In Search of the Blue Tiger

 In Search of the Blue Tiger

Reviewed By  Janet Mawdesley       November 26, 2014

 

Author  Robert Power

Distributor:     
ISBN:                 978-1-921924-16-3
Publisher:         Transit Lounge
Release Date:    

Website:    http://www.transitlounge.com.au 

Nominated for the Victorian Premiers Book Awards this is one story, or rather journey that can easily take its place amongst such works as Under Milkwood and the like. In many ways it reminds one of the works of English novelist Lawrence Durrell, abstract, slightly surreal and very much in the realist manner. Not an easy read but one that gets you in. It is demanding; a literary prose in many respects.

The story commences in the home of Oscar Flowers, son of a dysfunctional parentage and nephew of an even more unstable “aunt” who also lives in the home. Set in a non-specific period of time, but let’s say the turn off the 19th century, Oscar struggles to cope with the genuine weirdness of not only his immediate family but that of members of the community in which he lives.

 He creates a blue tiger as his friend and conscious. Needless to say the blue tiger guides him along his life path letting him know when things are right or wrong.

Desperate to be accepted he joins forces with and even more disparate set of twins the Fishmongers daughters which turns out to be a not so great a choice of friends.

Along the way he is befriended by the town Librarian Mrs April who takes Oscar under her protection and introduces him to the world of books and alternatives in life.

Four or more stories in one, winding about each other ending in the realisation that life is all about what you choose to make it, with a little bit of help.

Readable, enjoyable, but not one for the fainthearted.

Fiction