I suspect Alexis Wright may be Australia's answer to James Joyce. This is a beautifully written, lyrical & very intellectual novel but it is a very very hard slog to get there. There were some passages, I revelled in but then I lost my way again amidst weaving metaphor & symbolism & trope. Oh please, please throw me a bit more plot & character to work with.

*maybe spoilers*

Having read 3 reviews to elucidate what was happening I think this novel is trying to do a lot of things. I think it's trying to weave the devastating near future impact of climate change with indigenous history of land loss and destruction. I think the swans represent our stories and folklore that follow us and try to survive and help us survive. There are the white swans that guide the European refugee and the black swans that follow Oblivia. I think Warren Finch represents indigenous assimilation into western society, that while seeped in tradition and folklore and hope, they will abandon even their sophisticated, academically established knowledge (the genies representing indigenous academe, partly Westernised but also able to return to bush homeland) and integrate seamlessly. Warren is also a sketch of a Canberra politician. I think Oblivia represents aboriginal obliteration - raped, silent, imbued in white stories, married to integration in the hope she'll go away but nonetheless nurturing her stories/swans. I'm not sure about Rigoletto and the harbour master - performance of indigenousness? corruption and survival?

Sketches of languages, characters, landscapes, storytelling blend with metaphor upon metaphor, symbol upon symbol. Haunting but I was frustrated and weary because I never knew what to make of it.