| Frantic Swans. "Swan Bay" by Rod Jones. [review] (2003) | |||||||||||||||
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| Reading "Swan Bay", one is quickly struck by a sense of the familiar. A damaged, misanthropic man meets a damaged, unbalanced woman. He attempts to penetrate her almost mystical reserve and, in the book’s central flashback sequence, she recounts the past that has almost destroyed her. Back in the present, the truth of her account seems uncertain. The two achieve some sort of equilibrium. This narrative outline could equally be applied to almost any of the novels of Rod Jones. The leitmotifs and narrative echoes throughout Jones's oeuvre are, however, incidental: he is much more than a one-trick pony. Each of his novels is wonderfully written; each explores, with an unflinching eye, key themes of sex and death, life and loss, power and abuse. Jones should be counted amongst Australia's most interesting and talented novelists.. Australia Council, La Trobe University, National Library of Australia, Holding Redlich, Arts Victoria | |||||||||||||||
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