{"product_id":"2026200015101-secondhand-such-is-life","title":"Such Is Life","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBook: Good\u003cbr\u003eJacket: No dust jacket\u003cbr\u003ePages: Good\u003cbr\u003eCondition remarks: Condition as shown in image\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFew novels capture the raw, sunburned soul of colonial Australia with the irreverent wit and sprawling ambition of Such Is Life — a work so embedded in the national consciousness that its closing words became the legendary last utterance of bushranger Ned Kelly. Written under the pen name Tom Collins by Joseph Furphy, the novel presents a deceptively rambling chronicle of life among bullock drivers and itinerant workers in the Riverina district of New South Wales and Victoria during the 1880s, narrated by the self-important selector and part-time philosopher Tom Collins, whose unreliable observations reveal far more than he intends.\n\nBeneath its larrikin humour and digressive structure lies a work of startling sophistication — a self-conscious literary experiment that anticipates modernist narrative technique decades before its time. Furphy constructs a rich tapestry of bush mythology, class struggle, and democratic idealism, arguing passionately for an authentically Australian literary voice free from the genteel conventions of its British forebears. Published in 1903, the novel was famously described by its author as being temper democratic, bias offensively Australian, and its influence on the Australian literary tradition remains immeasurable. Readers who surrender to its unhurried rhythms will find themselves rewarded with one of the most audacious, funny, and quietly devastating portraits of a nation finding its identity.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49203189055707,"sku":"2026200015101-SECONDHAND","price":12.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/902b633a-784e-436e-9322-8e0cd265bfee.png?v=1788145343","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026200015101-secondhand-such-is-life","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}