Summerland Book

Reminiscent of Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, Malcolm Knox's Summerland has the same notional geographic divide (this time North v South Sydney rather than the US East and West coasts), centres on an elite group of spoilt, beautiful people, contains the death of the chief protagonist and has a narrator who stands on the sidelines--a one-man Greek chorus. Through its documentary style and the narrator's rambling but contained style, Knox controls the narrative tension, building up to the dramatic denouement. It is not only successful where it emulates The Great Gatsby but also where it diverges from the original. Hugh Buchanan is the fierce descendant of Tom Buchanan, Richard the progeny of Nick Carraway, Hugh's wife Helen is the indolent, spoilt Daisy reincarnate and Richard's wife Pup is the masculine, independent-minded modern woman. However, it is strongest where it departs from the original: Hugh's adulterous affair with a prostitute has one unique detail, which firmly updates it, and Richard is no mere observer but a fleshed out, fallible human being. Inevitably, comparisons will be made between the two narrators; Knox's Richard assumes the same detached and sartorial tone as Fitzgerald's cynical observer Nick Carraway but whereas the latter had the luxury of distance and perspective, Richard is too deeply involved to escape judgement. That he is a mere participant in his own story, not a player like Hugh Bowman or even their wives Helen and Pup, makes the reader less indulgent of Richard, a fact of which he is only too aware: "Smug, rich and inert, we fall below the means test for pity" Summerland is a poised, assured debut novel that may suffer harsh comparisons for setting itself up alongside one of the great American novels of the century. However, Knox has succeeded in fleshing out character, contemporising a modern classic and widening the debate questioning which one is more culpable: the surviving cold-blooded, sexless spectator or the doomed hot-blooded adulterer, embezzler and philanderer. --Nicola Perry Read More