Reviewing the re-issue of the book by
Text Publishing, Nicholas Rothwell in
The Australian noted: "Alone among Stow’s books,
Tourmaline gained a certain reputation with the European intelligentsia: its author was briefly seen as a pioneer of modern storytelling, alongside figures such as
Lawrence Durrell and
John Fowles. It depicted the same Australia that was becoming known from the paintings of
Sidney Nolan and
Russell Drysdale: a visual, sensory space." The critic David Fonteyn saw the work in allegorical terms: "
Tourmaline is an ecological allegory in which cultural revitalisation is posited due to an acceptance of, and engagement with, the natural environment despite the death drive that is contained within it. In the novel, the natural environment is figured as a living entity that is feared by the people in the town of Tourmaline." ==See also==