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The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea
In 1941, when his admired twenty-year-old cousin Rick left to join the army, Rob Coram was six. Geraldton and the sheep stations owned by his numerous relatives formed his world. The war, remote in place and interest, seemed hardly farther away than Australia—a country Rob had heard of without realizing he lived there.
During the next eight years everything was to change for Rob. Rick came back from the war, disillusioned and restless. Rob himself began to outgrow the unquestioned beliefs of his family, yet realized with helpless love that much of what he was losing was to him most precious.
Semi-autobiographical, yet not a self-portrait, this story of a boy growing up as part of an Australian clan in a small town and the country around it marvellously evokes a sense of the identity of Australia, its history and fate.
During the next eight years everything was to change for Rob. Rick came back from the war, disillusioned and restless. Rob himself began to outgrow the unquestioned beliefs of his family, yet realized with helpless love that much of what he was losing was to him most precious.
Semi-autobiographical, yet not a self-portrait, this story of a boy growing up as part of an Australian clan in a small town and the country around it marvellously evokes a sense of the identity of Australia, its history and fate.
276 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1965
21 people are currently reading
814 people want to read
About the author
Randolph Stow
30 books34 followersBorn in Geraldton, Western Australia, Randolph Stow attended Geraldton Primary and High schools, Guildford Grammar School, the University of Western Australia, and the University of Sydney. During his undergraduate years in Western Australia he wrote two novels and a collection of poetry, which were published in London by Macdonald & Co. He taught English Literature at the University of Adelaide, the University of Western Australia and the University of Leeds.
He also worked on an Aboriginal mission in the Kimberley, which he used as background for his third novel To the Islands. Stow further worked as an assistant to an anthropologist, Charles Julius, and cadet patrol officer in the Trobriand Islands. In the Trobriands he suffered a mental and physical breakdown that led to his repatriation to Australia. Twenty years later, he used these last experiences in his novel Visitants.
Stow's first visit to England took place in 1960, after which he returned several times to Australia. Tourmaline, his fourth novel, was completed in Leeds in 1962. In 1964 and 1965 he travelled in North America on a Harkness Fellowship, including a sojourn in Aztec, New Mexico, during which he wrote one of his best known novels, The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea. While living in Perth (WA) in 1966 he wrote his popular children's book Midnite.
From 1969 to 1981 he lived at East Bergholt in Suffolk in England, his ancestral county, and he used traditional tales from that area to inform his novel The Girl Green as Elderflower. The last decades of his life he spent in nearby Harwich, the setting for his final novel The Suburbs of Hell. He last visited Australia in 1974.
His novel To the Islands won the Miles Franklin Award for 1958.[1] He was awarded the Patrick White Award in 1979. As well as producing fiction, poetry, and numerous book reviews for The Times Literary Supplement, he also wrote libretti for musical theatre works by Peter Maxwell Davies.
A considerable number of Randolph Stow's poems are listed in the State Library of Western Australia online catalogue[2] with indications where they have been anthologised.
He also worked on an Aboriginal mission in the Kimberley, which he used as background for his third novel To the Islands. Stow further worked as an assistant to an anthropologist, Charles Julius, and cadet patrol officer in the Trobriand Islands. In the Trobriands he suffered a mental and physical breakdown that led to his repatriation to Australia. Twenty years later, he used these last experiences in his novel Visitants.
Stow's first visit to England took place in 1960, after which he returned several times to Australia. Tourmaline, his fourth novel, was completed in Leeds in 1962. In 1964 and 1965 he travelled in North America on a Harkness Fellowship, including a sojourn in Aztec, New Mexico, during which he wrote one of his best known novels, The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea. While living in Perth (WA) in 1966 he wrote his popular children's book Midnite.
From 1969 to 1981 he lived at East Bergholt in Suffolk in England, his ancestral county, and he used traditional tales from that area to inform his novel The Girl Green as Elderflower. The last decades of his life he spent in nearby Harwich, the setting for his final novel The Suburbs of Hell. He last visited Australia in 1974.
His novel To the Islands won the Miles Franklin Award for 1958.[1] He was awarded the Patrick White Award in 1979. As well as producing fiction, poetry, and numerous book reviews for The Times Literary Supplement, he also wrote libretti for musical theatre works by Peter Maxwell Davies.
A considerable number of Randolph Stow's poems are listed in the State Library of Western Australia online catalogue[2] with indications where they have been anthologised.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 74 reviews
March 29, 2012
Do not think less of anyone for hating this if they had to read it in high school. I had to as well and I despised this book. I actually grew up in Geraldton in the 70s and 80s and it seemed as though not much had changed since the 40s, excpept mabe for the war. Hated hated hated it. Trying to explain to some first year teacher from Perth that how utterly boring Robs life was compared to our own was a fruiless task. They just couldn't get it. Now go forward in time 20 years and I decided to give it another go, Penguin classic 10 bucks why not? I fell in love with this story. It actually was excatly like my childhood, except for the war, and actually made me miss my hometown a little. Just a little mind you, ask anyone who grew up in Gero and left, what they think of it and i'm pretty sure you'll understand. Stow writes from the heart and thats what I think I got out of it the second time. It made me miss my childhood but at the same time appreciate how lucky I was to grow up in Geraldton. So apolagies to my old english teachers for giving you so much grief over this book but for the love of God please don't inflict it on 15 year olds.
February 25, 2017
Intertwined and parallel stories of a little boy growing up innocently on the beaches and rural lands in Western Australia, and of a young man - the boy's cousin - going to war and growing up by force in the prison camps of Singapore and Thailand.
Fabulous sensory descriptions - the smells; of warm sweaty horses, breathing in the sweet aroma of blooming roses, the sights; of immense and beautiful vast empty country lands, gum trees swishing and swaying gracefully in the winds, shafts of sunlight shining on mountains of chaff, the sounds; of loud waves at night crashing like a sleeping, snoring sea; the feel of childishly squishing mud between toes, walking on stubbly dry grass after harvest under bare feet, and the bittersweet taste that maturing and becoming increasingly aware of the limits and dimensions of your world has on your soul.
Evocative poetic prose - this is Australia. This is a magnificent book.
Fabulous sensory descriptions - the smells; of warm sweaty horses, breathing in the sweet aroma of blooming roses, the sights; of immense and beautiful vast empty country lands, gum trees swishing and swaying gracefully in the winds, shafts of sunlight shining on mountains of chaff, the sounds; of loud waves at night crashing like a sleeping, snoring sea; the feel of childishly squishing mud between toes, walking on stubbly dry grass after harvest under bare feet, and the bittersweet taste that maturing and becoming increasingly aware of the limits and dimensions of your world has on your soul.
Evocative poetic prose - this is Australia. This is a magnificent book.
