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y separately published work icon Reaching Tin River single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 1990... 1990 Reaching Tin River
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Belle's mother was a drummer in an all-women's group before she turned vegetarian and went to live in a shack in the hills. Her father was a trumpeter Belle met for the first time in a Manhattan jazz bar. She had a husband, too, briefly - an upwardly mobile deputy librarian searching for the perfect sauce.Belle even had a best friend once, whose ebullience was finally subdued in vermouth and leather sofas.Their selves were their centres, and Belle realized she'd have to research much further to find her own ...' (Publication summary)

Notes

  • Dedication: If this morning and this meeting are dreams; each of us has to believe that he is the dreamer. perhaps we have stopped dreaming, perhaps not. Our obvious duty, meanwhile, is to accept the dream just as we accept the world and being born and seeing and breathing. from 'The Other' (The Book of Sand) by Jorge Luis Borges. (translated by Norman Thomas di Giovanni).

Contents

* Contents derived from the Melbourne, Victoria,:Text Publishing , 2018 version. Please note that other versions/publications may contain different contents. See the Publication Details.
Introduction, Jennifer Down , essay

'Until recently, I had not read Reaching Tin River, though I had admired several other novels by Thea Astley. If I had investigated its premise beforehand – a woman becomes obsessed with a long-dead man she glimpses in an archival photograph of early settlers – I am not certain I would have chosen to read it. Frankly, I’ve had my fill of novels about dead white men, of novels that romanticise our colonial past. And yet I should have known that I would be safe in Astley’s hands.'  (Introduction)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Port Melbourne, South Melbourne - Port Melbourne area, Melbourne - Inner South, Melbourne, Victoria,: Heinemann , 1990 .
      image of person or book cover 6571759612878410163.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 223p.
      ISBN: 9781863300650
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      G. P. Putnam's Sons ,
      1990 .
      image of person or book cover 1746740241783570003.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 223p.
      ISBN: 0399135324
    • Port Melbourne, South Melbourne - Port Melbourne area, Melbourne - Inner South, Melbourne, Victoria,: Minerva , 1996 .
      image of person or book cover 4636811797525000487.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 220p.p.
      ISBN: 1863304541
    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Text Publishing , 2018 .
      image of person or book cover 5231000140245876853.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 272p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 30 April 2018

      ISBN: 9781925603552
      Series: y separately published work icon Text Classics Text Publishing (publisher), Melbourne : Text Publishing , 2012- Z1851461 2012 series - publisher novel 'Great books by great Australian storytellers.' (Text website.)

Works about this Work

Introduction Jennifer Down , 2018 essay
— Appears in: Reaching Tin River 2018;

'Until recently, I had not read Reaching Tin River, though I had admired several other novels by Thea Astley. If I had investigated its premise beforehand – a woman becomes obsessed with a long-dead man she glimpses in an archival photograph of early settlers – I am not certain I would have chosen to read it. Frankly, I’ve had my fill of novels about dead white men, of novels that romanticise our colonial past. And yet I should have known that I would be safe in Astley’s hands.'  (Introduction)

Unsentimental Journey : Revisiting Thea Astley’s Reaching Tin River Jennifer Down , 2018 single work criticism
— Appears in: Kill Your Darlings [Online] , May 2018;

'Until recently, I had not read Reaching Tin River, though I had admired several other novels by Thea Astley. If I had investigated its premise beforehand – a woman becomes obsessed with a long-dead man she glimpses in an archival photograph of early settlers – I am not certain I would have chosen to read it. Frankly, I’ve had my fill of novels about dead white men, of novels that romanticise our colonial past. And yet I should have known that I would be safe in Astley’s hands.' (Introduction)

Portrayal of Librarians in Australian Creative Writing Australian Library Journal Michael Middleton , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Australian Library Journal , June vol. 60 no. 2 2011; (p. 144-154)
'An exploration is made of the ways in which librarians have been depicted in Australian creative writing. Reference is made to characters in novels, short stories, drama and poetry. With respect to novels, there is some consideration of characterisation and its relationship to plot.' Michael Middleton.
Thea Astley : Writing in Overpoweringly a Male Dominated Literary World Megha Trivedi , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Indian Review of World Literature in English , July vol. 6 no. 2 2010;
This paper is an attempt to explore different themes in the novels of Thea Astley.(p. 1)
Thea Astley's Failed Eden Paul Genoni , 2006 single work criticism
— Appears in: Thea Astley's Fictional Worlds 2006; (p. 153-163)
Untitled Shane McCauley , 1991 single work review
— Appears in: Fremantle Arts Review , December and vol. 6 no. 1 January vol. 5 no. 12 1991; (p. 13)

