InInfinite Splendours it becomes a question of whether as he develops his own unique relationship with the world,Lawrence will repeat the pattern of behaviour familiar from the news:the victim as the abuser.
There have been plenty of novels about grooming and abuse ranging from,arguably,Samuel Richardson’sPamela to Nabokov’sLolita,to the more recentA Little Life by Hanya Yanigahara and Sofka Zinovieff’sPutney. But I wondered whether being in Lawrence’s head and dealing with his experiences had been difficult for Laguna.
“Absolutely the opposite. Yes,there are difficult moments ... but no,writing Lawrence is a pleasure and a thrill. He provided me,as strange as it sounds,with the right kind of companionship:I loved his company. And I loved the questions he asked of the universe,of life. Loved his feel for the unanswerable and for life’s beauty.”
But the subject? She’d sound like a better person if she said it was tricky,she says,but as an intuitive writer she goes where there’s energy,desire,joy and ... trouble. “It’s like a closed door when there are noises going on behind it. That’s no great analogy because I would run past that door,but as a writer I don’t.
“My characters break my heart completely. Even though it’s not difficult for me to write about,the human being I am knows it’s the worst thing in the world that happens,but the writer I am,with stories,that’s a different case.”
She points out that Lawrence in his adult life is seeking something that can only be found through the 10-year-old boy he once was,“as he articulates,wholeness”.
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When Laguna has discussed her work on previous occasions she has said she always liked to give some hope to her characters. I wondered whether she had inInfinite Splendours. “If I’m OK with it,” she says,“being as protective as I am,I suspect so.” That’s the feedback she’s been getting from early readers,as well. “That was said to me aboutOne Foot Wrong. There’s a kind of catharsis there and I suspect that catharsis is here,too.”
Mount Wallis,which becomes such an important touchstone for Lawrence,is based on Mount Sturgeon in the Grampians. Laguna’s research for the novel consisted of looking at a lot of paintings – in the acknowledgments she thanks everyone from Rembrandt to Goya and Constable – and tramping the mountains.
“That was euphoric. They are absolutely breathtaking. I’m not from Victoria so I didn’t grow up with them. I literally found my location,drove there and my jaw dropped. Staggeringly beautiful,silent,jutting out of the landscape.”
She is from Sydney but when she was 11 the family moved to a farm near Bundanoon in the southern highlands of New South Wales (where another Miles Franklin winner,David Foster,once worked as a postman). Her father bred Jersey cattle and Laguna had the knack for milking. Her favourite was Lady,a gentle creature with a soft tan coat. InInfinite Splendours,Lawrence is taught by his uncle to milk Gert,the family’s cow.
The first reader ofInfinite Splendours was Laguna’s mother,Madeleine. When she gets to the end of the first draft,she says she is in buoyant mood.
“Then I decide the whole thing is bad,dreadful and there’s only one thing for it:give it to my mother.” She handed over a plastic bag of A4 paper with pages out of order and scribbles all over them. The response? “Strong. And I promise you I’m not exaggerating the state it was in. You couldn’t do that with anyone but your mum.”
Now she’s only worried about how everyone else will respond.
Infinite Splendours is published by Allen&Unwin at $32.99.