January 31, 2021
I'd never heard of this author before until Mum gave me this book for Xmas. Turns out it's an Australian classic - and it's easy to see why. The way Stow tells this story through the eyes of a young boy (Rob Coram) reveals that Stow must have a deep sensitivity and insight into what young boys think about, what concerns them, what's important to them and their outlook on adults and the world around them. (Is this a true story of sorts or partly autobiographical?). For example, of all Rob's Aunt's and grown-ups he spends time with, it's the straight-talking, no-bullshit Aunty Kay that he most enjoys and respects. But the central backbone of the story is Rob's relationship with his older cousin Rick - who he adores. Again, Stow describes this relationship absolutely beautifully as it bridges the years of pre and post-war life in Western Australia. The brilliant, descriptive turn of phrase and efficient writing style leaves the reader with a rich picture of the trials and tribulations involved with "coming of age" in rural Australia - no surprise this is a classic - republished in the Penguin Classic series - and although it's slightly sad in it's reality, it was a thoroughly enjoyable read.
June 5, 2024
The opening section of 'Merry-Go-Round in the Sea' - a wonderful evocation of growing up in and around Geraldton during World War II - may be the best thing in all Australian literature. I can't think of anything better. Comparisons to Proust's descriptions of childhood do it no disservice. It's really that good.
Regrettably, the book rather loses its focus with the return of Rick from the war. And when it gets to Perth, it loses more. I get the feeling that Stow's problem was the same as Proust's: an unwillingness to directly address the issue of gayness, which is a powerful subtext, creating an unsettling sense of evasion. A shame. Nevertheless, 'Merry-Go-Round' is a luminous book, a true and essential classic.
I highly recommend this article by Christos Tsiolkas, which is a wonderful and generous appraisal of Stow's achievement:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/202...
PS: Distrust all editions of this book that show a cover-image of a fairground merry-go-round. IT'S NOT THAT KIND OF MERRY-GO-ROUND! (Excuse me for shouting...)
Regrettably, the book rather loses its focus with the return of Rick from the war. And when it gets to Perth, it loses more. I get the feeling that Stow's problem was the same as Proust's: an unwillingness to directly address the issue of gayness, which is a powerful subtext, creating an unsettling sense of evasion. A shame. Nevertheless, 'Merry-Go-Round' is a luminous book, a true and essential classic.
I highly recommend this article by Christos Tsiolkas, which is a wonderful and generous appraisal of Stow's achievement:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/202...
PS: Distrust all editions of this book that show a cover-image of a fairground merry-go-round. IT'S NOT THAT KIND OF MERRY-GO-ROUND! (Excuse me for shouting...)
September 5, 2014
It's too soon to say this is going to be my best book of the year, but it's very good indeed.
I first discovered Randolph Stow (1935-2010) just last year when I read To The Islands, so I was delighted when the ANZ LitLovers group selected Merry-go-round in the Sea for our 2011 schedule. It’s a more accessible book than its predecessor, and has often been included on Year 12 reading lists because it’s a coming-of-age story that is rich in the kind of themes that preoccupy young people. But it is more than the usual novella-length YA novel; it is a full-length beautifully crafted work of literature that has plenty to engage a widely read adult as well.
Rob Coram is six years old and living an idyllic childhood when his favourite cousin Rick sets out for war in 1941. The family lives in Geraldton in Western Australia, 424 kilometres north of Perth, itself the most isolated city in the world, and perhaps more remote from the war than anywhere else on earth. Yet even in this distant outpost, war changes lives.
To read the rest of my review, please visit
http://anzlitlovers.wordpress.com/201...
I first discovered Randolph Stow (1935-2010) just last year when I read To The Islands, so I was delighted when the ANZ LitLovers group selected Merry-go-round in the Sea for our 2011 schedule. It’s a more accessible book than its predecessor, and has often been included on Year 12 reading lists because it’s a coming-of-age story that is rich in the kind of themes that preoccupy young people. But it is more than the usual novella-length YA novel; it is a full-length beautifully crafted work of literature that has plenty to engage a widely read adult as well.
Rob Coram is six years old and living an idyllic childhood when his favourite cousin Rick sets out for war in 1941. The family lives in Geraldton in Western Australia, 424 kilometres north of Perth, itself the most isolated city in the world, and perhaps more remote from the war than anywhere else on earth. Yet even in this distant outpost, war changes lives.
To read the rest of my review, please visit
http://anzlitlovers.wordpress.com/201...
August 18, 2023
4.5 stars. A beautifully told, intelligent, sometimes humorous story mainly about two characters, six year old Rob Coran and his twenty year old favourite cousin Rick. It’s 1941 and Rick joins the army and goes off to war. Rob’s world remains unchanged. As a six year old Rob is allowed to wander far and wide without parental supervision. He climbs trees, plays in the play ground, and goes swimming.
The first two thirds of the novel is written from Rob’s perspective, describing life as a young, innocent, gullible young boy. Rob is oblivious to the far off war. When Rick returns after the war, having been a prisoner of war, Rick is a changed young man.
The last third of the novel also includes narration from Rick’s perspective.
The novel begins slowly with very good descriptions of life in Geraldton in the 1940s. The second half of the novel is poignantly captivating.
One of the strong points of the novel is the very realistic, at times humorous, dialogue.
A highly recommended read.
This book was first published in 1965.
The first two thirds of the novel is written from Rob’s perspective, describing life as a young, innocent, gullible young boy. Rob is oblivious to the far off war. When Rick returns after the war, having been a prisoner of war, Rick is a changed young man.
The last third of the novel also includes narration from Rick’s perspective.
The novel begins slowly with very good descriptions of life in Geraldton in the 1940s. The second half of the novel is poignantly captivating.
One of the strong points of the novel is the very realistic, at times humorous, dialogue.
A highly recommended read.
This book was first published in 1965.
September 29, 2019
Absolutely beautiful.
August 17, 2021
One of the reasons I like being in a bookclub is that we don’t always agree. I really struggled with this book. I found it meandering. I managed to get through it once we went into a COVID lockdown here and I had little else to do but lie on the couch and read. But my bookclub friends mostly really liked it.
Rob is a 6 year old boy when the novel starts. The second world war is in progress and the residents of Geraldton where he lives are alarmed about the prospect of the Japanese invading. To protect themselves, they retreat to the country property owned within Rob’s large extended family. There is a family tree included in this book which I think I looked at around every three pages.
It’s a family dominated by women as the many of the men are away – either in the armed services or attending to war-related matters. Rick who is Rob’s older cousin is preparing to go to war. Rob idolises Rick; Rob’s absent and forbidding father means that he needs an attentive masculine presence – and Rick fills that void.
Most of the book traces the childhood activities of Rob as the war grinds on. It is a loveletter to a boy’s childhood – swimming in the Indian ocean, playing soldiers and pretend shooting, nearly drowning in the river, mucking around with mates, going droving.
