Well, this took me forever to read. It was excellent but extremely heavy going and quite depressing. I had to put it down, frequently, and be in the mood for reading it, too.

So, a rendering of Sydney/Australia (but mostly Sydney) of the 1930s and 1940s as told from the perspective of someone living in a socialist utopia (that is possibly a distopia but this is not a distopic sci-fi/speculative fiction). At the end of WW2, instead of a reversion to society as we know it, there is instead an anarchic uprising in which the complete destruction of all things capitalist occurs. This is the basis of the current society, from which the story of various people in 1930s/1940s Sydney is re-imagined, during a stage in which the youth of the future are considering their own rebellion/revolution/movement against the illiberalities of their society.

It is very involved - there are many interwoven stories going on, some in the past, some in the future. But I had no trouble keeping track of all the different threads, and the many strands were used to good effect - so a story could be skipped over where it did not progress the overall themes of the book, years condensed into a single sentence but if it was an important moment, a moment could stretch over 100s of pages. Sometimes this seemed a bit arch, but then, one was moved along into the next point being made by the author and one *understood* why it had been done.

The novel is very didactic and so, possibly annoying for some (many?) I guess one just has to be aware of that tendency and forgive it, because the depth of the exploration - of power, society, male/female relationships, the idea of freedom, the binds of wealth and poverty - and the beauty of the writing are all worthwhile.

This deserves study and wider reading. A real pity it is so unknown.