Review: Utopian Man by Lisa Lang
Jack Nicholls
October 26
When I was in high school I loved studying history. All history, that is, except our own. At the time, I thought it was because Australian history was boring. Looking back, I can see that it wasn’t the subject that was at fault, but the way it was taught to me. Political compromises over the curriculum had stripped away all the stories in our history, leaving nothing but an endless succession of faceless men. ‘The Native Inhabitants’, ‘The First Fleet’, ‘The Gold-Diggers’, ‘The Anzacs’. I felt like I had nothing in common with any of those people.
What a pleasure, ten years on, to find Utopian Man. Lisa Lang’s Vogel Award-winning novel takes Melbourne’s history and brings it to vibrant life. It tells a story; and by doing so, it sparked my interest in local history at last.
The titular utopian is Edward William Cole, who is best known today as the author of Cole’s Funny Picture Books. Cole was the proprietor of Cole’s Book Arcade, which was a Melbourne institution from 1883 to 1929. Much more than just a book store and lending library, the Bourke Street arcade sported a brass band, a Chinese tea salon, a museum of novelties, a potted fern garden and even a monkey enclosure. It was, as Lang’s novel says, ‘a place of wonder, of generosity, and small revelations’.
Utopian Man follows Cole’s domestic and professional life from the opening of his arcade until his death in 1918. Lang has told this story once already in her short biographical study, E. W. Cole: Chasing the Rainbow (Arcade Publications, 2007); but Cole is such a fascinating character that it is hard to begrudge her a second tilt. The fictionalised Cole is as sympathetic and inspiring a protagonist as any I have encountered this year. He is a businessman and a bibliophile, a loving family man, and even something of a philosopher – quixotically producing pamphlets on racial equality during the White Australia years. At times, Lang’s depiction borders on cloyingly sentimental, as when the idealistic Cole vows that no employee will be fired during an economic depression, but she always manages to keep the character grounded in believability.
A word of warning: the advertising for Utopian Man is slightly misleading. In its description of corruption, unscrupulous widows and a tough night in Chinatown, the blurb makes the book sound like a Raymond Chandler thriller. In fact, the novel has no antagonist and little conflict; and when the obligatory Dark Secret is revealed it turns out to be more of a pale beige. Instead, Utopian Man is about the power of kindness and ideas to make a better world.
Utopian Man is a first novel, and occasionally reads like one. It skips from year to year a little too quickly, its secondary characters are only skin-deep, and the period language does not always ring true. Nonetheless, I would challenge anybody to read this novel and not feel a little uplifted by it. By the end of the book I felt prouder of my city and happier about the world. And that’s a nice thing to be.
Image from Cole’s Funny Picture Books
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Comments
26 Oct 10 at 0:36
“Looking back, I can see that it wasn’t the subject that was at fault, but the way it was taught to me. Political compromises over the curriculum had stripped away all the stories in our history, leaving nothing but an endless succession of faceless men.”
I can totally identify with this. Might have to pick this one up to have a second go at learning a bit about my own country’s history. Thanks for the review, Jack.
...26 Oct 10 at 16:39
I agree with that first sentence but Australian history still bores me to tears. I had to read Follow The Rabbit Proof Fence and I couldn’t believe something so short could be so dull. However, I think I may look into this one. I will look out for it and possibly read it! :) Thanks!
...27 Oct 10 at 12:35
Great review Jack. Having read ‘Utopian Man’ I totally agree – it’s a really uplifting novel. So very rare. And yes, it makes Australian history – the 1890s, federation – fascinating. Definitely worth reading.
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