The Twyborn Affair - discussion

Today, I finished reading The Twyborn Affair, but I did not get it at all. I wasn't able to get into the text; I could not discern a plot; I had no idea how the characters related among themselves.

I wondered whether English had suddenly changed into another language, and that, therefore, I did not understand anything.

Coming home, I have read a few reviews, and have decided to try again.

Oh that's a shame. I really enjoyed The Twyborn Affair. Still, you have now read a Patrick White novel!

I have started again in The Twyborn Affair; the reviews have given me a sense what to expect, so that I am not totally lost. The first time reading has "eased up" some of the really quite dense prose. I am reading more slowly now, and feel I can spend more time with the details, which seems to be absolutely necessary to keep an overview of the main line; they aren't things that can be separated. In some books they can, but here it seems not.

I re-read the first twenty pages in bed last night, and feel like going on. But, as I said, the reading is slow, so I may have to stay with this book for a while.

Edwin, I admire your persistence in reading The Twyborn Affair again. I find often that White's descriptions create impressions and trigger memories. Sometimes the haze of impression condenses into a comprehensible "fact" and sometimes it remains vague. Reading The Aunt's Story, for example, seemed at times to require "bring your own meaning."

I can recommend A Fringe of Leaves highly. The complexities of Ellens's character are revealed to both herself and the reader as events overtake her, but she remains one coherent person.

The Twyborn affair perhaps White's best novel? Finished it yesterday and I have now read them all apart from Happy Valley and Memoirs of many in one

Bas, I thought The Twyborn Affair was excellent. Shall look for your review.