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The Strays
A New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice
"Disturbing and magical....with a grace and eloquence." - NPR Books
"Full of lush, mesmerizing detail and keen insight into the easy intimacy between young girls which disappears with adulthood." - The New Yorker
"THE STRAYS is a knowing novel, and beautifully done." - Meg Wolitzer, New York Times bestselling author of The Interestings
For readers of Atonement, a hauntingly powerful story about the fierce friendship between three sisters and their friend as they grow up on the outskirts of their parents' wild and bohemian artistic lives.
On her first day at a new school, Lily befriends Eva and her sisters Beatrice and Heloise, daughters of the infamous avant-garde painter Evan Trentham. An only child from an unremarkable, working-class family, Lily has never experienced a household like the Trenthams'--a community of like-minded artists Evan and his wife have created, all living and working together to escape the stifling conservatism of 1930's Australia. And Lily has never met anyone like Eva, whose unabashed confidence and worldly knowledge immediately draw her in.
Infatuated by the creative chaos of the Trenthams and the artists who orbit them, Lily aches to fully belong in their world, craving something beyond her own ordinary life. She becomes a fixture in their home, where she and Eva spend their days lounging in the garden, filching cigarettes and wine, and skirting the fringes of the adults' glamorous lives, who create scandalous art during the day and host lavish, debauched parties by night. But as seductive as the artists' utopian vision appears, behind it lies both darkness and dysfunction. And the further the girls are pulled in, the greater the consequences become.
With elegance and vibrancy, THE STRAYS evokes the intense bonds of girlhood friendships, the volatile undercurrents of a damaged family, and the yearning felt by an outsider looking in.
"Disturbing and magical....with a grace and eloquence." - NPR Books
"Full of lush, mesmerizing detail and keen insight into the easy intimacy between young girls which disappears with adulthood." - The New Yorker
"THE STRAYS is a knowing novel, and beautifully done." - Meg Wolitzer, New York Times bestselling author of The Interestings
For readers of Atonement, a hauntingly powerful story about the fierce friendship between three sisters and their friend as they grow up on the outskirts of their parents' wild and bohemian artistic lives.
On her first day at a new school, Lily befriends Eva and her sisters Beatrice and Heloise, daughters of the infamous avant-garde painter Evan Trentham. An only child from an unremarkable, working-class family, Lily has never experienced a household like the Trenthams'--a community of like-minded artists Evan and his wife have created, all living and working together to escape the stifling conservatism of 1930's Australia. And Lily has never met anyone like Eva, whose unabashed confidence and worldly knowledge immediately draw her in.
Infatuated by the creative chaos of the Trenthams and the artists who orbit them, Lily aches to fully belong in their world, craving something beyond her own ordinary life. She becomes a fixture in their home, where she and Eva spend their days lounging in the garden, filching cigarettes and wine, and skirting the fringes of the adults' glamorous lives, who create scandalous art during the day and host lavish, debauched parties by night. But as seductive as the artists' utopian vision appears, behind it lies both darkness and dysfunction. And the further the girls are pulled in, the greater the consequences become.
With elegance and vibrancy, THE STRAYS evokes the intense bonds of girlhood friendships, the volatile undercurrents of a damaged family, and the yearning felt by an outsider looking in.
257 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 30, 2014
200 people are currently reading
8594 people want to read
About the author
Emily Bitto
3 books183 followersEmily Bitto is the author of Stella Prize winning novel The Strays (Affirm Press, and forthcoming from Twelve, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, US). She has a Masters in literary studies and a PhD in creative writing from the University of Melbourne. Her writing has appeared in various publications, including The Sydney Morning Herald, Meanjin, Heat, the Australian Literary Review and The Big Issue Fiction Edition. The Strays was shortlisted for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript, the Indie Prize and the Dobbie Award, and won the 2015 Stella Prize. Emily Bitto lives in Melbourne where she co-owns the Carlton winebar, Heartattack & Vine.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 733 reviews
February 25, 2018
Like luxuriating in a long warm bath the writing is languid but completely engaging. I fell a little bit in love with this book. There’s nothing more intoxicatingly real and exciting than a childhood best friend, even when later on in life it’s revealed you actually have nothing in common. Childhood friendships become all consuming because they are completely absorbing, nothing else seems to matter outside of that friendship so when Lily befriends Eva she completely inhabits Eva’s world. Lily learns about the unconventional life that is offered at the Trentham household, a home for strays, she quickly becomes a spectator for a life so different to her own unremarkable mundane existence and becomes a permanent fixture in Eva’s world. A world full of colour and interesting artistic characters. But not everything is as it seems. What first appears to be an idyllic utopian bohemian paradise is far from it, a measured attempt to escape conservatism becomes a dangerous playground for these children caught up in the idealisms of their parents. I don’t want to spoil the rest..
I can’t express how much I enjoyed this book. It was a book that I was reluctant to leave. I finished the book with a tinge of sadness not wanting it to end. I felt an instant connection to every part of the story. Some parts felt so vaguely familiar, the strength and bond of friendship, the misguided loyalties and the depth of the girls friendship and the harrowing fallout made for such a complete read.
I can’t express how much I enjoyed this book. It was a book that I was reluctant to leave. I finished the book with a tinge of sadness not wanting it to end. I felt an instant connection to every part of the story. Some parts felt so vaguely familiar, the strength and bond of friendship, the misguided loyalties and the depth of the girls friendship and the harrowing fallout made for such a complete read.
February 7, 2017
I'd rate this 3.5 stars.
"Trying to describe my friendship with Eva is like showing the slides from a life-changing journey. The images can never break their borders and make their way into the body, into the nose, the ears, the entrails; they can never convey the feeling of profound change, brought about simply by altering one's place in the world."
Lily met Eva Trentham, the daughter of an infamous Australian painter, when they were young girls, on Lily's first day in a new school. An only child, raised modestly by parents who seemed perfectly happy with their quiet, ordinary lives, Lily is quickly besotted with Eva and her two sisters, Bea and Heloise. And when Lily is invited to visit the Trenthams' home, she immediately falls in love with the bohemian lifestyle Eva's parents, Evan and Helena, have created, letting the children fend for themselves, surrounded by art, nature, and raucous parties.
Little by little, Lily becomes a part of the Trentham household, and she and Eva become inseparable. Evan and Helena create a sort-of artists' colony in their own home, inviting three young artists to come and live with them, and together they will challenge the mores and stuffiness of the conservative Australian art scene. Even though she feels fully immersed in the magical atmosphere the Trenthams have created, and her parents are all too happy to let her live with Eva's family, Lily knows that she will be always be just an outsider.
But as the girls get older, Lily starts to realize that all is not as idyllic as it seems. Evan's work seems to be eclipsed by that of one of his protegés, the government is cracking down on what they view to be "indecent" art, and each of the girls, even young Heloise, has their own obsession with the handsome young artists who live with them. And then Lily realizes she has been the one left in the dark, and the secrets that have ramifications which will irreparably change a number of lives.
The Strays shifts back and forth between Lily's somewhat magical life among the Trenthams and her fellow strays, to the present day, when she attends a retrospective of Evan's work. This is a story of the intense friendships of youth, the feeling of belonging in a place far different than you were raised, and the jealousy and heartbreak which comes from actually finding yourself on the outside.
"What I feel is the sense of futility that emerges when the past is laid side by side with the present, like two photographs taken many years apart, when it becomes clear that there is no more time."
The themes of the haves and the have-nots, of the outsider being brought into a life they had heretofore only imagined and/or wished for, are both tremendously familiar in literature. Emily Bitto tweaks them a bit, so there is a freshness to the plot you've seen many times before. The characters are flawed yet interesting, and while you have your suspicions about how the story will unfold, there still are a few surprises.
While the book tried to capture the battle between art and government-mandated decency, I don't think it focused on that topic enough, so it seemed a bit nebulous. One troubling thread of the story didn't get focused on enough, and I'm not sure if that was because the family tried not to deal with it, or if it just got lost. But all in all, this is a captivating story of friendship, love, creativity, betrayal, and finally finding one's place in the world. It's both heartwarming and tragic, tempestuous and grounded.
NetGalley and Twelve Books provided me an advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available!
See all of my reviews at http://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blo....
"Trying to describe my friendship with Eva is like showing the slides from a life-changing journey. The images can never break their borders and make their way into the body, into the nose, the ears, the entrails; they can never convey the feeling of profound change, brought about simply by altering one's place in the world."
