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uesmith's review against another edition
2.0
Parts of this book were laugh out loud funny, parts moving, parts thought provoking and parts incomprehensible. And at the end I was left with a general feeling of 'thank goodness that's over'. It's hard to enjoy a book where you dislike almost every character.
sbb_rachel's review against another edition
5.0
Beautiful, grotesque, loving, brutal, funny and painful. Not for the faint of stomach, but original and meaningful. Uniquely Australian as well.
aa2750's review against another edition
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Takes on a bit too much. Aims to be about people and ideas but ends up being mostly about ideas. It knows that it’s a bit pretentious but it’s a bit more pretentious than I think it meant to be. Wish it came with a glossary of Australian slang.
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
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