Accessibility Tools

  • Content scaling 100%
  • Font size 100%
  • Line height 100%
  • Letter spacing 100%
×

Warning

JUser: :_load: Unable to load user with ID: 2730

N by John A. Scott

by
June–July 2014, no. 362

by John A. Scott

Brandl & Schlesinger, $32.95 pb, 599 pp, 9781921556203

N by John A. Scott

by
June–July 2014, no. 362

The last words of the endnotes to John A. Scott’s most recent novel – earlier ones have won the Victorian Premier’s prize for fiction and been shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award – and thus the last words of this book, if we exclude back-cover plaudits, read: ‘An additional narrative strand, chronicling the history of Surrealist André Breton in Melbourne, 1952, omitted from this version of N for reasons of overall length [emphasis added], appears in Southerly, Vol. 73, No 3, 2013 (“The Naked Writer”).’ As these words appear on page 599 of N, a sesquipedalian opus if ever there was one, it can only be observed, echoing Francisco in the first scene of Hamlet, ‘for this relief much thanks’, for N is already over-long, over-plotted, over-the-top, making excessive demands upon the reader’s generosity and her stamina.

Don Anderson reviews 'N' by John A. Scott

N

by John A. Scott

Brandl & Schlesinger, $32.95 pb, 599 pp, 9781921556203

You May Also Like

Comment (1)

  • Congratulations on a review that may well make the shortlist in the Hatchet Job of the Year awards. Mr Anderson is nothing if not consistent in his scorn for Scott's work: one might wonder why ABR asked him to review this author, and why Anderson submits himself to the pain.
    I myself am in favour of robust reviewing. However, while I hesitate to tell Mr Anderson how to do his job, I'd suggest that he might well take a little time to read Crème de la Phlegm by Angela Bennie. It offers wise advice to reviewers.
    For the record, I found N to be one of the best books I've read this year. But I'm an admirer of contemporary Australian literature...
    Lisa Hill, ANZ LitLovers
    PS Oops I nearly forgot to give my comment street cred by padding it out with references to how well read I am. I too have read Big Important Books by Proust, and Joyce, and Bolano, assorted Americans... and oh yes, some Australians, Alexis Wright, Christina Stead, Patrick White...
    Posted by Lisa Hill
    21 June 2014

Leave a comment

If you are an ABR subscriber, you will need to sign in to post a comment.

If you have forgotten your sign in details, or if you receive an error message when trying to submit your comment, please email your comment (and the name of the article to which it relates) to ABR Comments. We will review your comment and, subject to approval, we will post it under your name.

Please note that all comments must be approved by ABR and comply with our Terms & Conditions.