Lily met Eva Trentham, the daughter of an infamous Australian painter, when they were young girls, on Lily's first day in a new school. An only child, raised modestly by parents who seemed perfectly happy with their quiet, ordinary lives, Lily is quickly besotted with Eva and her two sisters, Bea and Heloise. And when Lily is invited to visit the Trenthams' home, she immediately falls in love with the bohemian lifestyle Eva's parents, Evan and Helena, have created, letting the children fend for themselves, surrounded by art, nature, and raucous parties.
Little by little, Lily becomes a part of the Trentham household, and she and Eva become inseparable. Evan and Helena create a sort-of artists' colony in their own home, inviting three young artists to come and live with them, and together they will challenge the mores and stuffiness of the conservative Australian art scene. Even though she feels fully immersed in the magical atmosphere the Trenthams have created, and her parents are all too happy to let her live with Eva's family, Lily knows that she will be always be just an outsider.
But as the girls get older, Lily starts to realize that all is not as idyllic as it seems. Evan's work seems to be eclipsed by that of one of his protegés, the government is cracking down on what they view to be "indecent" art, and each of the girls, even young Heloise, has their own obsession with the handsome young artists who live with them. And then Lily realizes she has been the one left in the dark, and the secrets that have ramifications which will irreparably change a number of lives.
The Strays shifts back and forth between Lily's somewhat magical life among the Trenthams and her fellow strays, to the present day, when she attends a retrospective of Evan's work. This is a story of the intense friendships of youth, the feeling of belonging in a place far different than you were raised, and the jealousy and heartbreak which comes from actually finding yourself on the outside.
"What I feel is the sense of futility that emerges when the past is laid side by side with the present, like two photographs taken many years apart, when it becomes clear that there is no more time."
The themes of the haves and the have-nots, of the outsider being brought into a life they had heretofore only imagined and/or wished for, are both tremendously familiar in literature. Emily Bitto tweaks them a bit, so there is a freshness to the plot you've seen many times before. The characters are flawed yet interesting, and while you have your suspicions about how the story will unfold, there still are a few surprises.
While the book tried to capture the battle between art and government-mandated decency, I don't think it focused on that topic enough, so it seemed a bit nebulous. One troubling thread of the story didn't get focused on enough, and I'm not sure if that was because the family tried not to deal with it, or if it just got lost. But all in all, this is a captivating story of friendship, love, creativity, betrayal, and finally finding one's place in the world. It's both heartwarming and tragic, tempestuous and grounded.
NetGalley and Twelve Books provided me an advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available!
See all of my reviews at http://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blo....
November 27, 2016
3.5 Melbourne, Australia, the 1930's and 40's art scene, Lily is eight when she first meets Eva and is introduced to the Trenthams. An only child, Lily considers her own family boring while Eva and her two sisters live a life that seems exciting, their father an Avant garde artist, their mother a glamorous if neglectful hostess. Trying to create an atmosphere where this new type of art can flourish they open their home to other artists, with disastrous results down the years. Our narrator is Lily, now a married woman with a grown daughter of her own, looking back on how something that seemed so exciting went so wrong.
This is an addictive story about a young intense friendship, a time when one's best friend meant everything. Joining the Trentham's exposed Lily to alcohol and drugs at too young an age, to undercurrents as the girls age that she didn't understand. She is a watcher, an onlooker and ii's addicted to their lifestyle, the excitement, the drama without realizing what it all means. These parents basically let the girls raise themselves, and obliviously thought everything would just turn out fine.
Although I found the story interesting it is very much a story that needs to be taken as a whole. It is the scene, the lifestyle and what ultimately happens that is the draw. I didn't find, except for the art, that there was anything to place this in the time frame it is said to take place, it could take place during any time period, in essence I found the atmosphere lacking. Also character development could have been better, I never really felt I saw inside these people, even Lily we only know because of her connection to Eva and the family. The ending when Lily is narrating in the future probably gives the reader the best look into the characters and so for me it did end on a high note. A first novel and definitely a readable and interesting one, definitely a good first start.
ARC from publisher.
Publishes in the USA on Jan. 17, 2017.
This is an addictive story about a young intense friendship, a time when one's best friend meant everything. Joining the Trentham's exposed Lily to alcohol and drugs at too young an age, to undercurrents as the girls age that she didn't understand. She is a watcher, an onlooker and ii's addicted to their lifestyle, the excitement, the drama without realizing what it all means. These parents basically let the girls raise themselves, and obliviously thought everything would just turn out fine.
Although I found the story interesting it is very much a story that needs to be taken as a whole. It is the scene, the lifestyle and what ultimately happens that is the draw. I didn't find, except for the art, that there was anything to place this in the time frame it is said to take place, it could take place during any time period, in essence I found the atmosphere lacking. Also character development could have been better, I never really felt I saw inside these people, even Lily we only know because of her connection to Eva and the family. The ending when Lily is narrating in the future probably gives the reader the best look into the characters and so for me it did end on a high note. A first novel and definitely a readable and interesting one, definitely a good first start.
ARC from publisher.
Publishes in the USA on Jan. 17, 2017.
March 11, 2021
In the vein of Atwood's Cat's Eye and Emma Cline's The Girls, Emily Bitto's debut novel traces a young girl's experiences amidst the tumultuous lives of artists in an Australian art circle. It's a compelling story that focuses on female friendships, the lack of agency for women, and the drama of the art scene in early 20th century Australia. Though I found the middle dragged just a tiny bit, the book hooked me from the beginning and ended with quite a punch. I'll definitely keep an eye out for whatever Bitto writes next.
April 13, 2019
It's hard to believe this is a debut novel...
4.5*
4.5*
November 6, 2014
I wonder if this novel is for sale in the Heide gift shop, alongside "The Heart Garden" and all those books examining Sunday Reed and her circle of complexly inter-relating artists.
Bitto says in her acknowledgements that the story is based on events in the Melbourne art scene of the thirties and forties, but that it is nonetheless a fiction, with no direct basis on actual artists. It must be hard, though, when writing of that time in this city, not to have bits of the various hagiographies wander in and set up residence, much like the strays that form Evan and Helena's eponymous bohemian inmates. The opening paragraph of Helena's letter to Maria, I am almost certain that I've read more or less the same wording in a published letter from Sunday Reed to a fellow artist... but that's neither here nor there.
The main success here is the ability to pursue the possible reactions of children to an environment where the grown ups are too busy being worldly and bohemian to look after those children. There's a brilliant passage on p277 where she presents the idea that so many women are treated by art historians as "events" that stimulate themes in an artist's life, their own lives ending up as nothing more than footnotes in the life of the artiste.
Good work there with the muses, but it's been done. Her USP lies in the areas where she examines the children, and especially the resulting dynamics between the damaged siblings. And between their ersatz siblings, too.
It is, though, very much a first novel, and a first novel by someone who's done a university creative writing course. To Ph.D level, if you don't mind. She gives us a prologue, she shows rather than tells to within an inch of our lives, she assiduously avoids giving us backstory by writing it into the narrative, there are two time zones at work in the narrative... it goes on and on. It would be unkind to describe the novel as reading like it's been painted by numbers, so I won't say that.
My main constructive comment would be to say that I had to keep reminding myself that I was reading a story unfolding in the 1930s. When the story was operating in the 1980s, Bitto was giving us plenty of little set dressings to let us know that it was the Eighties (little asides, like the quiche crust, for example), but when we were in the past, it read almost contemporary. Sure, there were references to the depression, and to using chokoes to extend apple crumble, but you didn't get the same sense of temporal otherness that you get even in something like the Phryne Fisher genre novels.
Some might dismiss that as a bourgeois criticism: never mind the props, they would retort, feel the emotional truths! Well, if you are writing a costume drama, you have to have costumes, I would re-retort. Let's ignore the kids, get some red wine, and discuss it ideologically in the carefully preserved library at Heide One. See you there.
Bitto says in her acknowledgements that the story is based on events in the Melbourne art scene of the thirties and forties, but that it is nonetheless a fiction, with no direct basis on actual artists. It must be hard, though, when writing of that time in this city, not to have bits of the various hagiographies wander in and set up residence, much like the strays that form Evan and Helena's eponymous bohemian inmates. The opening paragraph of Helena's letter to Maria, I am almost certain that I've read more or less the same wording in a published letter from Sunday Reed to a fellow artist... but that's neither here nor there.
