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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'A guide to the world of Amanda Lohrey's fiction, and a meditation on what her writing has to say about contemporary life and how we live it.
'Amanda Lohrey is a fearless and idiosyncratic writer whose award-winning career spans four decades. Her work is experimental, political, intimate and compelling. Lohrey provides an illuminating series of readings of key preoccupations across Lohrey's body of work. From the relationship of the personal to the political, masculinity and free will, human and non-human worlds and how reading shapes us, Lohrey traces a remarkable career across the contemporary literary landscape, and provides readers with an understanding of Lohrey's bold and singular style.' (Publication summary)
Notes
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Author's note: For my mother, Margaret
Contents
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Introduction,
single work
essay
(p. 1)'Amanda Lohrey is a bold and idiosyncratic writer. Her novels chronicle the forces that shape intimate and social experience in the contemporary world, taking seriously the difficult decisions of daily life: what food to cat; how to relate to others; where to live; what structure family should take; how to make a living. She presents these matters in a style that is calm, restrained, lean, and at the same time open to mystery and the unknown. Lohrey's fiction makes coherent what might seem contradictory: a sharp political interest coupled with strong empathy for personal circumstance; an interest in the material world and also in the metaphysical realm; a sense of curiosity and poetic richness that never gives the impression of getting carried away. ' (Introduction)
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The Politics of Renovation,
single work
essay
(p. 32-59)In Lohrey's third novel Camille's Bread, Stephen is obsessed with Japanese forms of traditional medicine in the form of Zen shiatsu and macrobiotics. In The Project of the Self under Late Capitalism, an essay published in Overland in 2001, Lohrey argues that we would do better to see interests such as Stephen's as of an exercise in mindless narcissism and more about the individual's attempts to find a sphere of freedom and agency ... in response to experiences of powerlessness and worthlessness under regimes of economic rationalism: Lohrey's novels reflect on what happens to people's utopian impulses in the face of increasing barriers to meaningful engagement in politics. They trace a shift from a 195os water-front in which communal identity is deeply entwined with politics to a disillusionment with public life and a commensurate turn of attention inwards, towards the self and the body, from the 198os onwards.' (Introduction)
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Free Solo,
single work
essay
(p. 60-87)'Early in the writing of this book I went to see a film called Free Solo. It is about a remarkable feat of human courage and strength: a man climbing the goo-metre high rock face, El Capitan, without ropes or harness. The film looks at the psychology of Alex Honnold, the man who could do some-thing that would seem, to most people, utterly terrifying. He is single minded to such an extent that he comes across as comic. He starts a relationship with a woman while they are filming: 'I don't mind having her in the van, he says of his new girlfriend. 'She's pretty; she doesn't take up too much space.' His climbing friends discuss the risks of entering into a relationship when attempting such a difficult goal. Would his concern for her impact his capacity to carry it out? I tried not to guffaw when he referred to himself as a warrior. Facing down and ignoring danger. Here I thought is a kind of masculinity that 'gets the job done.' It prides itself on its lack of encumbrance. Solitude. There is no concern for the minutiae of life: he eats his dinner with the spatula he used to cook it. Such embodiment of masculinity enables a focus so intense that a man can balance his body on a tiny foothold 800 metres in the air while he switches his grip between one thumb and the other. And in doing so, he achieves an act of the the most extreme self-reliance and, arguably, pride: doing the most dangerous thing without dying.'
