Young first novelist Malone offers an intriguing tale of Irish characters in the turn-of-the-century goldmining town of Reedy Creek - a fable-like tale which is highly imaginative with almost magical overtones. When fiddler George Clancy Tynan marries he is just four feet, ten inches tall. His life is soon changed, however, when he turns into a giant, mysteriously growing 22 inches overnight! Years later, his granddaughter Kitty tells us the story of her town and her family as she seeks out the truth about her grandfather, and we learn of Kitty's own mysterious end. Malone's writing is often quite lyrical - to the point that I found myself re-reading paragraphs for the sheer beauty of her prose. That having been said, she recounts her tale in a `jump/cut' style which makes the narrative difficult to follow or to lose oneself within. Countless readers adored Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient, but I found it tedious and difficult as various characters shared the narrative voice and chapters regularly jumped in time and place. Lucia's Measure adopts this same style which is just not `me', though other advance readers have revelled in Malone's magic. Watchers of emerging Australian literary talent should read Lucia's Measure and decide for themselves.

Scott Whitmont is the owner of Lindfield Bookshop, NSW. 

C. 2000 Thorpe-Bowker and contributors

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