Lilian's Story [Paperback]

Kate Grenville (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 5, 2007

Shielded from emotional and physical abuse by layers of fat, Lilian struggles to escape a suffocating existence in the home of her tyrannical Victorian father and her elegant but ineffectual mother. Madness, cruelty and sexuality permeate the family's upper-crust Australian world. Lilian Una Singer starts life at the beginning of the twentieth century as the daughter of a prosperous middle-class Australian family. She ends it as a cheerfully eccentric bag-lady living on the streets, quoting Shakespeare. This book traces the progress of her life's journey, and why she made the choices she did. She's a person large in spirit as well as body, who wants to invent her own story, rather than allow it to be invented for her. Life presents her with many obstacles including the sinister advances of her father - but in spite of this she succeeds. Triumphantly, she makes her life her own, savouring every moment with the reminder that 'everything matters'.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Lilian begins her book with her own birth and almost manages to conclude it from beyond the grave, but only occasionally exacts from the reader genuine interest in her affairs. In fact, she is a fat, lonely child who becomes a fat, eccentric (though, she insists, brilliant) woman. Her mother is afflicted by vapors, her father by pseudo-intellectuality and her younger brother by the shyness common to boys who wear glasses. Since it is hinted early on that Father's proclivities are not wholly cerebral, his incestuous attack upon Lilian is not a shock, but his subsequent insults and vituperations, culminating in his having her committed, seem without foundation. Although he accuses her of behaving like a whore, Lilian remains a virgin throughout and indeed, once out of the asylum, lives chastely with a drunken cabdriver until he dies. This award-winning first novel by Australian writer Grenville promises more than it delivers. Lilian's story, however, often has the quality of a dream recounted while the dreamer is half asleep. This alone is a remarkable achievement.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

In this first novel Grenville chronicles the life of Lil Sanger from her childhood in Australia in the early 1900s to her death. An imaginative loner as a child, Lil becomes increasingly alienated from her family and friends as she becomes a young woman. Lacking prospects for marriage because of her eccentricity and excessive weight, Lil enrolls briefly as a university student, but a violent incident with her father leads him to commit her to an insane asylum. Lil is eventually removed from the asylum by her aunt, who ends up supporting her. Grenville tries admirably to render Lil as a free spirit who chooses to live apart from "normal" society, but despite her good writing the result is unconvincing. Winner of the Australian/Vogel Award. Lucinda Ann Peck, Learning Design Associates, Gahanna, Ohio
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Canongate Books Ltd (July 5, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1841959952
• ISBN-13: 978-1841959955
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,679,448 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Kate Grenville (kategrenville.com) was born in Sydney, Australia. She's published eight books of fiction, including the multiple prize-winners 'The Secret River', 'The Lieutenant', 'The Idea of Perfection', and 'Lilian's Story'. She's also published three books about the writing process that are classic texts for Creative Writing classes, and a memoir about the research and writing of 'The Secret River'.

Grenville writes about Australia, but her themes are universal: love, violence, and survival. Her characters are often inspired by real historical characters: her own nineteenth century convict ancestor, an early Australian settler; a bag-lady on the streets of 1950s Sydney who quotes Shakespeare for a living; a soldier in the Sydney of 1788 who shares an extraordinary friendship of tenderness and respect with a young Aboriginal girl.

Grenville's international prizes include the Orange Award, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, and a shortlisting for the Man Booker Prize. Her books have been published all over the world and translated into many languages, and two have been made into feature films.

Learn more about Kate Grenville, her books, and how to get hold of them, at kategrenville.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars moving, June 24, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Lilian's Story (Harvest Book) (Paperback)

This novel is one of the most emotive I have read. It tells the story of a girl and her struggles to conform to the norms of her dysfunctional family and abusive father. She is an outcast not only within her own family but within the colonial, patriarchal society she lives in. Eventually, she rejects the conformism of her upper-class upbringing and becomes an outspoken street person A fictionalised account of the life and times of the late Bea Miles, well known Sydney eccentric

5.0 out of 5 stars a different look at a bag lady, March 28, 2011

By 

Cloggie Downunder (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lilian's Story (Harvest Book) (Paperback)

Lilian's Story is Kate Grenville's first novel. Lilian Una Singer was born on the first day of 1900 and we follow her life's journey through childhood, maturity and into older age. Grenville weaves a tale around a figure whom all of us have encountered and probably tried to avoid (and whom some of us may even encounter daily), the "bag lady", the mad woman who seems to talk to herself in the street or on the bus/train/tram. She presents a highly plausible history for Lilian which helps explain how an eccentric young woman from a middle-class family becomes a Shakespeare-quoting bag-lady. Along the way, we watch Sydney changing during Federation, two World Wars and a Depression. Lilian tries to make her own decisions in life and ultimately brings a sort of happiness to others by being the type of person they can look at, remark upon and tell their own stories about. Grenville's descriptions are vivid; her characters, compelling and convincing; her dialogue, credible. Perhaps Lilian's Story will make the reader look at the eccentric bag-people in another light. An excellent read.

5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing Survival, October 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Lilian's Story (Harvest Book) (Paperback)

Lilian's Story is a book I have had to read for my university english course, and it is one of the most amazing books I have ever read. Lilian is a true survivor when all the odds are against her. I would recommend this to anyone.