(Introduction)
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Fire,
single work
essay
(p. 88-118)Much of the Great Dividing Range that runs across Eastern Australia was burning while I wrote this book. In Canberra our days were punctuated with the anxious checking of air quality and emergency services apps. Amanda Lohrey is a writer who speaks to these times: her work is concerned with the relationship between people and the communities and environments they live with. More specifically, she writes about our apprehension of crisis and its proximity. Lohrey's novels use the motif of fire to engage with ethical and political questions about how individuals feel, and take, responsibility for others, especially in relation to environmental crisis. Fire acts both as symbol and plot device in Lohrey's novels and stories; it is a real crisis that is also a metaphor for catastrophe more generally. This is especially the case in The Reading Group (1988) and Vertigo: A Pastoral (2008). Two decades separate the publication of these novels, and formally they are extremely different, yet they show the continuation of a series of ideas about the relationship between personal and political conflagrations: how private life is impacted by political events, and how it can also be understood through the lens of large-scale crisis such as fire.' (Introduction)
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Scenes of Reading,
single work
essay
(p. 119-137)'Scenes of reading are everywhere in Lohrey's fiction, which throughout questions what reading does to and for us. Her work explores its frustrations, disappointments, limits, and trans-formative potential. In her novels books are set by well-meaning reading groups, picked up by chance in second-hand shops or coffee tables, inherited by unwilling daughters and sons. They are hidden under the bed, stolen by ASIO, burned as instructed. And they are read for reasons ranging from duty, political education, information, boredom, desperation, meaning, and guidance. Lohrey's interest in reading is concrete: not only are we told that her characters are reading, why and where. In this way her work is deeply intertextual. We read over the shoulders of Lohrey's characters, with excerpts of the books they are reading. Lohrey's readers are prompted to realise the process taking place while they are encountering her work: the act of reading, we are reminded, is a singular moment in which a work takes on specific meanings for each reader. It is both intensely private and a site of connection with other readers, writers and potential selves.' (Publication summary)
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Interview,
Julieanne Lamond
(interviewer),
single work
interview
(p. 138-162)'Tasmania's Parliament House is a graceful Georgian sandstone building facing the Hobart waterfront. It is here, on the steps of the parliament, that Amanda Lohrey suggested we meet for the interview, so that I could see at firsthand the docks and backstreets of the waterfront that constituted the setting of her first novel, The Morality of Gentlemen. Lohrey has a frank, straightforward manner and a penetrating gaze. There is a steadiness about her, as though others can flap about all they like and she'll wait until they have finished. She has a remarkable voice, deep and sonorous, which holds a calm authority but is very ready to register a wry humour. The first interview was conducted outdoors in October 2018, as Lohrey showed me around the adjacent historic suburb of Battery Point where she spent her early childhood. The interview was recorded on my phone as we walked up and down hilly, narrow streets that are now thoroughly gentrified. The inter-view continued in a cafe in Salamanca Place and continued over email across the subsequent two years. We began, in the streets of Battery Point, by talking about money, real estate, and Lohrey's childhood.' (Introduction)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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[Review] Lohrey
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: Journal of Australian Studies , vol. 47 no. 4 2023; (p. 796-797)
— Review of Lohrey 2022 selected work essay'Amanda Lohrey’s seventh novel, The Labyrinth, won the 2021 Miles Franklin Literary Award and is well regarded by readers and critics alike. Julieanne Lamond’s 2022 Lohrey alerts us to the longevity of Lohrey’s career and how her “newfound” popularity has been a long time coming. Lamond’s Lohrey is part of Miegunyah’s Contemporary Australian Writers series. The book is set out thematically and mainly discusses Lohrey’s seven novels, The Morality of Gentlemen (1984), The Reading Group (1988), Camille’s Bread (1995), The Philosopher’s Doll (2004), Vertigo: A Pastoral (2009), A Short History of Richard Kline (2015) and The Labyrinth (2020), but she also touches on Lohrey’s collection of short stories: Reading Madame Bovary (2010). Lamond reflects on Lohrey’s 40-year career as an author and finds the diversity of Lohrey’s writing has enabled her to remain relevant but at the same time has made her difficult to market and promote: “Hers is a deeply independent approach to fiction, often out of step with prevailing trends” (24).' (Introduction)
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Julieanne Lamond. Lohrey
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: JASAL , 10 August vol. 23 no. 1 2023;
— Review of Lohrey 2022 selected work essay 'Most will be familiar with Amanda Lohrey’s Miles Franklin-winning 2020 novel The
Labyrinth, but many will not have explored the rich body of work this author has produced
over the several decades of her career. Julieanne Lamond’s book-length study is both an
introduction to Lohrey for readers and academics, as well as a call for scholars of Australian literature to pay due attention to this significant Australian writer.'(Introduction)