The main success here is the ability to pursue the possible reactions of children to an environment where the grown ups are too busy being worldly and bohemian to look after those children. There's a brilliant passage on p277 where she presents the idea that so many women are treated by art historians as "events" that stimulate themes in an artist's life, their own lives ending up as nothing more than footnotes in the life of the artiste.
Good work there with the muses, but it's been done. Her USP lies in the areas where she examines the children, and especially the resulting dynamics between the damaged siblings. And between their ersatz siblings, too.
It is, though, very much a first novel, and a first novel by someone who's done a university creative writing course. To Ph.D level, if you don't mind. She gives us a prologue, she shows rather than tells to within an inch of our lives, she assiduously avoids giving us backstory by writing it into the narrative, there are two time zones at work in the narrative... it goes on and on. It would be unkind to describe the novel as reading like it's been painted by numbers, so I won't say that.
My main constructive comment would be to say that I had to keep reminding myself that I was reading a story unfolding in the 1930s. When the story was operating in the 1980s, Bitto was giving us plenty of little set dressings to let us know that it was the Eighties (little asides, like the quiche crust, for example), but when we were in the past, it read almost contemporary. Sure, there were references to the depression, and to using chokoes to extend apple crumble, but you didn't get the same sense of temporal otherness that you get even in something like the Phryne Fisher genre novels.
Some might dismiss that as a bourgeois criticism: never mind the props, they would retort, feel the emotional truths! Well, if you are writing a costume drama, you have to have costumes, I would re-retort. Let's ignore the kids, get some red wine, and discuss it ideologically in the carefully preserved library at Heide One. See you there.
February 16, 2018
Interesting coming of age story set in the budding modern art movement of Australia in the 1930's.
Lily and Eva are childhood friends. Lily is drawn to Eva's unconvential and bohemian family, which consists of Lily's artist father, his aloof wife, Eva's sisters Bea and Heloise and her parents' circle of free-spirited artist friends. Lily longs to be anything but ordinary and spends as much time as possible at Eva's home, Trentham Estate. Unfortunately, the glamorous and unorthodox adults that Lily idolizes are deeply disfunctional....utopia turns into darkness as secrets are revealed, trying Lily and Eva's close friendship.
Perhaps not as tightly written as it could be, it dragged in some places but Bitto is very good at drawing you into her world. Very atmospheric. I enjoyed it!
Lily and Eva are childhood friends. Lily is drawn to Eva's unconvential and bohemian family, which consists of Lily's artist father, his aloof wife, Eva's sisters Bea and Heloise and her parents' circle of free-spirited artist friends. Lily longs to be anything but ordinary and spends as much time as possible at Eva's home, Trentham Estate. Unfortunately, the glamorous and unorthodox adults that Lily idolizes are deeply disfunctional....utopia turns into darkness as secrets are revealed, trying Lily and Eva's close friendship.
Perhaps not as tightly written as it could be, it dragged in some places but Bitto is very good at drawing you into her world. Very atmospheric. I enjoyed it!
January 21, 2018
A very compelling and captivating read. Loved reading about the friendship between the main characters and following them in such an important and intense part of their formative years.
April 9, 2015
I loved this book. A deeply absorbing and affecting story; I felt like I was part of the 1930s Melbourne artist community. I strongly related to the accounts of intense female friendships, especially those of the young girls. The best thing I’ve read this year.
July 7, 2017
This book reminded me a lot of the first part of "The Girls", which I was not able to finish. The reason I was able to keep reading The Strays is because it was a much more discreet in the neglect and abuse and I was able to leave more to my imagination and less vulnerable to the words of the author. Even though this story is is 'based' around the art scene in Melbourne, it is purely fictional. In the authors note, she states that all of the characters are fictional, but it was so convincing. Also set in my hometown of Melbourne, I was drawn back (not quite to the 1930's) there and could see the girls sitting in The Windsor in Spring St and running around what must have been big open spaces around Box Hill and surrounds. Awesome writing.
June 9, 2016
I was really looking forward to reading this and it is also my pick for both my physical book club and my virtual one. But I must say I was slightly disappointed. Whilst I did enjoy it over all and found the story okay it didn't wow me. I think the part of me that over analyses and criticises kicked in and then I started finding fault. One thing that annoyed me right from the very beginning were the similarities to John and Sunday Reed of Heide fame. Now for someone that has read extensively on the Reeds I couldn't help feeling that Bitto's story was not original. I kept feeling that I'd read this story somewhere before. Her saying in her acknowledgements that "none of the main characters are based on real characters" seemed fraudulent to me. Events that occurred in Bitto's book were not too dissimilar to some of the things that befell the Reeds. Anyway enough about the similarities. I also found her characters to be quite one dimensional and bland. Perhaps this was a weakness of Bitto's or maybe just my not being able to relate to any of the characters. It was unfortunate because when certain tragic events occurred in their lives, I couldn't really feel much empathy towards them...I was not invested in them. If anything it was the minor characters, like Ugo and Maria, who had more of an impact on me. I met and listened to Emily Bitto speak about her book and writing and she seems lovely. Unfortunately I was not as enamoured by her novel.
November 30, 2017
My favorite read of 2017 so far.... I loved this story of an artists commune of 'strays' set in 1930's Australia. The writing is just gorgeous... full of lush detail and evocative descriptions. This is a world of glamor and creativity on the surface, that barely hides the realities of parental neglect, petty jealousies and self-indulgence beneath. Lily, an only child of a conservative family, finds herself swept up in the life of the eccentric family of her friend Eva, daughter of an infamous modernist painter. This is a 'chosen' family, yet the fall out for outsiders on the periphery of an artist's ego-centric world can be devastating. This coming of age story tells of the intensities of female friendships, and how long held secrets and grudges, however small, can still cut deeply. I was totally drawn in by the cast of flawed and fascinating characters and can't wait to read more from this debut author. So so good!
#LitsyReadingChallenge #LRC22 #Recommended by this bookriot.com piece by Bronwyn Averett suggesting a reading list for my all time favorite album... http://bookriot.com/2016/11/25/joni-m...
#LitsyReadingChallenge #LRC22 #Recommended by this bookriot.com piece by Bronwyn Averett suggesting a reading list for my all time favorite album... http://bookriot.com/2016/11/25/joni-m...
May 19, 2017
Split between the 1930s and 80s and set amid the Australian art scene, The Strays is a compulsive tale of family, friendship, obsession and, most of all, secrets. Narrating the story from 1985, Lily, now in middle age, recalls her youthful (platonic) infatuation with Eva Trentham, one of three daughters of a mercurial pair of artists. The family has a tendency to take in waifs and strays, usually fellow artists who have fallen on hard times; as Lily's parents face increasing financial hardship, she too becomes a near-permanent guest at the rambling, idyllic Trentham residence. This bohemian paradise proves, however, to be an illusion. The Trenthams' emotional neglect of their daughters results in tragedy, and Lily's unequal friendship with Eva comes undone.
That is the plot of this book, which I really did enjoy reading, but I have to confess I cobbled together the above by reading over the blurb and other reviews. To be fair to myself (and the book), I read it quickly, and through a couple of long, tiring journeys, and I've read quite a few other books since. But this one has stuck in my head much less than the others. What I can say is it's very different from what I'd expected: I was anticipating more of a serious literary novel; it is actually quite fluffy in a Kate Morton way.
When it came to it, I found the denouement a bit weak, really. The story as a whole, though, is pretty gorgeous, steeped in nostalgia – for childhood, for lofty artistic ambition, for the simplicity of idolatry. Although she is often passive, Bitto's outsider-looking-in protagonist is sympathetic. The story really carries you along – it's compelling, but there's also something soothing about it.
I don't have much more to add, apart from what I wrote about The Strays on Instagram, which was: If you love the kind of story where a young misfit becomes infatuated with a glamorous, moneyed family, buy this.
I received an advance review copy of The Strays from the publisher through NetGalley.
TinyLetter | Twitter | Instagram | Tumblr
That is the plot of this book, which I really did enjoy reading, but I have to confess I cobbled together the above by reading over the blurb and other reviews. To be fair to myself (and the book), I read it quickly, and through a couple of long, tiring journeys, and I've read quite a few other books since. But this one has stuck in my head much less than the others. What I can say is it's very different from what I'd expected: I was anticipating more of a serious literary novel; it is actually quite fluffy in a Kate Morton way.
