The Slow Natives

The Slow Natives (1965) is a Miles Franklin Award-winning novel[1] by Australian author Thea Astley, the second of her record number of four wins. It also won the 1965 Moomba Award.

The Slow Natives
First edition
AuthorThea Astley
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish
PublisherAngus and Robertson
Publication date
1965
Media typePrint (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages210

Plot summary

Set in sub-tropical Queensland, the novel examines the relationships between suburban Brisbanites including a priest, nuns and a couple and their teenage son.

Style and themes

The novel represents a departure for Astley from her earlier novels in that rather than focusing on one or two particular characters, she moves "freely among a group, switching attention omnisciently from one to another. Almost all the characters suffer from some form of spiritual aridity; in Astley's vision, there often seems nothing between repression, and empty or even corrupt sexuality".[2]

Astley's characters in this novel often only realise their failings after disaster has beset them. The father, for example, only realises after his teenage son has lost his leg in a "joy-riding accident", that he has "failed to give his son 'the sort of discipline ... [he] wanted more than anything in the world'."[3]

Notes

References

Awards and achievements
Preceded by
My Brother Jack
Miles Franklin Award recipient
1965
Succeeded by
Trap


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