Post-war Australia was a land of internecine wars of religion, between catholics and protestants, jews and anglicans, along with native Australians left on the side-lines to loose themselves in drink on the margins of the city. A long forgotten time in Australia’s history. In Patrick White’s tale, all main characters are outsiders, slowly decaying, as does the family estate “Xanadu” in which some of the story is set. In the end Xanadu is destroyed by the demolition crews, only to be replaced by the fibro-homes of suburbia. You would hope that this world would never exist again, but it is still uncomfortablly close to the surface of Australian society.