Oceana Fine

1990 novel by Tom Flood

0-04-910111-0OCLC21834255

Dewey Decimal

823 20LC ClassPR9619.3.F535 O27 1989

Oceana Fine is a 1990 Miles Franklin Award-winning novel by Australian author Tom Flood.^[1]

Synopsis

Finn Taylor is a university student who goes to work on a Western Australian wheat silo during his summer holidays. Beneath the land lie unused mine shafts, and above, the wheat silos. This novel is part mystery, part psychological thriller and part fantasy as it follows the rises and falls of a faming family.

Awards

Australian/Vogel Literary Award, 1988
Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Fiction, 1990
Miles Franklin Literary Award, 1990^[2]

Critical reception

Marian Eldridge in The Canberra Times notes that the novel "takes on the soaring characteristics of magic realism as Flood seeks to create myth through evocation of landscape, family histories, legend ("wheat babies", what a lovely addition to our folklore), and through memory. There is a youthful sexual encounter that, upon its retelling - or reliving - or beginning afresh - has subtly changed as the narrator has changed. Time rolls forward, then, like a change of wind across a wheatfield, rolls back again."^[3]

References

^ "Austlit - Oceana Fine". Austlit. Retrieved 9 July 2023.
^ ""Second major prize for book"". The Canberra Times, 22 June 1990, p16. Retrieved 9 July 2023.
^ ""Few faltering notes from Goldsworthy"". The Canberra Times, 25 November 1989, p4. Retrieved 9 July 2023.

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Miles Franklin Award

1957–1959

Voss by Patrick White (1957)
To the Islands by Randolph Stow (1958)
The Big Fellow by Vance Palmer (1959)

1960–1969

The Irishman by Elizabeth O'Conner (1960)
Riders in the Chariot by Patrick White (1961)
The Well Dressed Explorer by Thea Astley (1962)
The Cupboard Under the Stairs by George Turner (1962)
Careful, He Might Hear You by Sumner Locke Elliott (1963)
My Brother Jack by George Johnston (1964)
The Slow Natives by Thea Astley (1965)
Trap by Peter Mathers (1966)
Bring Larks and Heroes by Thomas Keneally (1967)
Three Cheers for the Paraclete by Thomas Keneally (1968)
Clean Straw for Nothing by George Johnston (1969)

1970–1979

A Horse of Air by Dal Stivens (1970)
The Unknown Industrial Prisoner by David Ireland (1971)
The Acolyte by Thea Astley (1972)
No award (1973)
The Mango Tree by Ronald McKie (1974)
Poor Fellow My Country by Xavier Herbert (1976)
The Glass Canoe by David Ireland (1977)
Swords and Crowns and Rings by Ruth Park (1978)
A Woman of the Future by David Ireland (1979)

1980–1989

The Impersonators by Jessica Anderson (1980)
Bliss by Peter Carey (1981)
Just Relations by Rodney Hall (1982)
No award (1983)
Shallows by Tim Winton (1984)
The Doubleman by Christopher Koch (1985)
The Well by Elizabeth Jolley (1986)
Dancing on Coral by Glenda Adams (1987)
No award (1988)
Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey (1989)

1990–1999

Oceana Fine by Tom Flood (1990)
The Great World by David Malouf (1991)
Cloudstreet by Tim Winton (1992)
The Ancestor Game by Alex Miller (1993)
The Grisly Wife by Rodney Hall (1994)
The Hand That Signed the Paper by Helen Darville (1995)
Highways to a War by Christopher Koch (1996)
The Glade Within the Grove by David Foster (1997)
Jack Maggs by Peter Carey (1998)
Eucalyptus by Murray Bail (1999)

2000–2009

Drylands by Thea Astley (2000)
Benang by Kim Scott (2000)
Dark Palace by Frank Moorhouse (2001)
Dirt Music by Tim Winton (2002)
Journey to the Stone Country by Alex Miller (2003)
The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard (2004)
The White Earth by Andrew McGahan (2005)
The Ballad of Desmond Kale by Roger McDonald (2006)
Carpentaria by Alexis Wright (2007)
The Time We Have Taken by Steven Carroll (2008)
Breath by Tim Winton (2009)

2010–2019

Truth by Peter Temple (2010)
That Deadman Dance by Kim Scott (2011)
All That I Am by Anna Funder (2012)
Questions of Travel by Michelle de Kretser (2013)
All the Birds, Singing by Evie Wyld (2014)
The Eye of the Sheep by Sofie Laguna (2015)
Black Rock White City by A. S. Patrić (2016)
Extinctions by Josephine Wilson (2017)
The Life to Come by Michelle de Kretser (2018)
Too Much Lip by Melissa Lucashenko (2019)

2020–present

The Yield by Tara June Winch (2020)
The Labyrinth by Amanda Lohrey (2021)
Bodies of Light by Jennifer Down (2022)
Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens by Shankari Chandran (2023)

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