The Impersonators

The Impersonators (1980) is a Miles Franklin Award-winning novel[1] by Australian author Jessica Anderson. It was published in the United States under the alternative title The Only Daughter.

The Impersonators
First edition
AuthorJessica Anderson
Cover artist'Dreaming in the Street' by Charles Blackman, 1960
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish
GenreNovel
PublisherMacmillan, Australia
Publication date
1980
Media typePaperback
Pages252pp
ISBN0-333-29925-6
OCLC8219612
823 19
LC ClassPR9619.3.A57 I5
Preceded byTirra Lirra by the River 
Followed byTaking Shelter 

The novel won both the Miles Franklin Award in 1980, and the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, Christina Stead Prize for Fiction in 1981.

Plot outline

The novel details Sylvia Foley's return to Australia after having lived in England for twenty years. Having come to the conclusion that worldly possessions and marriage are the main stumbling blocks to achieving freedom, Sylvia returns to find each of her Australian relatives bound by both constraints, making them "impersonators."

Critical reception

Hope Hewitt, in The Canberra Times, found a lot to like about the novel but ultimately stated: "I cannot rate this book quite as high as its predecessor: it is hard to get into; the problem of family relationships bedevils personal ones. Its finish is less easy to rest with. But then it is working on a much more ambitious scale, exploring a vast theme within a complex and splendidly-realised group of Australian figures."[2]

References
  1. "Novelist Wins Second Award", The Canberra Times, 4 June 1981, p3
  2. "Just Short of the Mark", The Canberra Times, 13 December 1980, p17
Awards and achievements
Preceded by
A Woman of the Future		 Miles Franklin Award recipient
1980		 Succeeded by
Bliss
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.