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A Skilful, Menacing Update to a Convict Saga single work   review   essay  
Issue Details: First known date: 2017... 2017 A Skilful, Menacing Update to a Convict Saga
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'There’s a long tradition in Tasmanian literature of the gothic convict saga. In fact, Tasmanians do the convict novel better than anyone. We have a wealth of mythology, trope and imagery on which to draw and an outsized sense of our own past, a past that’s visible in the architecture wherever you go on the island.

'Our best known book, Marcus Clarke’s For the Term of His Natural Life, provided the template and writers have iterated on it down the generations. Think particularly of Richard Butler, Bryce Courtenay, Christopher Koch and Richard Flanagan. Now Rachel Leary has provided us with a contemporary, skilful update on the dustier of these traditions in her new novel Bridget Crack.' (Introduction)

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Last amended 12 Sep 2017 10:54:59
20 Review A Skilful, Menacing Update to a Convict Sagasmall AustLit logo The Weekend Australian
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