Eyrie

Starred review from March 17, 2014
Tom Keely, the 40-something central figure in Winton’s (Breath) beautifully written powerful ninth novel, is in the throes of a midlife crisis: once a well-known environmental activist, now he’s a “middle-class casualty,” sacked from his job and self-destructing, while the world crumbles around him . The setting is Freemantle, a port city near Perth, Australia (“Freo” in Aussie slang), Keely’s hometown. Freo, and Australia as a whole, are case studies in how greed and corruption at the government level, and crime and drug dealing at the community level, can tear the fabric of the a town. Keely finds a measure of salvation in Gemma Buck, a childhood friend now stocking shelves in a supermarket and taking care of her grandson Kai. The preternaturally innocent six-year-old boy brings Keely back from the brink, and the trio form an unlikely (but laudable) family. Winton slowly reveals Keely’s backstory, but what intrigues is the main storyline—Keely’s journey, with Gemma and Kai, through Freo’s lower-class underbelly—as well as the prose. He’s an absurdly good writer, with not only the proverbial eye for detail but also a facility for rendering each detail in an original way. Winton is ambitious; this is a state-of-the-nation novel about a world run amok. Keely is argumentative, but the book as a whole is not. Winton’s use of Australian vernacular will be a challenge to many American readers, but it will be a challenge well worth taking: this is a fascinating, thought-provoking book.

Starred review from June 1, 2014
An odd troika stumbles through the decadence of a world on the verge of collapse in Winton's (Breath, 2008, etc.) resonant, oddly cheerful yarn.Tom Keely is a mess. A one-time environmental activist, he's failed at that, and spectacularly. He's failed at marriage, at fatherhood. Now, living high up in a seedy apartment tower on the farthest edge of western Australia, he has recurrent fears of falling out the window and off the face of the Earth-small wonder, given his staggering chemical diet. Winton's narrative opens with a king-hell hangover, Keely lying as still as he can in the growing heat of morning, contemplating a stain on the rug: "He had no idea what it was or how it got there. But the sight of it put the wind right up him." Things don't promise to get much better for him in that hellish tower among the "stench of strangers" until, hitherto oblivious, he discovers that a neighbor is someone he vaguely knew in his younger days, way back when things were good and promised to get better. As with Tom, the years have not been kind to Gemma Buck, once quietly attractive, now guardian to her grandson, a spooky little kid given to apocalyptic visions and to saying things such as "The birds in the world will die....All of them, the birds. They die." If young Kai's dreams are haunted by extinction and doom, he's got cause: Mom's a jailbird, dad's a thug, and they're hitting Gemma up hard for money she doesn't have. Dyspeptic in a way that would please a David Lodge or Malcolm Bradbury, Tom unsteadily tries to help, finally given a mission to fill his idle, meaningless days. But is he Kai's rescuer, or is Kai his? Sometimes brooding, always superbly well-written, Winton's story studies family-even a family that is as postmodern and anti-nuclear as our hapless trio-both as anchor to keep the ship from drifting away and anchor to keep whomever it's tied to submerged.Another exquisite portrait of troubled modern life from Winton, who solidifies his reputation as one of the best writers at work in Australia-and, indeed, in English-today.

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May 15, 2014
Thomas Keely, an outspoken environmental activist whose career has flamed out in spectacular fashion, now spends his days in a drug- and alcohol-infused daze in a downtrodden high-rise overlooking Fremantle, a grubby Australian harbor. Improbably, an old childhood friend and her six-year-old grandson live just down the hall, and it is this unlikely reconnection with the physically and emotionally damaged Gemma and Kai that brings Keely out of his self-destructive stupor. Gemma's daughter is in prison, and the boy's meth-head father blackmails Gemma for money she doesn't have, threatening to harm his preternaturally sensitive and reclusive son. Summoning a physical, emotional, and moral courage he thought had forsaken him, Keely goes to grueling lengths to protect both woman and child from any further harm. Winton reveals Keely's, Gemma's, and Kai's backstories with tantalizing languor, doling out one dolorous detail at a time and filling the gaps with scenes of soaring insight and sharp satire. Acclaimed Australian Winton (The Turning, 2005) is underappreciated by American readers, but his latest should find its way to fans of T. C. Boyle and Jonathan Franzen.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

April 1, 2014

Novels that start with intricately detailed descriptions of really bad hangovers are not the most enjoyable. But can precise control over language make up for an intimate look at the narrator's prescription drug problem? Divorced, publicly humiliated, and unemployable, Tom Keely, ex-spokesperson for environmental NGOs in Australia, is a loser. A real, "why would I want to spend time with you?" loser. And yet this latest novel from Winton (Dirt Music) is as addicting as the aforementioned drug addiction. A chance encounter reconnects Keely with childhood friend Gemma and her grandson, Kai. The two are in desperate straits, and Keely tries to save them and himself in the process. VERDICT The novel's suspense provides forward momentum, but the relationship between Keely and Kai binds the story. Many readers will find the early chapters unpleasant, but they should persevere. The pacing, characters, and the plot come together making this a good choice for readers of dark and emotionally difficult literature. [See Prepub Alert, 12/16/13.]--Pamela Mann, St. Mary's Coll. Lib., MD

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2014

Winner of a record four Miles Franklin Awards for Best Australian Novel and twice short-listed for the Booker Prize, Winton offers another of his vibrant, keenly felt novels, which always sell big. Former crusading environmentalist Tom Keely is facing scandal with his funds and his ideals depleted when a woman from his past appears, herself on the verge of despair and needing Tom's help. Soon he's dealing with con artists, drug dealers, and extortionists in a narrative that's edged with suspense but is truly a dark morality tale.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.