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y separately published work icon Amy's Children single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 1987... 1987 Amy's Children
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'The getting away was terrible.

Kathleen was very white and Patricia buried herself in the corner of the couch and cried quietly like a grown-up. Lebby had a fever and May had put her into the double bed under the speckled eiderdown. It was ironic that May should spare Lebby from witnessing the departure, since she was the one least troubled by it.

When Amy came into the kitchen with her luggage, Patricia made for the corner of the couch and Kathleen ran to Gus and clung to his leg. He lifted her up, with a brief look of hate towards Amy, across Kathleen's tangled head...

Abandoned by her feckless husband during the Depression, Amy decides to leave her country town—and her three infant children—and try her luck in the big smoke.

Life in wartime Sydney is far from easy, but for Amy there are the hard-won satisfactions of an office job and a house of her own. Until her eldest, Kathleen, appears needing a home while she attends high school. And Amy falls in love with a married man...

Enlivened with note-perfect observations of the everyday, wrenching in its portrayal of a young woman struggling to succeed yet often wilfully ignorant of her own children, Olga Masters' second and last novel is a triumph. At its centre is Amy, one of the great characters in Australian literature. ' (Publisher's blurb)

Notes

  • Dedication: For my children.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      W. W. Norton ,
      1988 .
      image of person or book cover 4641110998861660485.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 240p.
      ISBN: 0393025748
    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Text Publishing , 2013 .
      image of person or book cover 6395469087577264949.jpg
      Extent: 304p.
      Note/s:
      ISBN: 9781922147080
      Series: y separately published work icon Text Classics Text Publishing (publisher), Melbourne : Text Publishing , 2012- Z1851461 2012 series - publisher novel 'Great books by great Australian storytellers.' (Text website.)

Other Formats

  • Also braille, sound recording, large print.

Works about this Work

Ageing and the Question of `Home' - Olga Masters and Elizabeth Jolley Bruce Bennett , 1991 single work criticism
— Appears in: An Australian Compass : Essays on Place and Direction in Australian Literature 1991; (p. 132-145)
The Voices of Silence in Olga Master's Narrative M. S. Suarez Lafuente , 1991 single work criticism
— Appears in: Commonwealth , Spring vol. 13 no. 2 1991; (p. 109-114)
Versions of Ageing: Olga Masters and Elizabeth Jolley Bruce Bennett , 1990 single work criticism biography
— Appears in: Olga Masters, An Autumn Crocus : Proceedings of the Olga Masters Memorial Conference, 8-10 July 1988. 1990; (p. 84-96)
Missing Men and Unmothered Sisters Aritha van Herk , 1990 single work criticism biography
— Appears in: Olga Masters, An Autumn Crocus : Proceedings of the Olga Masters Memorial Conference, 8-10 July 1988. 1990; (p. 66-83)
The Language of Silence in Olga Masters Bill Ashcroft , 1990 single work criticism biography
— Appears in: Olga Masters, An Autumn Crocus : Proceedings of the Olga Masters Memorial Conference, 8-10 July 1988. 1990; (p. 21-33)
Untitled Brenda Walker , 1987 single work review
— Appears in: Fremantle Arts Review , July vol. 2 no. 7 1987; (p. 14-15)

— Review of Amy's Children Olga Masters , 1987 single work novel
Art and Insight Judy Waterman , 1987 single work review
— Appears in: The CRNLE Reviews Journal , no. 2 1987-1988; (p. 21-22)

— Review of Amy's Children Olga Masters , 1987 single work novel
Olga Masters' Plain Fiction Tells Home Truths... Phyllis Fahrie Edelson , 1987 single work review
— Appears in: Antipodes , November vol. 1 no. 2 1987; (p. 68-70)

— Review of A Long Time Dying Olga Masters , 1985 selected work short story ; The Home Girls Olga Masters , 1982 selected work short story ; Amy's Children Olga Masters , 1987 single work novel ; Loving Daughters Olga Masters , 1984 single work novel
Throwing Another Tormented Soul on the Barbie Jessica Teich , 1989 single work review
— Appears in: Los Angeles Times Book Review , 28 May 1989; (p. 3)

— Review of A Long Time Dying Olga Masters , 1985 selected work short story ; Amy's Children Olga Masters , 1987 single work novel
Displacements and Other States of Mind Barbara Garlick , 1988 single work review
— Appears in: Social Alternatives , September vol. 7 no. 3 1988; (p. 75-76)

— Review of Real Lies Craig McGregor , 1987 selected work short story ; Amy's Children Olga Masters , 1987 single work novel ; Dislocations Janette Turner Hospital , 1986 selected work short story
To Marry the Pen with Imagination Mary Wright , 1985 single work column
— Appears in: Fremantle Arts Centre Broadsheet , September - October vol. 4 no. 5 1985; (p. 3-4) Fremantle Arts Review , June vol. 2 no. 6 1987; (p. 6-7)
Olga Masters...Late Blooming Banksia June Owen , 1988 single work biography
— Appears in: The Book Magazine , Winter vol. 2 no. 1 1988; (p. 15)
Ageing and the Question of `Home' - Olga Masters and Elizabeth Jolley Bruce Bennett , 1991 single work criticism
— Appears in: An Australian Compass : Essays on Place and Direction in Australian Literature 1991; (p. 132-145)
Flies in the Milk Dorothy Jones , 1990 single work criticism biography
— Appears in: Olga Masters, An Autumn Crocus : Proceedings of the Olga Masters Memorial Conference, 8-10 July 1988. 1990; (p. 1-11) A Kingdom and a Place of Exile : Critical Essays on Postcolonial Women's Writing 2010; (p. 53-61)
`Scrupulous Meanness': Narrative Economy as Plenitude Deirdre Coleman , 1990 single work criticism biography
— Appears in: Olga Masters, An Autumn Crocus : Proceedings of the Olga Masters Memorial Conference, 8-10 July 1988. 1990; (p. 12-20)
Last amended 26 Apr 2017 08:55:10
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