the transvestic, its homoeroticism and its status as (semi)autobiography". Ellis continues to comment that while "the quest on which the sisters embark is not to find their fortunes, their husbands or even themselves, but to find their place in the nation", Langley at no time in the novel gives "serious consideration of the originary sovereignty of the Indigenous people of Australia". She suggests that the "presumption of entitlement that resonates throughout Steve's quest for and within the Australian nation [and] the preponderance of overtly racist passages that often overwhelm the narrative, will inevitably ring discordantly in the ears of modern readers". Falkiner, though, suggests that while her description of the foreign pickers "verges on racism", it is "partly salvaged by good humour". Australian writer, Hal Porter, writing in 1965, described the novel as "a superb and haunting work". Not quite a critical response, but in his autobiography Flaws in the Glass, Australian Nobel Laureate Patrick White, writing of his experience of the Second World War says "Otherwise I had dried up. There were stirrings of what I had it in me to write if there were ever a peace, but that didn't seem likely. So I read. I read The Bible, literally from cover to cover. I read The peapickers and was filled with a longing for Australia, a country I saw through a childhood glow". Press opinions The following press opinions are from the dust jacket of the second edition published in 1958: Douglas Stewart in The Bulletin: "At once a unique refreshment of our literature that is a remarkable clarification of the Australian Image ... This author is as passionately sardonic as she is, in high moods, ecstatic ... What love of words and skill with words, what love of Australian earth and Australian people and skill in painting them, what rich humour and spiritual power have gone into it." Frank Dalby Davison in The Bulletin: "It has the dew on it. It contributes something fresh to Australian literature. It is rare. I think it will be cherished." From Brisbane's Telegraph: "It is an astonishing book ... an achievement in the picaresque narrative ... a rich fecundity of descriptive imagination and poetic invention." From New York Times Book Review: "The peculiar charm of this book is the Puckish laugh and the rich, earthy figures in which it exults." From The Sydney Morning Herald: "Youth is the keynote of