A young aboriginal man is determined to make his own way in pioneering. Australia. He has the advantage of being able to read and marries a white woman, he works hard for wealthy settlers but is repeatedly derided and cheated until one day he commits a terrible crime. Excellent writing and emotive story. ( )

The Booker shortlisted Australian classic of a young indigenous man responding to the injustice and humiliations heaped upon him by white Christians in late 1800s New South Wales. It stands today as a mirror to intolerant society.

The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith is the 7th novel by Thomas Keneally. Set around the time of Federation, it tells the story of half-caste Jimmie Blacksmith, initiated into tribal manhood by his aboriginal elders, he was, at the same time, taught by a Methodist minister. Under the minister’s influence, his criteria denoting the value of human existence were home, hearth, wife and land. And a white wife, say a farm girl, would mean his offspring would be quarter-caste, theirs but an eighth. Jimmie works hard to achieve his goals, but fails through no fault of his own, and the situation becomes explosive and violent. Keneally tells a great yarn, and manages to deftly convey the forces that battle inside Jimmie, as well as the attitude of whites to blacks and of blacks to whites at that time in Australian history. The story is told mainly from Jimmie’s perspective, but also from the view of the Methodist minister, the hangman, Jimmie’s maternal uncle Tabidgi and the fiancé of one of Jimmie’s victims. The debate about Federation rumbles in the background. Excellent prose, vivid descriptions, characters of depth and authentic dialogue. It is no wonder this tragic tale has become an Australian classic. ( )

Kenneally delivers to the reader a carefully crafted and authentic story which evokes the nature and conditions of living in the Australian Bush before the arrival of the motor car. T
he alienated spirit of Jimmy Blacksmith cannot rest. The author gives his characters a humanity that displays empathy and understanding without sugar-coating.
Why otherwise good people do bad things and how that effects those involved is insightfully portrayed.
James Pope ( )

I remember some English classes at high school reading this book. Having now listened to it as an audio book I'm surprised as it was alot more violent and confronting than I thought it would be. Makes you think. Worth a read. ( )