Thea Astley's career as a novelist spans the post-World War II decades, with a series of acclaimed novels. Since 1958 she has published a novel every two or three years, working steadily to produce a variety of critical and satirical perspectives on Australian and South Pacific life. She is probably the most awarded Australian writer, with four Miles Franklin Awards, for The Well Dressed Explorer (1962), The Slow Natives (1965), The Acolyte (1972), and Drylands: A Book for the World's Last Reader (1999); an Australian Literature Society Gold Medal, for Beachmasters (1985); a Patrick White Award (1989); and an Age Book of the Year Award for The Multiple Effects of Rainshadow (1996). Although she has won a reputation as one of the most stylish, witty, and acerbic writers of Australia, critics often have responded uneasily to her work, admiring its energy and skill but rarely endorsing it wholeheartedly, partly because her work presents obstinate difficulties to...