many of these individual scenes as separate short stories. Even in the novels the narratives tend to collapse into series of fragments, rather than follow any kind of progression towards unity. These fragments record the frustrated attempts of his characters to create a unity in their experience, or to bend the outer world to their desires. Their constant failures produce an absurdity that ranges from the farcical to the tragic. ' (Author's introduction)

‘Everything Is Visible’ : Considering Laurie Clancy’s Perfect Love Hermina Burns , 2014 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 14 no. 4 2014;

'By the time Laurie Clancy’s second novel Perfect Love was published in 1983, Clancy had established himself as an academic, critic, short story writer and novelist. Westerly had published his first short story ‘The Wife Specialist’ in 1971. A debut novel The Collapsible Man followed in 1975, to some critical acclaim. It was to share the National Book Council Award of that year. A collection of short stories under the title of his first published short story appeared in 1978. He was already working on his Reader’s Guide to Australian Fiction, though it took a decade to complete, being published in 1992. ' (Author's introduction)

Last amended 10 Dec 2008 16:30:08
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