Trying to build on Dickens

Press, 8 January 1983, Page 14

Trying to build on Dickens

Magwitch. By Michael Noonan. Hodder and Stoughton, 1982. 222 pp. $23.95. i (Reviewed by Margaret Quigley) The opening chapters of Dickens’ "Great Expectations” stay long in the memory of anyone who reads them. The terrifying appearance of Abel Magwitch, the escaped convict, looming out of the Thames’ mists, makes a dramatic and unforgettable impact. It is this Magwitch whose name has been taken as the title for Michael Noonan’s new novel. Noonan, who spent his early years in New Zealand, has since lived mainly in Australia and the early history of the New South Wales settlement provides the background for his book. Readers of “Great Expectations” will remember that Magwitch was recaptured and transported to New South Wales where he amassed a huge fortune that enabled him to transform Pip, the terrified little boy who helped him. into Philip Pirrip, the London gentleman. Dickens gave no details of how the fortune was made and Michael Noonan has decided to fill the gaps in the story. He sends Pip, now even more of a cardboard figure than he was in Dickens’ hands, to Australia to discover how

Magwitch made his fortune and to investigate a rumour that another fortune, as large as the one confiscated by the State, had been hidden by Magwitch before his death. Pip’s arrival in Sydney precipitates a number of dramatic events and uncovers unusual characters and odd coincidences. Noonan has clearly researched the conditions of old Sydney Town thoroughly and the background details are convincing and vivid enough. It must have seemed a good idea — that of building on a masterpiece, so that a firm foundation was already laid for the novel and the author had only to fill in the gaps in a reasonable way. The obvious drawback is that it invites comparison with the original. Few writers could compete with Dickens’ exuberance and creativity and Michael Noonan is not one of the few. Devotees of Dickens will be enraged at the lifeless puppets to. which some famous characters are reduced. The author’s characterisation is much better .when he starts, from scratch. Those unconcerned with Dickens will probably find “Magwitch” a lively historical read, full of melodramatic and improbable incidents, tied neatly together at the end.