When it came to it, I found the denouement a bit weak, really. The story as a whole, though, is pretty gorgeous, steeped in nostalgia – for childhood, for lofty artistic ambition, for the simplicity of idolatry. Although she is often passive, Bitto's outsider-looking-in protagonist is sympathetic. The story really carries you along – it's compelling, but there's also something soothing about it.
I don't have much more to add, apart from what I wrote about The Strays on Instagram, which was: If you love the kind of story where a young misfit becomes infatuated with a glamorous, moneyed family, buy this.
I received an advance review copy of The Strays from the publisher through NetGalley.
TinyLetter | Twitter | Instagram | Tumblr
May 18, 2017
I found this to be an unexpectedly brilliant book!
A work of fiction set in Melbourne of the 1930's on the first day of school our narrator, Lilly unknowingly is drawn to and befriends Eva, the daughter of a brilliant yet unconventional artist Evan Trentham. He and his wife an daughters live an unconventional, chaotic bohemian life. Where art and the artistic ideal is the mainstay of everything. Also where the artistic temperament is central to the family and Lilly finds this lifestyle, which is the opposite of her conventional family, intoxicating.
As she is drawn deeper into the delightful chaos and artistic hubris of the Trentham family by her friendship with Eva, Lilly becomes the observer of Trentham's efforts to create an artists commune. Lilly is in a unique position, she is a child and an intimate of the family yet she is a close friend and lives there for months at a time. And she observes the people and their passions and their art with a passionate fascinating and detachment. This detachment allows her to look back at that time from the vantage of the modern day as a mature woman, and it is this woman that tells the story rather than the child of the 1930's which makes it a more nuanced, mature and intricate story than the observations of a child could hope to be.
I came to this book through a recommendation and without knowing too much about it. In the early chapters I was already suspecting that this work of fiction had a formidable amount of research into the early Victorian art scenes, and through google and the Acknowledgments at the back, I found this was so. It was quite eerie in some ways, because my mother was acquainted with the art scene in the area, not long after the setting of the book. As she introduced me to Melbourne she pointed out to me the haunts and the history of the bohemian art scene she knew in her teens and 20's and The Strays was so vivid in its description of the art scene of the 30's that it felt real.
The vivid characterisations in The Strays kept me reading breathlessly, feeling every bit as entwined in their lives as Lilly always desired to be. Lilly's wistful desire to belong to the scene resonated strongly with me and made the novel's skipping back and forward in time less annoying than I would otherwise find it. This was a brilliant novel to start off 2017 on!
A work of fiction set in Melbourne of the 1930's on the first day of school our narrator, Lilly unknowingly is drawn to and befriends Eva, the daughter of a brilliant yet unconventional artist Evan Trentham. He and his wife an daughters live an unconventional, chaotic bohemian life. Where art and the artistic ideal is the mainstay of everything. Also where the artistic temperament is central to the family and Lilly finds this lifestyle, which is the opposite of her conventional family, intoxicating.
As she is drawn deeper into the delightful chaos and artistic hubris of the Trentham family by her friendship with Eva, Lilly becomes the observer of Trentham's efforts to create an artists commune. Lilly is in a unique position, she is a child and an intimate of the family yet she is a close friend and lives there for months at a time. And she observes the people and their passions and their art with a passionate fascinating and detachment. This detachment allows her to look back at that time from the vantage of the modern day as a mature woman, and it is this woman that tells the story rather than the child of the 1930's which makes it a more nuanced, mature and intricate story than the observations of a child could hope to be.
I came to this book through a recommendation and without knowing too much about it. In the early chapters I was already suspecting that this work of fiction had a formidable amount of research into the early Victorian art scenes, and through google and the Acknowledgments at the back, I found this was so. It was quite eerie in some ways, because my mother was acquainted with the art scene in the area, not long after the setting of the book. As she introduced me to Melbourne she pointed out to me the haunts and the history of the bohemian art scene she knew in her teens and 20's and The Strays was so vivid in its description of the art scene of the 30's that it felt real.
The vivid characterisations in The Strays kept me reading breathlessly, feeling every bit as entwined in their lives as Lilly always desired to be. Lilly's wistful desire to belong to the scene resonated strongly with me and made the novel's skipping back and forward in time less annoying than I would otherwise find it. This was a brilliant novel to start off 2017 on!
October 16, 2019
I picked this book up a year or two ago but by 25% I was kind of bored, so I set it aside. I picked it up again recently and am I ever glad I did! By ~50% I was totally engrossed in this very engaging story. I loved the combination of family drama and Australian art history! It really held my interest so I couldn't wait to get into bed each night (to read). The author did a tremendous job of fleshing out the characters - more so, I think, than in any book I've read. I really felt like I actually knew them and understood their actions and perspectives. I've read plenty of books where I'd think No way would someone react like that. But at no time did I feel that way in The Strays. Every situation and dialogue felt truly authentic.
I loved this book and as it approached the end, it felt so right. It ended at just the right time, in just the right way. The Strays was a really satisfying read for me, and I'll miss some of the characters - especially Lily. She seemed so real to me that it felt a bit like losing a friend.
I loved this book and as it approached the end, it felt so right. It ended at just the right time, in just the right way. The Strays was a really satisfying read for me, and I'll miss some of the characters - especially Lily. She seemed so real to me that it felt a bit like losing a friend.
April 11, 2016
This is a remarkable debut novel by an Australian author to watch!
The Strays follows the story of Lily, who reflects on her youth in 1930s Melbourne. At the centre of her memories is Eva, the daring and charismatic daughter of an avant-garde painter. Eva's world is unconventional, wild, sensual, and inhabited by a bohemian group of artists reminiscent of the Heide Circle. This book was a pleasure to read, and marks Emily Bitto as an amazing new talent! Bitto has created an evocative, beautifully written book about the ties of female friendship, and I loved every page of it.
The Strays follows the story of Lily, who reflects on her youth in 1930s Melbourne. At the centre of her memories is Eva, the daring and charismatic daughter of an avant-garde painter. Eva's world is unconventional, wild, sensual, and inhabited by a bohemian group of artists reminiscent of the Heide Circle. This book was a pleasure to read, and marks Emily Bitto as an amazing new talent! Bitto has created an evocative, beautifully written book about the ties of female friendship, and I loved every page of it.
June 10, 2017
Helena and I would like to invite you all to come and live with us here. We'd love to take in a few more strays, and we invite you all to quit your jobs and join our commune. Work and live side by side. So we can all thumb our noses at the rest of the world.
I found The Strays to be thoroughly compelling: Set in Melbourne and switching between the present and the height of the Depression, it tells the story of an artists' commune – a bohemian debauch of nudity and drugs and children left to fend for themselves – as seen through the eyes of Lily: the only child of poor, conservative parents, her friendship with the daughter of famous Modern artist Evan Trentham gave her a front row seat to the work of those who would overturn Australia's art scene and social order. While the artists and their efforts hover in the background, this is really the story of the friendship between Lily and Eva, and as with My Brilliant Friend or The Girls, it was the way that author Emily Bitto captured this friendship just right that so enchanted me.
There is no intimacy as great as that between young girls. Even between lovers, who cross boundaries we are accustomed to thinking of as at the furthest territories of closeness, there is a constant awareness of separateness, the wonder at the fact that the loved one is distinct, whole, with a past and a mind housed behind the eyes we gaze into that exist, inviolate, without us. It is the lack of such wonder that reveals the depth of intimacy in that first chaste trial marriage between girls.
Lily met Eva when they were eight; having moved to a new house and new school (due to her parents' declining fortunes), Lily would have been lost if Eva hadn't immediately offered her friendship. And the first time that Lily went to Eva's house, she understood that they were from two different worlds: In contrast to her own small suburban box, Eva's family lived on a rambling estate – her glamourous mother having been an heiress who was now often away acting as her husband's agent – and while their father roared and drank and threw paint in his studio, Eva and her sisters were left to see after themselves; playing in the fields until dark and scrounging dinner from a neglected pantry. Immediately, Lily understood that she was witnessing a bigger, more exciting way of life than her parents would understand, and although she missed her mother's loving ministrations, she soon transferred her loyalties to the Trentham family and spent as much time at the estate as she could.
When was it that I became a voyeur in their midst? I was the perfect witness, an unsuspected anthropologist disguised within the body of a young girl, surrounded by other young girls who were part of the family. Yet I was a cuckoo in the nest, an imposter who listened and observed, hoarding and collecting information.
