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(Canberra Times 10 October 1957, p.l). Formany years the Australian public was notinformed about the purposes or the effects of thetests and to this day the aim of some of themhas not been revealed.The secretive, confused world of the Britishatomic tests in Australia in the late 1950s is thesetting for Dorothy Johnston's new novel,Maraiinga, My Love. The book's prefatory notetells us that for the entire decade between 1953and 1963 the British tested weapons in remoteparts of Australia, exploding bombs rangingfrom one kiloton to twenty-five kilotons (thelargest being bigger than the Hiroshima bomb),above the ground in one of the driest, dustiestplaces on earth.Echoing the title of Alain Resnais' andMarguerite Duras' 1959 film, Hiroshima, MonAmour, Maraiinga, My Love is a curious novelwhich explores the problematic and destructiverelationships among men and women and theirpost-war world. (And it too might make anevocative and disturbing film.) On a firstreading, it seems a sparse, understated novel, aseries of somewhat disconnected scenes whichaccumulate to form an incomplete picture of theevents surrounding the biggest tests in 1956-7.The effect is at times slightly confusing for thereader as the narrative slips across charactersand events which never quite add up in Realistterms. But this is in fact a superbly effectivemethod of portraying the acute passivity andconfusion which seems to have afflictedAustralian society at this time. And the text'sapparent bareness and use of non sequitor reveala richness and complexity which are at onceaesthetically satisfying and politicallystimulating.The novel is centred around GrahamFalconer, a young Australian soldier sent towork on the test site, and explores his gradualdiscovery of the meanings of the tests for hiscountry and for himself. The tests had somedisastrous effects upon the land and itsinhabitants and these are revealed in the courseof the novel: the outback is penetrated by whitemen more quickly than it would otherwise havebeen and this leads to disease and destructionfor many aboriginal people and theirenvironment. In tum, many of the whites whoinvade the interior will die from cancer and otherradiation-linked diseases. Some, like Grahamand his boss, the scientist Charlie Hamilton, tryto contain the excesses of the tests and to clearWESTERLY, No.2, JUNE, 1989up afterwards only to realise that they have beenunwitting collaborators.Graham works at Maralinga in 1956-7 andmost of the narrative is located there, amongstthe men preparing the sites for the tests andmonitoring them afterwards. Other sections ofthe book deal with Graham's later education asa scientist, his journey to England and hiscomplex and diffident relationships with othermen, his wife, Deborah, and his family. Heuncovers shocking evidence of the secret use ofcobalt 60 and plutonium in the bombs, much ofwhich was simply left, contaminating the land;shrouded in secrecy by the British and Menzies'minions, whose refusal to admit the precisenature of the tests makes it necessary to denytheir dangerous effects as well.What is particularly striking in all of this isthe book's portrayal of the passive behaviour ofthe Australians involved. The men on the testsites, for example, leave their wives behind indrab 1950s suburbs to spend months with theirsecret mistress, the land, preparing it for a seriesof events which they don't understand and whichwill spectacularly destroy it. A strange love,indeed. And, in learning to stop worrying andlove the forces that oppress them, the men in thenovel achieve a masochistic kind of ecstasy.Graham realises, for example, that he can neverexplain 'what it meant to be standing besideCharlie Hamilton as the bomb went off, givinghimself up to something that was beautiful anddangerous beyond words, or any humanlikeness.' (p.63)Complex patterns of masculine desire tosubmit to authoratitive (father) figures -knowledgeable scientists, Menzies, England, thebomb itself - and to dominate or destroysymbols of the feminine - notably the land -are subtly and at times painfully explored as themel} gently blunder from a state of innocence toan understanding of what they have allowed tohappen to their country and to themselves.Those most affected by this struggle were, ofcourse, the aboriginal people in the outback, andthe novel tells of the secrecy, indifference andsheer incompetence which prevented theauthorities from taking adequate steps to protectthem from contamination. A scene in whichGraham and his co-workers attempt to decontaminatean aboriginal family (who cannotspeak English) is a masterpiece of the grimmestkind of farce (pp.j77-83).There is also a wonderfully dry, ironicIII