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y separately published work icon Relatively Famous single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 2018... 2018 Relatively Famous
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Michael and Majorie Madigan refuse to be interviewed by biographer Sinclair Hughes  for his new book Inside the Lion's Den: The Literary Life of Gilbert Madigan. This is not surprising as Gilbert is Marjorie's ex- husband and Michael's mostly absent father.

'In Roger Averill's brilliantly conceived  new novel, Relatively Famous, Gilbert  Madigan is Australia's first Booker Prize winner, a feted and much lauded author that the U.K. and U.S. now likes to call their own. Michael cannot escape his father's life and work, and at times his own life seems swallowed by it. His father's success is a source of undeniable pleasure but also of great turmoil. How  does one live in the shadow of a famous relative who we never seem to be able to live up to?

'In a world increasingly obsessed  with  fame and celebrity, this engrossing  novel subtly explores  notions of success , masculinity, betrayal and loss, and ultimately what it might mean to live a good life.' (Publication summary)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Yarraville, Footscray - Maribyrnong area, Melbourne - West, Melbourne, Victoria,: Transit Lounge , 2018 .
      image of person or book cover 3514241242086326240.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 304p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 1 April 2018

      ISBN: 9780995409897

Works about this Work

'Something More Than Nothing' Shannon Burns , 2018 single work essay
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , May no. 401 2018; (p. 36)

'In Relatively Famous, Roger Averill combines a fictional memoir with extracts from a faux-biography of the memoirist’s Booker Prize-winning father, Gilbert Madigan. The biography amounts to a fairly bloodless summary of the events of Madigan’s life, and his son’s memoir is similarly sedate. This makes for a limp but sensitively conceived novel about paternal failure and the extent to which parents remain the authors of their children’s lives.' (Introduction)

'Something More Than Nothing' Shannon Burns , 2018 single work essay
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , May no. 401 2018; (p. 36)

'In Relatively Famous, Roger Averill combines a fictional memoir with extracts from a faux-biography of the memoirist’s Booker Prize-winning father, Gilbert Madigan. The biography amounts to a fairly bloodless summary of the events of Madigan’s life, and his son’s memoir is similarly sedate. This makes for a limp but sensitively conceived novel about paternal failure and the extent to which parents remain the authors of their children’s lives.' (Introduction)

Last amended 22 Nov 2018 15:35:34
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