The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea: Popular Penguins

by Randolph Stow

Book Overview

In 1941, Rob Coram is six. The war feels far removed from his world of aunties and cousins and the beautiful, dry landscape of Geraldton in Western Australia. But when his favourite, older cousin,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 014320274X
• Release Date: January 2009
• Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 0.49 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.1" x 1.0" x 4.4"

Customer Reviews

Brilliant poignance.

What a beautiful book. I was utterly enraptured by it's poignant simplicity and clarity. It paints a vivid portrait of a child living in rural Western Australia during WWII. Randolph Stow conjures beautiful images of the Australian landscape and family life. The issues of childhood are dealt with sensitively but they are not trite or overdone. The style is different but in some ways it put me in mind of the writing of Hemmingway. The writing is so clear and beautiful with no overly flowery language or sentimental passages. A stunning book. I was absolutely enthralled by it.

Time, change, loss and illusion

This is the story of a young boy, Rob, growing up in Western Australia during and after World War II, and his cousin Rick, who returns from fighting the Japanese to discover his experiences have placed a wedge between himself and his family.I first read this book in high school, as required reading. Unlike most other books we studied, this one made a powerful impression. Years later I still recalled the feelings it evoked, of loss and inability to reach those you loved. Recently I hunted it down and bought my own copy. It was just as I'd remembered it. Stow captured masterfully the atmosphere of growing up in a particular place and time (the book is semi-autobiographical), and especially the interconnections of family that define the boy's world. Set against that is the unbreachable gulf that Rick's wartime experience sets between him and the rest of his family. The book explores the tension between a society in which people were defined as an intersection of overlapping relationships, and a new sense of the individual alone; a tension seen through the eyes of a child trying to be loyal to both.There's a timelessness to much of the book, just as a child's understanding is timeless. A moving and very human account of growing up.