On a promontory on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin, an equisite glass building houses an equally exquisite resautrant. The city's elite come to dine there, to eat the culinary marvels created by Flora, the city's most celebrated chef. Nearby, in a ferry shelter which no ferry has ever visited, an eldery homeless man drinks cask wine and befriends a young drug addict. They are not part of the life inside the restaurant, until the man's heroic actions draw them in.

As the novel focusses on food, so the story itself is like fine dining - served in differing forms, brought out layer by layer, to be savoured, explored and slowly digested. And like a good meal, the book leaves an aftertaste which lingers long after it is finished.

The art of the point is in its mix of narrative technique. Part diary, part third person recount. First one viewpoint, then another, the novel keeps the reader guessing from chapter to chapter. Flora, the charcater who would seem to be central to the varying plots and subplots is perhaps the one we come to know least. Other characters, chiefly her lover, Jerome, an ex-priest and the homeless Clovis are looked at from differing perspectives and seen to evolve. Flora is an enigma. The other characters all worship her, but few seem to know her very well.

The Point will be a special treat for those who love fine food, with meals playing an important part of the action, and also those who love Canberra - although The Point itself is a fictional place.

Fine reading.

The Point, by Marion Halligan
Allen & Unwin, 2003

Other Fine Reading

A Child's True Book of Crime, by Chloe Hooper
Attempts to Draw Jesus, by Stephen Orr
Eating Out, by Natalie scott