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- Article Title: The Coals of Juniper
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This is an interesting first novel about a writer of Science Fiction stories, Juniper, who has a recurring nightmare about floating around the moon in a space unit. It begins and ends with one of those sequences, which alternate with sharply observed scenes of student life. Hector, Juniper’s oldest friend, is the eternal student, flitting from religion to religion and from ideology to ideology. His wife, Matty, gets fed up with him and goes to live with Juniper. The friendship between the men continues, the strain showing more in Juny’s recurring nightmare than in actual confrontations. Hector takes to drugs and violent films and in the last scene of the book thinks he’s watching a rather repetitious film while he sees Juny being beaten up and nearly kicked to death.
- Book 1 Title: The Coals of Juniper
- Book 1 Biblio: Champion Press, Melbourne, $4. 95 pb. ISBN 0 9597008 0 3
- Book 1 Cover Small (400 x 600):
- Book 1 Cover (800 x 1200):
All the naturalistic sections are vivid and witty with a sharp ear for dialogue. As the book develops, the dream sequences tend to take over more and more and the final nightmare which concludes the book is clearly intended to establish the reality of a fantasy dimension in experience. I agree very strongly with what I take to be the implication but it seems to me to come across as an idea rather than as an experience. I don’t believe there is enough interpenetration between the two planes; we switch a little too mechanically from one to the other and the distinction between them is insisted on in rather too sharp a way. There are no moments of waking experience, for example, when Juny thinks he’s back in the nightmare.
A minor irritation is an attempt at spelling reform which is not consistent.
However, though I believe that the novel fails to fuse its two main elements satisfactorily, I enjoyed reading it, particularly the accurate and amusing scenes of student life. I am glad that it was published, not only because many readers ‘will find it interesting and enjoyable but because I believe its publication will be an important factor in Jackson’s further development. It is very difficult for a novelist to continue to improve and widen his scope unless he can get his work into print and get a reaction from a wider public than his circle of friends.
Champion Press are to be congratulated for this publication; it seems unlikely that more established publishers would have taken the risk. Champion is a cooperative in which the printing, managing and financial arrangements are handled by Ted Hopkins, poet and ex-football star, who makes his living printing posters. He is an expert at his trade and something of a financial wizard, but the publishing venture is entirely idealistic. Its intent is to publish only work of genuine literary merit, not for profit but to help develop as wide a spectrum of styles, attitudes and subject matter as possible in Australian fiction and to do this without losing money, paying authors 12½ per cent royalty. Jackson’s book, he told me, has already sold well enough to more than cover basic costs.
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