Like Dessaix himself, R. is an Australian man who has not long learned that he was HIV-positive. Night Letters is a mix of novel and memoir. St George s Oratory and St Anthony s tomb. Night Letters debunks the notion of life as a journey with any purpose. The character R., for instance, remarks on the way people on a bus all face the front, their hair combed and clothes chosen as if they were going somewhere, an idea he finds ludicrous .
Meaning is created, fictional.
It s a temptation, but I refuse to start crafting a neat ending to my life, as if I were some minor short story. The more loose ends the better. But I'm saying I think there are other possibilities and one is to leap onto the beast that is stalking you and ride it. And this book is about riding, about saying, 'OK you're pursuing me with lethal intent, I'm neither going to run from you or lie down, I'm going to jump on your back and make something beautiful out of it'. While life, death and meaning are the major themes in Night Letters , religion per se also gets an eloquent airing.