Arthur Caalder-Marshall said about the author of the book, The Solid Mandala, "Patrick White is a colossus among novelists," but the author withdrew the book from consideration for a Miles Franklin Award because he was not pleased with his writing.
It is notable for being heavily tipped to win the 1967 Miles Franklin Award, the third of White's novels to be nominated for the prize, until White personally intervened and withdrew it from consideration so that other writers might stand a chance of winning. The Solid Mandala, the seventh published novel by Australian author Patrick White, Nobel Prize winner of 1973, first published in 1966. 
