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The Australian
In her humorous and emotionally resonant debut, Emma Smith-Stevens follows the exploits and evolution of a young man - known only as “the Australian” - over the course of a dozen years, from his time posing for tourist photos as Superman to his life in New York, chasing fame and fortune. Married to a woman he barely knows and struggling to forge a relationship with his son, the Australian travels between the U.S. and Melbourne, seeking to reconnect with his deceased parents through his father’s Australian Outdoor Geographic magazines and the Dreaming Tracks, sacred landmarks his mother longed to explore.
Through this quest for self-discovery, the Australian becomes both more and less enigma: “the idea of this guy you could find in any city, a hostel anywhere in the world, smiling, suntanned, hauling a backpack.” A poignant and at times satirical meditation on masculinity, fatherhood, isolation, New York City, fame, and loss, The Australian examines the human tendency to fall in love with the idea of another person and the importance of knowing one’s essential nature.
Through this quest for self-discovery, the Australian becomes both more and less enigma: “the idea of this guy you could find in any city, a hostel anywhere in the world, smiling, suntanned, hauling a backpack.” A poignant and at times satirical meditation on masculinity, fatherhood, isolation, New York City, fame, and loss, The Australian examines the human tendency to fall in love with the idea of another person and the importance of knowing one’s essential nature.
- GenresFictionContemporary
280 pages, Hardcover
Published May 16, 2017
4 people are currently reading
194 people want to read
About the author
Emma Smith-Stevens
5 books61 followersEmma Smith-Stevens is the author of a novel, The Australian, and a story collection, Greyhounds, coming in 2026. Her writing has appeared in the NYT bestselling and Lambda award-winning anthology Not That Bad: Dispatches From Rape Culture (Ed. Roxane Gay), Against Death: 35 Essays On Living (Ed. Elee Kraljii Gardiner), Kindle Singles, and elsewhere.
THE AUSTRALIAN
A young man known as "the Australian" journeys between New York and Melbourne on a quest of self-discovery in this poignant exploration of loneliness, love, and fatherhood.
In her humorous and emotionally resonant debut, Emma Smith-Stevens follows the exploits and evolution of a young man—known only as the Australian—over the course of a dozen years, from his time in Melbourne, posing as Superman for tourist photos, to his life in New York, where he spends years unemployed before stumbling into fame and fortune.
Married to a woman he barely knows and struggling to forge a relationship with his young son, the Australian returns to his home city to tend to his dying mother and unlock the mysteries surrounding his estranged, deceased father. His journey leads him to the Dreaming Tracks—sacred landmarks across Australia—sites inspired by his father's Australian Outdoor Geographic magazines, and beyond.
A poignant and at times satirical meditation on masculinity, fatherhood, New York City, fame, and loss, The Australian examines the ways we come to know each other, and ultimately ourselves.
PRAISE
"There are some writers--and Emma Smith-Stevens happens to be one--who seem effortlessly able to fill the page with life. This chronicle of an extraordinarily ordinary seeker is all wit and wonder, so tolerant of human fallibility, so respectful of mystery and complexity, so disinclined to demarcate the heroic from the foolish. I admire this debut for its style and stance."
-Chris Bachelder, author of The Throwback Special
It's startling to finish The Australian and remember that this is a first novel: it's so wry, clever, swift, and assured that the reader senses immediately that she's in skilled and sympathetic hands. What a seductive voice; what a smart and charming book! And, most of all, what a wonderful new writer we have in Emma Smith-Stevens.
-Lauren Groff, NYT bestselling author of The Vaster Wilds
"The Australian is a picaresque for the twenty-first century beguiling, funny, and inventive, intermittently sad and always beautiful."
-David Leavitt, author of Shelter In Place.
The Australian is so deftly written, the exact right mixture of heartfelt and ridiculous, that I cannot count the number of times that a line in the novel absolutely floored me. Emma Smith-Stevens lets absurdity do what it does best: to render the complexity of the world in such stark relief that it transforms you. This is a brilliant, beautiful debut—a contemporary Stoner or Speedboat."
