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Summary
Author Notes
Australian author Ivan Southall was born on June 8, 1921. During World War II, he was a pilot and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his sinking of a German U-boat in 1944. After the war, he wrote an account of his squadron entitled They Shall Not Pass Unseen. Throughout his lifetime, he wrote more than 60 books for both children and adults. He won numerous awards for his work including the 1969 Picture Book of the Year award for Sly Old Wardrobe, the 1971 Carnegie Medal for Josh, and the 2003 International Phoenix Award for The Long Night Watch. He won four Australian Children's Book of the Year awards for Ash Road, To the Wild Sky, Bread and Honey, and Fly West. He also won the Order of Australia in 1981 and the Emeritus Award in 1993 for his contribution to Australian literature.He died of cancer on November 15, 2008 at the age of 87.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Marc Leadbeater, an eleventh-year student, must come to terms with the death of his beloved grandfather, who disappeared while they were swimming off the Australian coast five months earlier. Now on semester break, Marc visits his grandmother whom he not seen since his grandfather's death. When he arrives, he is shocked to find that his grandparents' house and everything in it is to be auctioned off the next day despite the fact that, according to his grandfather's wishes, Marc was to have inherited it all after his grandmother's death. Marc's inquiries only pose more problems and questions, while exposing some family secrets in the process. Southall misses the mark with this book. He uses a near poetic, stream-of-consciousness form of writing; metaphors and sentence fragments appear throughout. This style, along with the Australian English, makes the book difficult for American young adults to follow. The storyline races like random ideas through Marc's head. Conversations are interrupted by thoughts and vice versa. Marc's panic is conveyed nicely, but he never becomes a real person. The other characters are more like phantoms, just out of the sight of readers. Even the ending is a vague closure rather than a resolution of the conflicts involved. --Kenneth E. Kowen, Atascocita Middle School Lib . , Humble, TX (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Five months ago Marc's grandfather drowned. Marc was there when it happened, and has been overwhelmed ever since with guilt and pain. Finally he decides to visit Gramps and Gran's home, to find peace among cherished memories and confront the void created by Gramps's death. Marc is shocked when he arrives: the house, maintained by Gramps and Marc all these years and filled with Gramps's artistry and other mementos, is scheduled to be auctioned the next day. Even more perplexing, Gran is nowhere to be found. With the help of an old friend of Gramps, Marc is able to make sense out of the confusion. As he searches for Gran, Marc finally discovers how to let go of his grief. Southall copiously traces Marc's thought processes; moments of time are suspended and explored with interruption of the plot flow. Marc's provocative mental journey potently portrays a young man's struggle to accept the loss of a loved one. At least two readings are required to do this book justice. Ages 12-up. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
A young man accidentally discovers after his grandfather's death that the inheritance he was promised and the situations he thought he understood are cruelly changed. Too many characters speak with unusual sentence structure, weakening the impact of the narrator's voice; the boy's thought processes, reproduced verbatim with his sophisticated use of language, further relegate the book to the realm of the self-indulgent novel. From HORN BOOK 1990, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
A finely tuned blend of: Marc's highly articulate observations and reflections on events both present and past (presented in Southall's trademark sentence-fragment style); a sequence introduced as ""possibly a happening,"" which proves to be a revelatory and prophetic dream; and more straightforward glimpses of Marc's grief, guilt, and deep confusion over his famous, beloved grandfather's death (Gramps drowned off Australia's coast, Marc failing either to save or die with him). Arriving by prearrangement with his grandmother (Gran) at the house he believes he has inherited, Marc finds a sign 'stating that it will be auctioned the next day--and then Gran inexplicably disappears. Distraught, Marc seeks Bea, an attractive woman he hardly knows, notorious as possibly having been Gramps' mistress. They share confidences (she describes herself as Gramps' devotee and protÉgÉe); Bea realizes that Gran is despondent and in danger, and so she and Marc set forth to save her. This bare outline emerges from a wealth of intertwined detail, the reader gradually privy to many levels of experience--such as those suggested by a succinct comment on Marc's ""remarkable failure to exploit his opportunities [with women], considering the nature of his fantasy life"" and the many aspects of Gramps as a public and private figure and in relation to his namesake and spiritual (as well as actual) heir. Neither language nor style here will be accessible to most teens; but this subtle, complex portrait of an anguished 16-year-old trapped by his history and his own intelligence rivals Garner's The Red Shift (1973); like that demanding tragedy, it, too, will appeal to rare, perceptive readers, including adults. Haunting jacket portrait by Brock Cole. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Gr. 9-12. Arriving a day early for his visit with recently widowed Gran, Marcus Leadbeater finds her strangely absent and his grandparents' house up for sale. Distraught over what he feels to be a betrayal--wasn't the house, filled with memories of his beloved Gramps, to be his one day?--he finds a willing ear in pretty Dr. Campbell, Gramps' protege. Is she the other woman in Gramps' life, Marcus wonders, the femme fatale? And why are her memories of Gramps so very different from his own? The word mysterious in the title certainly characterizes this novel, which ultimately asks more questions than it answers (not even the ending is clear). Australian author Southall's style is difficult, too: Marcus' narrative meanderings between present and past--his awakening interest in sex, his times with Gramps--are not easy to follow; neither is the repartee, which is sometimes delightfully witty, sometimes nearly impenetrable. Yet for the careful reader, the author supplies both intensity and drama as Marcus tries to work out what's going on. And despite the complicated plot, Southall has turned out a distinctive portrait of a young man cruelly awakened to the realization that people, no matter how well loved, are never so clear-cut as they seem. Brock Cole's watercolor jacket portrait, done in subdued blues and browns, is a sensitive evocation of Marcus' sadness and confusion. ~--Stephanie Zvirin
