['Man of England now'] consists of three short novels, each of which is more involved and more suggestive than a bare summary of its episodic plot would indicate. 'Man of England now' is a tragi-comedy of migration, a foreshortened historical study of social change from the early twenties to the emergence of the so-called affluent society, a condensed account of vicissitudes in the life of a young English migrant whose sturdy endeavours and sunny disposition do not lead to more than an insecure foothold in the little Eden of the South Pacific. From scrub-cutter to suburban dustman does not provide the formula for the usual success-story, but Sargeson's ironic contemplation of life and progress in New Zealand destroys more than it fosters illusions. (p. 260)

Unlike so many of Sargeson's stories 'Man of England now' is not told in the first person, nor has it an identifiable narrator, and...