A review by oanh_1
Brisbane by Matthew Condon

2.0

Was I more critical of this one than the other two in the series (Melbourne, Hobart) that I'd read because I know Brisbane well? Possibly (I'm prepared to admit as much) but I don't think so. The occassional third person narration was annoying, and unnecessary. It felt like he tried to grasp to hard for a theme, when one - a potentially interesting one - was staring him right in the face and he didn't explore it. He talks of leaving Brisbane as a young man and returning decades later with a family. He alludes to why, but he doesn't explore that. Instead, he juxtaposes his blissful childhood with his son's, and an exploration of Brisbane's murky beginnings and an historian's misplaced self-esteem. Maybe he just couldn't decide what the hell Brisbane was going to be about, and threw in too much, and made much too much of a deal of some of the things his son does, that he also did. I did like the exchange between father and son about where Brisbane was, however. It was one of the few things in the book that seemed true and like meaning wasn't painfully extracted from it. Just a kid, asking about a park and then distracted by the idea of playing. Anyway, it also made me tire of the series. So I'll take a break before embarking on Sydney and Perth and Adelaide (and will Canberra and Darwin get a look in? I hope so.)