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4.3 AVERAGE
4.3 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
This book sickened me and provoked me to unleash a tirade about the horrors of covert racism to my poor, unsuspecting boyfriend. It was a tough, uncompromising read - but one I definitely don't regret. Not one to read if you're looking for something uplifting. Worth it for those prepared to confront the darker side of human nature, and their own dark side.
I recommend reading the other reviewer's comments - not everybody liked what they read, but they were unanimously floored by it nonetheless. A powerful read.
I recommend reading the other reviewer's comments - not everybody liked what they read, but they were unanimously floored by it nonetheless. A powerful read.
EVERY AUSTRALIAN SHOULD READ THIS BOOK.
Easily one of the best books I've ever read. Chloe Hooper is a wonder.
This book is equal parts uncomfortable, frustrating, sickening, eye-opening. It will take you from your inner-city cosmopolitan bubble and tear you apart.
Easily one of the best books I've ever read. Chloe Hooper is a wonder.
This book is equal parts uncomfortable, frustrating, sickening, eye-opening. It will take you from your inner-city cosmopolitan bubble and tear you apart.
Wow. I have a feeling this book is going to stick with me for a long time. I wish I read it sooner.
In 2012, I had the privilege of visiting my best friend who lived on Palm Island. I went to school there for a week and it was truly unforgettable.
Picking up this book over 10 years later has brought back so many memories from my trip and made me reflect on my experience. As a kid you pick up on thingd but don’t necessarily have the language to understand the context of your surroundings. This book gave me a lot of the context I was missing. On this island of only a few thousand people, most were unemployed and suffering, it was apparent to me even as a 10 year old.
What I didn’t know when I visited was the history and political and cultural climate of the Island.
Reading this book, I felt a lot of shame and anger. I’m ashamed that I didn’t know that Palm Island was used as a missionary from 1934-1967 and that indigenous people were forcibly removed from their families to be slaves on the island. I’m angry that this book was published in 2009 and seemingly little has changed in regard to the over representation of Aboriginal deaths in custody. Some of the passages were painstakingly relevant to 2024, they could’ve been written yesterday.
I felt sick reading accounts of horrific mistreatment of the community on Palm Island following the murder of one of their family members. I would get shocked by the accounts of police brutality from so many different places in Queensland, and then be disappointed by my own shock.
I learnt so much from this book, it was a work fantastic reporting. The author chose their language so well and I particularly liked how she painted a picture of white culture in Queensland.
The Tall Man also highlighted the complexities of reconciliation and made observations that seem so obvious when you read them, but that I had never considered.
As someone who was shocked by the First Nations Voice to Parliament ‘No’ vote last year, this book did a good job at pointing out how little faith First Nations peoples have in Australia’s legal systems. There are quotes from this book that show just a complete numbness to the injustices faced by these communities.
I think that literally everyone should read this book, although it is tragic it has incredible heart and truly showcases the resilient spirit of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
In 2012, I had the privilege of visiting my best friend who lived on Palm Island. I went to school there for a week and it was truly unforgettable.
Picking up this book over 10 years later has brought back so many memories from my trip and made me reflect on my experience. As a kid you pick up on thingd but don’t necessarily have the language to understand the context of your surroundings. This book gave me a lot of the context I was missing. On this island of only a few thousand people, most were unemployed and suffering, it was apparent to me even as a 10 year old.
What I didn’t know when I visited was the history and political and cultural climate of the Island.
Reading this book, I felt a lot of shame and anger. I’m ashamed that I didn’t know that Palm Island was used as a missionary from 1934-1967 and that indigenous people were forcibly removed from their families to be slaves on the island. I’m angry that this book was published in 2009 and seemingly little has changed in regard to the over representation of Aboriginal deaths in custody. Some of the passages were painstakingly relevant to 2024, they could’ve been written yesterday.
I felt sick reading accounts of horrific mistreatment of the community on Palm Island following the murder of one of their family members. I would get shocked by the accounts of police brutality from so many different places in Queensland, and then be disappointed by my own shock.
I learnt so much from this book, it was a work fantastic reporting. The author chose their language so well and I particularly liked how she painted a picture of white culture in Queensland.
The Tall Man also highlighted the complexities of reconciliation and made observations that seem so obvious when you read them, but that I had never considered.
As someone who was shocked by the First Nations Voice to Parliament ‘No’ vote last year, this book did a good job at pointing out how little faith First Nations peoples have in Australia’s legal systems. There are quotes from this book that show just a complete numbness to the injustices faced by these communities.
I think that literally everyone should read this book, although it is tragic it has incredible heart and truly showcases the resilient spirit of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
probably the most important book I've read in memory. I hate to credit fate alone for the timing of Hooper's book because I discredits the labour of herself and those involved in the events of this harrowing story. ACAB. It is a capitalist system which has wrought U old suffering on indigenous people and their liberation, just like everyone else's will not come until it is overthrown.
On page 3 of The Tall Man Hooper writes that she knows very little about Indigenous Australia and like 'most' middle class suburbanites grew up without ever meeting a black person. This statement renders itself redundant as one makes their way through this text. From descriptions of smoking ceremonies as 'Aboriginal exorcisms' and harvesting food for dinner alongside First Nations women as 'a job that was ridiculously primal' Hooper's descriptions of Aboriginal Australians are at best paternalistic and at worst dehumanising. It was a constant reminder of her bias as a white journalist in reporting the story of Cameron Doomadgee's death in custody. The book was worse for having multiple descriptions of the charged officer as 'Handsome like an old screen idol' and of Doomadgees family and supporters as 'filthy' and 'double chinned'. The Tall Man falls far short of the hyperbolic claims on the cover of being "The country's finest work of literature so far this century" leaving the bitter taste of white supremacy lingering in its wake.
This is an important story that relates one incidence of miscarriage of justice by whites toward the aboriginal peoples of Australia, but it stands it for a larger historic epidemic of oppression that must be addressed. Sad and compelling.
A nuanced, sensitive book, as good - and for Australians, as important - as In Cold Blood. Painful reading, but for an intelligent, careful insight into Queensland, Aboriginal culture, police culture and the gulf between white and black Australia (Queensland in particular), it's essential reading.