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Johnno is Malouf’s first novel and is written in the first person past tense and the narrator is only ever known by the nickname "Dante".
Apparently the book is very heavily autobiographical. It starts with Dante clearing out his father's house after his death. He finds a photograph of his friend Johnno, and the rest is for the most part reverie.
The story is centred upon the friendship between Dante and a schoolmate known as "Johnno" in their discontented adolescence and early adulthood in the ...more
Apparently the book is very heavily autobiographical. It starts with Dante clearing out his father's house after his death. He finds a photograph of his friend Johnno, and the rest is for the most part reverie.
The story is centred upon the friendship between Dante and a schoolmate known as "Johnno" in their discontented adolescence and early adulthood in the ...more
5★
I loved it – the style, the descriptions of time and place, the feeling of impatient youth, the impetuousness of kids when they disobey to show off, the virtual shedding of parental shackles at uni – all of it. Most writers have been through their own versions of these things, but Malouf translates it to the page better than most.
This does not read like a first novel, but more like the work of a seasoned writer who is now looking back at some early experiences and weaving them into this story ...more
I loved it – the style, the descriptions of time and place, the feeling of impatient youth, the impetuousness of kids when they disobey to show off, the virtual shedding of parental shackles at uni – all of it. Most writers have been through their own versions of these things, but Malouf translates it to the page better than most.
This does not read like a first novel, but more like the work of a seasoned writer who is now looking back at some early experiences and weaving them into this story ...more
For such a small book there's is certainly a lot packed into this thought-provoking, semi-autobiographical, debut novel. It doesn't seem like a debut at all: there is great precision in the words designed to evoke time, place & emotion.
“Australia was familiar and boring.” That compelling desire to get away to something more, something greater, & the inability not to return, remains, particularly for the young. Malouf's words conjure how much more so it must have been in the post-war, stagnant, s ...more
“Australia was familiar and boring.” That compelling desire to get away to something more, something greater, & the inability not to return, remains, particularly for the young. Malouf's words conjure how much more so it must have been in the post-war, stagnant, s ...more
I enjoyed the book a lot more when I read the author's afterword at the end. I really didn't like the antagonist of the story (Johnno) but the tale was well told and, as always with Malouf, beautifully written. Never really got me in in the same way that Fly Away Peter did but, in the end, I was glad I read it.
...more
Apr 19, 2011
Shelleyrae at Book'd Out
marked it as to-read
Feb 13, 2022
Marianela
marked it as to-read
Mar 03, 2022
Angela
marked it as to-read
Jul 24, 2022
Tess
marked it as to-read
Jan 01, 2025
Kim
marked it as to-read
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review of another edition
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