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essjay1's review against another edition
5.0
Just brilliant writing. The plot is almost incidental. So subtle and nuanced. And so incredibly observant of relationships.
never4get's review against another edition
4.0
Psychological exploration of family and friendship relationships and interaction between people. Zoe comes from a wealthy family and has never wanted for anything, when she is introduced by her brother Russell to Stephen - who is extremely aloof and impersonal. Zoe, however, finds this oddly attractive. Stephen has a sister, Anna, who is a quiet and shy girl. Stephen and Anna have struggled all their lives - so the four young people come from very different circles. However, their lives keep intertwining.
Russell marries Lily and they have two daughters, but gradually he and Anna realise they love each other. Thus follow years of frustrated longing when they keep away from each other, except on rare occasions.
After years of time in New York working as an artist with a lover, Zoe returns to Sydney and meets up with Stephen again. He has mellowed somewhat and become successful in the business world so is financially secure. They form a loving relationship which in the beginning is extraordinarily wonderful for both of them. Zoe gives up work to support Stephen on the home front. Over time their relationship palls and Stephen starts to talk down to her. So she moves in an emotional maelstrom, while appearing perfectly fine on the outside.
Meanwhile Anna escapes the pain of not being able to be with Russell by going to New York and makes a successful career for herself. She has lovers, but nothing important.
Lily, Russell's wife, has a mental breakdown when their two daughters go to NY on a dance scholarship when she had wanted them to stay in Sydney.
So the psychological examinations of Zoe's situation, Anna's and Russell's form an interconnecting nexus that has the reader on edge.
Eventually the situation is sprung by receipt of a letter from Anna [that it turns out she wrote some years before and accidentally posted at this time] saying she had committed suicide because of her love for Russell. This reveals the entire situation to everyone. However, Anna had not committed suicide - obviously. The book ends with Lily deciding to go to NY to be with her daughters, Russell and Anna finally able to be together, and the implication that Zoe and Stephen will separate.
It was a difficult book to read - quite elaborate language, but really well written.
Russell marries Lily and they have two daughters, but gradually he and Anna realise they love each other. Thus follow years of frustrated longing when they keep away from each other, except on rare occasions.
After years of time in New York working as an artist with a lover, Zoe returns to Sydney and meets up with Stephen again. He has mellowed somewhat and become successful in the business world so is financially secure. They form a loving relationship which in the beginning is extraordinarily wonderful for both of them. Zoe gives up work to support Stephen on the home front. Over time their relationship palls and Stephen starts to talk down to her. So she moves in an emotional maelstrom, while appearing perfectly fine on the outside.
Meanwhile Anna escapes the pain of not being able to be with Russell by going to New York and makes a successful career for herself. She has lovers, but nothing important.
Lily, Russell's wife, has a mental breakdown when their two daughters go to NY on a dance scholarship when she had wanted them to stay in Sydney.
So the psychological examinations of Zoe's situation, Anna's and Russell's form an interconnecting nexus that has the reader on edge.
Eventually the situation is sprung by receipt of a letter from Anna [that it turns out she wrote some years before and accidentally posted at this time] saying she had committed suicide because of her love for Russell. This reveals the entire situation to everyone. However, Anna had not committed suicide - obviously. The book ends with Lily deciding to go to NY to be with her daughters, Russell and Anna finally able to be together, and the implication that Zoe and Stephen will separate.
It was a difficult book to read - quite elaborate language, but really well written.
tasmanian_bibliophile's review against another edition
4.0
‘As she spoke, she had an impression of something not pleasant happening to her, something irreversible and magical and inevitable.’
The first part of the novel opens just after the end of World War II, in Sydney, where the Howards live in their house on the north side of Sydney Harbour. Mr and Mrs Howard are both biologists, and ‘Mrs Howard was a useful example of a woman who combined a successful career with a happy home life. Whenever such a phenomenon needed illustration, journalists and producers were as likely to think of Alice Howard as anyone in town.’
Their son Russell has returned home in one piece after a period as a prisoner of war. Their 17 year old daughter, Zoe, was considered by family and friends to be remarkable. Perhaps she is: Zoe is an excellent student, captain of the school, editor of the school paper, a competent sailor and photographer who can handle a car better than her father.
‘To live without the interest or attention of other people, without making an impression: in her mind, Zoe groped to imagine such a state.’
Through the Howards, we also meet another brother and sister, Stephen and Anna Quayle. Stephen and Anna have been orphaned, and live in Parramatta with an uncle and his seriously disturbed wife. The uncle is preoccupied with his wife and doesn’t have much attention left for Stephen and Anna. Stephen, who intrigues Zoe, works as a salesman and Anna will be a clerk. Zoe is destined for Paris, to study film or photography. Russell will marry the well-educated Lily, and will open his own publishing company. Such a contrast between the lives of, and opportunities for, these four young people.
‘You can’t explain anything to a rich, lucky person. They don’t know.’
The second part of the novel opens eight years later, when the death of Alice Howard brings Zoe home from Europe. Zoe is now a successful photographer, in a relationship with a film director, with a career ahead of her. But once she meets Stephen again, she decides to marry him and remain in Sydney. Anna is widowed: her husband David, a musician, died less than two years after they married. Russell and Lily married, as expected, and have twin daughters.
‘Be satisfied. Be satisfied. This is what you wanted. This is what you’ve got.’
