Product Description

These two classic tales of identity and exile by the award winning author George Johnston focus on David, a successful war correspondent and journalist, as he attempts to find his place in the world. In Clean Straw for Nothing David abandons his career to live on a Greek island with his beautiful wife Cressida. A Cartload of Clay follows him back to Australia where he re-discovers his deep affection for his native land.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2456895 in Books
• Published on: 2002-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 432 pages

About the Author
George Johnston was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1912. At the age of 16 his career as a journalist was launched and by the time WW11 broke out he was firmly established. He became Australia's first official war correspondent and wrote for TIME magazine. He married accomplished author Charmian Clift. Along with their two children they were later to settle in Greece where he began writing full-time.

Customer Reviews

Desolation and disenchantment miles from home.
George Johnston published a number of novels, many of them "pulpy" in nature to earn a living, before he turned the subject of his writing to something closer to home: his own life. And in doing so, he not only gained incredible fame and adoration, but also reserved himself a place in Australia's Literature canon. The strength of George's writing lies partly in the attention to detail and his beautiful evocation of parts local and foreign (local: Melbourne, foreign: Hydra, Greece) but it is marked also by the honestly which pervades all his work. "Clean Straw for Nothing", I believe, is his masterpiece - an intensely personal exploration of ex-patriation, poverty, the nature of success, illness and sexual jealousy. All these conflicting emotions are heartbreakingly rendered such as few Australian writers have ever dared to do, let alone so well. His alter-ego, David Meredith, speaks volumes in the way he conducts his life, about the journey of life and career, and the extent we can push ourselves in one direction which may not necessarily be the best for us. David, like Johnston himself, is driven, passionate and yearning, but also flawed in his insecurity, stubborness and self-centredness. Nevertheless, Meredith is indelible and moving because of this.
I read "Clean Straw for Nothing" when I was twenty-one, and credit it with changing so much about life and my attitude towards it. This is a neglected classic, deserving to be better recognised. In my eyes, Johnston was leagues ahead of his contemporaries.

George Johnston's Two of a Trilogy
This author is really worth reading for his exceptionally communicative passages in not only these two stories, but also My Brother Jack - the first of the Trilogy.