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The Pillars
The Pillars | Peter Polites
8 posts | 3 read | 3 to read
Don't worry about the housing bubble, she would say. Don't worry about the fact that you will never be able to afford a home. Worry about the day after. That's when they will all come, with their black shirts and bayonets, and then you will see the drowned bodies and slit necks. And I would stand there and say, But Mum, why are you telling me this when I'm ten years old. Working as a writer hasn't granted Pano the financial success he once imagined, but lobbying against a mosque being built across the road from his home (and the occasional meth-fuelled orgy) helps to pass the time. He's also found himself a gig ghostwriting for a wealthy property developer. The pay cheque alone is enough for him to turn a blind eye to some dodgy dealings - at least for the time being. In a world full of flashy consumerism and aspiration, can Pano really escape his lot in life? And does he really want to? A novel of dark desires and moral gray areas, The Pillars is an extraordinary new novel from one of Australia's most exciting contemporary voices. Praise for Down the Hume: 'Down the Hume [is] essential reading in these times of "border protection"' - The Saturday Paper 'Down the Hume's propulsive rhythm feels like entering a strong current. Its fast pace and escalating plot are typical of the noir genre, but it is also filled with unexpected and precise turns of phrase, which can shift quickly from the menial to the lyrical.' - The Guardian 'Down the Hume should rightly take its place alongside the fiction of Christos Tsiolkas [and] Maxine Beneba Clarke... as work that reflects the reality and occasional ugliness of Australia's multiculturalism.' - Australian Book Review 'Down the Hume is a robust study of ethnic, class and sexual identities in contemporary Australia.'- The Weekend Australian
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quote
mspixieears
The Pillars | Peter Polites

(85 cont.)
My grandchildrenz don‘t know how work is, they lazy with Walkmanz and Michael Jacksonz, they no even know how to use knife to stab a soldierz neck.

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mspixieears
The Pillars | Peter Polites

(85) The show was a series of skits and monologues. One man dressed up as an old Greek yia yia. Seeing a man wearing a bouffant wig and dressed in a black dress and fringed shawl was enough to make people laugh even before he spoke. When he did speak in the voice of the yia yia he dropped the register of his voice and frayed the edges of his sentences. In a gruff war-worn voice he said things that a Greek grandmother would say, like: (tbc!)

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mspixieears
The Pillars | Peter Polites

(73) People that express emotions while reading the news are a distinct breed. Kane liked to complain. His whingeing was a weapon. When he‘d told me about being raised by a single mother, how poor they were and all the sacrifices she‘d made, it was a whinge - that he was at a disadvantage compared to others.

quote
mspixieears
The Pillars | Peter Polites

(51) Throughout the night, the young man displayed his three different sexual personae in order of most socially acceptable to least. He had gone from Latino to Phoenician to Muslim and our evening had gone from pre-orgy to story time to chase scene.

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mspixieears
The Pillars | Peter Polites

(i say this as a yellow-brown person…

…major Asian mother energy 😭😭😭)

(37) A clean house empty of people is one of the great pleasures of life. It ranks up there with having only positive memories of your mother…

review
thereflectiveflaneur
The Pillars | Peter Polites
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Panpan

Banal, boring and predicable like the lives of the characters. Two dimensional setups, dialogue that lacks any sense of reality or urgency and descriptions that are the literary equivalent of product placement in films. I am really dying to read a great Australian novel that delves into gay themes etc but does not get hijacked by them.

blurb
Abailliekaras
The Pillars | Peter Polites
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New episode of Book on the Go up now! 🎧 Amanda & I discuss their shock Booker Prize announcement: joint winners, We have thoughts! 😡
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Our book of the week is The Pillars. It's a fast-paced story of Panos, a gay man living in Western Sydney, Basil the property developer, a mosque development, gym junkies and narcissm. Fans of Christian Tsiolkas will love it. 😉
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What did you think of the Booker news? Will you be reading the winners?

43 likes2 stack adds
review
Abailliekaras
The Pillars | Peter Polites
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Mehso-so

Pano lives in a new suburb, helps his flatmate protest against a mosque being built & ghost writes a memoir for his friend Basil, a property developer & show-pony. I liked the honesty & seeing a different side of Sydney. But the tone is cynical & Pano unlikeable: his fixation on sex & appearances - toned bodies, designer clothes - wears thin. It‘s a comment on narcissism but characters so shallow you don‘t get to know them, so it‘s hard to care.