Geoffrey Hope Gibson

This family saga begins when the son of a no-longer-wealthy British family arrives at a distant post in the Outback, and falls in love with an Aboriginal woman. (Well, there’s also a lot about the family members back home in England, and how they relate to their new Australian grandchild, and what’s really happened to all their wealth, but the Australian family begins here. Good family sagas sometimes have no real beginning and no ending, just like real families.) I didn’t know all that much about native Australians going in, besides a vague concept of walkabouts, and this novel described both daily aboriginal life and how terribly the original inhabitants were treated by colonists, and then by the Australian government. The story shows this on an individual level, as well as on a national scale.

The descriptions of Outback life were very matter-of-fact, whether it was a description of food found in the bush or of aboriginal religion. I liked that it wasn’t overly exoticized, since the author manages to avoid portraying native Australians as “other” even while explaining customs and activities that were entirely new to me.

You can read my full review of this book over on my blog.

I received a copy of this book to review. All opinions are my own, as always, because even free books can’t restrain my snark.

… (meer)

Having received an Early Reviewer copy, I feel very sad to have give such a poor rating. Unfortunately, what could have been a really good read was rendered painful due to extremely poor proof-reading, unpleasant text format and a lack of adequate editing (I actually wonder whether anyone gave more than a quick, cursory glance before sending it to the printers.) The story itself (a number of stories really) is rich in potential and at times, unfortunately brief, it is clear that Geoffrey Hope Gibson can write excellent prose when he puts his mind to it, but someone has to help him with grammar issues and writing style. Plotting in particular is problematic. I got the feeling the themes explored could have been better served by short stories.… (meer)

I received this book as part of the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program, in exchange for a promise to review it. It offers a view of Australian history form the aboriginal point of view, and conveys some of the experience of forced assimilation, and subtle resistance. It would be a better story with stronger editing, as it is a bit disjointed and overambitious. It needed either tighter construction and fewer story lines or more development of the several interesting lines. I enjoyed it for what I learned about Australia, but hoped for more.… (meer)