-Kevin Wilson, NYT bestselling author of Now Is Not the Time To Panic
"Emma Smith-Stevens unmans the titular Australian in The Australian with a quiet, wise, sure-footed humor that is seductive."
-Padgett Powell, author of Indigo
"Emma Smith-Stevens writes with such a brilliant sense of language and humor, with such intelligent mystery and disarming intimacy, that the reader is compelled to follow the Australian on his absurd and moving journey through a baffling world, always wondering what could possibly happen next, until the title character ultimately reaches a kind of transcendence. The Australian is an audacious debut novel."
-Michael Kimball, author of Big Ray
"The Australian is a sui generis mutation of the coming of age story which, like its protagonist, defies any easy categorization. Fueled by Emma Smith-Stevens's trenchant eye, rollicking humor, and ceaselessly churning imagination, the book sweeps us along, bearing us into topographies that feel at once recognizable and remote, equipped only with a compass set in defamiliarize mode. The Australian himself c
THE AUSTRALIAN
A young man known as "the Australian" journeys between New York and Melbourne on a quest of self-discovery in this poignant exploration of loneliness, love, and fatherhood.
In her humorous and emotionally resonant debut, Emma Smith-Stevens follows the exploits and evolution of a young man—known only as the Australian—over the course of a dozen years, from his time in Melbourne, posing as Superman for tourist photos, to his life in New York, where he spends years unemployed before stumbling into fame and fortune.
Married to a woman he barely knows and struggling to forge a relationship with his young son, the Australian returns to his home city to tend to his dying mother and unlock the mysteries surrounding his estranged, deceased father. His journey leads him to the Dreaming Tracks—sacred landmarks across Australia—sites inspired by his father's Australian Outdoor Geographic magazines, and beyond.
A poignant and at times satirical meditation on masculinity, fatherhood, New York City, fame, and loss, The Australian examines the ways we come to know each other, and ultimately ourselves.
PRAISE
"There are some writers--and Emma Smith-Stevens happens to be one--who seem effortlessly able to fill the page with life. This chronicle of an extraordinarily ordinary seeker is all wit and wonder, so tolerant of human fallibility, so respectful of mystery and complexity, so disinclined to demarcate the heroic from the foolish. I admire this debut for its style and stance."
-Chris Bachelder, author of The Throwback Special
It's startling to finish The Australian and remember that this is a first novel: it's so wry, clever, swift, and assured that the reader senses immediately that she's in skilled and sympathetic hands. What a seductive voice; what a smart and charming book! And, most of all, what a wonderful new writer we have in Emma Smith-Stevens.
-Lauren Groff, NYT bestselling author of The Vaster Wilds
"The Australian is a picaresque for the twenty-first century beguiling, funny, and inventive, intermittently sad and always beautiful."
-David Leavitt, author of Shelter In Place.
The Australian is so deftly written, the exact right mixture of heartfelt and ridiculous, that I cannot count the number of times that a line in the novel absolutely floored me. Emma Smith-Stevens lets absurdity do what it does best: to render the complexity of the world in such stark relief that it transforms you. This is a brilliant, beautiful debut—a contemporary Stoner or Speedboat."
-Kevin Wilson, NYT bestselling author of Now Is Not the Time To Panic
"Emma Smith-Stevens unmans the titular Australian in The Australian with a quiet, wise, sure-footed humor that is seductive."
-Padgett Powell, author of Indigo
"Emma Smith-Stevens writes with such a brilliant sense of language and humor, with such intelligent mystery and disarming intimacy, that the reader is compelled to follow the Australian on his absurd and moving journey through a baffling world, always wondering what could possibly happen next, until the title character ultimately reaches a kind of transcendence. The Australian is an audacious debut novel."
-Michael Kimball, author of Big Ray
"The Australian is a sui generis mutation of the coming of age story which, like its protagonist, defies any easy categorization. Fueled by Emma Smith-Stevens's trenchant eye, rollicking humor, and ceaselessly churning imagination, the book sweeps us along, bearing us into topographies that feel at once recognizable and remote, equipped only with a compass set in defamiliarize mode. The Australian himself c
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
January 4, 2018
With her intelligent, witty, and deeply empathic debut novel, Emma Smith-Stevens has set the stage for an incredibly promising career. THE AUSTRALIAN combines both humor and emotional depth with such precision and careful craft that it feels like a novel we'd expect from one of our culture's most seasoned satirists. The nameless, titular Australian is instantly recognizable in a way that allows us to enter his world all while feeling like a totally unique experience at the same time. As the reader follows this character through the plot, we get a wonderfully engaging look at our insular American society.