The book was written in 1965 and Stow has Rob contemplate some of the big picture themes that must have been percolating in Australia during the decades that he was growing up. At times I really didn’t buy the fact that a 10 year old was thinking about whether Australia was an old or a new country and other similar themes. As the book is set in Geraldton, there is quite a bit about aboriginal people and some of the characters use a lot of very racist language and perspectives of the local Yamatji people. Of them Rob thinks “It was funny about blackn*****s. They were Australian. They were more Australian than Rob was, and he was fifth generation. And yet somehow they were not Australian. His world was not one world.” In another part of the novel, he describes seeing Aboriginal art in caves, and ponders the people who made them.
In a review I read “In 1957, Stow had spent three months as a storeman at the Forrest River Aboriginal mission in the Kimberleys. His biographer, Suzanne Falkiner, argued (on ABC RN Late Night Live) that this experience created some conflict for him: ‘[His family] had achieved a lot: they had been colonists in America, in the West Indies, the earliest settlers in that region of Australia,’ she says. ‘But as he grew older and as he got to know Aborigines, having worked in the Forrest River mission, I think the conflict became a real source of pain for him.’” (https://whisperinggums.com/2018/06/30...)
Another reviewer said: “Talking to me in 1999, Stow attributed much of his early sensitivity to the issue of Aboriginal dispossession to his experience of mixing with indigenous children at his school. I think it came from primary school, actually. I knew some of them and I liked them. I found them interesting. Generally they were older than the rest of us…and a bit more interesting…I used to rather admire them. Because they were ‘cool’, I suppose you’d say these days. We didn’t have that word in those days. I just liked them.” (https://westerlymag.com.au/wp-content...)
The very best parts of the book relate to Rick, who ends up as a POW somewhere in Asia. Stow is extremely sparing in the glimpses of life under the Japanese but what we see is horrific. There are only 3-4 single incidents that portray Rick’s experiences. Each is only about 3 pages long. These elements crack through the long sunny rambling timeless narrative that is Rob’s childhood – and place that childhood within a much more threatening world context. It’s both a geopolitical context and an adult one – both are darker more threatening places. I found these pages compelling.
There are at least two merry-go-rounds in the book – one is land-based – you can see an image of it here: https://westerlymag.com.au/poetry-of-... It’s a heavy old iron thing that according to Stow, built up such a head of steam when it got going that even adults could not stop it. Apart from the metaphor of going around and around and around, of being a perennial fixture, it is interesting in terms of thinking about the type of childhood Rob has – largely unmediated by adults, free to roam, to take risks, to explore. (Very different from the childhoods of young Australians now!)
I quite enjoyed finding out more about Stow’s life – I’d never read anything he’s written. He had an interesting life. This podcast was interesting: https://thesydneyinstitute.com.au/blo... From what I listened to and read about ‘Mick’ Stow, I found out that he wrote this book very fast while living in New Mexico. Like a lot of Australian intellectuals, he moved to Britain in the 60s. In Stow’s case, be never returned to Australia to live. This novel has a lot of autobiographical elements – Stow had a large family, with connections into politics and the law and into farming life. As this reviewer says “From the outset then, the reader is alerted to the fact that the small boy they are about to read of is an individual member of a much larger collective. This tension between individualism and collectivity runs throughout the book in parallel with its other great theme, the paradox of our experience of time as being both circular and linear.”
Of the novel, and of the character Rick, he says: “I had to import, to give the thing a plot. I had to import experiences from another time in my life when I was very attached to an exPOW, which didn’t happen at the same time, but happened later… [I]t occurred to me when I was in the States. Actually I was driving through Alabama and it suddenly clicked. I thought, ‘That’s how to do it!’ And that’s the way I did do it.” https://westerlymag.com.au/wp-content...
“What he did was borrow the war-time experiences of his friend Russell Braddon, the author of The Naked Island, and merge his emotional attachment to him as a young adult with the sense of awe that, as a boy, he had felt towards his shy and rather remote second cousin, Eric Sewell.”
So in summary, I felt like the novel was a bit dated. It was too rambly for me. But my bookie friends loved the descriptions of what it is like to be a little boy – and I have to concede that he did this well. A writer identifying the connections with actual places in Geraldton said: ““Stow caught the colours, heat and attitudes of a rural WA town in the war years, and after. He skilfully sketched something precious ... Australian personality.” https://westtravelclub.com.au/stories...
Rob is a 6 year old boy when the novel starts. The second world war is in progress and the residents of Geraldton where he lives are alarmed about the prospect of the Japanese invading. To protect themselves, they retreat to the country property owned within Rob’s large extended family. There is a family tree included in this book which I think I looked at around every three pages.
It’s a family dominated by women as the many of the men are away – either in the armed services or attending to war-related matters. Rick who is Rob’s older cousin is preparing to go to war. Rob idolises Rick; Rob’s absent and forbidding father means that he needs an attentive masculine presence – and Rick fills that void.
Most of the book traces the childhood activities of Rob as the war grinds on. It is a loveletter to a boy’s childhood – swimming in the Indian ocean, playing soldiers and pretend shooting, nearly drowning in the river, mucking around with mates, going droving.
The book was written in 1965 and Stow has Rob contemplate some of the big picture themes that must have been percolating in Australia during the decades that he was growing up. At times I really didn’t buy the fact that a 10 year old was thinking about whether Australia was an old or a new country and other similar themes. As the book is set in Geraldton, there is quite a bit about aboriginal people and some of the characters use a lot of very racist language and perspectives of the local Yamatji people. Of them Rob thinks “It was funny about blackn*****s. They were Australian. They were more Australian than Rob was, and he was fifth generation. And yet somehow they were not Australian. His world was not one world.” In another part of the novel, he describes seeing Aboriginal art in caves, and ponders the people who made them.
In a review I read “In 1957, Stow had spent three months as a storeman at the Forrest River Aboriginal mission in the Kimberleys. His biographer, Suzanne Falkiner, argued (on ABC RN Late Night Live) that this experience created some conflict for him: ‘[His family] had achieved a lot: they had been colonists in America, in the West Indies, the earliest settlers in that region of Australia,’ she says. ‘But as he grew older and as he got to know Aborigines, having worked in the Forrest River mission, I think the conflict became a real source of pain for him.’” (https://whisperinggums.com/2018/06/30...)
Another reviewer said: “Talking to me in 1999, Stow attributed much of his early sensitivity to the issue of Aboriginal dispossession to his experience of mixing with indigenous children at his school. I think it came from primary school, actually. I knew some of them and I liked them. I found them interesting. Generally they were older than the rest of us…and a bit more interesting…I used to rather admire them. Because they were ‘cool’, I suppose you’d say these days. We didn’t have that word in those days. I just liked them.” (https://westerlymag.com.au/wp-content...)
