Greek-Australian author Andrew Pippos spent much of his childhood in his family’s cafe and grew up to work as a newsroom journalist. These experiences undoubtedly informed his critically-acclaimed debut, Lucky’s, and are equally present in his latest book, The Transformations.
George Desoulis is a solitary man. Mid-thirties, lives alone, keeps to himself. He’s a decent guy who works hard in the newsroom despite the imminent demise of print media. A specific set of childhood traumas (which are neither milked nor minimised by the author) necessitate a safety net of self-imposed distance between this sympathetic protagonist and the wider world he inhabits.
The Transformations – quick links
The Transformations: a humane and surprising portrayal of passivity
His habitual passivity is justifiably motivated and the cumulative result of his conflict avoidance is a peaceful, albeit existentially limited, life. George has a daughter he didn’t raise, a co-parent he never married, and a job in a dying industry but he is – more or less – content.
George’s main source of connection comes via his role as subeditor for the fictitious newspaper The National. The bustle of the newsroom provides a sense of belonging mitigated by requisite levels of professional – and by extension, personal – distance.
The first thing you learn about the newsroom is that connections between colleagues are inevitable but this is not the case for George, at least, not historically. However, when he and his colleague Cassandra start spending time together, their intimacy extends beyond the physical, blurring the carefully-cultivated boundary between George and his external world.
Cassandra is a journalist. Like George, she is level-headed, ethical and practical. Her open marriage to Nico is unconventional but mutually satisfactory, aligned with providing a stable family home for their two young children. George and Nico are respectfully aware of one another’s presence. For a while, all seems well, despite (or because of?) the impossibility of further growth within George-and-Cassandra’s relationship.
George’s semi-estranged teenage daughter is actively seeking a closer relationship with the father who, until now, has performed fatherhood to the limited extent dictated by the girl’s maternal family. As George absorbs these new complexities, his psyche must elasticise, adjust and expand to encompass a broader experiential palette.
Change, not conflict, drives Pippos’ novel
The Transformations by Andrew Pippos is released 28 October.
In line with the thematic core of this book, things change. And through these transformations, new incarnations are realised. Old modes and dynamics are irrevocably altered as situations and people cease to exist in terms of their previous forms and functions.
The inner worlds of the protagonists are as important as the plot, which is expressed through third person forays into the minds of George, Cassandra and, to a lesser extent, peripheral characters. These tangents are interconnected rather than extraneous, significantly adding to the richness of the story. An array of realistically-rendered moments reveal echoes of societal, familial and emotional metamorphosis; insightful, resonant, and uncontrived.
Despite its multi-perspective overview and overarching themes of change, the carefully-crafted narrative maintains cohesive stability. Pippos uses mundanity to anchor the reader in George’s bustling workplace and book-strewn apartment with a relative peace. That might seem antithetical to producing the necessary conflict of a novel but in art as in life, conflict is ever-present. Passivity necessarily mutes the volume, colour, and depth of a life’s potential, which poses a conflict in and of itself.
Grounded in reality, this novel is neither larger than life, nor zoomed in on abstract minutiae. There is comfort to be found in the proportionally-framed everydayness of Pippos’ unpretentious prose.
The Transformations examines the true cost of perceived peace through exploring integrity, commitment, connection and fidelity. This enthralling coming-of-(middle)-age story is a contemplation of change; replete in simplicity, complexity and contradictory constancy.
The Transformations by Andrew Pippos is released by Picador Australia on 28 October.
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