Lets Hear It for Prendergast Aust

by Barry Oakley

Genres: Fiction

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1970

Reviews

[zed · Rating 2 out of 5]

A satire on the literary community in late 60's Melbourne. This was first published in 1970 but has not stood the test of time. It had some witty moments that gave me the occasional laugh but it dragged too often and in the end had a rather stupid conclusion.

[A · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked this one up, obscurely, at a great used book shop in Denver, near the Capital. Caught my eye due to interesting name in title. Purchased, in part, due to reminding me of the recently read Enderby books (by Burgess), as this is also about a wandering poet of sorts roaming about the Melbourne (Australia) streets wreaking comic havoc (not very different than Enderby). Loved it for its grimy and grim low class setting where Morley (book's narrator) lives. Prendergast shows up, hard on his luck, with no where to turn with his uncharming cat and stays off and on for a year or more (???) to Morley's great discomfort. Prendergast more or less decides to be a poet (somewhat randomly) and begins declaiming about the problems of modern domestic / consumer culture. Ultimately protesting Vietnam and anti-censorship laws, he marauds around the literary establishment causes mayhem wherever he goes. Altogether pretty great and (somewhat) surprisingly unknown, as this is good stuff- however- episodic in the extreme. Not really a novel- just a slice of comic set pieces- but thoroughly enjoyable.