For all of the insight and biting humor in THE AUSTRALIAN—and there is plenty—there's also an emotionally raw and beautifully sad core to the novel; it's the kind of heartfelt beauty that makes you look up from the page, draw a breath, and look at the person sitting next to you in a different light, no matter who they might be. It's books like these that have the power to really inflict change within the heart of our country.
More than anything, the novel is just so damn clever! It contains the kind of wry acumen that will have the reader hungrily flipping to the next page, anxiously wiping their sweaty palms on their shirt. By the end of the novel, with the final page at its close, I could only sit back and think about how it made me feel. This went on for a few hours, then a few days, and still months later as I write this. THE AUSTRALIAN stays with you, and you're all the richer for it, and in the end, isn't that the most wonderful reward from good literature? I can't recommend this book highly enough!
For all of the insight and biting humor in THE AUSTRALIAN—and there is plenty—there's also an emotionally raw and beautifully sad core to the novel; it's the kind of heartfelt beauty that makes you look up from the page, draw a breath, and look at the person sitting next to you in a different light, no matter who they might be. It's books like these that have the power to really inflict change within the heart of our country.
More than anything, the novel is just so damn clever! It contains the kind of wry acumen that will have the reader hungrily flipping to the next page, anxiously wiping their sweaty palms on their shirt. By the end of the novel, with the final page at its close, I could only sit back and think about how it made me feel. This went on for a few hours, then a few days, and still months later as I write this. THE AUSTRALIAN stays with you, and you're all the richer for it, and in the end, isn't that the most wonderful reward from good literature? I can't recommend this book highly enough!
July 7, 2020
Remember Philip Larkin’s “This Be the Verse”?
And that’s exactly what they’ve done to the Australian, the protagonist at the heart of Emma Smith-Stevens’ debut novel, which is one part searingly funny send-up of life among New York’s hipster wannabe yuppie set, one part search for redemption story, and one very large part tale of a loser, as the Australian wallows in his loserishness as only Grade A losers can do, stumbling his way through this vale of tears we call modern life.
Although perhaps not as pathetic as Freddie Exley or as ridiculous as Ignatius Riley, the Australian, for that’s indeed the only way he is addressed throughout Smith-Stevens’ novel, joins the ranks of literary loserdom and Smith-Stevens does a great job making us really feel for the guy despite his arrogance and naïveté, as well as the way he heedlessly inflicts harm on others around him. Not that he really means to, but the Australian is out of his depths in New York City, both emotionally and economically, a little like that other feckless loser Nick Carraway...or at times maybe even an older version of Holden Caulfield, as long as we are on the topic of likable losers trying to find themselves in New York City.
"Failure," the Australian comes to realize, "has integrated itself into the fabric of his being," and he's right about that in so many ways. The Australian has come to New York to make his fortune, but he fails in his attempts to become a stock broker and later a venture capitalist, although his initial impromptu self-identification as such in a coffee shop called Esperanto does result in some awkward afternoon sex with a largish teenage girl he meets there. This, however, can hardly be deemed a victory. The Australian continues to fail as boyfriend and then husband to Fiona, a compulsive liar he meets at an Irish pub who works for a pop singer and makes enough money to support him as he drifts through the next several years, and ultimately he fails as father to young Maximus, who fortunately one day can become just "Max," once he's old enough to understand the damage his mum and dad have done to him by saddling him with such a ridiculous name.
Like Holden, and I suppose like Nick as well, the Australian has a good heart but it’s so damaged and obscured by so many layers of bullshit and hurt that it’s hard for the reader as well as the people around him to get a good handle on what he is really like. To make it even more difficult, as well as funny as hell sometimes, Smith-Stevens uses the driest of deadpan, clinical third-person delivery to describe the Australian and his series of fuck-ups, financial, personal, romantic, and otherwise.
