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jennms_qkw's review
5.0
This was a challenge for me, the first 100-ish pages. Then I kept reading at least 10 pages every other day and wow, the last 200 pages were fast. This is a very good book. I learned a lot.
nsb94's review against another edition
1.0
I found it impossible to get into this book. I don't think I understood the meaning behind the book so perhaps that's why I didn't fully understand it. But I had to give up and leave it! which is a strange thing for me and something I have never done before!
anaforgia's review
challenging
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
frankie_s's review against another edition
Mostly I didn't understand this and couldn't quite follow the story, which makes it hard to know why it was also so compelling. No rating!
artisticauthor's review against another edition
4.0
"Even if I don't get through, don't survive this, the story has to go on. Nothing must stop our stories, understand?"
Carpentaria is an epic of a book. The issues covered in it range from the corruption of the mining industry, racism, small town close-mindedness and even the unfair treatment of mentally ill people. The overarching theme is that of not letting go of culture and truth, to please white folks.
Wright utilises Aboriginal spirituality in a way that transforms the every day into individual stories that weave together to form a fascinating reality. The language is often confusing and difficult to understand, but reading over it again reveals an intricately detailed picture of what's happening.
This book was difficult to get through as there are many distressing issues including rape and murder of small children, but I'm so glad I picked it up. It covers so many contemporary problems in Australian society that I believe every non-Aboriginal person needs to know about in order to enact change.
A brilliant book that I have recommended and will continue to recommend to others.
Carpentaria is an epic of a book. The issues covered in it range from the corruption of the mining industry, racism, small town close-mindedness and even the unfair treatment of mentally ill people. The overarching theme is that of not letting go of culture and truth, to please white folks.
Wright utilises Aboriginal spirituality in a way that transforms the every day into individual stories that weave together to form a fascinating reality. The language is often confusing and difficult to understand, but reading over it again reveals an intricately detailed picture of what's happening.
This book was difficult to get through as there are many distressing issues including rape and murder of small children, but I'm so glad I picked it up. It covers so many contemporary problems in Australian society that I believe every non-Aboriginal person needs to know about in order to enact change.
A brilliant book that I have recommended and will continue to recommend to others.
stanro's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
I found myself drawn to re-read Alexis Wright’s Carpentaria - a book I thought I already highly admired. I’ve learned a lot more about indigenous issues and politics since I first read it, and wanted to see the difference those three years made to my reading. Once again, I’m audioreading it and the narrator, Isaac Drandich, remains excellent.
The opening is powerfully evocative of place and Dreamtime (though I don’t think that the word is used). Then the book settles into a gently humorous style - depicting Aboriginal people living on the fringe of the small, isolated fictitious town of Desperance, near the Gulf of Carpentaria.
As Wright starts to discuss rival claims for which group truly are the original tribal custodians of that region and how the money from mining companies can fuel the emergence of a group claiming though not actually having legitimacy, I realise how inadequate my knowledge truly is.
And as she explores the way that the government bounty on feral pigs and cane toads is exploited, I laugh.
And I find myself thinking of Frank Hardy’s Outcasts of Foolgarah, which I read about 50 years ago and dimly recall. There’s a resonance for me there. It’s the vibe!
The book abounds with satirical humour and wonderful turns of phrase, such as “The Toyota … was so overloaded with Aunty’s rumours the axles almost touched the ground.”
And in response to a question about “What kind of …dog would burn the Queen’s picture?” a black elder said “Unfortunately you can’t exterminate a queen by burning her picture!”
Then the satire departs for a while, as one of the offspring of Norm(al) Phantom faces a possibly life-threatening situation involving security guards from the nearby mine - one of the world’s largest.
And the almost saviour-like Elias, who emerged from the sea in an earlier chapter, now features in a different form.
Time seems strange. Repeated references are made to 400-year-long battles for land, clearly preceding the arrival of the white colonisers. What sort of story is this?
Norm’s state of mind as he deals with Elias is a strange place for the reader to inhabit. He hears things. Is it real knowledge he is reminding himself of, or psychosis, or something else? All are possible at this stage, with lengthy imagery of fish and the sea and ruminations on his estranged wife Angel Day and his absent son Will. I’m reminded of Odysseus and his journey, for Odysseus was mad in his way too - at least as I recall Madeline Miller’s telling in her magnificent Circe.
We are plunged into a state of mind where country is everything and life is a function of country. Whether the form of country depicted here has much relationship with any actual cultural expression of country, I don’t know. The acknowledgements include desert and salt water people, so perhaps. It’s fascinating.
After what seems a very long time, there is a change of pace and an urgency previously absent now dominates. Lives are at risk. The fight against the mine becomes present. And there is a brief episode featuring spiders that will chill arachnophobes. And sadness and madness.
And then new mysteries open, not mysterious only to this reader but to the characters themselves.
Another shift. And another. And again. The weather becomes biblical. Religious imagery abounds syncretically, both Aboriginal and Christian. I haven’t read Dante’s Inferno, but I could be there or amidst a Heironymus Bosch painting. What a world Smith has created!
How little of my first read of this book (during the Covid lockdowns) I recall. I check my review from then. It’s brief and uninformative on all issues despite 5 stars.
I’m glad I read it again. An idiosyncratic and magnificent book depicting a unique imagined world that opens for us a crack to sneak a look at another way of viewing the world.
My review from first read is below. This time, I’d give 10/5⭐️ if I could.
My review from first read is below. This time, I’d give 10/5⭐️ if I could.
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What a fabulous book! I love how the indigenous mind is depicted. How the dreaming and song lines live for them, though they are living in and around a regional town dominated by a mine.
Most of all, in this audio version, I love the voices of the characters. How they sound and how they express themselves.
lerawr's review
adventurous
challenging
funny
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75