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24th out of 58 books
—
16 voters
The Good Parents
by
Joan London
Maya de Jong, an eighteen-year-old country girl from the West, comes to live in Melbourne and starts an affair with her boss, the enigmatic Maynard Flynn, whose wife is dying of cancer. When Maya's parents, Toni and Jacob, arrive to stay with her, they are told by her housemate that Maya has gone away and no one knows where she is. As Toni and Jacob wait and search for May...more
Paperback
Published
2008
by Vintage
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This was a fabulous book. Maya, the daughter of 'the good parents' is - well, she's frankly annoying and unsympathetic and almost pointless, but fortunately while the book starts off with her, it revolves around the rest of the family - her parents, her brother, her aunt. And THEY are all wonderful, rich characters that I loved, particularly the complexity of the parents lives. It speaks to the idea that a parent's life may be their child NOW to a large extent, but it wasn't always and they real...more
The Good Parents is a wonderful book – complex and detailed. At its centre are Toni and Jacob, parents of eighteen year old Maya who has disappeared. They are an attractive couple: “The couple didn’t think of themselves as old. They wore jeans and leather jackets and much-polished RM Williams boots, more like aging rockers than hippies…You could say a sort of small town version of Nick Nolte and Anjelica Huston”. They are ostensibly happy together and are "good parents". However the stress of th...more
This lyrical novel served as a perfect remedy for heart-sickness...I'm longing for Melbourne at the moment. The streets and the sounds of the city inform this novel in every page. London's description of Victoria St, Richmond made me hungry for fried flounder; the kind of slightly oily Vietnamese fried rice; and the noise and bustle of Thy Thy 2 (which I'm sure is no longer a feature of the Victoria St landscape). Her description of the Australian Rules football grand final at the MCG was pictur...more
Interesting story by this Australian author. It had me thinking about all the reasons/influences/forces that converge to create the life we personally find ourselves living. This story made me reflect on why we make the decisions that we do about HOW we are going to live, and WHO we are going to live with.
The story begins with a young girl making an 'on the spot' decision to leave her current living circumstances...and the mystery remains WHY? That is only one of the questions that lies hoverin...more
The story begins with a young girl making an 'on the spot' decision to leave her current living circumstances...and the mystery remains WHY? That is only one of the questions that lies hoverin...more
I wanted to love this book after "Gilgamesh", but I didn't. Quite. During the first bunch of pages, the point of view shifted from one character to another so often I completely lost track of who these people were. Finally I decided to make a chart. But then I just calmed down and read. It is not Ms. London's fault that my brain is turning into a sieve.
A young woman disappears just when her parents are about to visit. Maya, the missing one, seems to be the central character. The plot ostensibly...more
A young woman disappears just when her parents are about to visit. Maya, the missing one, seems to be the central character. The plot ostensibly...more
Joan London is the celebrated author of Gilgamesh - which was short-listed for the Miles Franklin and won the 2002 The Age Book of the Year fiction prize – but despite high praise from the critics, The Good Parents seems to have sunk without a trace, not even longlisted in the major prizes and not given much prominence in my favourite bookshops. It hasn’t shown up in anyone’s Top Ten, or BBRLMs as far as I can remember. Odd, because it’s a very interesting book and I bet it would make a very goo...more
I thought this book was going to be about two parents trying to locate their missing daughter. It was . . . a little. There were so many different side-stories and characters, that I often had a hard time figuring out who the characters were, or why their stories were part of the book. The language was beautiful. I didn't feel the daughter's story was well--crafted, or that I understood her character at all. Most interesting to me was the mother's back story. I just didn't think it all tied toge...more
While this story revolves around a girl’s (Maya) disappearance from Australia’s cultural capital of Melbourne, a lot of the story is based in Perth and WA. This story has more to do with the lives of Maya’s family than her actual disappearance which I found a little disappointing since I wanted to know more about why felt the need to do that to her family. But having said that, the stories of her parents were cool and had me wanting to know what happened and one question I had, why does Perth se...more
I admit did not get through this book--I made it about 1/2 way and skimmed a bunch of that. I just have too many other good books on my "list" to spend my quality Wisconsin reading time trudging through a book that is both poorly developed and seemingly not well-written. This book was filled with too many side-plots, too many characters and too many distractions to be a good novel. I would skip it. Now... if any of my fine friends has read or is reading it and thinks I am wrong let me know and I...more
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I'm afraid that I just can't do this book justice - there are just some things (ideals / moral codes / whatever you'd like to call it) that are ingrained in me and somehow, whilst listening to this audiobook, when they are crossed, I feel really annoyed. I'm not usually like this. Maybe this speaks louder than any other descriptions I could expound of the essence of the book. I feel like Jason (who does not feature very much in the book but I wish he had) - a brethren (ie. living apart from the...more
I am delighted to have discovered this book, Joan London writes beautiful, lyrical and descriptive prose which is a total pleasure to read. The novel considers the experiences, relationships and emotional ties between spouse, siblings and of course children and their parents.