By the late 1960s, in the final part of the novel, Zoe is forty. She has devoted herself to trying to make Stephen happy. Anna has found success making pottery, while Lily has sacrificed her academic career for her daughters. None of these younger women has had the same success that Alice Howard had in combining a career and marriage.
‘He shook his head. Zoe checked an impulse to speak. Once so impulsive, she was now very skilled at checking impulses.’
The relationships in this novel - between individuals, between those with power and those without can be both straightforward (when individuals have a clear idea about what they want) and complex (when individuals make choices without fully appreciating the consequences). And even clarity about the future can be obscured when an individual world view is based in ignorant naivety. Can any of the younger generation move beyond the barriers of class and power, beyond the expectations of others to find their own place in the world?
In this novel (and in fact) Australia is not as egalitarian as it pretends to be. And that is an uncomfortable truth which I’d like to ignore, but can’t. I enjoyed the way Ms Harrower constructed this story, and I wondered why the novel was withdrawn from publication after it was completed in 1971. In some ways, I think Australia has become even less egalitarian since then. I’ll be adding Ms Harrower’s other novels to my reading list.
‘It occurred to her that there might be nothing braver in the world than to allow yourself to be understood.’
Note: my thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read this novel.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
The first part of the novel opens just after the end of World War II, in Sydney, where the Howards live in their house on the north side of Sydney Harbour. Mr and Mrs Howard are both biologists, and ‘Mrs Howard was a useful example of a woman who combined a successful career with a happy home life. Whenever such a phenomenon needed illustration, journalists and producers were as likely to think of Alice Howard as anyone in town.’
Their son Russell has returned home in one piece after a period as a prisoner of war. Their 17 year old daughter, Zoe, was considered by family and friends to be remarkable. Perhaps she is: Zoe is an excellent student, captain of the school, editor of the school paper, a competent sailor and photographer who can handle a car better than her father.
‘To live without the interest or attention of other people, without making an impression: in her mind, Zoe groped to imagine such a state.’
Through the Howards, we also meet another brother and sister, Stephen and Anna Quayle. Stephen and Anna have been orphaned, and live in Parramatta with an uncle and his seriously disturbed wife. The uncle is preoccupied with his wife and doesn’t have much attention left for Stephen and Anna. Stephen, who intrigues Zoe, works as a salesman and Anna will be a clerk. Zoe is destined for Paris, to study film or photography. Russell will marry the well-educated Lily, and will open his own publishing company. Such a contrast between the lives of, and opportunities for, these four young people.
‘You can’t explain anything to a rich, lucky person. They don’t know.’
The second part of the novel opens eight years later, when the death of Alice Howard brings Zoe home from Europe. Zoe is now a successful photographer, in a relationship with a film director, with a career ahead of her. But once she meets Stephen again, she decides to marry him and remain in Sydney. Anna is widowed: her husband David, a musician, died less than two years after they married. Russell and Lily married, as expected, and have twin daughters.
‘Be satisfied. Be satisfied. This is what you wanted. This is what you’ve got.’
By the late 1960s, in the final part of the novel, Zoe is forty. She has devoted herself to trying to make Stephen happy. Anna has found success making pottery, while Lily has sacrificed her academic career for her daughters. None of these younger women has had the same success that Alice Howard had in combining a career and marriage.
‘He shook his head. Zoe checked an impulse to speak. Once so impulsive, she was now very skilled at checking impulses.’
The relationships in this novel - between individuals, between those with power and those without can be both straightforward (when individuals have a clear idea about what they want) and complex (when individuals make choices without fully appreciating the consequences). And even clarity about the future can be obscured when an individual world view is based in ignorant naivety. Can any of the younger generation move beyond the barriers of class and power, beyond the expectations of others to find their own place in the world?
In this novel (and in fact) Australia is not as egalitarian as it pretends to be. And that is an uncomfortable truth which I’d like to ignore, but can’t. I enjoyed the way Ms Harrower constructed this story, and I wondered why the novel was withdrawn from publication after it was completed in 1971. In some ways, I think Australia has become even less egalitarian since then. I’ll be adding Ms Harrower’s other novels to my reading list.
‘It occurred to her that there might be nothing braver in the world than to allow yourself to be understood.’
Note: my thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read this novel.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
introvertedacademician's review against another edition
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
bristoni74's review against another edition
1.0
This was my book club selection for July with the theme being "unpublished manuscripts". I started this book with much anticipation set in Sydney after WW2 about the clash of different worlds - one of privilege and the other of struggle and poverty but was disappointed. Apparently, the author has said that this book "felt forced" because she had won a grant and so had to deliver a novel. I haven't read her other books but this attitude came across to me - I didn't find it engaging at all. The novel felt very much of it's time (written in 1971 but set post WW2) which is disappointing because many classics can be read over and over again and still feel contemporary. I wouldn't recommend this one.
book_telle's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
wtb_michael's review against another edition
4.0
I was a bit apprehensive about reading this - the awful, powerful of bleakness of [b:The Watch Tower|2497026|The Watch Tower|Elizabeth Harrower|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1335598702l/2497026._SY75_.jpg|2504346] still haunts me a bit. Thankfully for my mental health, In Certain Circles is a slightly lighter book. It still deals with Harrower's themes: power and privilege; the porous boundaries between love, pity and abuse; how we should live. The shifting perspectives are well handled - Anna and Zoe are great characters and are the real heart of the novel, while Russel and Steven were a bit less richly developed. I'm so glad that Text reissued a bunch of Harrower's books a few years back and that they finally got this one into print.