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The Glass Canoe
Series: Classic Australian Works
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Format: Paperback / softback
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See moreThe Glass Canoe (1976) is the pub where the male workers aggressively shelter from their wives, their lives and their work. It is both a graphic illustration of the alienation of labour under modern industrial capitalism and an insight into the suburbs that surround Australian cities. It's funny; it's tragic; it's real.
Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and
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Description
The Glass Canoe
The Glass Canoe by David Ireland is a classic work of Australian literature. It centres around the pub—a refuge where male workers aggressively shelter from their wives, their work, and their everyday lives. This 1976 novel offers a graphic illustration of the alienation of labour under modern industrial capitalism, providing insights into the suburbs surrounding Australian cities. It's funny, tragic, and real.
David Ireland was born in Lakemba, NSW, in 1927. After finishing school, he spent much of his working life in an oil refinery. His first novel, The Chantic Bird, was published in 1968. Throughout his career, David has received numerous accolades, including being made AO in 1981 and awarded the Gold Medal of the Australian Literature Society in 1985.
He is also a recipient of the Miles Franklin Literary Award for three of his novels: The Unknown Industrial Prisoner in 1971, The Glass Canoe in 1976, and A Woman of the Future in 1979.
Series: Classic Australian Works
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The Glass Canoe
The Glass Canoe The Glass Canoe by David Ireland is a classic work of Australian literature. It centres around the pub—a refuge where male workers aggressively shelter from their wives, their work, and their everyday lives. This 1976 novel offers a graphic illustration of the alienation of labour under modern industrial capitalism, providing insights into the suburbs surrounding Australian cities....PaperbackSold Out -
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Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781920897147
Publisher: Oxford University Press Australia
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 01 December 2003
Country: Australia
Imprint: Sydney University Press (OUP Australia and New Zea
Illustration: Illustrations
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Width: 148.0mm
Height: 210.0mm
Weight: 250g
Pages: 241
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A Woman Of The Future
A Woman of the Future, first published in 1979, was David Ireland's best-selling sixth novel and his third to win the Miles Franklin Award. An imaginative tour de force, it is the story of the young life of Anthea Hunt - from conception to sexual awakening. It is controversial and brilliant, and unlike anything else in Australian literature. Now published...Paperback$1799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
The Chantic Bird
The Chantic Bird is the confession of a teenage anarchist, who combines contempt for contemporary society with a great tenderness and warmth for his younger siblings and for Bee, the girl who looks after them. The first of David Ireland's masterful novels, The Chantic Bird contains the same characteristic indictment of the bovine mindlessness of collective humanity, and the home-owning...Paperback$1799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
The Glass Canoe
On hot days we jumped fully clothed into our bottomless beer glasses and pushed off from shore without a backward look. Heading for the deep, where it was calm and cool. Meat Man is a regular at the Southern Cross pub in Sydney. With his tribe, he sits and drinks and watches as life spirals around him. David Ireland's novel...Paperback$1799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
The Unknown Industrial Prisoner
On the shores of Botany Bay lies an oil refinery where workers are free to come and go, but they are also part of an unrelenting, alienating economy from which there is no escape. In the first of his three Miles Franklin Award-winning novels, originally published in 1971, David Ireland offers a fiercely brilliant comic portrait of Australia in the...Paperback$1799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
The Fifth Step
Nominated for Best New Play at the Critics' Circle Theatre Awards 2026 The point is to divest yourself of shame. Anything that'll make you pick up a drink in the future. It's about getting clean. After many years in the 12-step programme of Alcoholics Anonymous, James agrees to become the sponsor of newcomer Luka. On the journey to sobriety, the...Paperback$2499Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
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'Playwright David Ireland challenges people to draw lines between what they find funny and what they find outrageous' (Sydney Morning Herald). This first collection of plays by David Ireland brings together three of his most successful hits that have enjoyed numerous productions around the world, alongside two previously unpublished plays: Half a Glass of Water: 'The dialogue is brutal and...Paperback$4999Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
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"In my line of work, knowing when to obey fear and when to ignore it is often the difference between life and death." David Ireland has handfed bull sharks, filmed inside the jaws of a saltwater crocodile, looked into the black eyes of a great white shark, and felt the breath of a lion devouring a wildebeest. In working with...PaperbackSold Out
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