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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Dante and Johnno are unlikely childhood friends, growing up in the bustle of steamy, wartime Brisbane. Later, as teenagers, they learn about love and life amidst the city's pubs and public libraries, backyards and brothels, Moreton Bay figs and tennis parties. As adults, they make the great pilgrimage overseas and maintain an uneasy friendship as they seek to build their lives.
'An affectionate and bittersweet portrait, Johnno brilliantly recreates the sleazy, tropical half-city that was Brisbane and captures a generation locked in combat with the elusive Australian dream.'
Source: Publisher's blurb (Penguin).
Adaptations
Notes
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Dedication: for Carlo Olivieri.
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Epigraph: 'I have great comfort from this fellow. Methinks he hath no drowning mark upon him; his complexion is perfect gallows. Stand fast, good Fate, to his hanging! Make the rope of his destiny our cable, for our own doth little advantage. If he be not born to be hanged, our case is miserable.' (Shakespeare)
Contents
- Preface to the 1998 Anniversary Edition, single work essay
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Sound recording.
- Braille.
Works about this Work
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London, Paris, Bracken Ridge—Nothing Ever Happens Here
2019
single work
essay
— Appears in: Meanjin Online 2019; -
Exile’s Return : Change Was in the Air
2019
single work
criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 19 no. 1 2019; 'In September 1963 I boarded the ship, the Fairsky, in Port Melbourne, and waved goodbye to my parents and my girlfriend. I was 23 years old and leaving Australia for the first time. The Fairsky was one of many ships that had served in the Second World War and then been repurposed in the immediate post-war years. In this case, she had served for both the USA and Royal navies, firstly as USS Barnes and then as HMS Attacker, before being converted initially for use as a cargo carrier (the Castel Forte), and eventually undergoing another major refit for passenger use in 1957, from which she re-emerged as Fairsky.' (Introduction) -
A Unique and Necessary Form
2018
single work
essay
— Appears in: Westerly , November vol. 63 no. 2 2018; (p. 10-15)'Story-telling, the pleasure of sitting in close company and listening to a story, allowing oneself to float free in the moment and enter, both in the senses and in imagination, into the story's events so that the story becomes our own, must be one of the oldest and earliest of our pleasures - a function of that uniquely human faculty in us, the capacity to step beyond the actual into the possible.' (Introduction)
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Writing about Asia from Australia : Notes Towards Avoiding a Firm View
2017
single work
criticism
— Appears in: TEXT Special Issue Website Series , October no. 47 2017;'This discursive essay – part exegesis, part literary analysis – analyses the act of writing about Asia from Australia (and from the west). I use the circumstances of my early childhood to frame my interest in ‘Asia’, suggesting that Australia is a genuinely diverse nation that is engaged with the region but that it also retains and values a monocultural outlook. In turn, I analyse several novels by westerners about Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge (including my own novel, Figurehead) to reflect on, first, cultural appropriation, and, second, the limits of empathy in fiction.'
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Remembering Johnno
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: Meanjin , December vol. 76 no. 4 2017; (p. 4-6)' We're in the Arts West forum at the University of Melbourne on a freezing July evening and David Malouf is telling his audience that he has just re-read Johnno for the first time in more than 40 years: The parts of the book I like best are not about either of the central characters, but all the stuff about Brisbane. It really is a history of Brisbane [in the 1940s and 1950s] which had never been written, and it's an attempt to produce for readers all the detail of what it was like to live in that atmosphere, with that weather, and with that particular social structure. There is a huge amount of detail in the book and I treat that detail as if it were in a poem, so that there is something sensuously felt and emblematic of something larger. I think that's probably the most successful aspect of the book.' (Introduction)
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[Review] Johnno
1985
single work
review
— Appears in: Fremantle Arts Centre Broadsheet , January - February vol. 4 no. 1 1985; (p. 3)
— Review of Johnno : A Novel 1975 single work novel -
The Queenslanders
1976
single work
review
— Appears in: The National Times , 28 June-3 July 1976; (p. 23)
— Review of Johnno : A Novel 1975 single work novel ; A Place Among People 1975 single work novel ; The Queenslander 1975 single work novel -
Kev. and Davie and Johnno
1975
single work
review
— Appears in: Quadrant , June vol. 19 no. 3 1975; (p. 95-96)
— Review of Johnno : A Novel 1975 single work novel -
On the Occasion of Reading Seven Australian Book Length Pieces of Fiction (at least)
1975
single work
review
— Appears in: Makar , December vol. 11 no. 3 1975; (p. 42-51)
— Review of Johnno : A Novel 1975 single work novel ; A Place Among People 1975 single work novel ; The Short Story Embassy : A Novel 1975 single work novel ; The West Midland Underground : Stories 1975 selected work short story ; Tamarisk Row 1974 single work novel ; A Collapsible Man 1975 single work novel ; Contemporary Portraits and Other Stories 1975 selected work short story -
New Modes in Fiction
1976
single work
review
— Appears in: Southerly , December vol. 36 no. 4 1976; (p. 442-459)
— Review of Johnno : A Novel 1975 single work novel ; The Short Story Embassy : A Novel 1975 single work novel ; Living Together 1974 single work novel ; The Electrical Experience : A Discontinuous Narrative 1974 selected work short story ; A Kindness Cup 1974 single work novel ; Wrappings 1974 selected work short story -
BookMarks
2003
single work
column
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 26 April 2003; (p. 6) -
Queensland Literature : Is It Different?
1987
single work
criticism
— Appears in: LiNQ , vol. 15 no. 3 1987; (p. 45-51) -
Democracy? Not Likely, Says Council
2004
single work
column
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 21 April 2004; (p. 1, 8) -
City May Prove Big Enough for a Tale of Two Books
2004
single work
column
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 22 April 2004; (p. 3) -
Anger at Book Poll
2004
single work
correspondence
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 22 April 2004; (p. 14)
Awards
- 2004 joint winner One Book One Brisbane
- 2003 shortlisted One Book One Brisbane
- Queensland,
- Brisbane, Queensland,
- ca. 1940-1970