The Life to Come

January 1, 2018
An aspiring novelist moves through a circle of friends, lovers, and acquaintances, all navigating fraught relationships with each other and with their homelands.There is a moment in de Kretser's (Springtime, 2016, etc.) novel when she describes the works a character translates as "obscure European...novels that offered no clear message nor any flashing signs as to how they were to be understood, novels whose authors were neither photogenic nor young--sometimes they were even Swiss." This tongue-in-cheek assessment--one of so many delightfully caustic observations throughout--could be applied to this novel, too. The book is divided into largely stand-alone sections, each of which focuses on a different pair of characters. There is the aforementioned translator, Australian native Celeste, and her married female lover in Paris; budding academic Cassie and her partner, Ash, a Sri Lankan/Scottish scholar in Sydney; Sri Lankan-born Christabel and her girlhood friend, Bunty, who brings her to Australia. Budding writer Pippa is the thread holding all these sections together, making prominent appearances or Hitchcock-ian cameos in the others' lives. These characters give de Kretser, herself a native of Sri Lanka who lives in Sydney, a chance to explore the complexity of societies in the long throes of mistreatment of their ethnic minorities, whether those are Aboriginal people, Indians, Sri Lankans in Australia, or Algerians in Paris. The book's white characters fancy themselves progressive but move through the world with cringing naivete Pippa includes a statement in her automatic email signature that reads, in part, "I pay my respects to Elders, past, present and future. Sent from my iPad." But if all these sound like dense, heavy ideas (and they are), there is also much pleasure to be found in de Kretser's lovely prose, whose every sentence fiercely shines.A thought-provoking novel of both beauty and brains.

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January 29, 2018
De Kretser’s sprawling follow-up to her novella Springtime features many different lives converging and diverging across decades and continents. In Sydney, Pippa wants to make her mark on Australian fiction, while her former professor, George, distances himself from his cult following the success of his own books. A few streets away, Cassie falls for Ash, mesmerized by his mysterious boyhood in Sri Lanka. In Paris, Celeste works as a translator while reckoning with her complicated history with the city and the lover she rearranges her life for. And all the while, over many decades, Sri Lankan Christabel and her childhood friend Bunty build a quiet life together in Australia after reconnecting as adults. While each section can stand alone, together they create a joyful and mournful meditation on the endless small pleasures and complications of life: the difficulties of immigration, the logistics of infidelity, the creativity and insight born of jealousy and spite. In de Kretser’s sure-footed and often surprising prose, life is rendered as something that’s “tedious yet require concentration, like a standard-issue dream.”

March 15, 2018

Set mostly in Australia but also Sri Lanka and Paris, this latest from the award-winning de Kretser (Springtime) consists of loosely related chapters, some having stories within stories. The connecting link is Pippa, a young Australian student who is determined to become a novelist. Forthright and clueless with her friends, she ultimately achieves some literary success. Early on, she rooms platonically with a former writing instructor, then later marries a failed classical musician who's never really separated from his quirky, upper-middle-class family. Another chapter follows Cassie, a friend of a friend, who has a serious relationship with a highly educated Sri Lankan. In Paris, Pippa meets Celeste, an Aussie expat involved in a lesbian relationship with Sabine, a Parisian housewife and florist, who obviously isn't as committed as Celeste. A final chapter about two women, neighbors of Pippa's for a time, is a heartrending story of aging and intimacy. VERDICT This marvelous stylistic work, dense with lush descriptions of scents, Asian food, Australian trees and flowers, weather, and Sydney neighborhoods, reflects on issues of race, immigration, and what it means to be an Australian: so different from America--or is it? Highly recommended.--Reba Leiding, emeritus, James Madison Univ. Lib., Harrisonburg, VA

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Starred review from February 1, 2018
Moving between Sydney, Paris, and Sri Lanka, de Kretser's latest is a collection of linked stories exploring the ways we live and the stories, real and invented, that surround us. The novel is centered around Pippa, a mid-level author who is both in denial and secretly aware that she will never be more than mediocre. Ash is a Sri Lankan living in Sydney, who works hard to pretend a childhood tragedy never occurred but can't manage to trust his devoted girlfriend. In Paris, translator Celeste tries to convince herself that her lover reciprocates her feelings. And Christobel, a lonely Sri Lankan living in Sydney, fails to see that love that is just around the corner. De Kretser, author of the Miles Franklin Award-winning Questions of Travel (2012), has again written a perceptive and articulate novel that blends acute observation and well-chosen details to create a sweeping story that is painfully close to home. With fascinating characters and beautifully nuanced writing, The Life to Come is a powerful exploration of the human condition and a compelling examination of how we look at each other and ourselves.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)