Other artists would come and go from the Trentham estate, and when Evan decided they should get serious about forming a true collective to challenge the stodgy establishment, he invited a group of them to move into the house. Over the years, Lily grew to feel like a true family member (although she did experience acute jealousy when Eva and her sisters could resume a game as Lily was leaving for her own home, as though it didn't actually matter to them whether she was there or not), and when Lily's parents' financial situation became even more dire, she was invited to stay at the estate as well. Now fifteen, and in her own mind an honourary Trentham, when a scandal erupts that breaks apart the commune, Lily is shocked to discover that she has been banished as well.
It is strange which events leave those deep scars we carry with us over a lifetime. When Heloise talked about that night, even years later, it was with a bitter seriousness, a complete inability to see events other than as they occurred to her as a seven-year-old. It became a foundation myth, a lasting symbol of the troubled nature of Heloise's childhood, the real sufferings she endured, but also the way she experienced these sufferings, reliving them over and over until they wore away their own caged-animal paths within her.
From the prologue, we understand that Lily and Eva had a falling out (something like fifty years earlier), and as they are to meet again for the first time since that split, the narrative takes the form of Lily revisiting the journals she kept during the years with the Trenthams. I liked the irony of Lily recognising that Eva's younger sister Heloise always relived her childhood miseries through the eyes of the child she had been, while in effect, Lily is doing the same thing herself; as though she had gained no more perspective over the intervening decades than she had had as a teenager. And in her present-day relationship with her own adult daughter, Lily transfers some of the disdain that she had felt for her mother during her days at the estate:
I am angry with myself. I failed to speak from that compartment in myself, as that persona who represents motherhood the one who knows my daughter will always in some way look down on me; will not know my dark places and my desires, my ambivalences, even toward her; will think herself wiser, braver, more modern, her inner life more intriguing, her challenges more compelling; I have cherished the self who knows this and accepts it. It is without vanity, able to resist the urge to be understood.
As this is a close examination of girlhood friendships, mother-daughter relationships, and a thread about Lily (now a published art historian) considering writing a book about her experiences with the Trenthams in order to correct the official record that notes the Trentham women as “'events' that accounted for the prevalence of certain themes” in the work of important men, The Strays might have more appeal and relevance to the female reader. As for me, I enjoyed the whole thing.
February 25, 2023
Protagonist Lily is a child growing up in Australia in the 1930s. She is the only child of rather conventional parents. She makes friends with Eva, daughter of the well-known modern artist, Evan Trentham, and his wife Helena. Eva has three sisters, and they live in what Lily perceives as a glamorous and exciting environment. Evan has established an artist’s colony in his home, accommodating a group of other artists, whom they call “the strays.” Lily becomes another “stray,” staying with the Trenthams while her parents deal with a crisis.
Lily serves as narrator, in 1985, looking back on her involvement with the Trentham family. While the artist’s home may seem glamorous to Lily, it is soon apparent that the Trentham’s children are being neglected. The eldest daughter, Bea, is expected to caretake for her younger sisters, Eva and Heloise.
“When was it that I became a voyeur in their midst? I was the perfect witness, an unsuspecting anthropologist disguised within the body of a young girl, surrounded by other young girls which were part of the family. Yet I was a cuckoo in the nest, an imposter who listened and observed, hoarding and collecting information.”
This is a well-crafted book with believable flawed characters. Lily serves the role of observer. The artists are portrayed as on the cutting edge of the art world whose celebrity shines brightly. But in seeking the limelight, they are ignoring the needs of their children, almost as if they are inconveniences. They are left to their own devices too often and are missing the parental authority and love they crave. The kids witness the adult behaviors that they probably should be shielded from until they are older (drug and alcohol use, nudity, wild parties, etc.).
Themes include friendship (especially the idea of “best friends” of childhood), loyalty, family bonds (or lack thereof), boundaries, and the long-term impact of childhood trauma. I think the first three-quarters are brilliant. The last quarter was not quite as strong with a few abrupt shifts that interrupted the flow. Still, it is an impressive debut and I look forward to checking out her other works.
Lily serves as narrator, in 1985, looking back on her involvement with the Trentham family. While the artist’s home may seem glamorous to Lily, it is soon apparent that the Trentham’s children are being neglected. The eldest daughter, Bea, is expected to caretake for her younger sisters, Eva and Heloise.
“When was it that I became a voyeur in their midst? I was the perfect witness, an unsuspecting anthropologist disguised within the body of a young girl, surrounded by other young girls which were part of the family. Yet I was a cuckoo in the nest, an imposter who listened and observed, hoarding and collecting information.”
This is a well-crafted book with believable flawed characters. Lily serves the role of observer. The artists are portrayed as on the cutting edge of the art world whose celebrity shines brightly. But in seeking the limelight, they are ignoring the needs of their children, almost as if they are inconveniences. They are left to their own devices too often and are missing the parental authority and love they crave. The kids witness the adult behaviors that they probably should be shielded from until they are older (drug and alcohol use, nudity, wild parties, etc.).
Themes include friendship (especially the idea of “best friends” of childhood), loyalty, family bonds (or lack thereof), boundaries, and the long-term impact of childhood trauma. I think the first three-quarters are brilliant. The last quarter was not quite as strong with a few abrupt shifts that interrupted the flow. Still, it is an impressive debut and I look forward to checking out her other works.
October 18, 2017
This had a lot of promise at the start. It nicely evoked the setting of a ramshackle artist's colony in 1930's Australia. But several of the characters are never fleshed out at all and the ones that are were mostly annoying. (An attempt is made at the end to psychoanalyze these people but since they were A) fictional and B) as I said, annoying, I didn't care.) Also, I think, and this is just my opinion, but sometimes its nice when something actually HAPPENS in a story. There was practically no plot here, just one big "event" near the end that didn't seem well thought out and failed to provide a lot of needed explanation. Nice idea, but could, should have been a lot better.
May 5, 2017
"That garden. I still wander in dreams between the pale gray pillars of the lemon-scented gums, the eucalyptus citriodoras, towering out of mist, gigantic as they appeared to me as a child in that magical place."
It’s the kind of book that makes you (1) want to just read and read and read because it is that good; (2) feel like you shouldn’t read it so fast because it is a book to be savoured and sipped.
Also, this is a debut novel. Which means that while I may indeed look forward to what else Bitto may be writing, there is also nothing else of hers that I can read right now. However, it is such a good novel that it won the Stellar Prize in 2015, an award for women’s writing.
I have told you all this but I haven’t actually said much about the story itself.
It is set in Melbourne, and its narrator is Lily, an outsider of sorts. She is the very best friend of Eva, a girl she meets in school. Eva is the middle daughter of an avant-garde painter, who lives in a rambling old house with his family and an assortment of other painters, a community of artists his wife has constructed.
Helena, Eva’s mother, is more interested in her relationship with these artists than in her children, who are left to their own devices, entertaining themselves and often having to scrounge for their own food from the adults’ dinner party leftovers. Bea, the eldest, takes charge, Eva is like Switzerland, and her younger sister Heloise is strange. Then Lily, whose father is in an accident, comes to stay for a while.
“It was true; now, more than ever, the girls were left to their own devices, allowed to create their own small democracy in which law would always be decided by age or the ability to make the loudest protest, in which Beatrice was inevitably the ruler, eloise was teh rowdy proletariat, uprising and changing the course of a decision with her sheer vociferousness, and Eva was the silent majority, usually happy to keep the peace. If the addition of Ugo, of even one extra member of the household, had its effects, throwing still more off-balance the already rudderless boat that was the Trenthams’ family life, imagine the extent of their freedom and neglect when another three individuals were added to the household. Two of these were Maria and Jerome, the new members of the Melbourne Modern Art Group. The other was myself.”
It is a strange story. A stranger within their midst, yet wholly more comfortable there than she ever is with her own family. A life so extraordinary compared to the plain normal-ness of her suburban family life. With a mother who smell of “cigarettes and a heavy floral perfume, not the kitchen and laundry scents exuded by my mother”. And by a father “put together from mismatched stuff”. “like a rubber band stretched tight and close to snapping”. And the freedom to wander and do anything and everything. Freedom or neglect, one might wonder.
I loved the devoted friendship between Eva and Lily
“Yet it was the ordinariness itself that made my days with Eva beautiful. The way we grew together; the way our hearts were known to each other, and our lives, I believed, joined forever in a lazy flow of days.”
