Malcolm Forbes
Flying the Nest
Eyrie, Tim Winton’s 11th novel, features a protagonist who, like his creator, is ‘a product of the Sixties’, an environmental activist and a resident of Western Australia. With luck, the comparisons end there. Specifically, Tom Keely was an environmental activist before falling victim to a smear campaign. His career over (‘He was free and unencumbered. Which is to say alone and unemployed’), his reputation in ruins and his marriage in tatters, Keely is now a recluse on the top floor of an ugly high-rise, a ‘classic shitbox’ called the Mirador. Hangovers and self-loathing plague his days. In a rare moment of clarity it occurs to him – it ‘winked like an oil light on the dash’ – that he is losing his mind.
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
'Reading Taylor’s book has also made me join a book club. I did not like the January book; I did enjoy drinking gin while saying why.'
@clamorousvoice explores the history of women readers.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/she-readers
'When the language starts functioning as a character in fiction, when it is there drawing attention to itself ... It’s not anything that anybody really takes seriously.'
Our interview with Anthony Burgess from 1983.
http://ow.ly/5u0y50yrjoO
'Sabotage became so prevalent that bankers even created their own terms – ‘asymmetric information’, ‘lack of financial literacy’, ‘the principal-agent dilemma’ – to describe how they might turn a dime from customers’ gullibility or ignorance.'
https://literaryreview.co.uk/master-criminals-of-the-universe