#NSW Premier’s Award shortlist Robert Lukins
- Author: Robert Lukins
- Title: The Everlasting Sunday
- Published: 2018
- Publisher: University of Queesland Press
- Trivia: NSW Premier’s Literary Awards shortlist
- Trivia: ALS Gold medal longlist (Australian Literature)
- List of Challenges 2019
- Monthly plan
- @NSW_PLA
- @UQPbooks
Finished: 17.04.2019
Genre: novel
Rating: A+
Quickscan:
- During the freezing English winter of 1962,
- seventeen-year-old Radford is sent to Goodwin Manor.
- It is a home for boys who have been ‘found by trouble’.
- Drawn immediately to the charismatic boy…West.
- …Radford soon discovers that each one of them
- …has something to hide.
Cover: symbol = great oak
- “Mighty oaks from little acorns grow.”
- Or as Chaucer wrote in 1374,
- “as an oak cometh of a litel spyr (sapling)”.
Conclusion:
- Strong point: foreshadowing
- Lukins interjects the ‘thoughts’ of winter
- …that builds the tension.
- You know something dreadful is going to happen:
- …Winter drew air into its cheeks and readied its spears
- …perhaps a lesson could go untaught
- …Winter’s hands could remain clean of blood.
- Strong point: foils Teddy (rector) vs Dr. Cass
- Cass – remains sullen and soundless, without humor
- Cass – remnant of past..pre-WWII (spare the rod, spoil the child)
- Teddy – his eyes sparkled with clarity
- Teddy – sweet eccentricity, charming father figure for the boys
- Best Quote: Teddy
- “I will stoke you, because fire lies unnourished in all your centers.”
- Strong point: character Teddy …extraordinary, words of wisdom for the boys
- Teddy is accused of being weak, to soft on the boys by Dr. Cass
- Teddy wants the boys to feel like brothers not rivals: “you must help each other.”
- Lukins illustrates one of the wisest truths we all need to learn
- through the character of Teddy:
- Criticism (discipline) should be like a rain
- … gentle enough to nourish growth
- …without destroying the roots.
- #GreatDebutNovel
- ...hope to read more by R. Lukins!
Last thoughts:
- This book surprised me as a debut novel
- That is why I gave it a 5 score instead of a solid 3.
- Usually the theory is write what you know.
- My first thought was how could a man in Australia
- …write about a correctional school in England for boys
- ..with the “wrong attitude”?
- Lukins placed more emphasis on character development
- instead of a sense of place.
- So it does not matter where the struggles take place
- …as long as the reader discovers how the character(s) change.
7 Comments
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NancyElin.blog 
Thanks so much for taking the time to read this, and for your very kind and thoughtful review. As a first-time author it’s still quite amazing that people are reading my little book. Much appreciated.
Thank you …for taking the time to read my little review.
I hope I have done your book justice.
Good luck with your writing….awaiting the next book!
Sounds like an interesting book. Will add this to my list partly because it sounds good but partly because Australian lit isn’t something I know much about really. Don’t know five of the six shortlisted authors here and the only one I do know – Tim Winton – I’ve only read one book of his ( ‘Breath’ which I did enjoy). You make me realise ( yet again!) how narrow my book choices are ( either I’m parochial with UK authors or predictable by really only venturing overseas to the US and pretty much nowhere else!!!)
Col, there is a ‘longer’ shortlist for NSW literary Awards (see my post dd. 15 April 2019)
I’m just finishing one book today…that I KNOW will knock your socks off!
Scrublands by Chris Hammer….journalist (Aussie: journo) returns to a bushland backwater to do a update “one-year-after-the-crime” story for his newspaper. This is a blockbuster of a thriller.
Australia has so much to offer!
Thanks for your comment!
I thought the author might have answered your question, but I guess you answered it for yourself! Sounds like an interesting and thought provoking novel. Funny tat it mentions criticism, that’s an interesting topic in itself, I like the quote about it being like the rain, gentle enough to nourish growth, but how to actually do that is something not very well taught or role modelled. We discussed this recently and I was speaking about the model used at Toastmasters, CRC, in giving feedback on an individuals impromptu talk Commend, Recommend, Commend – if we were only taught that, I think it would change a lot.
Thank you Claire for your comment!
The image of a gentle rain
..offering nourishment for growth just stayed with me.
The character of Teddy (rector of school) was so sensitive to
the boys needs in stark contrast to Dr. Cass.
The some boys felt more at home at The Manor
…then with their own parents.
Parenting is the hardest job in the world!