The very best parts of the book relate to Rick, who ends up as a POW somewhere in Asia. Stow is extremely sparing in the glimpses of life under the Japanese but what we see is horrific. There are only 3-4 single incidents that portray Rick’s experiences. Each is only about 3 pages long. These elements crack through the long sunny rambling timeless narrative that is Rob’s childhood – and place that childhood within a much more threatening world context. It’s both a geopolitical context and an adult one – both are darker more threatening places. I found these pages compelling.
There are at least two merry-go-rounds in the book – one is land-based – you can see an image of it here: https://westerlymag.com.au/poetry-of-... It’s a heavy old iron thing that according to Stow, built up such a head of steam when it got going that even adults could not stop it. Apart from the metaphor of going around and around and around, of being a perennial fixture, it is interesting in terms of thinking about the type of childhood Rob has – largely unmediated by adults, free to roam, to take risks, to explore. (Very different from the childhoods of young Australians now!)
I quite enjoyed finding out more about Stow’s life – I’d never read anything he’s written. He had an interesting life. This podcast was interesting: https://thesydneyinstitute.com.au/blo... From what I listened to and read about ‘Mick’ Stow, I found out that he wrote this book very fast while living in New Mexico. Like a lot of Australian intellectuals, he moved to Britain in the 60s. In Stow’s case, be never returned to Australia to live. This novel has a lot of autobiographical elements – Stow had a large family, with connections into politics and the law and into farming life. As this reviewer says “From the outset then, the reader is alerted to the fact that the small boy they are about to read of is an individual member of a much larger collective. This tension between individualism and collectivity runs throughout the book in parallel with its other great theme, the paradox of our experience of time as being both circular and linear.”
Of the novel, and of the character Rick, he says: “I had to import, to give the thing a plot. I had to import experiences from another time in my life when I was very attached to an exPOW, which didn’t happen at the same time, but happened later… [I]t occurred to me when I was in the States. Actually I was driving through Alabama and it suddenly clicked. I thought, ‘That’s how to do it!’ And that’s the way I did do it.” https://westerlymag.com.au/wp-content...
“What he did was borrow the war-time experiences of his friend Russell Braddon, the author of The Naked Island, and merge his emotional attachment to him as a young adult with the sense of awe that, as a boy, he had felt towards his shy and rather remote second cousin, Eric Sewell.”
So in summary, I felt like the novel was a bit dated. It was too rambly for me. But my bookie friends loved the descriptions of what it is like to be a little boy – and I have to concede that he did this well. A writer identifying the connections with actual places in Geraldton said: ““Stow caught the colours, heat and attitudes of a rural WA town in the war years, and after. He skilfully sketched something precious ... Australian personality.” https://westtravelclub.com.au/stories...
July 26, 2010
Bloody WA school board making me read this!!! Hated it - more boring than the drive to greenough.
February 25, 2022
A coming of age story that is haunting in its sensory overload. Rob Coram's only 6 when his cousin Rick goes off to war in 1941. When Rick returns after the war after being a POW in Changi, he's changed. The still-young Rob struggles to make sense of his own ties to family, the family land, and what to make of his own life and future, even as he realizes Rick has changed forever - and how that also affects him - and how he should be looking at things like his own future too. Nothing has stayed the same, or like what he expected it to be. Rob's childhood - like Rick's youth - has been irrevocably altered. Beautifully lyrical, funny in parts, I'm pretty sure this book will continue to resonate.
January 9, 2018
First a word about the audio book format: 5 stars for the narrator, Humphrey Bowers, who not only captured the many different voices plus many different accents (even foreign language readings) but also SANG where songs were quoted in the book. And what a great singing voice he has too! Well done. It's not often that I enjoy a narrator's reading and am grateful for their competence on so many fronts.
And now the book itself
To my embarrassment, I had never heard of Randolph Stow until recently when his poetry was selected for discussion at my poetry appreciation group. I was so intrigued by the man's poetry and life story that I sought out this book, and will probably read his other novels plus the recent biography Mick: A Life of Randolph Stow
Like many other reviewers I really liked this book. Such a delightful coming of age story, following the intertwined lives of young Rob Coram and his adored young uncle Rick Maplestead, tracking how World War II affected both of their lives. In my opinion, Stow captures the Australia of that era and that region very skilfully and graphically. He also excels at balancing the quieter, sadder moments in the book with dialogue that highlights the gift of laconic, larrikin humour that I so dearly love in Australian culture.
As much as I enjoyed this book, I don't think I would have enjoyed this as a book I had to read for school. Yes, it's a coming of age story, but I would not have been able to relate to this young boy whose childhood, background and family were so different to mine. It is only now as an adult that I can appreciate the subtle portrayal of characters and relationships.
There are so many excellent and detailed reviews, I really can't add to anything that's already been said:
* anzlitlovers.com
* jml297's review
* Matt Odd's review
And now the book itself
To my embarrassment, I had never heard of Randolph Stow until recently when his poetry was selected for discussion at my poetry appreciation group. I was so intrigued by the man's poetry and life story that I sought out this book, and will probably read his other novels plus the recent biography Mick: A Life of Randolph Stow
Like many other reviewers I really liked this book. Such a delightful coming of age story, following the intertwined lives of young Rob Coram and his adored young uncle Rick Maplestead, tracking how World War II affected both of their lives. In my opinion, Stow captures the Australia of that era and that region very skilfully and graphically. He also excels at balancing the quieter, sadder moments in the book with dialogue that highlights the gift of laconic, larrikin humour that I so dearly love in Australian culture.
As much as I enjoyed this book, I don't think I would have enjoyed this as a book I had to read for school. Yes, it's a coming of age story, but I would not have been able to relate to this young boy whose childhood, background and family were so different to mine. It is only now as an adult that I can appreciate the subtle portrayal of characters and relationships.
There are so many excellent and detailed reviews, I really can't add to anything that's already been said:
* anzlitlovers.com
* jml297's review
* Matt Odd's review
February 25, 2021
This book must have just caught me in the right mood. It's very nostalgic. Covers a lot of ground for a coming of age story. The story starts in the early days of the Pacific War in WW2. The war provides a bit of excitement for a young boy and he is not put out at all by moving out of town in Geraldton, WA to living on the large family property that's been in his mother's family for generations. There's still the rifle slots in the walls of the Shearing shed for when Aboriginal warriors attacked the graziers. What does put the boy, Rob, out is his favourite cousin, Rick, going off to war. Rick ends up spending his war as a POW of the Japanese in Singapore and is changed for life when he returns. So much is covered, family, 1940s-1950s male bonding, early Geraldton history, mining, farming, class and racial prejudice. Surprisingly modern views for a novel first published before I was born in 1965. It deserves to be a classic. Beautiful writing.
