The Life to Come in Aussie Readers

Oct 17, 2017 Michael Livingston rated it really liked it

Loved this - an honest, funny and moving portrait of modern life. de Kretser's characters are often unlikable, but only because she's so unsparing in her portraits of them - every flaw goes under the microscope. It took me a while to settle into the structure, which jumps around in time a bit and shifts focus quite suddenly, but this really is an impressive achievement. ...more

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Aug 20, 2023 Rhoda rated it liked it

Trying to describe what this book is about is no easy task. It’s like a series of short stories (about five of them) that are about a number of different characters, although all have one character that features in all of them, although I wouldn’t necessarily say that the book is about her - she is more just the constant that links the stories together.

The book is about moments, thoughts and ideas in the lives of the various characters and explore relationships, emigration, writing fiction, lon ...more

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Apr 19, 2018 Tango rated it really liked it

Michelle de Kretser's writing is lyrical and some of her insights into the human experience resonated with me. This book is made up of several parts, following the lives of different but connected characters, a structure that kept you interested in a book where not much seems to happen. Which is not to say that I didn't enjoy this, you could open to literally any page and find some beautiful writing. There wasn't, however, a strong narrative thread and any thematic threads were treated a bit too ...more

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Jan 20, 2024 Karen rated it it was ok

I really did not enjoy this book, it was a series of disconnected stories about people at different stages in their lives with a marginal connection to one another. I felt the book had no soul, and it was very boring at times as nothing seemed to happen.

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