WIND AND WATER
THE DUPE. By Robert S. Close. Georgian House, Melbourne. HOUGH as one writes, Mr. Close is happily once more back in circulation, his first published novel, Love Me Sailor, is not. It is therefore not possible for the reviewer to point in thi second novel to evidence of maturing’ talent, unless the total absence of anything remotely resembling obscenity or libel can be considered the fruit of deepening experience. In many ways the writing is immature. Mr. Close is infatuated with adjectives and this story of a windjammer’s passage round the Horn (the author calls it a windship) is full of leaden days, lowering nights, thrusting bowsprits, groaning spars, whimpering sheaves, and brooding hatreds. The handling of the dialogue is at times awkward and the occasional brief excursions into dialect seem hopelessly artificial. But there is no denying that when Mr. Close forgets about fine writing in the excitement of describing sudden death or near shipwreck he achieves a raw strength that matches. his subject admirably.
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 473, 16 July 1948, Page 33
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169WIND AND WATER New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 473, 16 July 1948, Page 33
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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