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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Entertainment
Jack Callil

The Long Cloud by Hector MacKenzie review – there’s only so much depth to a himbo

Xander Tessa
Author Hector Mackenzie and book cover of The Long Cloud
In Hector Mackenzie’s novel The Long Cloud, the central character Xander is ‘as comically vapid as he is at times poignantly reflective’. Composite: Madeleine Ryan/Scribe

Should you care about a vape-loving, philandering male model who just goes with the flow because that’s life? Yes, says The Long Cloud, the wry debut novel of New Zealand artist and photographer Hector MacKenzie. Is it convincing? Well, sort of.

Xander, a 30-year-old former jock ageing out of the modelling industry and into an existential crisis, is a tabula rasa of sorts – a way for readers to glimpse reflections of themselves. And in an age dominated by how we’re perceived, what exactly is that “self”, anyway?

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