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carole888's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- 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
nadinekc's review against another edition
4.0
This is a tragicomic, grotesque, fantasmagoric story of a convict in an early 19th century prison colony on Sarah Island in Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania). It's an effective approach for showing the horror of the genocide of the native population, the rape of the land, and the lunacy of Rabelaisian-like British characters untethered from the (relative) sanity of their home society, without making readers want to kill themselves after reading it.
If I saw this description before reading the book, I'd never have picked it up, but I'm glad I did. What kept me reading was the genius of the writing. It's hard to pick one sample, but here's one that speaks to the nature of the book itself:
Because, you see, it sometimes seems so elusive, this book, a series of veils, each of which must be lifted and parted to reveal only another of its kind, to arrive finally at emptiness, a lack of words, at the sound of the sea, of the great Indian Ocean through which I see in my mind's eye Gould now advancing towards Sarah Island, now receding; that sound, that sight, slowly pulsing in and out, in and out.
.
If I saw this description before reading the book, I'd never have picked it up, but I'm glad I did. What kept me reading was the genius of the writing. It's hard to pick one sample, but here's one that speaks to the nature of the book itself:
Because, you see, it sometimes seems so elusive, this book, a series of veils, each of which must be lifted and parted to reveal only another of its kind, to arrive finally at emptiness, a lack of words, at the sound of the sea, of the great Indian Ocean through which I see in my mind's eye Gould now advancing towards Sarah Island, now receding; that sound, that sight, slowly pulsing in and out, in and out.
.
chilliwitch's review against another edition
3.0
An intricate and interesting book.... I'm not sure I'm a smart enough bear to have understood it all.... and it was hugely confronting in regards to how we treated people of all colours in the past.... I'm glad I listened to it... but it was full on...
louhayward's review against another edition
3.0
I really struggled with this one. On the one hand, it’s undeniably inventive and, at times, highly affecting - the horrific treatment of the island’s Indigenous people and perverse cruelty meted out to unlucky convict population being two examples. On the other hand, personally there were times when the wandering pointlessness of the narrative and painfully hideous, effluvia-filled descriptions became a bit too much for me. 3.5 / 5
kristykay22's review against another edition
5.0
A difficult to describe but wonderful to read book within a book within a book that takes real-life convict/painter William B. Gould and gives him a fictional voice through his amazing book of fish. A story of forgery, punishment, dreams, torture, love, and fish. And a British penal colony in Tasmania in the 1830s.
kris_mccracken's review against another edition
5.0
Where to start with this odd beast? We start with a caution that our (initial) narrator cannot be trusted. From here, we enter into his reconstruction of a text that our untrustworthy narrator warns is one of another unreliable narrator. Master Gould (sic) is most insistent in his testimony that the reader cannot trust his account.
In this remarkable and peculiar novel, Flanagan explores the nature of memory, history and the very grand stories that individuals and nations console themselves. What is 'true' much depends upon who is asking and what is it they wish to hear. In this, the history of Van Diemen's Land presents exceptional fodder.
More succinctly, it is a tale of a bullshitter. The narrator is a bullshitter in love with bullshitting. In that, he understands that bullshit is all that we can ever have. From here, the reader begins a rollicking, funny, filthy, dark and disturbing trip that impresses, entertains, confounds, challenges and irritates. Best of all, he makes one think.
Is this not the point of art?
Significant works of art challenge us, and to this end, this is not an easy book to read. Rich with allusions to just about every philosopher and author imaginable, with Voltaire and Hegel ever-present. Throw in ahistorical references to Marx, Satre, Joyce, Faulker and innumerable others that appear and disappear in the blink of an eye. At first, I found it irritating, but once I relaxed into the rollicking pace, I started to enjoy myself.
As a born and bred (and not at all proud) Tasmanian, I may have read this quite differently to others. I am more cynical, critical and sensitive to inaccuracies. I know the pubs in which Flanagan takes us. I am a keen snorkeler and bushwalker, so I see the fish and the landscape that dominate the text every day. I am fascinated, repelled and scornful of history and have explored it through every lens you can find.
My verdict? Richard Flanagan's Gould's Book of Fish is the real deal. It gets Tasmania in way that others do not. In its absurdities, inanities, and abnormalities. In its lies upon delusions upon fantasies and imagined sense of itself, I could not agree more wholeheartedly.
Bullshit upon bullshit upon blood and shit and piss and a whole lot of dead fish, animals and people. That's the Tasmania that I know andlove tolerate!
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
In this remarkable and peculiar novel, Flanagan explores the nature of memory, history and the very grand stories that individuals and nations console themselves. What is 'true' much depends upon who is asking and what is it they wish to hear. In this, the history of Van Diemen's Land presents exceptional fodder.
More succinctly, it is a tale of a bullshitter. The narrator is a bullshitter in love with bullshitting. In that, he understands that bullshit is all that we can ever have. From here, the reader begins a rollicking, funny, filthy, dark and disturbing trip that impresses, entertains, confounds, challenges and irritates. Best of all, he makes one think.
Is this not the point of art?
Significant works of art challenge us, and to this end, this is not an easy book to read. Rich with allusions to just about every philosopher and author imaginable, with Voltaire and Hegel ever-present. Throw in ahistorical references to Marx, Satre, Joyce, Faulker and innumerable others that appear and disappear in the blink of an eye. At first, I found it irritating, but once I relaxed into the rollicking pace, I started to enjoy myself.
As a born and bred (and not at all proud) Tasmanian, I may have read this quite differently to others. I am more cynical, critical and sensitive to inaccuracies. I know the pubs in which Flanagan takes us. I am a keen snorkeler and bushwalker, so I see the fish and the landscape that dominate the text every day. I am fascinated, repelled and scornful of history and have explored it through every lens you can find.
My verdict? Richard Flanagan's Gould's Book of Fish is the real deal. It gets Tasmania in way that others do not. In its absurdities, inanities, and abnormalities. In its lies upon delusions upon fantasies and imagined sense of itself, I could not agree more wholeheartedly.
Bullshit upon bullshit upon blood and shit and piss and a whole lot of dead fish, animals and people. That's the Tasmania that I know and
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
kiwikathleen's review against another edition
1.0
I seem to either love or hate Richard Flanagan's novels - this is one of the latter.
sloreader's review against another edition
3.0
That I couldn't find another star or two for Gould's Book of Fish may be more my failing than the book's because it likely deserves them. Much of the story's secrets seem to be endemic to the headspaces of its two authors - the putative creator, William Buelow Gould, and the dust jacket one, Richard Flanagan - and anyone else trying to snatch more than morsels of sense from the dense and discursive text may find themselves lost in the mesmerizing mess. However, the language is beautiful and the scope is epic yet also extremely personal, but one read-through may not be enough to gather in this much ambition.
st_urmer's review against another edition
4.0
If you can find a copy of the original printing, get that. Its printed in different color inks, meant to be various substances the narrator (a prisoner) uses to write (squid ink, etc). the book is a bit dry at times, but worth getting through.
writegeist's review against another edition
5.0
It's hard to classify this book. Is it a fantasy? A historical novel? A character study? Flanagan's book is even harder at times to handle, let alone classify. The Tasmanian prison in which Gould is incarcerated is stripped of all human niceties and we view the nature of man in all its stark, visceral, troubling glory. This one is not for the faint of heart. The tortures Gould faces as he survives in this hell-hole leave nothing to the imagination. Is our narrator trustworthy? By the end of the book, that question still rang in my ears. If you're willing to take a chance with this novel, you will be fascinated by the characters, run the gamut of emotions, and discover an amazing story that will haunt you long after you finish the last page.