The beginning of the book hints at a fracture in the relationship – they have not spoken in years, these two who were once best of friends, and it is much later in the story that all is revealed (and I shall not reveal it here). But for me, it is not about that aspect of the plot that this book is about (also it happens off-stage, in a sense, so it loses its dramatic edge), it is about those halcyon days of childhood and freedom and exploration, in a world so unlike Lily’s own, and probably so unlike the reader’s own. It’s a bit fairytale like, but in a dark way. It made me think a little of Merricat and Constance in Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle.
A gorgeously written, lyrical book about family, friendship, and the creative life. Also, a very good read.
Originally posted at https://reallifereading.com/2017/04/3...
December 16, 2014
The Strays is Emily Bitto’s much lauded debut about an artist’s colony in 1930s Melbourne. She’s acknowledged that the story was influenced by the Heide circle around John and Sunday Reed, but is not based on it.
The frame story starts with middle-aged Lily receiving an invitation to a retrospective art exhibition of painter Evan Trentham, one of the early Modernists. It triggers memories of her association with the Trentham family, initiated when she meets Eva Trentham on her first day at school.
Only child Lily is desperate to escape her own staid family and the bohemian Trentham household of Eva, Bea and Heloise and their deeply conventional parents Evan and Helena, is deeply enticing. When her father has an accident, she’s soon absorbed into the paradiscial Trentham property on the outskirts of Melbourne. Helena and Evan are keen to create an artists colony where they can perfect their avant-garde art and live scandalously without interference. The older artist Patrick and his partner Vera, are already members of the household, and three other artists, the young and attractive Polish man Ugo, Maria, a Spanish woman, and Jerome, an up-and-coming artist from a rich Toorak family, soon move in.
While the adults drink, smoke reefer and generally behave badly, the three Trentham girls and Lily are left to their own devices. This childhood neglect will prove the catalyst for the tragic ending.
Emily Bitto has constructed an artists colony peopled by characters so complex and intriguing that entering the Trentham house feels like disappearing down the rabbit hole. The descriptions of the house and gardens, and the adults parties, were beautifully evocative. I loved the descriptions of life in their household and the desires and needs that drive both the adults and the children. The intensity of young Eva and Lily’s friendship is also beautifully handled and engrossing.
One of my favourite images – ‘Ugo was tall and pale; not the bluish pale of Evan and Heloise, who looked as though they had grown up under a tarpaulin‘, and another ‘The sadness of my parent’s home was as heavy as boiled pudding.’
But at times the prose seems a tad laboured and imprecise, which detracted a little from Bitto’s generally lovely style, and there were a few metaphors that didn’t work for me. I also felt that the description was often delivered in large chunks and at times unnecessarily. For instance, we are given a very beautiful and detailed description of Ugu’s shabby city studio and yet we never visit it again. And I think she didn’t handle the historical detail very well. It didn’t really feel as if we were in the midst of the 1930s.
Bitto deals with the themes of female friendship and what it is to belong, or not, with great intelligence, and there’s excellent narrative tension created by wondering what irresponsible thing the grown-ups are going to do next, and where its all going to come unstuck. And when it does all go pear-shaped, its unexpected.
Structurally, the ending of the 1930s part of the story at the 75% mark didn’t work so well for me. I felt like the story lost momentum when it moved into the present (ie. 1985) and took up too much space. I also found the ending a bit too diffuse – there were several moments of emotional intensity but no one singular moment I could have labelled the climax. I’ve reread the ending a few times, but I’m still not sure.
But overall I really enjoyed this story. Emily Bitto’s ability to completely immerse the reader in characters and setting is very impressive and I’ll look forward to her next book.
The frame story starts with middle-aged Lily receiving an invitation to a retrospective art exhibition of painter Evan Trentham, one of the early Modernists. It triggers memories of her association with the Trentham family, initiated when she meets Eva Trentham on her first day at school.
Only child Lily is desperate to escape her own staid family and the bohemian Trentham household of Eva, Bea and Heloise and their deeply conventional parents Evan and Helena, is deeply enticing. When her father has an accident, she’s soon absorbed into the paradiscial Trentham property on the outskirts of Melbourne. Helena and Evan are keen to create an artists colony where they can perfect their avant-garde art and live scandalously without interference. The older artist Patrick and his partner Vera, are already members of the household, and three other artists, the young and attractive Polish man Ugo, Maria, a Spanish woman, and Jerome, an up-and-coming artist from a rich Toorak family, soon move in.
While the adults drink, smoke reefer and generally behave badly, the three Trentham girls and Lily are left to their own devices. This childhood neglect will prove the catalyst for the tragic ending.
Emily Bitto has constructed an artists colony peopled by characters so complex and intriguing that entering the Trentham house feels like disappearing down the rabbit hole. The descriptions of the house and gardens, and the adults parties, were beautifully evocative. I loved the descriptions of life in their household and the desires and needs that drive both the adults and the children. The intensity of young Eva and Lily’s friendship is also beautifully handled and engrossing.
One of my favourite images – ‘Ugo was tall and pale; not the bluish pale of Evan and Heloise, who looked as though they had grown up under a tarpaulin‘, and another ‘The sadness of my parent’s home was as heavy as boiled pudding.’
But at times the prose seems a tad laboured and imprecise, which detracted a little from Bitto’s generally lovely style, and there were a few metaphors that didn’t work for me. I also felt that the description was often delivered in large chunks and at times unnecessarily. For instance, we are given a very beautiful and detailed description of Ugu’s shabby city studio and yet we never visit it again. And I think she didn’t handle the historical detail very well. It didn’t really feel as if we were in the midst of the 1930s.
Bitto deals with the themes of female friendship and what it is to belong, or not, with great intelligence, and there’s excellent narrative tension created by wondering what irresponsible thing the grown-ups are going to do next, and where its all going to come unstuck. And when it does all go pear-shaped, its unexpected.
Structurally, the ending of the 1930s part of the story at the 75% mark didn’t work so well for me. I felt like the story lost momentum when it moved into the present (ie. 1985) and took up too much space. I also found the ending a bit too diffuse – there were several moments of emotional intensity but no one singular moment I could have labelled the climax. I’ve reread the ending a few times, but I’m still not sure.
But overall I really enjoyed this story. Emily Bitto’s ability to completely immerse the reader in characters and setting is very impressive and I’ll look forward to her next book.
April 14, 2023
‘In a house, as in a garden, there is a point when over-mingling can occur.’
The novel opens with Lily receiving an invitation to a retrospective exhibition of the art of Evan Trentham, one of the early Modernists. Lily, now middle-aged, first met the Trentham family when she met Eva Trentham on her first day at school. The invitation reminds Lily of (and introduces the reader to) members of the Trentham family and to the artist colony they founded in the 1930s on the outskirts of Melbourne.
Lily is an only child, and through her friendship with Eva, becomes very familiar with the Trentham family. She finds the Trentham household very different from her own. In addition to the Trentham family (Helena, Evan and their three daughters Bea, Eva and Heloise), the household also includes another painter (Patrick) and his partner (Vera). Three other artists, Ugo, Maria and Jerome join the household shortly afterwards. It’s a household full of ‘strays’, and while the adults pursue their objectives (artistic and otherwise) the children are largely left to their own devices.
Family circumstances lead to Lily effectively joining the Trentham household, and learning that bohemian freedom can also has a dark side. As Lily looks back on the past, bridging the gap between the 1930s and the 1980s, we learn about the strength of some friendships and the betrayal (perhaps) of others.
‘This is what adulthood is, I thought: this secrecy; this cultivation of separateness.’
Many of the characters in this novel are complex, and the setting are beautifully described. While I found few of the characters likeable, they each seemed a perfect fit in the world Emily Bitto created for them: adults mostly oblivious to the need to take responsibility for children and children unaware of the consequences of their actions. Can friendship survive the many challenges of life in such a household? What has Lily learned from her life with the Trenthams? And Evan Trentham and the other artists? Can there be a balance between creativity and destruction?
‘For some, the years spent with another person – the fights, the lovers, the separations – are all knowledge of that person, all shades of intimacy and history.’
I loved Emily Bitto’s description of the Trentham world, shuddered each time parental or adult responsibility was avoided, and wondered what would happen as each child became an adult. And the ending? How should such a story end? Does Lily Struthers ever belong? While I finished the novel with questions, they were not questions about the construction of the novel and the way it worked. My questions are a consequence of the issues raised within the novel, about people, their choices and consequences.
