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My teenage summer holidays always meant a banana lounge, sunglasses and an eventual book-shaped white patch on my torso. The white patch could have been left by anything from Stephen King's latest frightfest to a George Orwell novel (I devoured his entire canon in an Orwell orgy one Christmas holidays. Geek? Moi?).
I don't subscribe to the notion that summer reads should be lighter and brighter than those you might choose at any other time of year. If anything, summer is the time when most people (except humble newspaper reporters) see their workplaces shut down and have time to tackle something more meaty than their usual tram fare.
For that reason I nominate Matthew Condon's The Trout Opera as my recommended read. Its quintessentially Australian story radiates out from the Snowy Mountains into the Victorian high country and Gippsland and its timeline runs from 1900 to the vast celebration and brag fest that was the Sydney Olympics, and it's an instant, undeniable classic.
The word `classic' often comes with connotations of difficulty and impenetrability, but Condon's work is both accessible and thought provoking. He follows Wilfred Lampe, born and bred in Dalgety on the Snowy River. Picked to be the symbol of Australia by organisers of the Olympics opening ceremony, Lampe's life - and those of the people he unwittingly influences - is the focus of Condon's masterful story telling. As Molly Meldrum once said, do yourself a favour...
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