David Meredith
Brother to Jack, who refers to his younger sibling as “nipper.” Largely autobiographical in nature, the novel’s protagonist is strongly based on the author: he is a writer in awe of his older brother. David Meredith is by all standard accounts more successful than his brother, but within the tradition of Australian masculinity, he is destined to remain forever in Jack’s shadow.
Jack Meredith
Where David is tall and gangly, Jack Meredith swaggers with a brawny muscularity. Where David is educated and aesthetic, young is adventurous and prone to violence. Jack is effectively the symbolic incarnation of the great myth of the Australian male: rugged but lovable, independent but loyal and a man’s man all the way through.
Mr. Meredith
David and Jack’s father was gassed during WWI but not seriously harmed. He is tall and large, occasionally terrifying and the object of David’s murderous fantasies at times. Mr. Meredith is, essentially, a domestic abuser.
Mrs. Meredith
The boys’ mother receives much of the brunt of their father’s violent moods. She was a nurse in France during the war and David considers it odd that during the entire length of time they shared space in Europe they never actually reunited face to face. As is often the case with victims of domestic violence, their mother retreats into an inner world and is thus often distant and alienated from her children.
Gavin Turley
Turley is a fellow writer—a journalist—who acts as a strange sort of mentor to David, essentially guiding him through negative and positive reinforcement.
Cressida Morley
David marries Helen Midgeley, but it is an inappropriate choice destined to fail. Cressida Morley’s appearances increase exponentially as the book nears its end, setting her up to become the truly significant woman in David’s life in the two sequels which follow and form a trilogy on the life of David Meredith.
Bert
Bert is married to the author’s sister. A war injury forced the amputation of leg and the convalescence and treatment of that injury seem to persist through the novel every time he appears or is mentioned.
