Andrew McGahan an author who defied labelling

A slender article in The Courier-Mail at the start of his career contained the essence of the writer, and the literary figure, that the late Andrew McGahan would become.

Andrew McGahan was Queensland-raised before moving to Melbourne.

TO AT LEAST partially understand the late great Queensland-born writer Andrew McGahan, it’s instructive to return to an inconsequential 12-paragraph newspaper article written about him in June 1992.

McGahan, 52, died last week of pancreatic cancer, and left behind an extraordinary body of work that included the novels The White Earth, an Australian classic that won the Miles Franklin literary award, his post-Fitzgerald inquiry drama Last Drinks, a series of young adult fiction books and, of course his debut novel, the pioneering Praise.

Qld author Andrew McGahan dies after battle with cancer

Andrew McGahan spends final weeks working on next novel

But it was that slender article in The Courier-Mail at the start of his career that contained the essence of the writer, and the literary figure, that he would become.

The story celebrates the publication of Praise, which the previous year had won the prestigious Vogel literary award.

That book features the hapless Gordon, having quit his job in a bottle shop, and details his tumultuous relationship with Cynthia, and their dance with sex and drugs, all set in dreary Brisbane.

Andrew McGahan was a pioneer of books set in Brisbane.

The influential Kirkus Review in the US described Praise as “a bold novel, distinct voice, and impressive debut”.

Yet in the 1992 article, McGahan, 25, seemed nonplussed about the fuss.

He explained to the reporter that he had been unemployed for nine months when he saw an advertisement for the Vogel prize, wrote the book in two months and submitted it because he had “nothing to lose”.

He was stunned to learn he had won the prize.

“He is the type to cringe at labels but his woven tote bag, held together with safety pins, and his quiet, fatalistic manner are nothing short of bohemian,” the article trilled.

It also said he had “quit his university arts course”.

The photograph of a young McGahan showed a raw intelligence, and a genuine sense that he was the real deal, and at the start of a significant journey.

This was classic pre-emptive McGahan, the ninth of 10 children who grew up on a wheat farm near Dalby on the Darling Downs.

He produced more novels, but, largely eschewed the limelight.

The “quiet, fatalistic manner” would evolve but remain.

And that intelligence grew and deepened and fathered string of works, all accomplished but so varied in style and preoccupation that it was impossible to categorise him.

As the journalist said: “He is the type to cringe at labels.”

There was no label for McGahan.

McGahan’s debut effort Praise attracted international attention.

Wonders of a Godless World was published in 2009.

He inspired a generation of his contemporaries and readers.

His thriller, Last Drinks, is to date the finest fictional account of the immediate post-Fitzgerald era, although the book’s power resides not just in its gripping story but in McGahan’s deep understanding of, and sensitivity to, the suffering of Queenslanders under decades of corrupt governance.

As for the rural gothic epic and Miles Franklin winner, The White Earth, set on the Darling Downs, McGahan examines the question of land, ownership, possession, and the land’s layers of indigenous history, some of it horrific.

It’s a great novel.

It’s also a book that is today as fresh and urgent in its concerns as when it was first published in 2004. Indeed, it may have grown in its power over the past decade and a half. McGahan told Qweekend magazine in 2006:

“With The White Earth I believe I did as good as I could do with that sort of style.

“After the award, it felt like I could try anything. I have a little bit of money in the bank now.

“But I have never been terrified of not having money; I’ve always had enough.

“As long as I had money for tobacco (he’s since given up smoking) and alcohol, everything was all right.”

In the end, he left Queensland behind and settled in Melbourne.

Yet, just as that little news story predicted, he evolved into a delicious dichotomy.

McGahan in 2005

McGahan in 2000 with Last Drinks

McGahan was at the forefront of his generation of writers, and yet he read very little, if any, of his contemporaries’ work.

As a writer, his work was sent into the public domain and some of his books were bestsellers, yet he had little interest in appearing at literary festivals and talking about his work, and especially about himself.

He said he had “nothing to say that would be of interest to anyone else”.

His publishers Allen & Unwin said in a statement following his death: “We are grieving the loss of an exceptionally talented writer, a loyal friend, and a most genuine, humble man, Andrew McGahan, who passed away on February 1 from pancreatic cancer.

“We feel very fortunate to be publishing posthumously Andrew’s final adult novel, The Rich Man’s House in September 2019, and his collection of short stories for children, Treasures of the Deep … in September 2020.”

It is the finest accolade to accord a writer to say that McGahan’s work will live on beyond us all.

It’s not true that you couldn’t label him. Through his career, some had called him “a writer’s writer”. But he was in fact the opposite.

Andrew McGahan was a reader’s writer.