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y separately published work icon Everything I Knew : A Novel single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 2008... 2008 Everything I Knew : A Novel
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'It's the year 1964, and fourteen-year-old know-it-all Robbie Burns is about to discover he still has a lot to learn.

'The world is changing fast, although the news has yet to reach the small South Australian town of Penola. There Robbie leads and idyllic life of rabbiting, backyard science experiments, and hooligan scrapes with his friend Billy. Penola is oblivious even to its minor celebrity as the birthplace of the poet John Shaw Neilson, but poetry means the world to Robbie's new teacher from the city, the stylish Miss Peach, a sixties sophisticate with stirrup pants, Kool cigarettes and Vespa scooter.

'Miss Peach's artistic yearnings and modern ways prove too much for the good people of Penola, but they fire Robbie's precocious imagination and burgeoning sexuality, until what begins as a schoolboy fantasy has terrible, real consequences.' (Publisher's blurb)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Camberwell, Camberwell - Kew area, Melbourne - Inner South, Melbourne, Victoria,: Hamish Hamilton , 2008 .
      image of person or book cover 4414064897336885537.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 297p.
      Note/s:
      • Publication date: 27 October 2008.
      ISBN: 9780241015339 (pbk.)
    • Camberwell, Camberwell - Kew area, Melbourne - Inner South, Melbourne, Victoria,: Penguin , 2009 .
      image of person or book cover 8011681153371550827.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 295p.
      Note/s:
      • Published August 3rd 2009
      ISBN: 9780143009634 (pbk.)
Form: audiobook
    • Hawthorn, Camberwell - Kew area, Melbourne - Inner South, Melbourne, Victoria,: Rearsby, Leicester, Leicestershire,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,      :       Louis Braille ; W. F. Howes ,       2009 .
      image of person or book cover 1467109508017532871.jpeg
      Cover image courtesy of Libraries Australia
      Extent: 10 hours and 30 min.p.
      Description: 9 audio discs (CD)
      ISBN: 9781742122496 (CD), 9781742122502 (CD)
VIEW PUBLICATION DETAILS FOR ALL VERSIONS ()

Works about this Work

Metaphysician: Trying to Read Peter Goldsworthy's Prescription Noel Henricksen , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Journal of Commonwealth Literature , June vol. 46 no. 2 2011; (p. 257-273) 'As a medical practitioner, Peter Goldsworthy has been confronted, all too frequently, with human suffering, morbidity and mortality: he wrestles with their existential meaning in his poetry, essays and stories. Death, in Goldsworthy's works, is ubiquitous: it becomes an engine for tension between belief and scepticism, for contention between the legacy of his childhood Methodism and his professional grounding in scientific method. Goldsworthy describes incidents and presents arguments which explore the feasibility that we are not ephemeral but potentially eternal: séances and hoped-for hauntings; near-death experiences ... explained physiologically; cloned Tasmanian tigers, and a doctor's self-insemination with the DNA of Jesus; God-centred science fiction, and a convincing postulate for resurrection expressed in the language of mathematics and quantum mechanics. Detached and irreverent, Goldsworthy dissects and analyses, but avoids circumscription or dogmatism. He desires, at best, some proof that there is a dimension beyond the physical; he feels some sadness that a scientific mind is deprived of a certainty of the metaphysical; and he expresses hope that "perhaps, just perhaps ..."' (Author's abstract).
The Limited Power of Literature Mark Klemens , 2010 single work review
— Appears in: Antipodes , June vol. 24 no. 1 2010; (p. 112)
— Review of Everything I Knew : A Novel Peter Goldsworthy , 2008 single work novel
Short Cut to Success Fiona Purdon , 2010 single work column
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 3 - 4 July 2010; (p. 20-21)
Prickly Work on PM's Award List Deborah Bogle , 2009 single work column
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 19 September 2009; (p. 49)
[Review] Everything I Knew Paul Macdonald , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: Viewpoint : On Books for Young Adults , Autumn vol. 17 no. 1 2009; (p. 23)
— Review of Everything I Knew : A Novel Peter Goldsworthy , 2008 single work novel Paul MacDonald sees Peter Goldsworthy as a writer who 'moves seamlessly from the comic to the tragic' and 'moves beyond caricatures and creates characters that rise above the pages'. Everything I Knew is a boy's coming-of-age story, set in 1964 and focused around 'a year of first times and fresh discoveries' (Goldsworthy, cited in MacDonald, p.23) and is reviewed by MacDonald as a story that is as much about philosophical questioning as it is about teenage obsession. He see the narrative as one that invites contemplation by 'forcing' its readers 'to reflect on the title and question how much do we ever really know about the present'. Do we need the gift of time to more properly reflect upon expereince? Does age offer insight or just platforms of regret?
Lessons in Life for a Young Country-Town Dreamer Peter Pierce , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 25-26 October 2008; (p. 30-31)
— Review of Everything I Knew : A Novel Peter Goldsworthy , 2008 single work novel
Damaged Fruit of Youthful Lust Geordie Williamson , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 1-2 November 2008; (p. 14)
— Review of Everything I Knew : A Novel Peter Goldsworthy , 2008 single work novel
Penola Puberty Blues Katharine England , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 1 November 2008; (p. 14)
— Review of Everything I Knew : A Novel Peter Goldsworthy , 2008 single work novel ; Turtle Gary Bryson , 2008 single work novel
Coming of Age with its Thrills and Spills Ian McFarlane , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 8 November 2008; (p. 13)
— Review of Everything I Knew : A Novel Peter Goldsworthy , 2008 single work novel
'That Ride Home in Bliss' Christina Hill , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , November no. 306 2008; (p. 49)
— Review of Everything I Knew : A Novel Peter Goldsworthy , 2008 single work novel
Two Hands Strike the Right Note Deborah Bogle , 2008 single work column
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 18 October 2008; (p. 4-6-)
The Forum : Peter Goldsworthy on Outrage Peter Goldsworthy , 2008 single work column
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 15-16 November 2008; (p. 2) Peter Goldsworthy comments on literary and artistic portrayals of sexuality and sexual relationships that could be viewed as predatory and/or illegal.
Savouring the Location Murray Bramwell (interviewer), 2008 single work interview
— Appears in: The Adelaide Review , December no. 346 2008; (p. 26)
The Past Is in Scotland Elizabeth Lawson , 2009 single work correspondence
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , February no. 308 2009; (p. 4) Responding to Christina Hills' review of Peter Goldworthy's Everything I Knew, Elizabeth Lawson notes links in Goldsworthy's writing to John Shaw Neilson and Robert Burns.
Christina Hill Replies to Elizabeth Lawson Christina Hill , 2009 single work correspondence
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , March no. 309 2009; (p. 4)
VIEW ALL WORKS ABOUT (21)

Awards

VIEW ALL AWARDS (1)
Last amended 4 Feb 2025 13:56:09
Subjects:
Settings:
  • Penola, Penola area, South East South Australia, South Australia,
  • 1964
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