Gran libro de un escritor australiano. El centro de la novela son los años de esclavitud que pasaron dos australianos, Vic y Digger, capturados por los japoneses en la II Guerra Mundial. Desde esa experiencia extrema de supervivencia, Malouf construye una compleja trama a base de anticipaciones y regresos al pasado en las que se va narrando la vida de ambos antes y después de ser prisioneros y la forma en que construyen una peculair amistad que perdura en los años a pesar de que llevan vidas totalmente diferentes

I read about a third. Very good literary fiction but after a certain point I simply didn’t care. His An Imaginary Life (loosely based on Ovid’s exile) is superb. Read it.

Impressive characterisation. Compelling story.

Quite an epic. I loved the development of Digger & Vic through a story that is beautifully told & structured. Challenging in parts - vividly told anecdotes of a POW in Thailand. Wonderful book.

Certainly literarily written and with an engaging plot. A good immersion in Australian life and culture. The idea of Vic’s (of the main characters) physical essence as something that carries him and gives him confidence in his career and mental life was interesting. However, parts were strange, and despite the characters being highly developed, they still felt distant.

This is the third book by David Malouf (in addition to "An Imaginary Life" and "Ransom") that I have read and while I enjoyed it, I did not find it measuring up to either of those novels. Although much of his writing, as always, is lyrical, Malouf never seemed to bring his usual powerful storytelling to full life. Even the scenes of heartbreak and struggle among the lives of the Aussie prisoners of war during World War II lacked Malouf's usual vividness and immediacy. And the arc of his story, told over 50-60 years in short scenes sometimes separated by years, made it too episodic, as if it were a novel written on postcards. I just wanted more ...

Did not expect to like this but I did. First time I've read Malouf - he writes with an extraordinary lyrical tone and poetic introspection. His characters tend to follow a Joycean road with their intense and rich interior lives while inarticulate with the people around them.

The plot covers about 60 odd years, two wars and two families interconnectedness via the main characters of Digger and Vic. While WW2 is pivotal for Digger and Vic, the book begins a bit like Faulkner's The Sound and The Fury - don't let that put you off. it gets a bit like Henry James later on.... These two men who met as Japanese POW's survived Changi & the Malay railway - their friendship survives into the 80's boom. The title The Great World implies the world outside Digger's head (which he continually fills with facts to remember), outside his family and outside Keen's Crossing where he grew up along the Hawkesbury River: it's also hauntingly the name of a place where they were interred as POW's.

Both of the men are entirely different in temperment but forge a lifelong bond owing each other their lives but it is fraught with tension. Malouf writes about these men's inner lives in a way that for the times startled & surprised me. Australian men were/are not known for expressing hurts about friendships, fears or their sense of displacement (as women do more often), but prefer to joke about and get on with it, rather than admit those feelings. "Why is he acting that way, I bet he's going to dump me". So when Malouf voices their inner lives in this way, I felt a sense of relief and wonder, that men and women are not totally alien species. The women in the story are no less interesting with tangled and emotionally charged pasts.

Malouf had me to tears several times, he's a tender writer of great beauty that I hope to read more of.


loaned to pop

Strange book, the first 100 pages I thought wow, this could be the best Australian novel I've ever read. Great characters, detail, the pace gripping and a wide sweeping story. Then it gets a bit bogged in the middle, which to be fair is reflective of the space in the plot. And finally the back 1/3 is hurried and with so many characters introduced, many come, go and fall away, and too many of the supporting characters end up as a bit half drawn. It is unquestionably a good book, I was just a bit disappointed in that it was almost on the verge of being the Great Book.

This is a great book. At once telling a story of horror, pain & degradation whilst also of love. The characters are wonderfully developed & exude the essence of the common man. Their back-stories are crafted to intersect and dart away again without diminishing from the believability of the story. I’ve finished it on ANZAC Day, and reflect on the ever widening ripples of loss in war time, and on the sacrifice of the few for many. Lest we forget.

I found this book a little disappointing. Perhaps this was because I was so impressed by Remembering Babylon, the first book I read by Malouf. Like Remembering Babylon, The Great World stands out due to Malouf's distinct and impressive writing style. With relatively few words Malouf can deftly sketch everyday observations or events and suggest their profundity. So I can't figure out, when the author builds up his two main characters by layering minutiae after minutiae about their lives, from birth to (near) death, why I never felt that I really understood the characters. I don't think it is because I don't understand that generation of men. My grandparents are from that generation, but that didn't give me any more familiarity with Malouf's protaganists. Perhaps it's a question of perspective. Malouf develops them with microscopic precision, and I never really was able to step back from the details and see them as a whole - as living, breathing, believeable characters. Neither did I truely comprehend their relationship of interdependence. It bothers me that this was so elusive to me. And yet there are some very memorable moments in the novel, and interesting observations, which I will take away from this book and ponder for some time.

1st edition US

The story of two Australian men, Digger and Vic, and how their lives are effected by being prisoners-of-war together in a WWII Japanese camp. The author is especially skilled at description and there are several very moving scenes with beautiful imagery. This writing falls into the New Yorker category of fiction.