Theory & Practice

The book opens by describing a 23-year-old Australian geologist living in Switzerland in 1957. He reflects on his childhood in outback New South Wales and recalls a theft he committed at the age of six, which was blamed on an Aboriginal maid who was then dismissed.

The book then abruptly shifts into the first person, with the author explaining that "at this point, the novel I was writing stalled". The novel then shifts to the perspective of a Sri Lankan-born woman who is a graduate student at Melbourne University in 1986. The narrator has recently moved to Melbourne from Sydney to write a thesis about the work of Virginia Woolf. She soon begins sleeping with Kit, an engineering student who is in "a deconstructed relationship" with his girlfriend Olivia, but quickly becomes jealous of Olivia and fantasises about revenge. She is ashamed of her jealousy towards Olivia, feeling that it is incongruent with her feminist ideals, but is overwhelmed by her desire for Kit.

Meanwhile, her research begins to come under tension when she encounters racist diary entries written by Woolf. Her advisor discourages her from shifting her thesis to focus on Woolf's racism, encouraging her to focus on Woolf's public works and steering her towards a focus on theory. But the narrator feels constrained by the increasing dominance of theory in academia, expressing frustration at the demands to squeeze Woolf's ideas into the "corset of theory".

Theory & Practice was first published in Australia by Text Publishing on 29 October 2024 ({{ISBN|9781923058149}}).{{cite web |title=Theory & Practice |url=https://www.textpublishing.com.au/books/theory-practice |website=Text Publishing |access-date=13 April 2025}} It was published in the United States by Catapult on 18 February 2025 ({{ISBN|9781646222872}}) and in the United Kingdom by Sort of Books on 27 February 2025 ({{ISBN|9781914502163}}).{{cite web |title=Theory & Practice |url=https://books.catapult.co/books/theory-practice/ |website=Catapult |access-date=13 April 2025}}{{cite web |title=Theory & Practice |url=https://sortof.co.uk/michelle-de-kretser-theory-practice |website=Sort of Books |access-date=13 April 2025}}

The book received generally positive reviews. Reviewing the book in The Atlantic, Sophia Stewart described it as "sly, spiky, and brilliant".{{cite news |last1=Stewart |first1=Sophia |title=The Life of the Mind Can Only Get You So Far |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2025/03/theory-practice-michelle-de-kretser-novel-review/682072/ |access-date=13 April 2025 |work=The Atlantic |date=18 March 2025 |language=en}} In a review published in the New York Times Review of Books, Emily Eakin wrote that the book was a "taut, enthralling hybrid of fact and fiction impossible to disentangle".{{cite news |last1=Eakin |first1=Emily |title=A Story of Love, Critical Theory and Other Wild Fictions |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/18/books/review/theory-and-practice-michelle-de-kretser.html |access-date=13 April 2025 |work=New York Times |date=18 February 2025 |language=en}} The book received a starred review in Publishers Weekly, which described it as "sharp-witted and mesmerizing", while a review in Kirkus Reviews described it as a "ferociously intelligent novel from a writer at the height of her powers".{{cite web |title=Theory and Practice by Michelle de Kretser |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781646222872 |website=Publishers Weekly |access-date=13 April 2025 |date=24 September 2024}}{{cite web |title=Theory & Practice |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/michelle-de-kretser/theory-practice/ |website=Kirkus Reviews |access-date=13 April 2025 |date=9 November 2024}}

