Accessibility Tools

  • Content scaling 100%
  • Font size 100%
  • Line height 100%
  • Letter spacing 100%

Keneally’s humid cauldron

by
September 2009, no. 314

The People’s Train by Tom Keneally

Vintage, $32.95 pb, 408 pp

Keneally’s humid cauldron

by
September 2009, no. 314

The People’s Train, a book that links Queensland to the Russian Revolution, comes with baggage. Not least, there is the mixed critical reaction Tom Keneally has endured over the decades. Perhaps most notably, he is forever to be hailed and damned as the author of Schindler’s Ark (1982). Keneally’s popularity seems double-edged: Simon Sebag Montefiore, a writer of books about Russia, breathlessly lauds The People’s Train as a ‘tremendous read and really exciting’, yet Keneally’s compulsive readability – surely cause for celebration – has somehow dented his reputation as a ‘serious’ writer.

Then there are the complications caused by Keneally the nearly Catholic priest, his early reputation as ‘the next Patrick White’, the republican, the refugee advocate, the slightly awkward but humorous and impassioned public speaker, the Akubra, the funny beard, the twinkling eyes, and so on. His detractors have sometimes played the man not the ball, but these days Keneally is something of an iconic Aussie – and one of the National Trust’s ‘Living National Treasures’ (astonishing though the existence of such a list might be).

The People’s Train

The People’s Train

by Tom Keneally

Vintage, $32.95 pb, 408 pp

From the New Issue

You May Also Like

Leave a comment

If you are an ABR subscriber, you will need to sign in to post a comment.

If you have forgotten your sign in details, or if you receive an error message when trying to submit your comment, please email your comment (and the name of the article to which it relates) to ABR Comments. We will review your comment and, subject to approval, we will post it under your name.

Please note that all comments must be approved by ABR and comply with our Terms & Conditions.