Review of Double Agent: David Ireland and His Work by Helen Daniel

Abstract

With the publication of Double Agent, Penguin Books have made their first venture into literary criticism concerning contemporary Australian writers—in this case, David Ireland. The venture seems particularly courageous: of our recent novelists, Ireland is by no means as popular overseas as Keneally, Stow or Carey and, moreover, his reputation in Australia is apparently still unsettled. Yet, although book sales may tell a different story, Australia has, by and large, been good to Ireland: three out of his seven novels have won the prestigious Miles Franklin Award, and his recent publications (especially A Woman of the Future, the climax of three years of silence from Ireland) have been given a great deal of publicity by newspapers and popular magazines.