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y separately published work icon The Trout Opera single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 2007... 2007 The Trout Opera
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

The Trout Opera 'is a stunning epic novel that encompasses twentieth-century Australia. Opening with a Christmas pageant on the banks of the Snowy River in 1906 and ending with the opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympics in 2000, it is the story of simple rabbiter and farmhand Wilfred Lampe who, at the end of his long life, is unwittingly swept up into an international spectacle. On the way he discovers a great-niece, the wild and troubled young Aurora, whom he never knew existed, and together they take an unlikely road trip that changes their lives. Wilfred, who has only ever left Dalgety once in almost a hundred years, comes face to face with contemporary Australia, and Aurora, enmeshed in the complex social problems of a modern nation, is taught how to repair her damaged life.

'This dazzling story - marvellously broad in its telling and superbly crafted - is about the changing nature of the Australian character, finding the source of human decency in a mad world, history, war, romance, murder, bushfires, drugs, the fragile and resilient nature of the environment and the art of fly fishing. It's the story of a man who has experienced the tumultuous reverberations of Australian history while never moving from his birthplace on the Snowy, and it asks, what constitutes a meaningful life?' (Publisher's blurb)

Notes

  • Dedication: For my darling wife, Kate, with all my love
  • Epigraph: Whatever lies under a stone
    Lies under the stone of the world
    'The Green Centipede' by Douglas Stewart

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Milsons Point, North Sydney - Lane Cove area, Sydney Northern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: Vintage Australia , 2007 .
      image of person or book cover 6330265135498353102.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 582p.p.
      Note/s:
      • Published September 28 2011
      ISBN: 9781740510325

Other Formats

Works about this Work

Fish-out-of-Water : Mainstreaming Settler-Colonial Myths of Origin in Matthew Condon’s The Trout Opera Karl Ricker , 2021 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 21 no. 2 2021;

'Since the 1980s, Australian critical and creative writers have employed family history as an adaptive metaphor for challenging hegemonic representations of national descent. Literary and cultural critics, in particular, describe a strong connection between complex literary representations of family in self-reflective and generically hybrid novels and an increasingly inclusive national cultural imaginary. In this article, I investigate how genealogy functions as a trope for reimagining dominant models of cultural representation in Matthew Condon’s The Trout Opera (2007). Condon’s novel exhibits both a degree of self-reflexivity and generic hybridity. However, it provides a counterpoint to what critics have described as the productive potential of filial allegories of nation. In both theme and structure, Condon’s novel dramatises a transition to a multicultural order that reproduces the cultural authority of the white patriarchal order it replaces. Genealogy, in this instance, serves as a quasi-biological metanarrative to naturalise the assimilation of multiple cultural identities and experiences in a settler colonial myth of origin. I employ Edward Said’s (1983) model of filiation and affiliation to examine the thematic and generic affiliations underpinning this dialectical manoeuvre and to illuminate how the discursive effects of genealogy are mediated by the author’s subject position and the genre(s) they employ.' (Publication abstract)

The Interview : Matthew Condon Phillip Edmonds (interviewer), 2009 single work interview
— Appears in: Wet Ink , March no. 14 2009; (p. 23-27)
Fish Tales : Catches of the Dazed Sara Dowse , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 10 January 2009; (p. 13)

— Review of The Trout Opera Matthew Condon , 2007 single work novel ; Gould's Book of Fish : A Novel in Twelve Fish Richard Flanagan , 2001 single work novel
An Epic yet Intimate Opera Amanda Bales , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: Antipodes , December vol. 22 no. 2 2008; (p. 173-174)

— Review of The Trout Opera Matthew Condon , 2007 single work novel
The Year's Work in Fiction : 2007-2008 Roger Bourke , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: Westerly , November vol. 53 no. 2008; (p. 50-58)

— Review of From : The Time We Have Taken Steven Carroll , 2007 extract novel ; Prime Cuts Angus Gaunt , 2008 selected work short story ; The Best Australian Stories 2007 2007 anthology short story extract autobiography ; The Trout Opera Matthew Condon , 2007 single work novel ; Fear of Tennis David Cohen , 2007 single work novel ; The Complete Stories David Malouf , 2007 selected work short story ; Redfin Anthony Lynch , 2007 selected work short story ; Rohypnol Andrew Hutchinson , 2006 single work novel ; Breath Tim Winton , 2008 single work novel ; The Last Sky Alice Nelson , 2008 single work novel ; Landscape of Farewell Alex Miller , 2007 single work novel ; A History of the Beanbag : And Other Stories Susan Midalia , 2007 selected work short story ; Dead Birds Trevor Shearston , 2007 single work novel ; Secrets of the Sea Nicholas Shakespeare , 2007 single work novel ; Other Country Stephen Scourfield , 2007 single work novel ; The Low Road Chris Womersley , 2007 single work novel ; Lilia's Secret Erina Reddan , 2007 single work novel
Untitled Angela Meyer , 2007 single work review
— Appears in: Bookseller + Publisher Magazine , October vol. 87 no. 4 2007; (p. 46)

— Review of The Trout Opera Matthew Condon , 2007 single work novel
Our Story, Told in a Fish's Tale Carmel Bird , 2007 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 3 November 2007; (p. 25)

— Review of The Trout Opera Matthew Condon , 2007 single work novel
The Right Sort of People Behaving Badly Delia Falconer , 2007 single work review
— Appears in: The Australian Literary Review , November vol. 2 no. 10 2007; (p. 6-7)

— Review of Jamaica : A Novel Malcolm Knox , 2007 single work novel ; The Trout Opera Matthew Condon , 2007 single work novel ; The Lost Dog Michelle De Kretser , 2007 single work novel
Untitled Liam Davison , 2007 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 10-11 November 2007; (p. 15)

— Review of The Trout Opera Matthew Condon , 2007 single work novel
Evocative Story Spoilt By Soapy Subplots A. P. Riemer , 2007 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 10-11 November 2007; (p. 32-33)

— Review of The Trout Opera Matthew Condon , 2007 single work novel
Gone Fishing Angela Meyer (interviewer), 2007 single work interview
— Appears in: Bookseller + Publisher Magazine , October vol. 87 no. 4 2007; (p. 52)
A Man of Snowy River Lynne Minion , 2007 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 3 November 2007; (p. 8-9)
Ray of Inspiration Matthew Condon , 2007 single work column
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 10 November 2007; (p. 14)
The Big One Took Its Time to Mature into an Epic Rosemary Sorensen , 2007 single work biography
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 10-11 November 2007; (p. 14-15)
Everyman Has Day after 10 Years' Work Angela Bennie , 2008 single work column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 17 April 2008; (p. 3)
Last amended 17 Jun 2020 13:38:36
Settings:
  • Dalgety, Berridale - Dalgety area, Cooma - Snowy - Bombala area, Southeastern NSW, New South Wales,
  • Sydney, New South Wales,
  • 1900-1999
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