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mjeezys's review against another edition
4.0
8/10
lovely poetic language, particularly the descriptions of birds and Australia. meandered a bit but ending brought it all together. sad
lovely poetic language, particularly the descriptions of birds and Australia. meandered a bit but ending brought it all together. sad
twistinthetale's review against another edition
2.0
This poignant novel traces the lives of three different people drawn together by their love of birds. A simplistic life of watching, admiring and recording bird life is disrupted by the advent of World War I. These characters are thrust into the horrors of war. This novel is poetic in its rendering. It is a heavily crafted novel filled with symbolism, imagery and a variety of literary tools. In ways it seems too crafted, a deliberate concentration on style versus story.
raiti_ss's review against another edition
dark
reflective
sad
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.75
the_page_traveller's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
sarah1984's review against another edition
2.0
20/09 - Had to read this for year 12 English and I didn't really understand it and therefore didn't enjoy it. I find both situations strange as I am usually drawn to Australian war stories, fiction and non-fiction. Maybe it deserves a re-read with my older, more mature brain...one day.
14/4/16 - New Review due to Reread
20/4 - I think this might be the least enjoyable war story I've read. It took till page 80 (of 138) before we got to anything interesting, before that it was all about Jim and his fascination with the birds. Malouf is reasonably well-known for his poetry and all that work writing poetry was evident in this novel. Large chunks of this book were page-long run-on sentences that seemed to go on forever and he's never met a comma he didn't want to use to death. I can see why I didn't understand or like this 14 years ago and I can also see why my English teacher was doing cartwheels at the chance to get us to 'analyse' this pile of existentialist (she described it thus) waffle (isn't it an English teacher's job to get us to love reading by forcing us to read books assured to make us hate it?, fortunately I was able to become attached to books before English teachers came into my life). I won't be reading any more of Malouf's work and this book is getting donated to a hopefully more appreciative home.
2016 POPSUGAR Reading Challenge Category: A Book Set in Your Home State (Queensland)
14/4/16 - New Review due to Reread
20/4 - I think this might be the least enjoyable war story I've read. It took till page 80 (of 138) before we got to anything interesting, before that it was all about Jim and his fascination with the birds. Malouf is reasonably well-known for his poetry and all that work writing poetry was evident in this novel. Large chunks of this book were page-long run-on sentences that seemed to go on forever and he's never met a comma he didn't want to use to death. I can see why I didn't understand or like this 14 years ago and I can also see why my English teacher was doing cartwheels at the chance to get us to 'analyse' this pile of existentialist (she described it thus) waffle (isn't it an English teacher's job to get us to love reading by forcing us to read books assured to make us hate it?, fortunately I was able to become attached to books before English teachers came into my life). I won't be reading any more of Malouf's work and this book is getting donated to a hopefully more appreciative home.
2016 POPSUGAR Reading Challenge Category: A Book Set in Your Home State (Queensland)
mandi_m's review against another edition
4.0
A beautiful novella that provoked an interesting discussion with Friday Morning Book Club.
We scored it:
7/8/9/8/7/9/8/3/7/8/7/8/9/7
We scored it:
7/8/9/8/7/9/8/3/7/8/7/8/9/7
sethmi's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
ishvarathod's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.25