Here, for example, during an extended period of unemployment while the Australian drifts from one idiotic idea to another (at one point he embraces parkour with a passion), he finds himself in a bookstore at a reading:
However, Smith-Stevens' style is both the novel’s strongest point as well as potentially its stumbling block, at least for me, and I say that because two-thirds of the way through the novel, as the Australian seems to be making some headway in life’s difficulties (he has left New York to return to his home country where he begins to reconcile with the pain of his past), the flat style stays the same, and thus I was never sure as a reader if I was supposed to embrace the progress he seems to be making on this spiritual walkabout toward the end of the book or if I was supposed to continue to deride him as the hapless failure he is in the first half of the novel. He seems to be getting better as he learns about his father and comes to better understand his mother; he certainly believes he is making progress in his journey of self-discovery, but as the merciless tone of the novel which has set up the Australian for such mockery from the beginning doesn’t shift much as his character seems to shift, I was left feeling much less confident (than other GoodReaders in their reviews here) that he had truly made any real personal progress by the end of the novel.
But that ambiguity, I suppose, is not something to fault the novel for. At the end of his story Nick Carraway, despite everything he has learned out East, is still damaged and yearning for a life he hasn’t found, and Holden Caulfield too while making some progress, isn't really sure what he is going to do once he gets back into the world. As Holden tells us at the end of his novel, “How do you know what you’re going to do until you do it?” and that sounds a little like the Australian at the end of his: "A belief he will make better choices, for himself and for Maximus, solidifies within him...Although he doesn't yet know what those choices will be, he can see everything, big and small, in its right size--his triumphs and his misdeeds."
Everything is possible, the Australian comes to realize in the novel's final scene, as he looks out over the blue waters of Lake Toba in Indonesia--happiness, kindness, mercy, redemption, an albino pigeon with iridescent wings--and maybe even, despite what Philip Larkin says, the possibility that he not continue handing on misery to man.
I look forward to seeing what Emma Smith-Stevens has in store for readers in the future. And I would be remiss here if I did not thank the author for sharing her book with me.
They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.
And that’s exactly what they’ve done to the Australian, the protagonist at the heart of Emma Smith-Stevens’ debut novel, which is one part searingly funny send-up of life among New York’s hipster wannabe yuppie set, one part search for redemption story, and one very large part tale of a loser, as the Australian wallows in his loserishness as only Grade A losers can do, stumbling his way through this vale of tears we call modern life.
Although perhaps not as pathetic as Freddie Exley or as ridiculous as Ignatius Riley, the Australian, for that’s indeed the only way he is addressed throughout Smith-Stevens’ novel, joins the ranks of literary loserdom and Smith-Stevens does a great job making us really feel for the guy despite his arrogance and naïveté, as well as the way he heedlessly inflicts harm on others around him. Not that he really means to, but the Australian is out of his depths in New York City, both emotionally and economically, a little like that other feckless loser Nick Carraway...or at times maybe even an older version of Holden Caulfield, as long as we are on the topic of likable losers trying to find themselves in New York City.
"Failure," the Australian comes to realize, "has integrated itself into the fabric of his being," and he's right about that in so many ways. The Australian has come to New York to make his fortune, but he fails in his attempts to become a stock broker and later a venture capitalist, although his initial impromptu self-identification as such in a coffee shop called Esperanto does result in some awkward afternoon sex with a largish teenage girl he meets there. This, however, can hardly be deemed a victory. The Australian continues to fail as boyfriend and then husband to Fiona, a compulsive liar he meets at an Irish pub who works for a pop singer and makes enough money to support him as he drifts through the next several years, and ultimately he fails as father to young Maximus, who fortunately one day can become just "Max," once he's old enough to understand the damage his mum and dad have done to him by saddling him with such a ridiculous name.
Like Holden, and I suppose like Nick as well, the Australian has a good heart but it’s so damaged and obscured by so many layers of bullshit and hurt that it’s hard for the reader as well as the people around him to get a good handle on what he is really like. To make it even more difficult, as well as funny as hell sometimes, Smith-Stevens uses the driest of deadpan, clinical third-person delivery to describe the Australian and his series of fuck-ups, financial, personal, romantic, and otherwise.