Reviewers praised the novel's unconventional construction, with Jack Callil writing in The Guardian that the book "push[es] the margins of what a novel can look and feel like".{{cite news |last1=Callil |first1=Jack |title=Theory & Practice by Michelle de Kretser review – what should a novel look like? |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/nov/22/theory-and-practice-by-michelle-de-kretser-book-review |access-date=13 April 2025 |work=The Guardian |date=21 November 2024}} De Kretser weaves non-fiction elements into the narrative, using the book's construction to experiment with narrative form and structure. Eva Gunaydin wrote in The Conversation that the book "uses a hybrid form to comment on form itself", while Eakin wrote in the New York Times Review of Books that the novel was "a bold experiment in form".{{cite news |last1=Gunaydin |first1=Eda |title=Michelle de Kretser writes back to the 'Woolfmother' in Theory & Practice |url=https://theconversation.com/michelle-de-kretser-writes-back-to-the-woolfmother-in-theory-and-practice-239295 |access-date=13 April 2025 |work=The Conversation |date=31 October 2024}} Reviewers also praised the way in which the book circled back to the initial, fragmented narrative with which it began.{{cite news |last1=Feay |first1=Suzi |title=Theory and Practice by Michelle de Kretser |url=https://www.the-tls.co.uk/literature/fiction/theory-and-practice-michelle-de-kretser-book-review-suzi-feay |access-date=13 April 2025 |work=Times Literary Supplement |date=28 February 2025}} Tim Adams wrote in a review in The Guardian that "it is a measure of De Kretser’s beguiling talent as a novelist that she holds both these tales in balance without the whole ever threatening to fall apart".{{cite news |last1=Adams |first1=Tim |title=Theory & Practice by Michelle de Kretser review – shame, desire and the ghost of Virginia Woolf |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/feb/24/theory-practice-by-michelle-de-kretser-review-shame-desire-and-the-gaze-of-virginia-woolf |access-date=13 April 2025 |work=The Guardian |date=24 February 2025}}

Reviewers also commented on de Kretser's critique of the "inevitable breakdowns between theory and practice".{{Cite magazine |last=McHugh-Dillon |first=Ruth |date=19 November 2024 |title=Build your brain |url=https://meanjin.com.au/latest/build-your-brain/ |access-date=2025-04-13 |magazine=Meanjin}} In a review in the Los Angeles Times, Jessica Ferri praised de Kretser's ability to grapple with this tension, writing that the novel is "like a coming-of-age novel or perhaps a coming-to-writing novel" and that it is "anything but conventional...it is something new, born of the recognition between holding two truths in mind at once".{{cite news |last1=Ferri |first1=Jessica |title=A work of fiction feeling its way between idea and execution |url=https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2025-02-12/theory-and-practice-michelle-de-kretser-review |access-date=13 April 2025 |work=Los Angeles Times |date=12 February 2025}} In a review in Australian Book Review, Nicole Abadee wrote that De Kretser "deplores the damage that an overly enthusiastic embrace of theory has wrought on the humanities", and that the book is adept at "showing without telling the 'messy gap' and the 'breakdowns' between theory and practice".{{Cite magazine |last=Abadee |first=Nicole |date=2024-10-24 |title=Nicole Abadee reviews 'Theory & Practice' by Michelle de Kretser |url=https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr-online/archive/2024/november-2024-no-470/1008-november-2024-no-470/13266-nicole-abadee-reviews-theory-practice-by-michelle-de-kretser |magazine=Australian Book Review}}

Reviewers also praised de Kretser for her nuanced exploration of race and gender. The novel's narrator grapples with the racist statements of Virginia Woolf, who she describes as her "Woolfmother" and with whom she feels a type of maternal connection, but feels constrained by the expectation that she limit her research to Woolf's novels and separate the author's public work from her private attitudes.{{cite news |last1=Plunkett |first1=Felicity |title=Theory & Practice |url=https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/2024/11/30/theory-practice |access-date=13 April 2025 |work=The Saturday Paper |date=6 November 2024 |language=en}} Gunaydin wrote in The Conversation that de Kretser "captures the betrayals, jealousies and failures of sisterhood". In a review in the Financial Times, Catherine Taylor describes the book as a deconstructionist work that "tackles colonialism, gender politics and the slippery bond between mother figures and daughters".{{cite news |last1=Taylor |first1=Catherine |title=Theory & Practice — a powerful new novel by Michelle de Kretser |url=https://www.ft.com/content/710f3540-5936-4be7-8972-d8a3a7d2cc94 |access-date=13 April 2025 |work=Financial Times |date=13 February 2025}}

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Category:2024 Australian novels