Glad that I had the library buy a copy and that the ABC bookclub encouraged me to read it. Great stuff.
Glad that I had the library buy a copy and that the ABC bookclub encouraged me to read it. Great stuff.
September 13, 2017
First published in 1965, this has become something of a modern Australian classic coming-of-age novel.
Set over 8 years, between 1941 and 1949, the story focuses primarily on young Rob Coram and his 15 year older cousin Rick, whom Rob idolizes.
The first part, called Rick Away, covers 1941 - 1945, and refers to Rick joining the armed forces to fight the Japanese in south east Asia. Rick is largely absent from this part of the narrative, but we learn enough to know that Rick has been captured in the fall of Singapore and is interned in a Japanese prisoner camp.
Meanwhile the idyllic coastal life of Rob and his family at Geralton in Western Australia is rudely threatened by Japanese bombing raids, and various precautions, including a temporary relocation to an inland family property, are suddenly necessary.
Rob and his young mates take all this in their strides, and continue to do all the things young boys do growing up in rural mid-century Australia. Rob, however, continues to be anxious about Rick, although adults shield the children from many details about war activities.
The second part, called Rick Home, covers 1945 - 1949, and deals more with an emaciated and recovering Rick, one of few survivors, along with his close mate Hughie, of the sadistic Japanese internment camp.
Rick struggles to readjust to post-war life, feeling listless, restless, disillusioned, and finding it hard to imagine or create a positive future. Despite the support of an extended family, and the ongoing adoration of Rob, Rick struggles with career and relationships,
Meanwhile, Rob develops into an adolescent youth, continues his formal and worldly education, and begins to question some established values and norms.
So, this is a coming of age story, not only for young Rob, who grows from 6 - 14 over the duration of the novel, but also of Rick, a carefree and likeable 21 year old man, who is forced to confront the harsh realities of war and what that can do to a man, not only on the outside, but mostly on the inside. But it is also another chapter in the coming-of-age of the Australian nation, in the aftermath of a long and brutal war that cost so much in so many ways.
Stow focuses with a loving attention to detail on the Australian landscape, both the coastal vistas and the inland expanses that Rob, Rick and their families inhabit and try to tame. It typically features not only the vast beauty of the countryside, but also on its familiar harshness and extremes of heat, drought and flood.
On a more disturbing note, the novel frequently indulges in racist and derogatory language that is certainly not acceptable today in respect of the local indigenous population (including frequent us of the dreaded n-word).
I will give Stow the benefit of the doubt and attribute this aspect of the story to the realistic portrayal of the attitudes, language and casual racism of many of the characters, both adults and children. This is reasonably typical of the attitudes of the times, and it wasn't for another 20 years that Australia first formally recognised its first peoples as citizens of this country.
Set over 8 years, between 1941 and 1949, the story focuses primarily on young Rob Coram and his 15 year older cousin Rick, whom Rob idolizes.
The first part, called Rick Away, covers 1941 - 1945, and refers to Rick joining the armed forces to fight the Japanese in south east Asia. Rick is largely absent from this part of the narrative, but we learn enough to know that Rick has been captured in the fall of Singapore and is interned in a Japanese prisoner camp.
Meanwhile the idyllic coastal life of Rob and his family at Geralton in Western Australia is rudely threatened by Japanese bombing raids, and various precautions, including a temporary relocation to an inland family property, are suddenly necessary.
Rob and his young mates take all this in their strides, and continue to do all the things young boys do growing up in rural mid-century Australia. Rob, however, continues to be anxious about Rick, although adults shield the children from many details about war activities.
The second part, called Rick Home, covers 1945 - 1949, and deals more with an emaciated and recovering Rick, one of few survivors, along with his close mate Hughie, of the sadistic Japanese internment camp.
Rick struggles to readjust to post-war life, feeling listless, restless, disillusioned, and finding it hard to imagine or create a positive future. Despite the support of an extended family, and the ongoing adoration of Rob, Rick struggles with career and relationships,
Meanwhile, Rob develops into an adolescent youth, continues his formal and worldly education, and begins to question some established values and norms.
So, this is a coming of age story, not only for young Rob, who grows from 6 - 14 over the duration of the novel, but also of Rick, a carefree and likeable 21 year old man, who is forced to confront the harsh realities of war and what that can do to a man, not only on the outside, but mostly on the inside. But it is also another chapter in the coming-of-age of the Australian nation, in the aftermath of a long and brutal war that cost so much in so many ways.
Stow focuses with a loving attention to detail on the Australian landscape, both the coastal vistas and the inland expanses that Rob, Rick and their families inhabit and try to tame. It typically features not only the vast beauty of the countryside, but also on its familiar harshness and extremes of heat, drought and flood.
On a more disturbing note, the novel frequently indulges in racist and derogatory language that is certainly not acceptable today in respect of the local indigenous population (including frequent us of the dreaded n-word).
I will give Stow the benefit of the doubt and attribute this aspect of the story to the realistic portrayal of the attitudes, language and casual racism of many of the characters, both adults and children. This is reasonably typical of the attitudes of the times, and it wasn't for another 20 years that Australia first formally recognised its first peoples as citizens of this country.
January 3, 2024
About a boy growing up in WA during WWII. Stow's other work felt like there was a really good story just beyond the margins of his words, but there seemed stumbles or too much focus on other parts. Perhaps that's the intention. Here it seems more controlled and the representation of childhood, mid century Australian life and the gentle portrait of the impact of war was quality. In reading the yellowed pages and loose cover of my edition, I feel authors and books like this, who focus a little on the interior of nationhood, identity and meaning, will be lost to our collective consciousness soon, replaced by digestible American melodrama.
September 11, 2022
This coming-of-age novel set against the harsh backdrop of the Western Australian landscape has become a modern classic for Randolph Stow.
When Stow passed away at the age of 74 in England on 29 May 2010, he had spent more than 40 years out of the country, but West Australian’s still mourned the loss of one of their own. Stow was the second-ever winner of Australia’s prestigious Miles Franklin Literary Award in 1958 for his novel To the Islands, but is perhaps better known for this semi-autobiographical novel published in 1965.
The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea tells the story of six-year-old Rob Coram who lives in the town of Geraldton and divides his time between the sheep stations owned by his extended family and hanging out at the beach and swimming in the Indian Ocean.
The story is of a simple childhood in a small coastal town and told through the eyes of Rob, it is easy to get swept up in the fights with his younger sister Nan, his desire to swim to the merry-go-round in the sea (a ship wreck) and his non comprehension of a war that is going on far to the north.
But growing up can be complex, and to do so in a small and isolated community where the physical landscape is harsh and unforgiving comes with its own complications.
Rob’s hero is his cousin Rick who at 21 leaves to join the war efforts in Asia. The book is actually divided up into two parts – Rick Away 1941-1945 and Rick Home 1945-1949.