We begin with Maya, an 18 year old who having left home disappears immediately prior to her parents arrival to visit - her parents Jacob and Toni reflect and revisit their lives. They consider events from their childhood onw...more
We begin with Maya, an 18 year old who having left home disappears immediately prior to her parents arrival to visit - her parents Jacob and Toni reflect and revisit their lives. They consider events from their childhood onw...more
This is a good novel set in Australia. In the first, long chapter, a young woman (18 years old) moves from her rural home to Melbourne. We're introduced to her life there, but at the end of the chapter, just as her parents are arriving to visit her, she disappears from Melbourne (and, mostly, from the novel). The rest of the novel shifts around in time and focus, shedding light on both parents (individually & together), their son, their neighbors, their daughter's housemate, and the father's...more
This was not an easy novel to read. At times, I seriously considered putting it down and moving onto to another novel.
The writing is superb and the tale that it tells is interesting if at times slightly uncomfortable. It's the tale about a young woman who disappears leaving her parents and family to sort out who and what they are.
It certainly made me think about identity and who we truly are and who we show the world we are, including those who are supposedly the closest to us.
The writing is superb and the tale that it tells is interesting if at times slightly uncomfortable. It's the tale about a young woman who disappears leaving her parents and family to sort out who and what they are.
It certainly made me think about identity and who we truly are and who we show the world we are, including those who are supposedly the closest to us.
In The Good Parents, an 18-year-old girl named Maya disappears right before her parents come to visit her. Instead of really looking for her, they at first seem to do not much of anything at all while the author relates the story of how they ended up together, which was somewhat interesting. Meanwhile, Maya, the center of this novel, has no personality and is as dull as dirt. I did not care at all whether she came back in the end.
I loved Gilgamesh and there are similarities in The Good Parents. I enjoyed the relationships between the various characters and how echoes of similarity sounded into the next generation. I was intrigued by the women Joan London portrays especially the mother. I don't believe anyone in her family ever truly understood her.
Easily the best Australian novel I've ever read. Loved the way it captured growing up in rural WA and escaping to the Big Smoke of Melbourne - surprised how happy I was to see my own experience in a novel, am so used to just reading stuff set overseas. I will definately read anything else I can find by this author.
Jacob and Toni go to Melbourne to visit their 20 year old daughter but when they arrive at her apartment she has left town with her recently widowed employer/lover, leaving them no message. They wait and we learn about the lives that got them to this place and time and the people they have become.
Very interesting story all the way through... until the end. I suppose I am not a high-brow enough of a reader to enjoy making up my own ending, so a book I would have given a higher rating if they had tied up the loose ends gets a lower rating than if they leave it to the reader's imagination.
It left me wanting more - for every question that was wrapped up, another was opened, much like life. At the same time, though, the questions themselves are small - what becomes of this one person in this little town? - It doesn't seem address the overarching human themes of the great writers.
The time shifts were sometimes a little hard to follow - it wasn't always clear which generation we were dealing with - but the story/stories were sufficiently interesting to grip the reader's attention, and the build-up of each of the characters was very well done. A worthwhile read.
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It took me a few chapters to get adjusted to the writing style and for some reason I thought it was a murder mystery, so a few chapters in when it started getting into the past of both parents, I was a little frustrated. BUT, it ended up being a really good story and I was very interested in finding out what happened.
Loved this. Couldn't wait to get back into the story, thought about it while I was doing other things, and felt so much for all these characters. London's descriptions of those odd feelings we have at odd moments are perfect.
wasn't sure i was going to like it in the very beginning as the initial character focused on was too passive. other characters were much more interesting and i ultimately found the book quite engaging and well written.
I didn't enjoy this quite as much as London's previous novel Gilgamesh, but it is a great inter-generational tale of parents and children and parents when they were children. The cast of characters is colorful and engaging and the taste of modern Australian culture is interesting to us North Americans.
An Australian girl, Maya de Jong, goes missing, presumably with her boss, and her parents travel to her city, and back in time in their own lives, to find her.
I've read several Australian writers over the last few months, and there is something very dark about their writing. I don't have any great desire to go there, but do wish I knew someone from there so I could endlessly quiz him/her about what it is like.
Joan London (NOT the "journalist") writes beautifully and truly makes you feel you ar...more
I've read several Australian writers over the last few months, and there is something very dark about their writing. I don't have any great desire to go there, but do wish I knew someone from there so I could endlessly quiz him/her about what it is like.
Joan London (NOT the "journalist") writes beautifully and truly makes you feel you ar...more
I didn't really enjoy this book. I was so frustrated with Maya, a teenage runaway. She was not richly drawn, and this led to too many loose ends in the plot. Disappointing.
Good study into parenting young adults - the trick between where they begin and you end. Liked the Australian perspective and the introspection into their own young adulthood.
Nov 08, 2010
Kate DeFeo
added it
I love the simplicity of the prose and the dream-like quality with which London created these characters in search of happiness.
It was a story about faith and the human spirit.
It was a story about faith and the human spirit.
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Joan London is an Australian author of short stories, screenplays and novels.
She graduated from the University of Western Australia having studied English and French, has taught English as a second language and is a bookseller.
She lives in Fremantle, Western Australia, with her husband Geoff.
Joan London was the youngest of four sisters.
A baby boomer, she and her husband, Geoff, did the mandatory...more
More about Joan London...
She graduated from the University of Western Australia having studied English and French, has taught English as a second language and is a bookseller.
She lives in Fremantle, Western Australia, with her husband Geoff.
Joan London was the youngest of four sisters.
A baby boomer, she and her husband, Geoff, did the mandatory...more
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Jan 18, 2010 10:36am