Review: The Time We Have Taken
Steven Carroll’s Novel Set in the Australian Suburbs
The third story in a trilogy, Steven Carroll's The Time We Have Taken describes the events in an unnamed Melbourne suburb during its centenary celebrations in 1970.
Shortlisted for the 2008 Miles Franklin Literary Award, Steven Carroll’s The Time We Have Taken (Harper Collins, 2007) follows on from The Art of the Engine Driver and The Gift of Speed (each respectively shortlisted in 2002 and 2005).
Plot Overview of The Time We Have Taken
The story opens in January 1970 when Peter van Rijn, proprietor of a television and wireless shop, has the fanciful idea of celebrating the suburb’s centenary – one hundred years of progress since the first general store was established marking a change from rural to suburban life. A committee is established to co-ordinate the events of the year, culminating in the unveiling of a mural commissioned to the enigmatic young artist, Mulligan.
As with the previous books in the series, the story revolves around Rita, her husband Vic and their son Michael. Vic and Michael have both left Rita and the suburb behind. Rita is employed in keeping house for the wealthy widow, Mrs Webster. When not running her husband’s factory, Mrs Webster is preoccupied with discovering the truth about his death in a car accident ten years earlier. Alcoholic Vic has moved north to a seaside town to live out his last days playing golf, drinking and reminiscing about his youth. Michael is studying and living in the city, although he still returns to the suburb to teach English at the local high school.
Of the three, Michael’s story is the most active, following his first experience of love with the non-committal young nurse Madeleine. He is desperate to remove himself from the suburb, but his innocence doesn’t really fit in with the permissiveness of city life in the new decade.
Themes and Preoccupations in The Time We Have Taken
Memory is a central theme to The Time We Have Taken. Vic spends his time of solitude up north reminiscing about the past – his youth, his working years and his marriage. There is no regret about where his life has ended up. Michael too has no regret about leaving his mother and the suburb, but his memories are not so pleasant. The stability of the family house, so attractive to Rita who finds refuge there, is stifling to Michael. He remembers only the bad parts of his childhood – particularly his parents fighting.
The Time We Have Taken also examines the idea of progress and how quickly it moves. Webster’s factory, once a wonder of engineering is now outdated and its paraphernalia is suitable only for a museum. The people of the suburb are bemused by the changes that are occurring in the world outside their boundaries. They see Michael as a symbol of the liberated attitudes of the youth; however he is quite old-fashioned when compared with his flatmates Bunny Rabbit and Pussy Cat who represent the sexual revolution of the 1970s and the artist Mulligan, who represents the changes in ideology.
1970s Australian Suburban Life
The Time We Have Taken captures the slow pace of suburban life in 1970, the people’s half-fantasised knowledge of each other and the secrets hidden behind closed doors. Although it is the third book in the series, it works just as well as a stand alone read. In addition to its Miles Franklin Literary Award nomination, it has won the 2008 Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book in the South-East Asia and South Pacific Region.