It is in the latter half of the book that the implications of the war on both their lives hits home. In these eight years the world changes for both Rob and Rick and there is no going back.
Growing up means questioning what is around you and what people tell you. It is when Rob finally swims to his merry-go-round and realises what it is that as a reader we appreciate the loss of youth.
Julian Randolph Stow was born in Geraldton in 1935 and it was here amongst the town, the coast and the surrounding sheep stations that he set the novel The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea. Geraldton is located on the mid-west coast of Western Australia about 420km north of the capital city Perth. Today the city of Geraldton-Greenough still celebrates the writer’s life with an annual literary competition for school students.
Stow had two of his eight novels published when he was still a young man and an undergraduate at the University of Western Australia.
When Stow passed away at the age of 74 in England on 29 May 2010, he had spent more than 40 years out of the country, but West Australian’s still mourned the loss of one of their own. Stow was the second-ever winner of Australia’s prestigious Miles Franklin Literary Award in 1958 for his novel To the Islands, but is perhaps better known for this semi-autobiographical novel published in 1965.
The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea tells the story of six-year-old Rob Coram who lives in the town of Geraldton and divides his time between the sheep stations owned by his extended family and hanging out at the beach and swimming in the Indian Ocean.
The story is of a simple childhood in a small coastal town and told through the eyes of Rob, it is easy to get swept up in the fights with his younger sister Nan, his desire to swim to the merry-go-round in the sea (a ship wreck) and his non comprehension of a war that is going on far to the north.
But growing up can be complex, and to do so in a small and isolated community where the physical landscape is harsh and unforgiving comes with its own complications.
Rob’s hero is his cousin Rick who at 21 leaves to join the war efforts in Asia. The book is actually divided up into two parts – Rick Away 1941-1945 and Rick Home 1945-1949.
It is in the latter half of the book that the implications of the war on both their lives hits home. In these eight years the world changes for both Rob and Rick and there is no going back.
Growing up means questioning what is around you and what people tell you. It is when Rob finally swims to his merry-go-round and realises what it is that as a reader we appreciate the loss of youth.
Julian Randolph Stow was born in Geraldton in 1935 and it was here amongst the town, the coast and the surrounding sheep stations that he set the novel The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea. Geraldton is located on the mid-west coast of Western Australia about 420km north of the capital city Perth. Today the city of Geraldton-Greenough still celebrates the writer’s life with an annual literary competition for school students.
Stow had two of his eight novels published when he was still a young man and an undergraduate at the University of Western Australia.
September 4, 2021
I came to this book in a fairly oblique way. Last year I listened to an audiobook called 'To the Island' on the strength of it being read by my favourite narrator, Humphrey Bower. I was sufficiently impressed with that novel to also try this one.
Few are the novels that capture a time and place at both an emotional and pictorial level. In order to enjoy this kind of novel, the reader must also be willing to be captured, to take the work at a leisurely pace, to ruminate in the work. This is such a book. As I read, I felt a growing and intimate acquaintance with a time, WW2 and its aftermath, and a place, western Australia, foreign to me. I was touched by the emotional lives of an extended family in a way that few writers can achieve, and felt tears at many moments, especially later in the novel, in the ongoing dialogue and relationship between the returning soldier, Rick, and the young boy, Rob. Rick especially had to confront the same existential questions that often concern me, although in a different setting.
The deep, interior view of the lives of the characters in this novel rivals that of 'To the Lighthouse' which evokes a similar time period. Both works bracket the war period with a profound sense of loss.
Can't say enough about how much I enjoyed this work and Stow is now on my 'read everything I can' list which contains perhaps 2 dozen writers in all.
In my own mind I would place Stow among the best late modern writers along with Steinbeck and Hersey of the USA and Woolf and Waugh of Britain. I understand Stow is well known in Australia, but not here in Canada. I suppose I'm more chuffed to have found another great writer, than disappointed that it has come so late.
Few are the novels that capture a time and place at both an emotional and pictorial level. In order to enjoy this kind of novel, the reader must also be willing to be captured, to take the work at a leisurely pace, to ruminate in the work. This is such a book. As I read, I felt a growing and intimate acquaintance with a time, WW2 and its aftermath, and a place, western Australia, foreign to me. I was touched by the emotional lives of an extended family in a way that few writers can achieve, and felt tears at many moments, especially later in the novel, in the ongoing dialogue and relationship between the returning soldier, Rick, and the young boy, Rob. Rick especially had to confront the same existential questions that often concern me, although in a different setting.
The deep, interior view of the lives of the characters in this novel rivals that of 'To the Lighthouse' which evokes a similar time period. Both works bracket the war period with a profound sense of loss.
Can't say enough about how much I enjoyed this work and Stow is now on my 'read everything I can' list which contains perhaps 2 dozen writers in all.
In my own mind I would place Stow among the best late modern writers along with Steinbeck and Hersey of the USA and Woolf and Waugh of Britain. I understand Stow is well known in Australia, but not here in Canada. I suppose I'm more chuffed to have found another great writer, than disappointed that it has come so late.
January 19, 2021
This book is now part of the Penguin Classic series. I came to it via Good Reading magazine who did a spread on the town of Geraldton and the places in the novel.
Stow's language is lyrical, and vividly evokes a Western Australia of times past. I recently travelled to Perth and there is one scene in the book set in a place I have been to. The description of this place is perfect - despite being set 70 years ago!
The novel explores the relationship between Rob Coram (narrator) and his older cousin, Rick. Rob is only six when Rick goes away to the Second World War. Time passes. Australia is threatened by the Japanese and Rob and his family are 'farmed out' to relatives away from Geraldton which may be a target. Rick is fighting the Japanese and becomes a prisoner of war. Explores how Rob and Rick face the challenges of everything being the same and everything having changed.
I really enjoyed this book, but I found it a difficult novel to read. The story is set in the Second World War and was written in 1965. I found its language difficult to approach at times, given that I am used to reading much more contemporary fare. I did not always seek the novel out (as one might with a crime drama), but I was happy to pick it up and dip into it again. Rob's childhood, while vastly different from my own, evoked a rememberance of the country life.
The ending seemed abrupt, but I'm glad I persevered.
Stow's language is lyrical, and vividly evokes a Western Australia of times past. I recently travelled to Perth and there is one scene in the book set in a place I have been to. The description of this place is perfect - despite being set 70 years ago!
The novel explores the relationship between Rob Coram (narrator) and his older cousin, Rick. Rob is only six when Rick goes away to the Second World War. Time passes. Australia is threatened by the Japanese and Rob and his family are 'farmed out' to relatives away from Geraldton which may be a target. Rick is fighting the Japanese and becomes a prisoner of war. Explores how Rob and Rick face the challenges of everything being the same and everything having changed.