‘The Strays’ is in part inspired by the artists of the Heide Circle, who lived and worked at ‘Heide’ between the 1930s and 1950s. Emily Bitto was awarded the 2015 Stella Prize for ‘The Strays’. She is the first novelist to win the award for her debut novel.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
The novel opens with Lily receiving an invitation to a retrospective exhibition of the art of Evan Trentham, one of the early Modernists. Lily, now middle-aged, first met the Trentham family when she met Eva Trentham on her first day at school. The invitation reminds Lily of (and introduces the reader to) members of the Trentham family and to the artist colony they founded in the 1930s on the outskirts of Melbourne.
Lily is an only child, and through her friendship with Eva, becomes very familiar with the Trentham family. She finds the Trentham household very different from her own. In addition to the Trentham family (Helena, Evan and their three daughters Bea, Eva and Heloise), the household also includes another painter (Patrick) and his partner (Vera). Three other artists, Ugo, Maria and Jerome join the household shortly afterwards. It’s a household full of ‘strays’, and while the adults pursue their objectives (artistic and otherwise) the children are largely left to their own devices.
Family circumstances lead to Lily effectively joining the Trentham household, and learning that bohemian freedom can also has a dark side. As Lily looks back on the past, bridging the gap between the 1930s and the 1980s, we learn about the strength of some friendships and the betrayal (perhaps) of others.
‘This is what adulthood is, I thought: this secrecy; this cultivation of separateness.’
Many of the characters in this novel are complex, and the setting are beautifully described. While I found few of the characters likeable, they each seemed a perfect fit in the world Emily Bitto created for them: adults mostly oblivious to the need to take responsibility for children and children unaware of the consequences of their actions. Can friendship survive the many challenges of life in such a household? What has Lily learned from her life with the Trenthams? And Evan Trentham and the other artists? Can there be a balance between creativity and destruction?
‘For some, the years spent with another person – the fights, the lovers, the separations – are all knowledge of that person, all shades of intimacy and history.’
I loved Emily Bitto’s description of the Trentham world, shuddered each time parental or adult responsibility was avoided, and wondered what would happen as each child became an adult. And the ending? How should such a story end? Does Lily Struthers ever belong? While I finished the novel with questions, they were not questions about the construction of the novel and the way it worked. My questions are a consequence of the issues raised within the novel, about people, their choices and consequences.
‘The Strays’ is in part inspired by the artists of the Heide Circle, who lived and worked at ‘Heide’ between the 1930s and 1950s. Emily Bitto was awarded the 2015 Stella Prize for ‘The Strays’. She is the first novelist to win the award for her debut novel.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
April 30, 2017
Rating: 4.5/5.0
This is an awesome book and it is a remarkable debut novel for the author Emily Bitto, I feel the book goes deep into the lives of artists in a very beautiful yet honest way. The story is about an artist and his wife who take other younger artists (those are the strays) under their wing where they live in their house as a one big family. The couple have three daughters and their friend Lilly is the one who tells us the whole story which is set in the 1930s. Lots of things happen to the family as the girls grow up. Those events change the whole family and affect their future.
I loved how the author created all those settings for that era. The description of the house and its garden was so good. Honestly I did not expect to enjoy reading this book that much. This will make me look forward to the writer's next book. I would say this is a must read book.
Note: I have won a free copy of this book by participating in a giveaway.
This is an awesome book and it is a remarkable debut novel for the author Emily Bitto, I feel the book goes deep into the lives of artists in a very beautiful yet honest way. The story is about an artist and his wife who take other younger artists (those are the strays) under their wing where they live in their house as a one big family. The couple have three daughters and their friend Lilly is the one who tells us the whole story which is set in the 1930s. Lots of things happen to the family as the girls grow up. Those events change the whole family and affect their future.
I loved how the author created all those settings for that era. The description of the house and its garden was so good. Honestly I did not expect to enjoy reading this book that much. This will make me look forward to the writer's next book. I would say this is a must read book.
Note: I have won a free copy of this book by participating in a giveaway.
May 13, 2015
I was a bit disappointed. It was meant to be set in the late 1930s yet it felt very 1970s. The main friendship between Eva and Lily was reminiscent of Debbie and Sue's (Puberty Blues). I think there was lack of research done on the period...I doubt that Maria and Ugo had a telephone in their workers cottage (St Kilda) in 1939 (just one example). I guess that's nit picking but it really did stand out. The analysis at the end of the book by Lily, particularly about Helena was very interesting, and for me the best part of the book. I think the very end when Lily is sitting with her daughter and her friend, and pretending to read, says so much about Lily. She is always living on the outside desperate to be a part. On retrospect, I think there's a chance I'll read it again, as I'm aware that I may have read it at the wrong time. Timing can make a huge difference.
June 17, 2019
3.5 Stars.
I liked this one. I found it a bit slow at the beginning, it did take until the middle of the book to actually hold my attention and call me back for more but, I am glad I stuck with it. I grew to really love the childhood relationship between Eva & Lily, it was nostalgic in a way with what I shared with my close friends at that age. It was really an interesting and beautifully written story.
I liked this one. I found it a bit slow at the beginning, it did take until the middle of the book to actually hold my attention and call me back for more but, I am glad I stuck with it. I grew to really love the childhood relationship between Eva & Lily, it was nostalgic in a way with what I shared with my close friends at that age. It was really an interesting and beautifully written story.
July 11, 2017
The Strays is for everyone interested in reading about art homes and the influence of the artist parents's bohemian lifestyle on their children's lives and struggles. This is also a book for those interested in the portrayal of female friendships/bonds in fiction and anyone looking for a lovely retrospective novel. I enjoyed reading this.
September 9, 2019
4.5 stars really enjoyed this one.
June 2, 2022
I did enjoy this book as it’s so well written and I feel well deserved in winning The Stella prize in 2015. It’s based in the 1930s but I could not help but feel it was more related to the 70s! Artists are a completely different breed and I’ve known and still do know a few. They stick together and are rather bohemian just as the story conveys. The characters are so believable but very sad and lonely despite being around others. A rather sad story but I still enjoyed it and reminded me of many friends left behind when I immigrated.
February 3, 2017
via my blog
“It is strange which events leave those deep scars we carry with us over a lifetime. When Heloise talked about that night, even years later, it was with a bitter seriousness, a complete inability to see the events other than as they occurred to her seven-year-old self. It became a foundation myth, a lasting symbol of the troubled nature of Heloise’s childhood, the real sufferings she endured, but also the way she experienced these sufferings, reliving them over and over until they wore away their own caged-animal paths within her.”
Lily becomes one of the ‘strays’, so to speak, that the daughter of infamous avant-garde painter Evan Trentham adds to the family. It isn’t long before her childhood revolves around the bohemian lifestyle of the brood and their fascinating, talented friends that come and go. Her own life as an only child to average parents makes her ravenous with a need to fit in with a larger family and with the Trentham bunch, she has found a treasure of love, wildness, and seeing the world with raw emotions through their artistic minds. But Lily will never be one of them at her core, though she longs to be. Her first love affair is for her best friend Eva and with the entire family. What bond is deeper than those formed in childhood, particularly those of female friendships? Though she doesn’t share blood, they become sisters all the same but things deteriorate when other people enter the scene. Sometimes an open existence can be the downfall of the children. People the family supports may well have ill intentions, could they be attracting hangers on simply for their money and fame?
Vastly different from the routines and stability of Lily’s own small family of three , the Trenthams live much more freely, but witnessing adult situations and conversations with a child’s mind can be too much too soon. Overexposure can cloud ones thoughts to the point they don’t see threats. What will the cost of such a life be for the Evan Trentham’s daughters and what does it mean when Lily’s welcome is revoked because of Eva’s disastrous decision? There is a turn I didn’t quite see coming. The eccentricities of the artistic are fascinating from a distance, and often harmless but what does wearing a persona do to your loved ones? How does it change them? Children need freedom but they need parents, even the most feral child needs a place that remains stable and nurturing. Mother Helena has built a carefree universe alongside her brilliant husband and let her child fall by the wayside, in thinking there is no greater gift than an artist’s existence but that is a form of neglect. The finger of blame spins in this circle and lands at the heart of both parents. There is one line that made me think of Evan and Helena, “Evan and Helena were romantic, a blurry form we glimpsed as we passed the kitchen doorway, haloed by a diminishing candle.” So they remain- blurry, romantic, these beautiful forms that are more an artwork than actual parents.
