Jane Rawson

this book unfortunately collided with a few things that rub me a little the wrong way but also will make any reader (me included) think and that's a good thing :

1) I read "Move Over Michelangelo" by Sarah Boxer abt the "new age" of the woman artist where the author describes relief to find paintings on exhibit by women artists who didn't remind her of male painters . hmm, ok and reflects that women work more with fragments, impermanence, she reaches back to the 70's quoting Lippard about how women made work that was more transitive, unfinished tinged with uncertainty and anxiety .


2) I saw Adelaide Johnson's sculpture of Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton at the US Capitol Bldg - a carrara mable block out of which rises busts of the 19th-century suffragettes who lobbied & organized and protested to help American women get the vote - it was described by a docent as purposely unfinished to show potential for another figure looming behind the three finished busts because the "womens' problem" still needs more champions. I also found out that In 1921, Congress ordered its inscription removed which once said: " Woman, first denied a soul, then called mindless, now arisen, declared herself an entity to be reckoned.''

Apparently in more recent times before its appearance upstairs among the heroically posed full figure statues of males on pedestals some Congressional representatives said the statue was too ugly and without enough historical significance to warrant the cost of moving it [up] to the Rotunda.

3) I know Oakland of 1997 doesn't suck . I know SF of 1997 is not defined by tacos .

So where does that leave the office of unmade lists and it's protagonist ? Caddy frustrates me, her story feels a bit like form over substance, disjoint, even gimmicky without reaching higher, her imaginums have too many loose ends - some of the ones readers care about most are left unfinished .

So yeah, all that frustrating stuff, it's going on here but I am in no doubt that it is art, or that gender influences it, or abt why it leaves the reader feeling they didn't get enough.… (meer)

4.25 Stars. Jane Rawson's debut novel A Wrong Turn at the Office of Unmade Lists is one of the most unusual novels I have read. The descriptor ‘wacky’ applies to both the Narnia-like storyline and the dystopian climate change future version of Melbourne featured within it. Unfortunately, far less suspension of belief need be applied to the latter. But the climate is not the only thing that is dry in this novel, the humour woven into Rawson’s narrative is also wonderfully so. Read full review >>

This review counts towards my participation in the Aussie Author Challenge 2018.… (meer)

From the cover alone, you just know that From the Wreck is going to be eerie and possibly sad. What the cover doesn’t tell you is that there will be a strange kind of beauty combined with history, family and loss. This is a novel that contains many themes and several genres between its pages, but somehow it just all works together. The prose is rhythmical and enveloping, drawing you in to the tale of George Hills (who happens to be an ancestor of the author).

George is working towards marrying his sweetheart, but is also having a good time working aboard the steamship Admella. But this drip is doomed as it sinks off the coast of South Australia. For a number of days, a few survivors cling to life in whatever way possible, cold, thirsty and hungry. Their minds and actions go beyond what they thought possible and normal. (It was at this point I was reminds of Patrick White’s A Fringe of Leaves, but I think Jayne Rawson captures the devastation of realising what may be required for survival in a much more haunting way). But George goes on, marries and has a family. But at the point of the shipwreck a new being clings to George and later his son Henry. What is it? Henry thinks of it as his Mark (the rest of the family thinks it is a birthmark) while George believes he is haunted by a woman he was with on the wreck. Except that he is certain she isn’t a woman, but a witch, spirit, siren or higher being. George becomes consumed by the need to remove Henry’s mark and rid himself of his cursing. But what does the Mark have to say about it?

The Mark speaks to the reader directly at times during the novel. It’s never quite clear who or what it is (this really frustrated me at times as I like to know exactly what’s going on and find a plausible, scientific explanation for everything!). The Mark has the ability to live in the depths of the sea, like a sea anemone, but it’s lonely. What it once knew is gone. Yet it’s at home living on Henry and can shape shift. It’s capable of thought and feelings. Is it an alternate life force from another planet? Perhaps. Is it a figment of George’s and Henry’s imagination? Unlikely as the pair are like chalk and cheese. Henry is fascinated by biology but is a typical little boy with worries and fears. George is trying to work through his own problems, but ultimately too he is just a man.

There are so many thoughts, questions and speculations that arise on reading From the Wreck. It questions family ties and spirituality, in addition to the Victorian ways of doing things. George is clearly experiencing PTSD yet no one else knows how to reach out (other than to tell him to stop drinking). The belief in the spiritual is seen with the ruse a woman tries to put over George. And there’s the acceptance of the Mark by Henry and George.

From the Wreck is definitely thought provoking, combining historical fiction with an element of science fiction in a wonderfully written, captivating story.

Thanks to Readings Books for the copy of this book. My thoughts are honest.

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