Gilgamesh: A Novel

This is an intensely moving novel about an unmarried Australian mother and her search for her boy's father, who has returned to the Armenia he was born in. She travels there just before the outbreak of the Second World War. The sense of loss pervades most of the novel; but the style is spare and unsentimental, and all the more emotionally powerful for that. The novel is loosely structured like the Epic of Gilgamesh, the ancient tale of a hero who goes to the Underworld in search of his dead friend, and who returns accepting mortality. For those who know the myth, this gives an added layer of resonance to the novel, but the use of the myth is not forced, and you don't need to be familiar with it to appreciate the book. There are good depictions of life on a struggling Australian farm and in wartime Armenia. Not a word is out of place, and I was gripped throughout. Without doubt, this is one of the best modern novels I have read.

I enjoyed the book immensely. It is beautifully written and a wonderful account of woman's journey against all kinds of obstacles to find the man she loves. It captures the atmosphere of the various towns in which she stays when en route - and of the various people she meets. It is poignant and beautiful. I love the ending!

Thanks :)

Loved this book. .

Characters move all around the world from Australia to Armenia. Considerable insight in to a settlers lid in the Australian bush. The characters are also placed in a little known piece of the Second World War in Armenia. One main point of the book is that the protagonist sisters, despite being impoverished or exploited at different times, acted with considerable determination and agency in their actions. The other main point is the impact of the birth and care of a child on different characters in the story. The men in the book are almost mythical beasts, like Gilgamesh is a mythical ancient king/hero. A book of Poetry about the exploits of Gilgamesh and his exploits, an epic hero’s tale perhaps like works by Tennyson) features throughout the book. The importance of friendship,Particularly close male friendship is an interesting and possibly undeveloped part of the novel. This is friendship so profound that two bodies seem to act conjointly and think and plan almost in unison. This friendship is not sexual but something other than the types of relationships that are usually presented as models or moods by society at large. Ultimately this book is about relationships: husband to wife. Siblings to siblings, poverty to a family, the bush to a city wife who had moved there with her husband, a sexual and maybe exploitative relationship between an older youth and a vulnerable younger woman, the relationship between caregivers and disabled people, deep friendship and the relationship of the war on everyone. I am irritated that this book ends so abruptly and without development of the connection between the two adolescent boys in the narrative. This was a very interesting inclusion in the narrative and did not go anywhere, that I could see. Don’t think that this review has been a spoiler for future readers, and the book is an enjoyable. Even fascinating. Read.