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incrediblemelk's review
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
I borrowed this from the library on two separate one-week loans. I had to take it back at the start of the first loan period and then I’ve completely inhaled the remaining 2/3 on another one-week period.
I am fascinated by stories of early Australian colonisation because to me they represent such a bittersweet moment of missed opportunity of goodwill on the behalf of the land owners and the squandering of that goodwill by white settlers.
Tom Petrie is such an interesting character because he was historically an initiated Yagara man, and he spoke the language from childhood. He understood Aboriginal law and was respected by the landowners of Magandjin, yet he was inescapably white and held a position of great privilege within the emerging colonial society.
Lucashenko is quite canny in showing the way that Tom is caught between these two cultures and the tragedy that he will always have to come down on the side of white people rather than that of his Yagara brothers.
Winona and Johnny were also two fascinating characters in that Winona represents the modern Blak radical and Johnny is someone who’s an earnest seeker, trying to understand who he is and making lots of mistakes.
At times I found Winona very unlikeable in her political purism and her unwillingness to accept goodwill. Her own struggles with mental illness aren’t a major focus of the book and kind of melt away at the end, but ultimately she and Johnny reach a rapprochement that feels authentic to both of their characters.
Mulanyin was a wonderfully vivid character, too: so full of emotion and so deeply connected to his Country and people. But like Winona he is also a frequently dogmatic and inflexible person in his efforts to be staunch. I don’t know if Lucashenko deliberately set out to connect Winona and Mulanyin in this way, but I liked that they are such similar personalities.
Mulanyin is also a tragic hero. What I find so morbidly urgent about these stories that imagine early colonisation is the horror for the landowners of seeing your whole beautiful world being stolen and desecrated in your own lifetime, and struggling to hold on to hope in the future.
The Elders at the time may have hoped for a conclusive defeat of the dagai (I have Jane Harrison’s novel The Visitors on my shelf, which I think might contain some of these debates) so life could resume as it always had, but the terrible fate of the following generations would be to witness their people’s genocide and to try to survive it.
That’s why Edenglassie is a hopeful and moving book, because it testifies to that hard-won survival of the people and their cultural memory. Mulanyin’s defiant self-determination cost him his life; but Winona can learn from her Granny Eddie’s ways – learned pragmatically through hard experience, like Eddie’s great-grandmother Nita – to honour her people cleverly and strategically rather than lashing out in rage and revenge.
I’m feeling so emotional after finishing this book, thinking about the people around the world struggling to survive genocide and to throw off the yoke of colonial capitalism. Like Johnny I want to learn and be mindful, but unlike him I can never really belong to this Country where I live. Like Tom Petrie I have to do my best to be mindful of my unearned privilege and actively seek to do good.
I am fascinated by stories of early Australian colonisation because to me they represent such a bittersweet moment of missed opportunity of goodwill on the behalf of the land owners and the squandering of that goodwill by white settlers.
Tom Petrie is such an interesting character because he was historically an initiated Yagara man, and he spoke the language from childhood. He understood Aboriginal law and was respected by the landowners of Magandjin, yet he was inescapably white and held a position of great privilege within the emerging colonial society.
Lucashenko is quite canny in showing the way that Tom is caught between these two cultures and the tragedy that he will always have to come down on the side of white people rather than that of his Yagara brothers.
Winona and Johnny were also two fascinating characters in that Winona represents the modern Blak radical and Johnny is someone who’s an earnest seeker, trying to understand who he is and making lots of mistakes.
At times I found Winona very unlikeable in her political purism and her unwillingness to accept goodwill. Her own struggles with mental illness aren’t a major focus of the book and kind of melt away at the end, but ultimately she and Johnny reach a rapprochement that feels authentic to both of their characters.
Mulanyin was a wonderfully vivid character, too: so full of emotion and so deeply connected to his Country and people. But like Winona he is also a frequently dogmatic and inflexible person in his efforts to be staunch. I don’t know if Lucashenko deliberately set out to connect Winona and Mulanyin in this way, but I liked that they are such similar personalities.
Mulanyin is also a tragic hero. What I find so morbidly urgent about these stories that imagine early colonisation is the horror for the landowners of seeing your whole beautiful world being stolen and desecrated in your own lifetime, and struggling to hold on to hope in the future.
The Elders at the time may have hoped for a conclusive defeat of the dagai (I have Jane Harrison’s novel The Visitors on my shelf, which I think might contain some of these debates) so life could resume as it always had, but the terrible fate of the following generations would be to witness their people’s genocide and to try to survive it.
That’s why Edenglassie is a hopeful and moving book, because it testifies to that hard-won survival of the people and their cultural memory. Mulanyin’s defiant self-determination cost him his life; but Winona can learn from her Granny Eddie’s ways – learned pragmatically through hard experience, like Eddie’s great-grandmother Nita – to honour her people cleverly and strategically rather than lashing out in rage and revenge.
I’m feeling so emotional after finishing this book, thinking about the people around the world struggling to survive genocide and to throw off the yoke of colonial capitalism. Like Johnny I want to learn and be mindful, but unlike him I can never really belong to this Country where I live. Like Tom Petrie I have to do my best to be mindful of my unearned privilege and actively seek to do good.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide, Colonisation, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Xenophobia
bookb1itch's review
adventurous
challenging
funny
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
I received a gratis copy of this book from Better Reading, to preview.
this is the review I submitted:
this is the review I submitted:
I don’t have words for just how enjoyable this book was. I knew from Lucashenko’s reputation that I was in for some possibly confronting race-relations commentary. What I wasn’t ready for was the joyous militancy of Winona, one of my all-time favourite wise (and foul!)-mouthed activists. The laugh-out-loud banter between Winona and Dr Johnny is delightful and I could almost hear Winona’s opinion on the current Voice to Parliament debate. Both the 1850s and 2024 storylines are peopled with believable characters of various cultural backgrounds (indigenous, Scottish, Irish, Chinese, Maori) and when the narratives finally converge, the storytelling is simply lyrical, even, perhaps, mystical. The book contains some beautiful descriptions of indigenous cultural practices and instances of powerful spiritual connection between people, animals and country. There is also a liberal sprinkling of First Language words from different groups. Lucashenko admits to having taken some liberties with history, but if even some of the atrocities in this book are based on fact, this country has some very shameful incidents in our colonial past indeed. I will most definitely buy and vociferously recommend this extraordinary novel for my school library.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation, Genocide, Racism, and Cursing
Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Cultural appropriation, Mental illness, Alcohol, and Pregnancy
Minor: Rape
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