The book club meets again tonight and they will be discussing Kate Morton's The shifting fog.
The next book up for discussion is Alexis Wright's Carpentaria. To check the availability in our library system please look here and to see some reviews click here and here. If you would like to comment on the book or the articles please post a comment.
Also if you have not looked at the website lately Spotlight on the Author is featuring Matthew Reilly this month. His latest book The Six Sacred Stones is out now and is the second in his Jack West Junior series. I haven't finished it yet but if you like Matthew Reilly and his fast paced non stop style then you will like this as well. He is also working on another project. Click here to see what that is.
3 comments:
CARPENTERIA by Alexis Wright
Naturally my first thoughts about the title conjured up Aboriginal "Life" ...or maybe "treatment of" or "Rights".
Chapter 1 - From Time Immemorial
...my expectations were that Ch.1 would unfold the Dreamtime in "that place" and it did this but the PRELUDE was confrontingly present day and I could not help wondering who the narrator was addressing whites, blacks, or both by stating "But we know your story already" suggesting complacency and even a hint of sarcasm.
Aboriginal affinity with the the land (nature) contrasted with the whites lack of knowledge of Nature's history above and below the town of Desperance's surrounds by building a Port which became waterless.
The white settlers had no understanding of the aborigines and their ways and were suspicious of them as they were of all other foreigners i.e. the Afgan camel transporters.
Normal Phantom, a decendant of the tribal elders was "one with the land and nature".
Aboriginals traditionally are hunters and gatherers, the men "hunters" and the women "gatherers" and Normal Phantom was a good hunter, particularly fish and crocodiles.
When the mining companies became interested in the land their ensued a "honeymoon" period when deal were done and aborigines were given positions on the council and the name of the river was chanted from "Imperial Queen" to "Normal's River" but the Aborigines laughed about this in their own language because they knew that the river only had one name "Wangala".
THEMES SO FAR:
stolen children (Prelude to Ch.1)
exploitation
coersion
land rights
segregation
inequality
5/11/2007.....ROSALIE
CARPENTERIA by Alexis Wright
"Hope" is the subject of the Prelude. The aboriginies cannot find any hope in everyday life only in their stories.
The introduction of Normal Phantom's wife Angle Day in the 2nd chapter explores the "traditional female GATHERER" in the strangest way because instead of small animals and plants/berries, Angel is gathering rubbish from the tip where she seems to have "stolen" the ownership rights which mirrors how the early white settlers took over aboriginal lands (you learn what you live?). She finds an old statue of the Madonna, which she treasures as a "powerful" white symbol. A fight ensued where one mob moved out to the other side of town resulting in alienation, separation and new territorial rights between he two aboriginal mobs.
I was sorry a separate chapter had not been allotted to Mayor Bruiser who was aptly named. When he called a Council meeting to act on the aboriginies new home he sprooked off openly about raping aboriginal women, in particular Angel Day but in a complete turn around she stood up to him threatening to sue the council for land rights until Normal Phantom told him to leave.
I must say references to the White Cliffs of Dover and Cape Canaveral Launch surprised me in this remote setting.
THEMES
Land Right
Alienatiion
Separation
Suppression
Attitude to women
Inequality
Rape
ROSALIE.....13/11/07
Greetings, this book requires time and effort.
Thanks to Campbelltown City Library for establishing the Book Club.
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