AustLit

In this look back at Patrick White's Voss, Kenneally states that White was 'a genius, and Voss one of the finest works of the modernist era and of the past century.' He also suggests that 'Revisiting Voss now, one can see why even in Australia and among readers, White might not be read as much as his work merits. In the 1990s I "taught" Voss to a graduate seminar at New York University. One of the students who had been to Australia said, "What's eating this guy? I've been to Sydney and it's heaven on a stick!" She, and young Australians of her generation, no longer see Australia as an enormous, dangerous vacancy that can consume the pilgrim.'