Moving Among Strangers: Randolph Stow and My Family
Gabrielle Carey

Moving Among Strangers: Randolph Stow and My Family
Gabrielle Carey
Review
by Belle Place
In Moving Among Strangers, Gabrielle Carey intertwines the histories of the reclusive Australian writer Randolph Stow, and that of her acutely reserved mother, Joan, who both grew up in Geraldton, Western Australia. Carey has lived most of her life on the east coast, and it isn’t until her mother becomes ill that she initiates contact with Stow and begins to stitch together a history with her kin in Western Australia.
Within their correspondence, Stow offers Carey shards of her mother’s younger self. They are generous (and quite novelistic) in their specificity, and provide a starting point for touring the past her mother kept so stoically private.
Following her mother’s death from cancer, we see Carey travel to the west, to the red-dirt farmsteads of her mother’s and Stow’s youth. It is from here that Carey offers her reader a biography of Stow, and carefully knits the settings and characters of his novels, like Tourmaline and The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea, to this arid landscape and Stow’s psychology. This excursion also allows Carey to construct a map of Stow’s preoccupations, from his pursuit for spiritual meaning to his obsession with the Batavia tragedy, which Stow held to be the ‘dark side of sunny Australia’.
This is also a family memoir, and Carey writes with clarity and frankness of her troubling heritage. Her writing glints sharpest, for me, when turned to her older sister, Catherine. For much of their lives, Catherine is Carey’s ‘reliable narrator’ of family stories, and Carey exquisitely describes the shift of losing faith in the narrative her adored, but at times, loathed, older sister imparts.
Later, Carey arrives in the seaside town of Harwich, in England, where Stow lived out much of the rest of his life a solitary figure. She gathers with people who knew him in the village pub, but the locals offer Carey details that conflict with the biography she has plotted. That Carey still has only a slippery hold on some parts of Stow’s past is, by now, somewhat irrespective; she has still superbly gifted us a tender reminder of his significance.
Belle Place is the editor of Readings Monthly.
This item is not currently in-stock. It can be ordered online and is expected to ship in 3-6 days
We are currently experiencing delays in processing and delivering online orders. Click here for more information.
Please note, our stock data is updated overnight, and availability may change throughout the day. Prices are subject to change without notice.Sign in or become a Readings Member to add this title to a wishlist.

Song Spirals: Sharing Women’s Wisdom of Country Through Songlines
$34.99Buy now
Finding stock availability...

The Girls
$32.99Buy now
Finding stock availability...

Australianama: The South Asian Odyssey in Australia
$34.95Buy now
Finding stock availability...

Arab, Australian, Other: Stories on Race and Identity
$32.99Buy now
Finding stock availability...

Banking Bad
$34.99Buy now
Finding stock availability...

The Joy of High Places
$32.99Buy now
Finding stock availability...

See What You Made Me Do
$32.99Buy now
Finding stock availability...

Storytime
$26.99Buy now
Finding stock availability...

Moving Among Strangers: Randolph Stow and My Family
Two literary lives defined by storytelling and secrets As her mother Joan lies dying, Gabrielle Carey writes a letter to Joan's childhood friend, the reclusive novelist Randolph Stow. This letter sets in motion a literary...
$29.95Buy now
Finding stock availability...

A Singular Vision: Harry Seidler
$62.99Buy now
Finding stock availability...

The Feel-Good Hit of the Year: A Memoir
Hilarious, compelling and sometimes heartbreaking, The Feel-Good Hit of the Year is a memoir about family, drugs and learning how to live with yourself, from a sharp and original new Australian voice.
$29.99Buy now
Finding stock availability...

An Unsentimental Bloke: The life and work of C.J. Dennis
The Sentimental Bloke and Doreen are famous characters in Australian popular culture, but their creator deserves to be better known. C.J. Dennis transformed the larrikin from a street thug into a respectable image of Australian...
$49.99Buy now
Finding stock availability...

To Begin to Know: Walking in the Shadows of My Father
A deeping moving and searlingly honest memoir about fathers and sons. More than a decade ago, journalist David Leser started writing a biography of his famous father, legendary magazine publisher, Bernard Leser.
$32.99Buy now
Finding stock availability...

The Night Guest
$19.99Buy now
Finding stock availability...

Belomor
$29.99Buy now
Finding stock availability...

Moving Among Strangers: Randolph Stow and My Family
$29.95Buy now
Finding stock availability...

The Lucky Culture And The Rise Of An Australian Ruling Class
$40.99Buy now
Finding stock availability...

Broken Nation: Australians in the Great War
$35.00Buy now
Finding stock availability...

First Victory: The Hunt for the German Raider Emden
$34.99Buy now
Finding stock availability...

Arthur Phillip: Sailor, Mercenary, Governor, Spy
$29.99Buy now
Finding stock availability...

The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka
$34.99Buy now
Finding stock availability...