AustLit
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.
Latest Issues
AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Having come of age on the island nation of Ceylon, Sam Obeysekere is a lawyer whose life is guided by the British culture that dominates his homeland. Educated at Oxford, with a dazzling career in his sights, Sam is more English than the English. Only his flamboyant, unruly mother, exiled to a jungle estate, reminds him of his family's real heritage and a different set of home truths. Sam's undoing arrives in the form of the Hamilton case, a scandalous murder that shakes the upper echelons of island society. Guided by grandiose visions of Sherlock Holmes, he becomes convinced he can solve the mysterious case - and that his good standing with the English will insulate him from the unrest the case has exposed. In the end, Sam grapples with a life that has been "a series of substitutions," the darkest of human misfortunes.'--BOOK JACKET.
Notes
-
Listed in The New York Times Book Review's list of Notable Books for 2004.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
Aporetic Australia in 'The White Tiger', 'The Boat' and 'The Hamilton Case'
2012
single work
criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 12 no. 2 2012; The paper investigates the significance of the aporetic presence of Australia in three important works of contemporary fiction that deal with Asian experience: The Hamilton Case (2003) by Michelle de Kretser, the story 'Love and Honor and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice' from The Boat (2008) by Nam Le, and The White Tiger (2008) by Aravind Adiga. Each author has links to Australia. In the case of The White Tiger, the paper considers the different contexts in which it can be read, including specifically Indian English Fiction, and argues that Australia offers a further context, a disappearing point, as 'a moral as well as a narrative alternative'. In the case of Nam Le's story Australia appears as the enabling ground for a 'defining but transitional, diasporic identity'. In The Hamilton Case Australia is an imaginary alternative and site for shape-changing and revenant stories. In considering these works as arguably examples of a new, mobile Asian Australian writing, the paper notes how they relate to and at the same time extend the parameters of Australian literature. -
Aborigines, Sharks and Australian Accents : On Australian Writing
2011
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Kill Your Darlings , July no. 6 2011; (p. 41-51)'Jo Case talks to influential writers, publishers and critics about that often frustrating definition of 'Australia' literature.' (Editor's abstract)
-
Bookmarks
2007
single work
column
— Appears in: The Age , 22 September 2007; (p. 30) A column canvassing current literary news including the controversial proposed sale of poet Judith Wright's old home, and recent literary prizes awarded to Stefan Laszczuk and Michelle De Kretser. -
The Wider Shores of Gothic
2007
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Meanjin , vol. 66 no. 2 2007; (p. 149-156) Examines the 'gothic tradition in Australian and contemporary 'Australasian' fiction'. (Meanjin) -
The De Kretser Case : a Note on Writing in English
2005
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Inter-Asia Cultural Studies , vol. 6 no. 3 2005; (p. 446-451) 'How is the content of a literary canon, or tradition to be configured? What counts as a literary archive? More than 25 years after Edward Said's Orientalism (1978), it seems reasonable to assume, that central to such traditions, would be the work of those who live and work in the society that gives rise to it. In this review, such a location of Michelle de Kretser's new novel, The Hamilton Case is offered, as a caution to metropolitan literary critics who continue to approach Sri Lankan writing in English, as Christopher Columbus approached 'America'. It is argued that the novel owes much to, and can be read as echoing and elaborating the detective fiction of S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, who was, also, the fourth Prime Minister of Ceylon (Sri Lanka), 1956-1959' (author's abstract).
-
Sins of Family, and the World
2003
single work
review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 29 March 2003; (p. 8)
— Review of The Hamilton Case 2003 single work novel -
Deadly Melancholy in Colonial Haze
2003
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 18-20 April 2003; (p. 14-15)
— Review of The Hamilton Case 2003 single work novel -
As the Sleuth Sets on Empire
2003
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 26-27 April 2003; (p. 8-9)
— Review of The Hamilton Case 2003 single work novel -
Fraying Nerves
2003
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , May no. 251 2003; (p. 46)
— Review of The Hamilton Case 2003 single work novel -
Crazy Detail in the Big Picture
2003
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 10 May 2003; (p. 5)
— Review of The Hamilton Case 2003 single work novel -
Island of Insight
2003
single work
biography
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 5-6 April 2003; (p. 6) -
The Unreliable Narrator
2003
single work
column
— Appears in: The Sunday Age , 20 April 2003; (p. 10) -
Haunted by History's Ghosts
2003
single work
biography
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 19 April 2003; (p. 1a-2a) -
Bookmarks : De Kretser's Big Week
2004
single work
column
— Appears in: The Age , 22 May 2004; (p. 6) -
The Beauty and the Menace
Barry Scott
(interviewer),
2004
single work
interview
— Appears in: Meanjin , vol. 63 no. 2 2004; (p. 97-107) Barry Scott talks to Michelle De Kretser about Sri Lanka and the writing of fiction.
Awards
- 2007 winner Frankfurt Literaturpreis
- 2005 winner Tasmania Pacific Region Prize — Tasmania Pacific Fiction Prize
- 2005 longlisted International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
- 2004 second Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Awards — Fiction
- 2004 winner Encore Award
Last amended 11 Jun 2020 13:20:02
Settings:
-
cSri Lanka,cSouth Asia, South and East Asia, Asia,
- 1930s
Export this record