I really enjoyed this book, but I found it a difficult novel to read. The story is set in the Second World War and was written in 1965. I found its language difficult to approach at times, given that I am used to reading much more contemporary fare. I did not always seek the novel out (as one might with a crime drama), but I was happy to pick it up and dip into it again. Rob's childhood, while vastly different from my own, evoked a rememberance of the country life.
The ending seemed abrupt, but I'm glad I persevered.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 15, 2014
I got this book roughly 20 years ago when I was taking a class on Australian literature. Having no memory of the story I thought I'd pull it off my shelf and give it another go (mainly to determine whether or not it was going back on the shelf or donated to the library). What a depressing book.
The story revolves around two main characters, Rob and Rick, over a span of 8 years. Rick is Rob's older cousin who leaves to fight in WWII. Rob is a five year old little boy who adores him.
Although well written, I found it hard to get emotionally involved in either character since Rob is referred to either by name or as "the boy". Rick is someone you want to like, but Stow keeps him at arms length, even from the other characters in the book. There are also sections where Stow doesn't remark about which character he is focusing on, so you have to do a bit of back-tracking to figure it out.
There were some very engrossing sections that made me want to care about these characters and what happened to them. However, in the end, I felt a bit like the 14 year old Rob looking out over the Australian landscape . . .lost in a desolate ending that revolved in hopeless circles.
The story revolves around two main characters, Rob and Rick, over a span of 8 years. Rick is Rob's older cousin who leaves to fight in WWII. Rob is a five year old little boy who adores him.
Although well written, I found it hard to get emotionally involved in either character since Rob is referred to either by name or as "the boy". Rick is someone you want to like, but Stow keeps him at arms length, even from the other characters in the book. There are also sections where Stow doesn't remark about which character he is focusing on, so you have to do a bit of back-tracking to figure it out.
There were some very engrossing sections that made me want to care about these characters and what happened to them. However, in the end, I felt a bit like the 14 year old Rob looking out over the Australian landscape . . .lost in a desolate ending that revolved in hopeless circles.
October 5, 2015
Confession time.
I became enthralled by Randolph Stow’s (Mick to his friends) writing after reading To the Islands. I then launched into his classic Merry Go Round in the Sea. Just as impressive. A year later I read Tormaline – another classic. I am so hooked I read Merry Go Round in the Sea again!
The writing is so real, raw and exposes the harsh Australian life in rural towns. The brutality, the isolation and the strange characters that inhibit this land.
Randolph Stow abandoned Australia not long after writing these classics. He saw deep into the psyche of this place and didn’t like what he saw. He became a recluse in Surrey in England. I can’t help but lament his Australian voice, how much more light could have been shone on this place and people.
I became enthralled by Randolph Stow’s (Mick to his friends) writing after reading To the Islands. I then launched into his classic Merry Go Round in the Sea. Just as impressive. A year later I read Tormaline – another classic. I am so hooked I read Merry Go Round in the Sea again!
The writing is so real, raw and exposes the harsh Australian life in rural towns. The brutality, the isolation and the strange characters that inhibit this land.
Randolph Stow abandoned Australia not long after writing these classics. He saw deep into the psyche of this place and didn’t like what he saw. He became a recluse in Surrey in England. I can’t help but lament his Australian voice, how much more light could have been shone on this place and people.
December 27, 2016
I spent some time in Geraldton recently for work so I thought this would be a suitable companion for lonely nights on the terrace but I really didn't get into this. This book feels dated and simplistic even for its release in the 60s. Why do Australian writers bang on about landscapes endlessly? Why do they write simple and joyless prose? A favourite of high-school English teachers across the state and a possible explanation for why this state+country produces so few works of original fiction.
I continue my search for Australian lit that is complex/powerful/unique/interesting/etc. Recommendations?
I continue my search for Australian lit that is complex/powerful/unique/interesting/etc. Recommendations?
October 5, 2011
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this story. I'm not sure if it's because I was reminiscing or that the story just appealed to me. Either way, the book was full of amazing descriptions of the area in Geraldton in which it was set. I especially loved the author's personification of aspects of the countryside the 'Greenough trees; like ladies washing their hair', is a favorite of mine. The relationship developed between Rob and Rick was really the highlight for me and Stow sure showed some of his talents in this area.
January 27, 2020
A reread after a 100 years. I remember reading this in high school and not really enjoying it and thinking it was boring. Fast forward 30 years, and I think it's beautiful. The descriptive imagery is lyrical and makes me put my hands to my throat. The story is cleverly stitched together. A masterful, iconic Australian book. Perfect reading (maybe not for teenagers)...
May 5, 2011
This book was my nemesis.....I hated it
February 6, 2024
"Everything was wrong with Rick. And yet, he was still the most beaut bloke Rob had ever known"
You can see why this was Stow's popular adult book. He perfectly captures the idyllic, sun drenched nostalgia for a settler Australian childhood. Six-year-old Rob introduces us to this paradise of paddocks, creeks and scrub, teasing mates and doting grandparents. As Rob ages to 13, we see his world through his eyes. Not only do we see the comfort and joy of this relatively luxurious life, but the more disturbing hints: the racism towards Aboriginal kids, the desire to kill not cherish the local birdlife, the ostracism of the pregnant, the foreign and the socially inconvenient. It is the latter that grows steam through the second half of the book, as his beloved larrikin Uncle Rick returns different from a stint as a POW, and simply can't fit back into this world. Rick becomes a second point of character, giving us more bitter and disillusioned eyes to see through. While he and Rob are tied through love and their shared yearning for adventure and grand stories, they are divided by Rick's inability to buy the myth. This works as a straightforward growing up story, the loss of the shine. And it works as a novel about the devastation wrought by POW camps and by the lack of vocabulary or space to share the experience. And it works ultimately as a commentary on the myth of Australia itself, and its settler class on their stolen land. The Merry go-round in the Sea was never a Merry go-round at all, but instead something ugly that covered a disaster.
This is the only book of Stowe's not available in ebook form, despite it being his most read. I wondered if the reluctance to re-issue it is in part because of the uncensored, brutally racist language (swears are blanked out, but not slurs - giving a good sense of what mattered in the 1960s). Stowe certainly doesn't directly challenge the racist dialogue through his characters, nor does he feature any significant Aboriginal characters. These are not things we would let go now, understanding the depth of hurt that overt racism can cause. But Stowe's faithful reproduction of what racism was like is not an embrace of it either. There is something important in admitting who we we were.
February 17, 2024
Randolph Stowe presents the second world war as a distant curiosity in the childhood of Geraldton boy Rob Coram. He understands that his cousin Rick, whom he idolises, is in a prison camp somewhere and misses him but his mind is on the job of growing up in 1940s regional WA. Through Rob we meet the incredibly stoic women who are keeping everything going at home. The men are vague apparitions who appear from time to time. And through it all we can smell, see and feel a regional life that even as a 1970s kid from the country I recognise.
