iheartcoffee's review
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
voyager78's review against another edition
I’ll be the voice of dissent here. The writing style is just too difficult for my brain to handle. I feel like I’m not smart enough for this book. It feels like the author took a mosaic apart, threw the tiles in a pile and I’m supposed to make sense of them and see the whole picture. I need a more cohesive, linear approach to storytelling. That’s just me and my tired brain.
nick_jenkins's review against another edition
5.0
Oh my gosh, this book!
Near the end, Philip, a guitarist, gives advice to an aspiring songwriter:
This is, of course, a self-description of Garner's stylistic intentions, and a true assessment of her achievement in this "jewel" of a book, as Ben Lerner names it in his introduction.
The character of Dexter in particular reminds me of the father from The Man Who Loved Children, but where Stead generally tended to sprawl and dilate to get the effects of alternation and contrast for her characters, Garner accelerates through the turn from blunt surfaces to lucid depths. Hers is a technique of concision, of dropping out the middle and slamming opposite charges together. The constant sensation is of metapsychological whiplash, of trying to catch up with subtext, with nuance, with the tacit understandings and half-conscious communications of people you only just met. It is a wild and a delicious ride.
Near the end, Philip, a guitarist, gives advice to an aspiring songwriter:
Take out the clichés. Everybody knows ‘It always happens this way’ or ‘I went in with my eyes wide open’. Cut that stuff out. Just leave in the images. Know what I mean? You have to steer a line between what you understand and what you don’t. Between cliché and the other thing. Make gaps. Don’t chew on it. Don’t explain everything. Leave holes. The music will do the rest.
This is, of course, a self-description of Garner's stylistic intentions, and a true assessment of her achievement in this "jewel" of a book, as Ben Lerner names it in his introduction.
When I say The Children’s Bach is a jewel, I don’t only mean to offer a cliché of praise, although it is beautiful, lapidary, rare; I also mean that Garner captures the alternating transparency and opacity of others. The point of view moves rapidly but somehow seamlessly among various characters, focusing on and through them, before it alights on someone else. But this ability to depict multiple perspectives is cut with a sense of how little access we really have to other minds and motivations; Garner’s prose is a singular mixture of intimacy and distance. Indeed, we often learn about her characters by how quickly they characterise or mischaracterise each other.This is a perfect description of her characters and how she handles them; one of the few writers who is equally good at this toggling between intimacy and distance, between a gross clunkiness of caricature and an unfathomably delicate, even oblique incision into the bafflingly complex circuitry of desire, shame, and confusion that each character carries through the novel is Christina Stead, coincidentally Garner's compatriot.
The character of Dexter in particular reminds me of the father from The Man Who Loved Children, but where Stead generally tended to sprawl and dilate to get the effects of alternation and contrast for her characters, Garner accelerates through the turn from blunt surfaces to lucid depths. Hers is a technique of concision, of dropping out the middle and slamming opposite charges together. The constant sensation is of metapsychological whiplash, of trying to catch up with subtext, with nuance, with the tacit understandings and half-conscious communications of people you only just met. It is a wild and a delicious ride.
graywild's review against another edition
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
not the book for me. Story of Dexter and his wife Athena. They have 2 boys who are autistic. There are a couple other characters that are involved in the story. Basically nothing happens and just didn't get engaged in the story. Don't recommend
thelostvoid's review
Read for ATS1904: Reading the City
Well this certainly wasn't as boring to read as Don's Party, but it definitely has a lot of similar qualities. There is something about contemporary fiction that really bores me ... where's the action? The drama? The fantastical elements to draw me away from the action/drama/fantasy of regular life. Ugh. Anyways, this was pretty good. I didn't hate it, the characters were complex and interesting. I am sure people who are more functional right now than me will have some interesting things to say about this in class tomorrow.
Well this certainly wasn't as boring to read as Don's Party, but it definitely has a lot of similar qualities. There is something about contemporary fiction that really bores me ... where's the action? The drama? The fantastical elements to draw me away from the action/drama/fantasy of regular life. Ugh. Anyways, this was pretty good. I didn't hate it, the characters were complex and interesting. I am sure people who are more functional right now than me will have some interesting things to say about this in class tomorrow.
_lexie_'s review against another edition
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
ben_parker's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
marywahlmeierbracciano's review against another edition
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Rumaan Alam’s excellent foreword is what convinced me to read this book, which features incredible writing by locally-obscure Australian master Helen Garner. Set in the 1980s, it shows its age only in a few instances concerning behaviors which are no longer widely socially acceptable (i.e., ableism, racism, sex with a minor). That aside, it is a thoughtful novel which uses music as motif to explore the stumbling dance of “modern life.” It begs the question, What makes someone a good person or a bad one? With nuanced characters and complicated relationships, this is the product of a practiced hand.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism
Moderate: Infidelity and Racism
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Violence, and Sexual content