First Person: A Novel

I've read four of Richard Flanagan's books, including his remarkable debut, Death of a River Guide: A Novel, which I read while on a bicycle tour of Tasmania. I've grown to expect superior writing, but in service to some pretty dark stories.First Person is no exception, in that the writing is as good as you'd expect from the winner of the Man Booker Prize. But the story lacks the sweep of his previous books, and is ultimately almost claustrophobic as a result.The novel tells the story, in first person, of course, of aspiring writer Kif, who's backed into a corner financially and supporting his wife, who's pregnant with twins, and their young daughter. He's making no headway on his novel, and when he loses his only source of income, a part-time job, he and his family are facing economic disaster.His lifelong friend Ray comes to the rescue, offering him a chance to ghostwrite the memoir of one of Australia's most notorious con men, Siegfried Heidl, who is about to be sent up for his crimes and for whom Ray works as a bodyguard. Reluctantly, he takes the job when it's offered, but Heidl proves impossible to pin down, instead playing mind games with Kif. With just six weeks to produce a finished manuscript, Kif grows increasingly frustrated.Against this backdrop, we learn something of Kif and Ray's earlier life, when they were constantly getting into scrapes, and Kif's marriage, which is less than fulfilling, as well as his career, which is a nonstarter. But most of the book consists of Kif's interactions with Siegfried in the offices of the publishing company. It's pretty slow going much of the time, though Flanagan's prose is as fluid as ever, and his characterizations are marvelous, even if none of the characters, including Kif, is especially likable. But in the end, I had to force myself to finish the book, and I say that as someone who really admires the author.

I looked forward to reading First Person, having read Flanagan's Narrow Road to the Deep North - a tough act to follow. I was not disappointed, though neither the characters nor the settings were as thoroughly developed as in Deep North. The premise here - a struggling novelist hired to ghost write an autobiography of a notorious miscreant - allows for much insight into the craft of writing. Still the story is a little thin on plot and doesn't flesh out the Australian settings as well as I had hoped. An impressive work nonetheless and I look forward to more from Flanagan.

After reading The Narrow Road to the Deep North, I was keen to read First Person and it didn’t disappoint. This book is intelligently written and was a pleasure to read. Care and patience has gone into the writing. I found myself reading each page carefully so as not to miss the wording that can be extraordinary. This book is for people who can appreciate careful attention to detail.

I came to not care about either of the two main characters. The “suicide” came as a relief.

Appalling. Worst published book I've read in decades - maybe ever - worse even than Peter Carey's Amnesia. A self-congratulatory, smug incoherent mess. Worse - it's boring, couldn't finish it.What were the people at Penguin thinking. Let's see if any other writers have the courage to put THIER name to a review like this. Save your money.

It isn’t only his first novel that aspiring writer Kif Kehlmann is struggling with. There’s the abject poverty, the decrepit Tasmanian tenement, the wife and toddler to support, and now, twins on the way. The words won’t come – and when they do, Kif doesn’t think they’re any good. Is he a real writer or not? His rough-house pal Ray certainly seems to think so. Ray is currently the minder of the notorious fraudster, Siegfried Heidl, out on bail and awaiting sentence. Heidl needs a ghostwriter for a potentially lucrative memoir. Ray knows just the man for the job.It’s a delicious plot. However, Richard Flanagan’s narrative arc struck me as rather mis-shapen. If you’re going to open with the fact that the narrator has accepted the job of ghostwriter, then don’t go back and show us the dithering that went into his decision - a waste of time when we know the outcome. There are also considerable longueurs: the difficulty Kif has getting the story out of Siegfried seems to go on and on and on.Peopled with three-dimensional characters and studded with gems of wit, the writing in the first half of the book is great: “I stared at the nightmare of the blank screen and the panting cursor. The most I had ever managed in a single day working on my novel were 562 words, and many of them had veered dangerously close to plagiarism.” The panting cursor is inspired.But I’m afraid my interest waned in the second half when the narrator grows more introspective and the writing becomes overblown, even a little weird. Nevertheless, this book has the ring of truth: apparently, Richard Flanagan’s career kicked off with the ghosting of a memoir which was described at the time as "one of the least reliable but most fascinating memoirs in the annals of Australian publishing". 3.5*Thank you to Penguin Random House for the ARC via NetGalley.

To sure how to describe this novel. Very interesting and well-written, but so dark, haunting, and depressing. Perhaps I was just not able to rise to the occasion.

Great story. A little depressing, but suits my taste.

Although I loved Mr Flanagans writing there wasn't much of a story...I think if you'd lived in Oz at that time and had the cultural context of Friedrich it would have been more enthralling.....but I did not...

It captures exactly the sort of despair we have all faced at times when trying to make a living in the creative world.Perhaps texts such as this should be recommended reading on any vocational creative writing course and in art schools, (and drama schools come to that), in order to test the mettle of the would-be creatives.I remember as a teenager reading "Keep the Aspidistra Flying" by George Orwell and "Of Human Bondage" by Somerset Maugham and being both excited and appalled. Excited by the prospect of rejecting an ordinary life in order to be a great poet/artist like the heroes of these books, and appalled at the same time by the poverty and rejection that they have to face as a result of their choices. This story evokes similar feelings.If you can read books like these and still want to be a professional creative then the chances are that nothing will ever stop you having a go.

A book worth persevering with, a story that slowly pulls you in until you must read it to the end. The book it explores post-modern ideas about truth and reality. The unravelling of a life that is a metaphor for society, reflecting on who we are and how we came to be.

The best living Australian writer.