This is a character study of a boy (Rob) who ages from six to fourteen over the novel. And, in a more minor fashion, of his favourite cousin Rick who at twenty one is a POW in SE Asia somewhere. It is a coming of age story that is beautifully rendered has the boy’s view of the world matures over time impacted by the experiences of his returned and psychologically damaged cousin.
From today’s perspective the novel is remarkably devoid of the sexism I might have expected however it is bone-jarring in its depiction of Aboriginal people. Sadly, this captured the mindset of the when it was written and when it was set and also the conversations that were common in the schoolgrounds of my own childhood in the 1970s.
In this way the novel is an historical artefact, recording the attitudes of the time to those who came home from war and those who remained behind and their relationship to migrants and the original inhabitants of the land on which they now all co-exist.
This is a character study of a boy (Rob) who ages from six to fourteen over the novel. And, in a more minor fashion, of his favourite cousin Rick who at twenty one is a POW in SE Asia somewhere. It is a coming of age story that is beautifully rendered has the boy’s view of the world matures over time impacted by the experiences of his returned and psychologically damaged cousin.
From today’s perspective the novel is remarkably devoid of the sexism I might have expected however it is bone-jarring in its depiction of Aboriginal people. Sadly, this captured the mindset of the when it was written and when it was set and also the conversations that were common in the schoolgrounds of my own childhood in the 1970s.
In this way the novel is an historical artefact, recording the attitudes of the time to those who came home from war and those who remained behind and their relationship to migrants and the original inhabitants of the land on which they now all co-exist.
November 2, 2019
This book has a great sense of the country in which it is set, around Geraldton Western Australia. The descriptions of the flora, particularly the smell of the bush, are detailed and evocative. Add to that the very perceptive understanding of a child's view of life. Sometimes askew, always fervent, it is clear that Stow remembered his childhood very, very clearly. When reading the book I wasn't aware of the fact that the Rick character follows a very similar life trajectory to the author, however I never doubted that the book was autobiographical in some way. There is a passion in the writing that is not just fiction. On the downside, there shouldn't be four typos in a Penguin edition, clearly it was read by a computer and when the wrong word is actually a real word then the computer fails to pick it up. Hire a real proofreader Penguin! Second complaint is that if you are going to put a family tree at the front of the book it needs to include all the characters, I repeatedly looked up family members who weren't there.
November 6, 2023
I have been aware of this book for years since moving to Western Australia. It is a reference book for several famous WA artists, Robert Juniper and Leon Pericles being two good referees. So I had a bit of baggage getting into the start of the book, but little idea or knowledge of Stow’s writing.
It is a book of its time and has to be appreciated as such. In part the language is problematic for contemporary readers, but it indicates how the colonists viewed First Nations people or the land they inhabited. Apart from that, the book is a great read providing a valuable insight into WA life for middle class settlers.
It is obvious that Stow has influenced writers like Tim Winton. Winton’s children’s book The Deep, contains what are almost direct quotes from Stow’s beautiful descriptions of water and jetty’s. There are others though. I enjoyed Stow’s writing immensely, his dialogue and descriptions are inspiring and concise.
It is a book of its time and has to be appreciated as such. In part the language is problematic for contemporary readers, but it indicates how the colonists viewed First Nations people or the land they inhabited. Apart from that, the book is a great read providing a valuable insight into WA life for middle class settlers.
It is obvious that Stow has influenced writers like Tim Winton. Winton’s children’s book The Deep, contains what are almost direct quotes from Stow’s beautiful descriptions of water and jetty’s. There are others though. I enjoyed Stow’s writing immensely, his dialogue and descriptions are inspiring and concise.
March 30, 2024
I really loved this book for its portrayal of a rich, but not untroubled, extended family life and the detailed and intimate descriptions of the Mid-West landscape - Geraldton, the inland and Gascoyne.
With its reaches into time, the book continued for me with a strong sense of the Australian identity; I felt Stow's references to Aboriginal people were in keeping with the intent of the book in providing an accurate record of events and attitudes during the 1940s (and beyond) rather than of his personal prejudices. I grew up in Perth just 4 hours away during the late 1950s and early 60s and much of Rob's activities and friendships had parallels in the freedoms and adventures I had at a similar age. I thought the characterisations were real and the book was full of both fun and sadness; what happened to Rick and its impact on his life was tragic.
I preferred this book over his earlier one "To the Islands" which won the Miles Franklin Award in 1959; I will review this book shortly.
With its reaches into time, the book continued for me with a strong sense of the Australian identity; I felt Stow's references to Aboriginal people were in keeping with the intent of the book in providing an accurate record of events and attitudes during the 1940s (and beyond) rather than of his personal prejudices. I grew up in Perth just 4 hours away during the late 1950s and early 60s and much of Rob's activities and friendships had parallels in the freedoms and adventures I had at a similar age. I thought the characterisations were real and the book was full of both fun and sadness; what happened to Rick and its impact on his life was tragic.
I preferred this book over his earlier one "To the Islands" which won the Miles Franklin Award in 1959; I will review this book shortly.
May 26, 2018
While undoubtedly dated, this 1965 Australian classic, a staple of school readings, is an undeniably great work. The reader is swiftly immersed in the family of the young narrator, who learns that not even the majesty of an established bloodline can protect the ones that he loves from the callousness of the outside world and the inescapable truths of the passing of time. Stow offers shockingly, by today’s standards, racist descriptions of the local Indigenous peoples, but these reflect more on the privileged settler mentality of the time than on the people themselves. While I found the extensive family tree occasionally hard to keep straight, Merry-Go-Round in the Sea is a rewarding insight into a certain time and place in Australia’s recent past.
January 31, 2020
It's strange, I grew up in Geraldton where this book is set and I never heard of it until I was in my 30's and had long ago left Gero.
When I first heard about Randolph Stow my initial reaction was: someone from Geraldton wrote a book? A book that's regarded as a classic?
I was a little shocked.
Then I read it and it all came back to me.
It seems the Geraldton that I grew up in during the 1990's wasn't much different from the Geraldton Stow grew up in during the 1940's with the exception of the war.
This is a gem of a book that should be more widely read but alas, Australians don't take their literary heritage seriously.
When I first heard about Randolph Stow my initial reaction was: someone from Geraldton wrote a book? A book that's regarded as a classic?
I was a little shocked.
Then I read it and it all came back to me.
It seems the Geraldton that I grew up in during the 1990's wasn't much different from the Geraldton Stow grew up in during the 1940's with the exception of the war.
This is a gem of a book that should be more widely read but alas, Australians don't take their literary heritage seriously.
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