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archytas's review
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
"‘Must’ve been a couple of the old people survived, after all,’ he said. Ernest did not ask for an explanation. Did not say, ‘Survived what?’ Even then it was obvious. It was not the sort of question anyone bothered to put, and very few people wanted it answered. "
The first half of Benang, I struggled to find the rhythm - the book's traumatised narrator, the constant switches in timeframe, the lack of clarity of who was related to who made it often confounding. I suspect that is partly the point - the book's characters do not have stability or certainty, and so neither does the reader. "Look at us, stuck out in the sky like branches from which the rest of the tree has been cut and carted away."
I found myself more engrossed as it progressed. Around the halfway mark, I was deeply absorbed in this family saga, and the various strands of experience Scott draws together. There is pleasure in putting together the pieces, heartache at the loss, humour from our protagonists predicament, discomfort and intense joy at survival. It's not the least demanding read, but it provides rich rewards.
"There is no other end, no other destination for all this paper talk but to keep doing it, to keep talking, to remake it. For Sandy and Fanny it was companionship, it was reminders that somehow this was the same story despite the surface confusion. Even where strange animals had stripped the land to its essentials, to bone, to the bare contours of the land, it just made you turn inward all the more, to the bones of yourself."
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape, Violence, and Genocide
colesa's review
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
buzzgirl's review
3.0
Neville argues that the 'breeding out of colour' by careful control of part-Aboriginal people - where they lived, whom they married - would ultimately lead to the day where we could 'forget there were Aborigines in Australia.' Could there be a book more essential to the reading lists of White Australia, who grew up under the exclusive singularity of the policy of the same name.
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