Their Brilliant Careers
| Author | Ryan O'Neill |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Short story collection |
| Publisher | Black Inc |
Publication date | 1 August 2016 |
| Publication place | Australia |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 240 pp. |
| Awards | 2017 Prime Minister's Literary Awards — Fiction, winner |
| ISBN | 9781863958639 |
Their Brilliant Careers: The Fantastic Lives of Sixteen Extraordinary Australian Writers is a 2016 Australian work of fiction by Ryan O'Neill. The work comprises a collection of intertwined short stories, and won the 2017 Prime Minister's Literary Awards for Fiction.
Synopsis
This work of fiction consists of 16 interconnected short stories, each of which is a biography of a different fictional Australian writer.[1][2] According to writer Scott Robinson, the books subjects are based on a mix of both local and international writers. The first, Rand Washington, is seen by Robinson as "a frothing, toxic mix of L. Ron Hubbard, H. P. Lovecraft, and Ayn Rand". Another character, historian Edward Gayle, reflects the views of Keith Windschuttle and Geoffrey Blainey, whose work represents some of the arguments in the Australian history wars, in contrast to the views of Henry Reynolds.[3]
Contents
- "Rand Washington (1919-2000)"
- "Matilda Young (1899-2000)"
- "Arthur Ruhtra (1940-1981)"
- "Addison Tiller (1874-1929)"
- "Robert Bush (1941-1990)"
- "Dame Claudia Gunn (1885-1975)"
- "Francis X McVeigh (1900-1948?)"
- "Rachel Deverall (1969-2016)"
- "Catherine Swan (1921-1970)"
- "Frederick Stratford (1880-1933)"
- "Edward Gayle (1928-2008)"
- "Vivian Darkbloom (1901-1976)"
- "Helen Harkaway (1940-1993)"
- "Donald Chapman (1903?-1937?)"
- "Stephen Pennington (1935-2009)"
Notes
- Dedication: "For my late wife, Rachel"
- The title is inspired by Miles Franklin's My Brilliant Career.
In the acknowledgments section, O'Neill thanks Chilean writer Roberto Bolaño's Nazi Literature in the Americas (1996), which "provides essential background information for the life of Rand Washington".[4]
Critical reception
Writing in Australian Book Review, author and critic David Wright described the book as "a chocolate box of parodic Aussie portraits: some are bitter, some have gooey sentimental hearts, and some are just plain nuts". He went on to note that the book "brims with crackerjack wit" and that it "is interconnected in a way that tests believability, but so too are the real events into which its web entwines".[4]
While reviewing each of the books on the short list for the 2017 Miles Franklin Award. writer Jen Webb pondered how close the author sails "to the wind of defamation", before commenting: "Like a supremely confident stand-up comic, he pushes the joke from initial humour through infuriating repetition to helpless laughter...Literary giant after literary giant, publisher after publisher, is kneecapped by these excoriating and hilarious accounts of the players, their work, and the impossibly interwoven lives they lead."[5]
Awards
- 2017: Winner, Prime Minister's Literary Awards — Fiction[6][7]
- 2017: Shortlisted, Miles Franklin Award[8]
- 2017: Shortlisted, New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards — Christina Stead Prize for Fiction[9]
Publishing history
After the novel's initial publication in Australia by Black Inc, it was reprinted in the UK by Lightning Books in 2018.[9]
See also
References
- ^ Burns, Shannon (18 October 2016). "The Writers We Deserve: Their Brilliant Careers & Wood Green". Sydney Review of Books. Retrieved 17 May 2025.
- ^ Rivett, Adam (3 November 2016). "Their Brilliant Careers by Ryan O'Neill: a puzzle to delight sleuths and academics for years". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 17 May 2025.
- ^ Robinson, Scott (9 February 2018). "Something real in fiction: on Ryan O'Neill and Lynne Tillman". Overland. Retrieved 17 May 2025.
- ^ a b Wright, David Thomas Henry (August 2016). ""Their Brilliant Careers: The Fantastic Lives of Sixteen Extraordinary Australian Writers by Ryan O'Neill"". Australian Book Review (383). Retrieved 1 March 2025.
- ^ ""Heart-warming, biting, tragic, funny: the Miles Franklin shortlist will move you"". The Conversation, 6 September 2017. Retrieved 1 March 2025.
- ^ ""Prime Minister's Literary Awards - Shortlist and winners: 2021-2008"". Creative Australia. Retrieved 1 March 2025.
- ^ "Their Brilliant Careers by Ryan O'Neill". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 1 March 2025.
- ^ "Love, death, power and ego permeate 2017 Miles Franklin Literary Award shortlist". Perpetual. Retrieved 1 March 2025.
- ^ a b "Their Brilliant Careers by Ryan O'Neill". Austlit. 29 January 2025. Retrieved 1 March 2025.