Here, for example, during an extended period of unemployment while the Australian drifts from one idiotic idea to another (at one point he embraces parkour with a passion), he finds himself in a bookstore at a reading:
The author has a faded tattoo of a lizard on her bicep and is from Berkeley, California, and she has written a memoir from the perspective of her vagina. The Australian is transfixed. He stays for the whole performance, listening and watching from the back of the room, hiding behind a books-on-tape display at the edge of the children's section. He marvels at how while every woman has a vagina, this particular woman has decided that hers deserved not only a voice, but a publisher, too, and maybe even a publicist. It is precisely this kind of boldness and ingenuity that the Australian respects....Her vagina has adventures. It takes risks. The Australian is struck by the humbling realization that it might be more of a man than he presently is, this milksop he has become--drooling on his pillow, aimlessly wandering, pining for his wife--and he's got to buck up.
However, Smith-Stevens' style is both the novel’s strongest point as well as potentially its stumbling block, at least for me, and I say that because two-thirds of the way through the novel, as the Australian seems to be making some headway in life’s difficulties (he has left New York to return to his home country where he begins to reconcile with the pain of his past), the flat style stays the same, and thus I was never sure as a reader if I was supposed to embrace the progress he seems to be making on this spiritual walkabout toward the end of the book or if I was supposed to continue to deride him as the hapless failure he is in the first half of the novel. He seems to be getting better as he learns about his father and comes to better understand his mother; he certainly believes he is making progress in his journey of self-discovery, but as the merciless tone of the novel which has set up the Australian for such mockery from the beginning doesn’t shift much as his character seems to shift, I was left feeling much less confident (than other GoodReaders in their reviews here) that he had truly made any real personal progress by the end of the novel.
But that ambiguity, I suppose, is not something to fault the novel for. At the end of his story Nick Carraway, despite everything he has learned out East, is still damaged and yearning for a life he hasn’t found, and Holden Caulfield too while making some progress, isn't really sure what he is going to do once he gets back into the world. As Holden tells us at the end of his novel, “How do you know what you’re going to do until you do it?” and that sounds a little like the Australian at the end of his: "A belief he will make better choices, for himself and for Maximus, solidifies within him...Although he doesn't yet know what those choices will be, he can see everything, big and small, in its right size--his triumphs and his misdeeds."
Everything is possible, the Australian comes to realize in the novel's final scene, as he looks out over the blue waters of Lake Toba in Indonesia--happiness, kindness, mercy, redemption, an albino pigeon with iridescent wings--and maybe even, despite what Philip Larkin says, the possibility that he not continue handing on misery to man.
I look forward to seeing what Emma Smith-Stevens has in store for readers in the future. And I would be remiss here if I did not thank the author for sharing her book with me.
March 16, 2017
What a wonderful book! It is funny, heartbreaking, and spiritual all at once. It is a beautiful journey of discovery. One of the best new books I have read!
September 5, 2017
Though THE AUSTRALIAN'S prose should be comfortable to readers of Big 5 lit fic, this book also has a strangeness to it that I relish. As I began to read, it was not at first clear to me just what sort of book I was reading. But just as immediately, the strength of Emma's narrative voice instilled me with absolute confidence that I was in good hands, that this was a journey worth taking. I think what impresses me most is the deftness of the tension she maintains between a critical, at times satirical (& devastatingly funny), distance, and profound empathy with her protagonist. This tension continues through the novel's final page, which leaves ambiguous and open to reader interpretation whether the Australian has at last confronted that which impedes him, or is continuing to flee from intimacy and risk. Other elements of Emma's writing that deeply impressed me: Her associative logic, where often the MC's realizations take the form of abrupt ruminative shifts, seeming like a non-sequitur from the previous paragraph, but in fact making utter and complete sense in the realm of the human and irrational. Also, the specificity and ingenuity of her examples—for instance, an aside about a film produced by a friend of the protagonist, what in lesser hands might just be a quick joke built on a refreshening of stereotype, moves within a few sentences from broad humor to authentic, observant insight. Throughout the novel, every digression proves essential. The semi-episodic nature of the narrative, its series of false epiphanies and the MC's sometimes absurd reversals of fortune, reminded me of a contemporary take on this old-timey genre that I spent several minutes trying to remember the name of, before I realized it was right there on the dust jacket, in David Leavitt's blurb—That genre is 'picaresque.'
