In Certain Circles
| Author | Elizabeth Harrower |
|---|---|
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Literary fiction |
| Publisher | Text Publishing |
|
Publication date
|
2014 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 256 pp |
| ISBN | |
| Preceded by | The Watch Tower |
| Followed by | – |
In Certain Circles is an Australian novel by Elizabeth Harrower. Though the novel was written sometime in the late sixties and early seventies it was not published until 2014 when it became Harrower's first novel published in 48 years. It helped to spur a revival of interest in Harrower's body of work.
The novel is about the lives of two sets of siblings, the privileged Howard siblings Russell and Zoe, who are the children of elite Australian botanists, and the Quayle siblings Stephen and Anna who were orphaned at a young age and raised by an uncle consumed with caring for his mentally-ill wife.
Russell and Stephen meet by accident on a train and later Russell invites Stephen and his sister to spend time with him and his family. Zoe is immediately struck by Stephen's condescending attitude and his refusal to kowtow to her demands. Believing him to be hyper-intelligent she is shocked to discover he works as a salesman. Anna, who is shy, develops a crush on Russell. However Russell is engaged and marries and moves to Europe with his new bride shortly after meeting the Quayle siblings. Stephen leaves Sydney for Melbourne around the same time after receiving a promotion. Zoe graduates from high school and moves to Paris to work in photography and film.
Anna meanwhile stays behind in Sydney and gains independence working in an office. She stays in contact with the Howard family and eventually marries an acquaintance of theirs who is much older than her and who she is not in love with only to be widowed shortly after.
When Zoe is 25 she returns to Sydney after the death of her mother, just missing seeing her alive by a day. She reconnects with Stephen and after a short and passionate courtship the two marry. Despite her life being in Paris she decides to stay in Sydney ignoring the warnings of her friends and family that life there won't suit her.
Stephen and Russell go into business together running a left-wing political paper. Because of the now deep ties between the Howard and Quayle families Anna and Russell are able to spend more time together and fall in love though there is a tacit understanding between them that their relationship can not be expressed.
15 years later when Zoe is 40 she reflects back on how her marriage has changed her to an insecure and unhappy woman. She no longer feels passionately in love with Stephen and feels that their relationship exists on the basis of him criticizing her. Meanwhile, Russell's wife Lily falls into a depression after her twin daughters win ballet scholarships to study in London. After talking to Zoe, Lily decides that they should sell their business and she should return to academia, the career she wanted to pursue before she had children. They decide to announce the news at Lily's birthday party, however on the day of the party Zoe receives a suicide note from Anna saying that she and Russell are in love and she can no longer bear to live without him.
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