Their Brilliant Careers was one of my prescribed readings in my first semester of university. Out of the four readings, it was the only one I actually finished. It was brilliant. A mix of humour, anger and grief. It’s so well put together that I kept having to remind myself that it wasn’t real. It’s a collection of sixteen stories of fictional writers in Australia.

One of the most successful things about this book was that everything was so well designed it was not only realistic but worked like the Marvel Universe, an epic collection of biographies of writers that show the closeness of the writing industry and reflects Australia before it became an expansion of airports, railways and highways, often easily having more than three people in the same circle.

Another great thing about the book is, whilst it’s humorous, it ignites several different emotions and reflects the issues of that time, reminding us that they are the same as our current issues but proving that hard-work and scratching got us only so far. It touches on racism and sexism in such a casual manner it’s frustrating to read about. It’s not that I’m ignorant of how severe both racism and sexism were, and still are, but the casual manner in which they’re written, reminding me of how little the issues are actually regarded. They’re ‘everyday’ and they’re not ‘wrong’ at all.

The way the characters are designed is very clever. Some you’re going to love and some you’re going to hate and because they live in an interwoven universe, there’s a chance your favourite character can get a win against your most hated. And all sixteen are developed so well. The amount of work done on creating their lives in so many pages is astounding. They’re exciting little biographies. I don’t doubt that I could summarise the life of any character in my own works in the same amount of pages but to the degree of detail and with the same charm and evocation; no way, not yet. It opened me to a new style of fiction and one that I didn’t think I could enjoy.

I think it’s also because the novel was written by an Australian author that I found myself rooted in it. I’ve never really taken the time to see what the nationality of an author I’m reading books of, it didn’t occur to me that it mattered. But there’s a charm to the Australian fiction I’ve read and Their Brilliant Careers does it so well. I feel like I’m taking a little history trip around places that I’m familiar with in the current day and the way people behave and speak, realistically done, is amusing.

It’s really a must-read. I think the closest I’ve ever read to something like this before would have to be Boy by Roald Dahl, simply because of the wit and autobiographical nature. But the two books are not the same at all. It’s the only book in my collection like it and it was refreshing to read. I don’t currently have a ‘top 5’ or ‘top 10’ when it comes to books, mainly because I’ve read too many series to want to think about it, but Their Brilliant Careers is definitely one of my favourites.