Three Dog Night

by Peter Goldsworthy

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140281037
• ISBN13: 9780140281033
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Length: 342 Pages
• Weight: 0.78 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.9" x 1.1" x 5.1"

Customer Reviews

Rage against the Dying of the Night

Gifted boy, Martin, from the workingclass burbs breaks into Adelaide's elite circles on a scholarship. Psychiatry chair follows after a ten year stint in London where he wins the heart of the glamorous psych. student the limping Lucy. He returns to Adelaide, beau in matrimonial tow; reaquaints old stomping grounds, prioritsing college buddy, Felix. While Martin has aspired to the elite, Felix, born into gentry and forever a step or so in advance - a status he maintains in death - has been trajecting in the opposite direction,fast-tracking via a stint in a desert community of Australia's vast and sparsley populated, Aboriginal interior; a rebirth at the most exacting cost. From their advent into Felix's Edenically fruited property in the hills, all three are inexorably propelled to the Walpirir country's(in Aboriginal Australia there are many countries recognised by respective marriage groups and language bonds) Budgerigar Dreaming(a small, irridescent green and yellow parrot). Felix gifts Lucy with a painting of the birds' dreaming, made by his Aboriginal 'father'thereby netting her attraction and their unravelling, as surely as the small birds are hard-wired to their 'vaginal' sinkhole in the desert where Felix's grab-bag of Walpiri law and Socratic musings terminate a few months later. By insisting on his arduous fugal trek to the site of the abandoned bugerigar dreaming, Felix makes of his death a sacrificial offering, simultaneously delivering his 'father' his long lifetime's wish, his chauffeur, a Toyata, and his white 'brother', Martin, Eden in the hills and painful self-knowledge through patient insight. At this point, with the imputed confluence of two knowledge systems, you either accept Goldsworthy's concilatory gesture or reject him as an aesthetic dabbler. With the contemporary Australian attitudes, as espoused in the book, Goldsworthy's project is as daring as I have encountered.The romanticised thrall of things Aboriginal, say by Xavier Herbert,is revisited courtesy of viral ethnopornography and the pragmatic entertainment of Aboriginal law. As his wife jumps ship, Martin goes one down, his anger and jealousy swamping his rationality. Now, with her endistanced, a rent and chastened Martin scores the sheet music, biding his time in Eden, whiling through the forbidden fruit of Felixs tobacco stash, thereby keeping him within range. Goldsworthy presents his knowledge with economic grace. Dignifying indigenous Australia and its exquisitely painted landscapes, mineral and vegetable, where carnal breathing and winged beatings resound, this literature is of significant moment. See my site>rodmoss.com for more Aboriginal stuff

An Australian master

I, like many, have been a fan of Peter Goldsworthy since 'Maestro,' and Three Dog Night did not disappoint. This is by no means an easy read, and it does tackle some difficult issues, issues to which some readers might take offence (see previous review). But to me, Goldsworthy's insight into his characters is the work of someone who is a master of their craft. His depiction of the Australian landscape is superb, and his prose, to me, is something to be admired. Goldsworthy is one of those Australian novelists whose books I always look for as soon as they are released - like Kate Grenville, Tim Winton, and Peter Carey.