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Foxybaby by Elizabeth Jolley

by
December 1985–January 1986, no. 77

Foxybaby by Elizabeth Jolley

University of Queensland Press, $19.95 pb, 261 pp

Foxybaby by Elizabeth Jolley

by
December 1985–January 1986, no. 77

A colleague asked if I thought that Elizabeth Jolley’s Foxybaby might have gone ‘over the top’. I assume she meant that the book might be ‘too much’ because the function of its preoccupation with (say) crime and sex, including incest and homosexuality, was not immediately apparent. The question is a reasonable one, but for two reasons I don’t think that her latest novel does go over the top: there is no theme used or technique employed in Foxybaby which has not appeared in Jolley’s writing before; and, ad astra (perhaps per aspera or per ardua), the book represents a logical but highly imaginative development from her most recent work.

Brian Dibble reviews 'Foxybaby' by Elizabeth Jolley

Foxybaby

by Elizabeth Jolley

University of Queensland Press, $19.95 pb, 261 pp

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