— Review of Reaching Tin River Thea Astley , 1990 single work novel
Travelling Inwards Rosemary Sorensen , 1990 single work review
— Appears in: The CRNLE Reviews Journal , no. 1 1990; (p. 48-54)

— Review of Reaching Tin River Thea Astley , 1990 single work novel ; Flying Lessons Susan Johnson , 1990 single work novel
About Books Marion Halligan , 1990 single work review
— Appears in: National Library of Australia News , October vol. 1 no. 1 1990; (p. 8-11)

— Review of The Kadaitcha Sung Sam Watson , 1990 single work novel ; Reaching Tin River Thea Astley , 1990 single work novel ; Sheep and the Diva : Stories David Brooks , 1990 selected work short story ; The Mighty World of Eye : Stories, Anti-Stories David Parker , 1990 selected work short story criticism ; Isobars Janette Turner Hospital , 1990 selected work short story ; Charades Janette Turner Hospital , 1988 single work novel ; The Great World David Malouf , 1990 single work novel ; Flying Lessons Susan Johnson , 1990 single work novel ; Invisible Histories Geoff Page , 1989 selected work short story poetry biography ; Marriages Amy Witting , 1990 selected work short story ; Ingelba and the Five Black Matriarchs 1990 single work life story ; The Story of the Year of 1912 in the Village of Elza Darzins : A Novel Thea Welsh , 1990 single work novel ; A Body of Water : A Year's Notebook Beverley Farmer , 1990 selected work autobiography short story poetry diary ; Smyrna : A Novel Tony Maniaty , 1989 single work novel
Untitled Damien Broderick , 1990 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 16 June 1990; (p. 8)

— Review of Rynosseros Terry Dowling , 1990 selected work short story ; Reaching Tin River Thea Astley , 1990 single work novel
Wide Horizons: Australian Science Fiction Brian Forte , 1991 single work review
— Appears in: Editions , March-April no. 10 1991; (p. 13-14)

— Review of Rynosseros Terry Dowling , 1990 selected work short story ; Reaching Tin River Thea Astley , 1990 single work novel ; A Pursuit of Miracles : Eight Stories George Turner , 1990 selected work short story ; Salt Gabrielle Lord , 1990 single work novel ; My Lady Tongue and Other Tales Lucy Sussex , 1990 selected work short story
'Passing Ghosts' : Reading the Family Album in Thea Astley's It's Raining in Mango and Reaching Tin River Julie Mullaney , 2001 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Studies , Summer vol. 16 no. 1 2001; (p. 23-44)
The Photographic Eye: The Camera in Recent Australian Fiction Paul Genoni , 2002 single work criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , December vol. 16 no. 2 2002; (p. 137-141)
Genoni discusses Australian novels, published largely in the late 1990s, that feature 'a character who is a cameraman or woman, sometimes professional, sometimes amateur, but to whom the world is framed, filtered and focused through the lens, the viewfinder, and the zoom.' He concludes, 'if we accept that space is produced by discursive practices, then we must question whether the text that is embedded in over 150 years of photgraphic production has not shaped an imagination that encounters space in terms of time as well as, or perhaps rather than, place.'
Thea Astley : Exploring the Centre Paul Genoni , 2004 single work criticism
— Appears in: Subverting the Empire : Explorers and Exploration in Australian Fiction 2004; (p. 97-144)
Thea Astley's Failed Eden Paul Genoni , 2006 single work criticism
— Appears in: Thea Astley's Fictional Worlds 2006; (p. 153-163)
Thea Astley : Writing in Overpoweringly a Male Dominated Literary World Megha Trivedi , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Indian Review of World Literature in English , July vol. 6 no. 2 2010;
This paper is an attempt to explore different themes in the novels of Thea Astley.(p. 1)

Awards

2010 shortlisted Australian Book Review Fan Poll
1990 winner New South Wales State Literary Awards Christina Stead Prize for Fiction
1990 shortlisted Miles Franklin Literary Award
Last amended 19 Nov 2019 11:23:10
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