This is a novel of dissociation. It is a novel laden with symbolism. It overworks at telling one so. ‘“It’s the nature of things,” he said, “to be symbolic. Perhaps that’s Nature itself.”’, The title, Their Solitary Way, indicates the state of the world and the way of the protagonists. In the novel, Julian Croft creates a sense of emotional lassitude. This doesn’t help the reader to like the characters. To meander through the soulless corridors of disenchanted lovers while the history of the world is caught in the corners of their consciousness, is to sympathize with Georg Lukacs and see that the middleclass Australian intellectual has it all out of proportion. In one sense this is what Croft’s novel is about. Bombs explode, people starve, revolution erupts but the Australian only feels pain when he inadvertently gets caught up in a demonstration. Croft is excellent on alienation.