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Matthew Flinders’ Cat by Bryce Courtenay

by
December 2002-January 2003, no. 247

Matthew Flinders’ Cat by Bryce Courtenay

Viking, 611pp, hb

Matthew Flinders’ Cat by Bryce Courtenay

by
December 2002-January 2003, no. 247

Halfway through Matthew Flinders’ Cat, the protagonist admits that, when writing, he finds it ‘almost impossible to leave out what others might think of as superfluous detail. It was, he knew, self-indulgence.’ Is this a moment of self-directed irony on Bryce Courtenay’s part, or a case of the pot calling the kettle black? This novel brims with ‘superfluous detail’, and there is little attempt to curb the flow of information.

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