Ampersand – The context is part of my problem with the book. I know there wasn't much (pseudo)'intellectual' stuff in Australian writing then, but is White writing within the context he knows, or which his probable readership knows?

I've read about a 1960s production of The One Day of the Year in Europe that baffled audiences: "Why's that kid so worked up? Hasn't he read Camus?" But the trends White is dealing with in this book are from before World War Two. Either way, if it's true, then The Vivisector may be a book of its time, and unable to transcend it.

On the Readers' Group site I've taken on some other comments and have started to suspect I may be wrong, and White may be writing with a much more slippery narrative voice than I first thought.

Tim – You are a sad example of the Tall Poppy Syndrome that is ruining Australia. I bet you were forwarding email jokes about Steve Irwin before they'd prised that spine from his stiff, saintly hand.

Yes, but are you looking at him in context? As far as I know (and I'm certainly not an expert), at the time there wasn't much of this 'pseudointellectual' writing happening in Australian lit. What set PW apart was that he was engaging with overseas literary trends, in Australia. He was probably tame in a European context, but he certainly shook Australians up a bit at the time.

And you read the eXile too!

I just finished Pleasant Hell before I started on White…now THERE'S something new…