I prioritized THE AUSTRALIAN because Emma is a wonderful friend that I have known since my freshman year of high school in 1996, and if you had told me before I read this book that I was going to so thoroughly enjoy a deep exploration of (primarily but not exclusively heteronormative) masculinity, I would've been like, What are you smoking, bruh? But.... & I hope I won't offend by applying too autobiographical a reading—the story of this book's conception, which can be found in its Acknowledgements, and which intersects Emma's own personal addiction/recovery narrative, is a fascinating one. I feel that Emma's subject position as a woman with lived experience of mental illness and addiction enriches this book, bringing to its exploration of masculinity an elevated consciousness of shame and embodiment that for me, felt more recognizable as a queer reader than what I might expect to find in a book about similar subject matter by the likes of, say, Jonathan Franzen. (Although I must admit that I have never actually read or been interested in reading Jonathan Franzen). Anyway—this book was a delight. Thanks, Emma!
I prioritized THE AUSTRALIAN because Emma is a wonderful friend that I have known since my freshman year of high school in 1996, and if you had told me before I read this book that I was going to so thoroughly enjoy a deep exploration of (primarily but not exclusively heteronormative) masculinity, I would've been like, What are you smoking, bruh? But.... & I hope I won't offend by applying too autobiographical a reading—the story of this book's conception, which can be found in its Acknowledgements, and which intersects Emma's own personal addiction/recovery narrative, is a fascinating one. I feel that Emma's subject position as a woman with lived experience of mental illness and addiction enriches this book, bringing to its exploration of masculinity an elevated consciousness of shame and embodiment that for me, felt more recognizable as a queer reader than what I might expect to find in a book about similar subject matter by the likes of, say, Jonathan Franzen. (Although I must admit that I have never actually read or been interested in reading Jonathan Franzen). Anyway—this book was a delight. Thanks, Emma!
July 19, 2017
I absolutely devoured this book. Smith-Stevens' prose moved me so effortlessly through time, following her charming yet infuriating protagonist. Although The Australian never reveals his name to us, he was somehow so lifelike and human that I almost forgot a, he isn't real and b, I don't even know his name. This book, although short, is a whirlwind mini-epic full of love, loss, joy, heartbreak, travel, hilarity, fame, and even more. It's a shame more people aren't aware books like this one, published by houses like Dzanc, exist! #readindie
June 23, 2017
Absolutely LOVED this book. It is funny and gripping, revealing and mysterious at the same time. I strongly recommend it to anyone who wants to pick up a solid novel.
June 19, 2017
Books like this remind me why I love to read. Every sentence matters. I was inspired from beginning to end. If you're looking for BEAUTIFUL prose, wit, and a character whose journey you genuinely care about, pick up The Australian. Smith-Stevens is a writer who will be talked about for a long time.
May 10, 2017
This is an amazing debut novel from a talented, assured writer with a genius sense of humor and an enormous heart.
September 16, 2018
Emma Smith-Stevens presents the restless, agonizing quest for identity and connection in The Australian in prose sparkling with superb analogies, densely packed and yet airy and flowing. The book is heart wrenching and a fine work of the imagination. Forget about strict realism and relax into the bizarre rushing world of its exposition and then its alternating waves and its buildup to a striking climax.
These are my favorite sentences in the novel:
“Through one half-opened eye, the Australian beholds the stillness of her form as she nurses Maximus, awash in the oceanic light of an early morning. In this moment, Fiona seems ancient and unknowable” (29-30).
“The warm breeze is a drug of mercy” (96).
“He sits down, letting his feet dangle over the lip of the volcano’s crater, and drops a pebble—a pockmarked fragment of black volcanic rock—into the blue lake below. Indigo storm clouds hang low in the sky” (223-24).
