A beautifully written book which deserves to be more widely read.
The Comfort of Figs is a fine story which links the dangers inherent in the building of Brisbane’s Story Bridge with present day violence and trauma. The relationship between Robbie, a young landscape gardener and his girlfriend Freya is put to the test in the aftermath of the kind of assault that occurs all too often in a modern city; he also has a fractured relationship with his father - who worked on the construction of the Story Bridge, the bridge that enabled Brisbane to grow from a country town into that city.
Visit ANZ LitLovers to see my review
http://anzlitlovers.wordpress.com/2010/05/02/the-comfort-of-figs-by-simon-cleary... ( )

I was disapointed with this book and I did not finish reading it. I found it to be pretentiously written and the characters unrelatable. The modern-day male character (Robbie) meets his Canadian girlfriend by hanging about outside the pool where she swims and after they are together, he mopes about in the kitchen, eavesdropping, while she and her friends chat in the lounge room.

Robbie plants trees randomly in locations in Brisbane and gives his girlfriend bits of trees (leaves, twigs, etc) as little tokens of his affection. The girlfriend is a student at the University of Queensland, but instead of just saying that, the author instead says that she "goes to the one surrounded by trees".

It feels as though the author is flogging the reader about the head with his metaphors -- a kick in the behind would be more subtle! ( )

I loved this book, and so did my bookgroup.

The novel centres around two relationaships with a immiture young man. The first is his fraught relationship with his father who built the bridge many years ago and the second his relationship with a young woman whom he struggles to love.

His father is expressed in the bridge, which the young man goes out of his way to aviod - he finds the bridge and all it symbolises to him - opressive. Alturnatively he finds solice in the the moreton bay figs which he plants with care and love everyday. At first he seems to be bouyed by his love for the young woman, but it is a false hope. He is obsessed with the past, and it consumes him as he slowly comes to some understanding of it.

The novel has a break from the present back to the past to a time when the bridge was being built and the people who were part of the fanfare of building it. This section of the novel is particularly engrossing, and the past becomes a place of colour and passions.

This lovely novel explores the characters with a light touch and has enticed me into the past, enjoy. ( )