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Review of Lohrey by Julieanne Lamond
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , 2 May vol. 38 no. 1 2023;
— Review of Lohrey 2022 selected work essay'From her first novel, The Morality of Gentlemen (1984), Amanda Lohrey represented a unique, intriguing, and necessary voice in Australian literature. As Julieanne Lamond’s study Lohrey traces, she was both part of but distinct from the 1980s boom in Australian women’s writing and has gone on to produce a diverse oeuvre of novels, short stories, journalism, and nonfiction that captures late twentieth and early twenty-first century Australian life – texts that ‘chronicle the forces that shape intimate and social experience in the contemporary world’ (Lamond 1). Surprisingly, Lohrey’s work has received comparatively scant critical attention, with much of it focused on the controversial pulping of The Reading Group in 1989, making this first monograph on Lohrey a welcome and much needed addition to Australian literary studies and studies of contemporary women writers.' (Introduction)
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Reworking the Narrative : A Critical Study of Amanda Lohrey’s Writing
2022
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , September no. 446 2022; (p. 31-32)
— Review of Lohrey 2022 selected work essay'The Labyrinth begins with a woman walking through her childhood home – a decommissioned asylum. In middle age she moves to a run-down house by a wild and dangerous sea, where she notes her vivid and prophetic dreams. The house is convenient because she needs to be close to her son, an imprisoned artist. She befriends a stonemason who offers to carve her a gargoyle (which she refuses). Together they design and build her version of a labyrinth, a prayer or meditation path most famously realised in the great medieval cathedral of Chartres, although Lohrey’s antipodean labyrinth is not a homage to the Chartres labyrinth, or an imitation.' (Introduction)
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Reworking the Narrative : A Critical Study of Amanda Lohrey’s Writing
2022
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , September no. 446 2022; (p. 31-32)
— Review of Lohrey 2022 selected work essay'The Labyrinth begins with a woman walking through her childhood home – a decommissioned asylum. In middle age she moves to a run-down house by a wild and dangerous sea, where she notes her vivid and prophetic dreams. The house is convenient because she needs to be close to her son, an imprisoned artist. She befriends a stonemason who offers to carve her a gargoyle (which she refuses). Together they design and build her version of a labyrinth, a prayer or meditation path most famously realised in the great medieval cathedral of Chartres, although Lohrey’s antipodean labyrinth is not a homage to the Chartres labyrinth, or an imitation.' (Introduction)
-
Review of Lohrey by Julieanne Lamond
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , 2 May vol. 38 no. 1 2023;
— Review of Lohrey 2022 selected work essay'From her first novel, The Morality of Gentlemen (1984), Amanda Lohrey represented a unique, intriguing, and necessary voice in Australian literature. As Julieanne Lamond’s study Lohrey traces, she was both part of but distinct from the 1980s boom in Australian women’s writing and has gone on to produce a diverse oeuvre of novels, short stories, journalism, and nonfiction that captures late twentieth and early twenty-first century Australian life – texts that ‘chronicle the forces that shape intimate and social experience in the contemporary world’ (Lamond 1). Surprisingly, Lohrey’s work has received comparatively scant critical attention, with much of it focused on the controversial pulping of The Reading Group in 1989, making this first monograph on Lohrey a welcome and much needed addition to Australian literary studies and studies of contemporary women writers.' (Introduction)
-
Julieanne Lamond. Lohrey
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: JASAL , 10 August vol. 23 no. 1 2023;
— Review of Lohrey 2022 selected work essay 'Most will be familiar with Amanda Lohrey’s Miles Franklin-winning 2020 novel The
Labyrinth, but many will not have explored the rich body of work this author has produced
over the several decades of her career. Julieanne Lamond’s book-length study is both an
introduction to Lohrey for readers and academics, as well as a call for scholars of Australian literature to pay due attention to this significant Australian writer.'(Introduction)
-
[Review] Lohrey
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: Journal of Australian Studies , vol. 47 no. 4 2023; (p. 796-797)
— Review of Lohrey 2022 selected work essay'Amanda Lohrey’s seventh novel, The Labyrinth, won the 2021 Miles Franklin Literary Award and is well regarded by readers and critics alike. Julieanne Lamond’s 2022 Lohrey alerts us to the longevity of Lohrey’s career and how her “newfound” popularity has been a long time coming. Lamond’s Lohrey is part of Miegunyah’s Contemporary Australian Writers series. The book is set out thematically and mainly discusses Lohrey’s seven novels, The Morality of Gentlemen (1984), The Reading Group (1988), Camille’s Bread (1995), The Philosopher’s Doll (2004), Vertigo: A Pastoral (2009), A Short History of Richard Kline (2015) and The Labyrinth (2020), but she also touches on Lohrey’s collection of short stories: Reading Madame Bovary (2010). Lamond reflects on Lohrey’s 40-year career as an author and finds the diversity of Lohrey’s writing has enabled her to remain relevant but at the same time has made her difficult to market and promote: “Hers is a deeply independent approach to fiction, often out of step with prevailing trends” (24).' (Introduction)
Awards
- 2023 highly commended Australian Capital Territory Book of the Year Award
- 2023 joint winner ASAL Awards — Walter McRae Russell Award