And I won’t quote it here, but the final paragraph of the book is pure nectar.
These are my favorite sentences in the novel:
“Through one half-opened eye, the Australian beholds the stillness of her form as she nurses Maximus, awash in the oceanic light of an early morning. In this moment, Fiona seems ancient and unknowable” (29-30).
“The warm breeze is a drug of mercy” (96).
“He sits down, letting his feet dangle over the lip of the volcano’s crater, and drops a pebble—a pockmarked fragment of black volcanic rock—into the blue lake below. Indigo storm clouds hang low in the sky” (223-24).
And I won’t quote it here, but the final paragraph of the book is pure nectar.
July 23, 2017
Some books stick with you, and this is one of those books. Some moments were hard to read, but I felt as if the author was guiding me through the troubling themes with care and skill until those moments passed. This book is unique in its persistent and unflinching explorations of difficult emotions. I can't think of another novel that develops a character so deeply. The plot is interesting and enjoyable, but almost seems superfluous to the inner journey of The Australian.
April 19, 2021
Smith-Stevens offers a propulsive, at times uproarious, and always trenchant exploration of the male psyche. Somehow, she has more insight into the inner-workings and motivations of young men than this reviewer, a youngish man, does. In short, read her brilliant book.
June 20, 2017
Fast & smart & unique. Loved it!
July 24, 2019
Full review coming to the Drunken Book Review Podcast.
April 2, 2018
I had a wonderful time reading this quirky but deeply thought-through book, a kind of Bildungsroman (story of development). Most such stories involve teenagers, but this one covers a person already in his 30s. He still needs to grow up at that advanced age because his maturation was stunted by a loving but muddled mother and by his inability to be with his father--a part of the plot that drives much of the book. I am happy to report that he does mature during the course of the book. His best trait--his tenderness toward his son--is exploited amusingly in a segment of the book that makes fun of social media and virality. Pop culture is a target throughout. The book counters the superficiality of current pop culture with lovely writing that calls for leisurely savoring.
August 28, 2017
********Spoilers Below*************
The first half of the book really races by and it is almost like you are watching someone skip through their life. Sure the Australian notices the big moments, but he doesn't actually participate in them emotionally or intellectually. In fact, some of the little things (meditating, parkour) end up taking more of the Australian's attention and time. Also, during this part of the book I grew to really dislike the Australian because he can't connect with anyone (including his wife) or hold a job (or even try to get one), so it is hard to empathize for him. He does seem to be a very involved/considerate father however, which I think is his most redeeming quality.
The second half of the book is slower with respect to the passage of time, and it gives the impression that the Australian is living in the present (dealing with the death of his mother, learning about his father). While he still has substantial character flaws, he seems to improve as a person and become someone that the reader can empathize with. However, I don't know what to think at the end. While he is very hopeful about the future, I don't know if I feel the same hope for him. The best thing he was in his life was a father, but to find himself he disappeared from his kid for the better part of a year. The conflict for me is that I want things to go better for him (and they have financially - largely because he is a good father) but I am not convinced that he is the type of person to take advantage of his good fortune or even be aware of it. This book had me thinking about it for days after I finished reading it, which I think is a sign of a good book. In that fashion it reminded me of Zadie Smith's White Teeth, which took me many days post finishing to figure out in my head.
The first half of the book really races by and it is almost like you are watching someone skip through their life. Sure the Australian notices the big moments, but he doesn't actually participate in them emotionally or intellectually. In fact, some of the little things (meditating, parkour) end up taking more of the Australian's attention and time. Also, during this part of the book I grew to really dislike the Australian because he can't connect with anyone (including his wife) or hold a job (or even try to get one), so it is hard to empathize for him. He does seem to be a very involved/considerate father however, which I think is his most redeeming quality.