Throughout the novel, it is understood Lily will always be seen as inferior, ordinary, withering beside the talent and open minds of the Trentham clan. Like an orphaned child, when chaos turns the family upside down and sets them upon each other, Lily longs to return to their nest. She is seduced by the family fiction as much as she is tangled in their fall, haunted by the clarity of truth. There is much to resent and damn the parents in the fall of the girls just as there is unnecessary cruelty in the distance Eva puts between them. Lily is torn and her choices have lasting repercussions, but what else could she have done?
Nothing happens violently, it is that the reader feels much like Lily, a voyeur in the Trentham home, close as one can be and yet separate. Lily is addicted to the pulse of the place, she is the moon to their sun, lit up by fire that isn’t meant for her. There is something seductive about people different from your own and when Lily sheds her family, slips into the Trentham home she remains always on the periphery, a vessel of their sorrows. Does she ever truly recover? Can you ever bridge the distance when your presence is a brutal reminder?
As for the man that is ruinous to the family, is it really an invasion and abduction of affections when you never put up any defenses? Is it just a kingdom of fools, ruled by a mad king and blind queen?
Available Now
Winner of Australia’s 2015 Stella Prize
Twelve Books
“It is strange which events leave those deep scars we carry with us over a lifetime. When Heloise talked about that night, even years later, it was with a bitter seriousness, a complete inability to see the events other than as they occurred to her seven-year-old self. It became a foundation myth, a lasting symbol of the troubled nature of Heloise’s childhood, the real sufferings she endured, but also the way she experienced these sufferings, reliving them over and over until they wore away their own caged-animal paths within her.”
Lily becomes one of the ‘strays’, so to speak, that the daughter of infamous avant-garde painter Evan Trentham adds to the family. It isn’t long before her childhood revolves around the bohemian lifestyle of the brood and their fascinating, talented friends that come and go. Her own life as an only child to average parents makes her ravenous with a need to fit in with a larger family and with the Trentham bunch, she has found a treasure of love, wildness, and seeing the world with raw emotions through their artistic minds. But Lily will never be one of them at her core, though she longs to be. Her first love affair is for her best friend Eva and with the entire family. What bond is deeper than those formed in childhood, particularly those of female friendships? Though she doesn’t share blood, they become sisters all the same but things deteriorate when other people enter the scene. Sometimes an open existence can be the downfall of the children. People the family supports may well have ill intentions, could they be attracting hangers on simply for their money and fame?
Vastly different from the routines and stability of Lily’s own small family of three , the Trenthams live much more freely, but witnessing adult situations and conversations with a child’s mind can be too much too soon. Overexposure can cloud ones thoughts to the point they don’t see threats. What will the cost of such a life be for the Evan Trentham’s daughters and what does it mean when Lily’s welcome is revoked because of Eva’s disastrous decision? There is a turn I didn’t quite see coming. The eccentricities of the artistic are fascinating from a distance, and often harmless but what does wearing a persona do to your loved ones? How does it change them? Children need freedom but they need parents, even the most feral child needs a place that remains stable and nurturing. Mother Helena has built a carefree universe alongside her brilliant husband and let her child fall by the wayside, in thinking there is no greater gift than an artist’s existence but that is a form of neglect. The finger of blame spins in this circle and lands at the heart of both parents. There is one line that made me think of Evan and Helena, “Evan and Helena were romantic, a blurry form we glimpsed as we passed the kitchen doorway, haloed by a diminishing candle.” So they remain- blurry, romantic, these beautiful forms that are more an artwork than actual parents.
Throughout the novel, it is understood Lily will always be seen as inferior, ordinary, withering beside the talent and open minds of the Trentham clan. Like an orphaned child, when chaos turns the family upside down and sets them upon each other, Lily longs to return to their nest. She is seduced by the family fiction as much as she is tangled in their fall, haunted by the clarity of truth. There is much to resent and damn the parents in the fall of the girls just as there is unnecessary cruelty in the distance Eva puts between them. Lily is torn and her choices have lasting repercussions, but what else could she have done?
Nothing happens violently, it is that the reader feels much like Lily, a voyeur in the Trentham home, close as one can be and yet separate. Lily is addicted to the pulse of the place, she is the moon to their sun, lit up by fire that isn’t meant for her. There is something seductive about people different from your own and when Lily sheds her family, slips into the Trentham home she remains always on the periphery, a vessel of their sorrows. Does she ever truly recover? Can you ever bridge the distance when your presence is a brutal reminder?
As for the man that is ruinous to the family, is it really an invasion and abduction of affections when you never put up any defenses? Is it just a kingdom of fools, ruled by a mad king and blind queen?
Available Now
Winner of Australia’s 2015 Stella Prize
Twelve Books
June 10, 2016
The Strays describes a lifestyle with which I am not familiar and would certainly not be comfortable being a part of. Unlike me, the narrator in the story, Lily, was keen to be involved in the family life of the Trenthams. Head of the family was artist Evan Trentham, and his occupation may go some way to explaining the unconventional household where social mores were discarded or redefined. From the little reading I have done in this area, it appears to bear some striking similarities to the artist community at Heide in the 1930s.
Despite not agreeing with the life the Trenthams were living, for various reasons, or relating to the characters, I was intrigued by the story and where it was going. It was an easy read and I liked some of the descriptions, although at times I felt Emily Bitto went a little overboard with some of her metaphors. Another review I read described it along the lines of trying too hard to be profound and this describes well how I felt about it in some places.
Quotes I liked:
“The household found its way into its own peculiar form of dailiness. There was an architecture to it. Not precise, but an architecture nonetheless, as if everyone was a door or a window pulled from old houses and assembled into a new one. It had a ramshackle functionality.”
“I remember that morning…in the garden. The soft clarity of six a.m. when the day is going to be hot, as if the sun has not yet thrown off its white sheets.”
There could be a spoiler in the next quote, which is from page 235:
I didn’t keep track of descriptions I liked or didn’t like, and as I’m flipping back through the book to refresh my memory and find some examples, I can’t actually remember which ones jarred, and I can’t see any that leap out at me now as not fitting in. This leads me to think that the descriptions I objected to at the time might have just been a volume thing - in and of themselves the descriptions or observations are fine, but when read as a whole, it feels a bit too much.
I was a little disappointed in the ending - just the last ten lines or so. I’m not sure whether there could have been a better way of ending it, but I think it felt like an anticlimax. All the loose ends were tied up, I think, but the last page just felt a bit too abstract.
Overall, I enjoyed reading it, but felt it was a rather sad story that shows the kind of problems we (or perhaps not us, but the next generations) can encounter when we create our own boundaries based on what we feel like doing and expect other people to play by our own versions of the rules.
Despite not agreeing with the life the Trenthams were living, for various reasons, or relating to the characters, I was intrigued by the story and where it was going. It was an easy read and I liked some of the descriptions, although at times I felt Emily Bitto went a little overboard with some of her metaphors. Another review I read described it along the lines of trying too hard to be profound and this describes well how I felt about it in some places.
Quotes I liked:
“The household found its way into its own peculiar form of dailiness. There was an architecture to it. Not precise, but an architecture nonetheless, as if everyone was a door or a window pulled from old houses and assembled into a new one. It had a ramshackle functionality.”
“I remember that morning…in the garden. The soft clarity of six a.m. when the day is going to be hot, as if the sun has not yet thrown off its white sheets.”
There could be a spoiler in the next quote, which is from page 235:
I didn’t keep track of descriptions I liked or didn’t like, and as I’m flipping back through the book to refresh my memory and find some examples, I can’t actually remember which ones jarred, and I can’t see any that leap out at me now as not fitting in. This leads me to think that the descriptions I objected to at the time might have just been a volume thing - in and of themselves the descriptions or observations are fine, but when read as a whole, it feels a bit too much.
I was a little disappointed in the ending - just the last ten lines or so. I’m not sure whether there could have been a better way of ending it, but I think it felt like an anticlimax. All the loose ends were tied up, I think, but the last page just felt a bit too abstract.
Overall, I enjoyed reading it, but felt it was a rather sad story that shows the kind of problems we (or perhaps not us, but the next generations) can encounter when we create our own boundaries based on what we feel like doing and expect other people to play by our own versions of the rules.
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