Patrick White, The Eye of the Storm

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Patrick White’s ninth novel,

The Eye of the Storm

(1973), is a comprehensive and far-reaching exploration of the nature of human existence throughout time and space. The narrative of this highly complex multi-consciousness novel involves many different characters, various times and several locations. The time span of the unfurling present is only a couple of weeks, possibly a month or two, but through many different points of view this allows for numerous retrospective passages, some of which go seventy to eighty years back in time. Also the settings move from one place to another, sometimes different continents. The main concerns are family relationships, time, old age, death, love and God, as well as a great many other existential issues.

White’s obsession with time is noticeable in

2439 words

Citation: Berg, Mari-Ann. "The Eye of the Storm". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 24 June 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=942, accessed 19 March 2024.]

942 The Eye of the Storm 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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