The second half of the book is slower with respect to the passage of time, and it gives the impression that the Australian is living in the present (dealing with the death of his mother, learning about his father). While he still has substantial character flaws, he seems to improve as a person and become someone that the reader can empathize with. However, I don't know what to think at the end. While he is very hopeful about the future, I don't know if I feel the same hope for him. The best thing he was in his life was a father, but to find himself he disappeared from his kid for the better part of a year. The conflict for me is that I want things to go better for him (and they have financially - largely because he is a good father) but I am not convinced that he is the type of person to take advantage of his good fortune or even be aware of it. This book had me thinking about it for days after I finished reading it, which I think is a sign of a good book. In that fashion it reminded me of Zadie Smith's White Teeth, which took me many days post finishing to figure out in my head.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 7, 2018
This is a novel that was difficult for me to buy into at first. With a meandering plot and rather unlikable characters, it seemed easy to dismiss at first. However, I found it helpful to think of this book as a social commentary and warning to society, and then I understood and appreciated it in an entirely new way. As the unnamed protagonist, referred to only as the Australian, made his way through life without developing many truly meaningful relationships and with no sense of purpose, it evoked in me a sense of frustration. I just wanted him to do something meaningful, anything at all, really. He seemed to go through life in a haze and without regard for others, constantly seeking out self-serving pleasures and ideals only to change his course immediately after. In examining this trend in the novel, I realized that this is perhaps a warning against the stereotypical 'millenial' lifestyle which promotes doing whatever is best for yourself no matter how others are impacted. I think this book is a warning against the 'you do you' movement society has seen in the last five years, and I appreciate the overall message the book is sending.
December 27, 2019
This one is a kind of picaresque novel, one that is charming, affecting, and funny in equal measure, and by the end it reveals itself to be a thoughtful meditation on masculinity, identity, and making a space for yourself in the world.
Very funny, yes, but also richly generous in how it approaches its wayward protagonist. There's a weird beating heart at the center of this novel.
Very funny, yes, but also richly generous in how it approaches its wayward protagonist. There's a weird beating heart at the center of this novel.
Read
July 28, 2017PW
April 25, 2018
While I think this book has a lot to say and sends a valuable message, I found it very difficult to get into. I definitely would not have chosen it as a book for pleasure, but it created some good conversations within class. It utilizes a unique platform by not providing the main character's name. This created a sense of disconnect between me, as the reader, and the character. In the book, we can see this disconnect reflected between the Australian and other characters as he struggles to build relationships and maintain them. At times I found this method distracting, but overall I appreciate what she was trying to accomplish and the purpose behind it. In the end, I feel like a gained something from reading this book, but it was hard to get into and it was difficult to watch him to follow the same patterns over and over with very little development.
January 9, 2018
I'm a sucker for pretty covers in the new books section of the library. Plus in this particular library visit, I was with my brother, who is himself a quasi-Australian. Spoiler: this book did not help me understand the inner-psyche of Lucas. Or at least, I hope not. In this book, the Australian, originally from Melbourne but living in NYC at the beginning of the book, is a spoiled, lazy, meandering, selfish man who never knew his dad (and thus the meandering, selfish piece, I guess) but inherited a lot of money from him (see: spoiled, lazy). Marries a woman, doesn't love her, has a kid, feels stuck but loves the kid, then his mom's health is failing so he returns to Australia. The first half of this book was some serious drudgery, if you can't tell. But I gave this 3 stars because I did like the 2nd half. It went to some unpredictable places and in the end made me say "okay, you're not that bad" to the Australian (both the character and the book).
May 4, 2018
This book was one that brought me the most discomfort but in a good way. I couldn’t believe some of the actions of the main character or his motives, or explanations for his actions. I think a lot of my satisfaction with the Australian lies within the end of the book with his relationship with the two boys. The ending more than made up for the slow read it had been in the beginning.
March 6, 2022
I found the protagonist to be unsympathetic and that made it hard to stick with this book. The whole storyline was too preposterous.
LIS-DNF
LIS-DNF
June 27, 2017
This book is about a man trying to find himself. He never knows his father and his mother leads a hippie lifestyle. The book starts in NYC where he has moved. He builds relationships & then heads back to Australia to find himself. The one thing I did take from this book is that a person who truly loves someone, loves the idiosyncrasies in the person they love & isn't just annoyed by them.
April 16, 2019
I loved this book! Incredibly well written, and a pleasure to read. Highly recommend it!
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