Nicolas Rothwell

Belomor is a series of four tentatively linked stories through which Nicolas Rothwell examines the interactions of widely different lives. The settings shift between Europe, South America and outback Australia. There is little in the way of plot; the novel is mostly poorly-defined characters philosophising to one another, mostly about - as one character puts it - “What’s your part in all this? Who are you?”

The trouble is that these dialogues are forced, stilted and unnatural, and the characters barely believable. Road builders encountered by chance in the remote wilderness chat about Karamazov and Chekhov with an art dealer, for example. The whole thing is far removed from any sense of reality, which undermines the whole concept - what attention should be paid to philosophy that is spouted by such shallow and unbelievable actors?

There is a lot of good writing here - Rothwell excels at describing the Australian outback - but in the end I found this novel irritating and wished for it to just end. It’s a shame, because this could have been so much better.… (més)

I asked myself once too often why I was continuing to read this book when it was giving me nothing in return? And when nobody failed to answer me, again and again, I finally said enough of this and put the book down for good. It is my hope that somebody else can get from this what I could not. But unless you are an interested party in Aboriginal life and history in Australia then I shall carry my doubts with me. The book became too much of a burden to me so I set my load down among these quiet stones. As boring as these pieces proved to be I cannot imagine his fiction to be as good as reported by respected others. At least not for me.… (més)