Lovesong

Back to reading for the Aussie Author Challenge, I read Alex Miller's Lovesong this week. I raced through it. It was satisfying. It wasn't drama-filled; it was just a story about life and love. Winner of 2010 Age Book of the Year, it was a lovely piece of writing.

I have no criticisms, but I'm not gushing about it either. I really don't know what to say, except that it has left me feeling calm and reflective, and I slept really well after I finished it last night!
   It did raise a couple of questions about the narrator, Ken, who is a novelist himself. He listens to the story of John and Sabiha Patterner, and decides he is going to write a novel about their story. However, at the end, John says he is writing the story himself. Ken is jealous, and doesn't believe John will write it well or complete it. He gets a bit competitive, and it raised a moral question for me - should a writer write someone else's story without their permission? If a writer writes a friend's story without their permission, will the friendship last? At what point does a story become historical fiction - do all the main characters have to be dead?