Monday, 29 March 2021

Book Review: The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré

The Girl with the Louding Voice The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My in person book group decided not to read this one from a choice of two debut novels, reasons included the possibe difficulties with dialect! I was dissappointed by this and read it anyway. I had read reviews which said it preached down to readers, and asked why the author had invented a new broken English for the Yoruba speaking girl narrator of the story. Nigeria has a pidgeon which I suppose shecould have used but for me at least that always remained more unintelligible than trying to chat to the market seller in my broken Hausa.
I sped along with this book from the word go, I found its characters full of life and very real to me. The internal dialog its narrator is having with herself and her interactions with others is an age old story which sadly still happens - child marriage to pay of family debts, indentured labour/slavery, domestic violence, cruelty of power, class/tribe/language divisions in society, the (non)place of woman, lack of education, lack of opportunity, lack of empowerment etc. But Adunni has a dream. Yes the book has a happy ending, and I was glad it did, and it did not feel forced. Neither did her voice, perfectly narrated on the audiobook by the class voice over artist, Adjoa Andoh. Adunni's voice is engaging, funny, insightful, niave, hopeful - as a reader we feel her pain and jump with her in her moments of joy.
As a debut novel I think this is extremely good. What Abi Dare has succeeded in doing is to totally engage her reader, create good characters to tell a good story, and perhaps as importantly make her reader put her on their following list as they impatiently await her next novel. Very well done 'O!

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Friday, 19 February 2021

Book Review: The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith by Thomas Keneally

I read this for one of the book groups I attend which is this year (2021) reading Australian and New Zealand novels. I also watched the 1978 movie directed by Fred Schepsi which closely follows the book . The book is Keneally's fictionalised account of the true story of Austalian bushranger (outlaw) Jimmy Governor (1875-1901) , who is also the subject of a poem Poem "The Ballad of Jimmy Governor" by Australian poet Les Murray . 

It is a short book (178 pages) but challenging. Keannelly attempts to tell Jimmie's story from growing up a mixed race child, taken under the wing of Rev and Mrs Neville at the Mission station and brought up with European/white values to better himself through hard work. And although he is a good worker, competant, reliable, thorough others treat him badly, don't pay him. He doe snot get a reference from one farmer he works for because the farmer cannot write, Jimmie can. He marries a pregnant white girl in good faith believing he is the child's father. He sees this as another step up, but upon its birth the child is clearly not his. When farmers refuse to pay Jimmie and his family are running out of food his life turns on its head. After his massacre of the farmer's wife, daughters, and woman boarder school teacher, Jimmie, wife, and his brother go on the run. 

Keneally seeds this story with titits about the birth of the Australian Federation, the Boer War in South Africa and the life of the executioner. 

Reading this today this book raises questions about the fictionalisation of factual histories, the clash of cultures then and now, the role of the author in these. 

Not particularly a book I would recommend to snuggle down with during COVID lockdowns, but it is a provocative book club read, and it will I feel remain with me in years to come.


Thursday, 21 January 2021

Book Review: Voss by Patrick White

VossVoss by Patrick White
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I have feelings about this book all across the spectrum from bad to great!
The first couple of chapters are difficult stylistically but this eases with perserverence. On the whole I am really glad I read this book, I loved the story line, the characters, the auor's use of language. It is a complex book, which thoroughly warrants a second close read if I was someone who did second reads. The story has two strands - on one side the author's deft comic rendering of polite Sidney society in colonial times, with its shades of Jane Austen and the like, its preoccupation with finding good matches for its women, with Laura Trevelyan the young woman living with aunt and uncle, she is on the edge of society, a contained rebel, an intelligent, education , beautiful woman in a society where the first two characteristics are not valued. On the other side another person at the periphery, Voss, the German explorer of the Australian outback. *****SPOILER ALERT *****There's is an unlikely meeting, catalysed by the fact that Laura's uncle is the expeditions's sponsor. To me they are soul mates who meet but briefly,start a correspondence which sadly never materialised into other than their letters most of which never reach their intended, and who dream and fantasize about the other. The book swings back and forward between the comforts of Sydney life and the perils for white men in the unknown outback. Their stories form a beautifully crafted, dreamlike, spiritual, intertwining, mixing the real and the unreal, often a little bit too fluidly for this reader to maintain a connection with on one reading or this slightly overlong book. But that did not distract from a feeling of satisfaction at completing the reading. A challenging read, very suitable for book group discussions who like to delve deep.