Voss by Patrick White

This is the first Patrick White novel I’ve read, and it was amazing. It’s a dense read, thick with beautiful prose that fires your imagination into the heads of the charaters and the power of the land that they roam.

Voss is an early Australian explorer who sets off into the deserts of central Australia to find what lies in the heart of the country. The strange love that develops between Voss and Laura creates an extra window into the souls of both characters.

Voss is a character so well developed I feel I’d know him if I met him in real life. Not that I’d want to know him – the man is a arrogant, defiant, obsessive and mythological.

There are plenty of far more literary critiques of Voss and plenty about Nobel Prize in literature winning Patrick White For those who want it. White seems a pretty strange character himself. Tree of Man sounds good and will be one I plan to read in future.
I’ll be making a note to re-read it. Next time I will read it more slowly, and in decent chunks of time, ideally on holidays.

My Rating: 4.5 stars