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Notes
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Editor's note: Melbourne-born George Johnston served as a correspondent in New Guinea during 1942-43, and later in Burma, China, Tibet, Italy and the North Atlantic, also visiting Japan shortly after its surrender. His trans-Asian wartime travels form the subject of his book Journey Through Tomorrow (1947). Johnston produced several other books about various theatres of war, including New Guinea Diary (1943) and Battle of the Seaways (1941). In this, his most famous work, his fictional substitute David Meredith evokes Australian exhilaration at and complacency about the beginning of another military adventure. It is September 1939, and the mythic passion for fighting in faraway places is burning in Meredith's brother Jack.
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From Chapter 14 pp. 299-301, 302
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Related Works
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y
My Brother Jack : A Novel
London
Sydney
:
Collins
,
1964
Z824887
1964
single work
novel
(taught in 13 units)
''The thing I am trying to get at is what made Jack different from me. Different all through our lives, I mean, and in a special sense, not just older or nobler or braver or less clever.'
'David and Jack Meredith grow up in a patriotic suburban Melbourne household during the First World War, and go on to lead lives that could not be more different. Through the story of the two brothers, George Johnston created an enduring exploration of two Australian myths: that of the man who loses his soul as he gains worldly success, and that of the tough, honest Aussie battler, whose greatest ambition is to serve his country during the war. Acknowledged as one of the true Australian classics, My Brother Jack is a deeply satisfying, complex and moving literary masterpiece. ' (Publication summary)
