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maxinraye's review against another edition
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
seeyf's review against another edition
4.0
Reading this book while travelling along the same river it describes makes it hit just a little bit harder, and so did visiting the other parts of Tasmania I visited in my trip: the violence suffered by the aboriginal people documented in the museum at Hobart, the ruins of Port Arthur, the town of Strahan which piners used as their base. The book spends just a few minutes in the present depicting the titular event but through the device of near-death flashbacks and visions, describes genealogies and histories stretching back 200 years, from the original sins of colonialism to the convict escapees, new immigrants, the Huon piners, and more all tied together by the river and the central character of Aljaz. It is a sweeping history of Tasmania that is both personal and grand.
Flanagan was also a river guide, and mentioned later on that this first novel relives a near-death experience he encountered there. In his own words, rafting the Franklin gave him a kind of existential humility on humankind’s own insignificance against the raw power of nature: “For what defence have we against the terror and beauty of nothingness, other than to make an ark of our soul and our work, and haul out of the rapids and into it all the things and all the people we have known and loved, all that is forever on the verge of vanishing, and with them, laughing, joyful, amazed at who and what and where we are, continue journeying into the magnificent unknown, that vast perhaps?”*
In light of calls to define the current age as the Anthropocene, or even in the violence that humanity wages upon itself and its environment that the book documents, this statement may ring slightly untrue — after all, the Franklin was almost damned in one of Australia’s most famous environmental and political fights. Though we are physically fragile in small numbers, collectively our impact is huge, and often not for the better. But if we all could take a moment to lock this experience of fragility in our minds during our encounters in the wilderness, and couple it with a deep sense of our past mistakes like Aljaz does, our descendants may fare better.
*Published in The Sydney Morning Herald Traveller: “Notes from a big island” on Aug 24, 2013
Flanagan was also a river guide, and mentioned later on that this first novel relives a near-death experience he encountered there. In his own words, rafting the Franklin gave him a kind of existential humility on humankind’s own insignificance against the raw power of nature: “For what defence have we against the terror and beauty of nothingness, other than to make an ark of our soul and our work, and haul out of the rapids and into it all the things and all the people we have known and loved, all that is forever on the verge of vanishing, and with them, laughing, joyful, amazed at who and what and where we are, continue journeying into the magnificent unknown, that vast perhaps?”*
In light of calls to define the current age as the Anthropocene, or even in the violence that humanity wages upon itself and its environment that the book documents, this statement may ring slightly untrue — after all, the Franklin was almost damned in one of Australia’s most famous environmental and political fights. Though we are physically fragile in small numbers, collectively our impact is huge, and often not for the better. But if we all could take a moment to lock this experience of fragility in our minds during our encounters in the wilderness, and couple it with a deep sense of our past mistakes like Aljaz does, our descendants may fare better.
*Published in The Sydney Morning Herald Traveller: “Notes from a big island” on Aug 24, 2013
lmenz's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
clc54's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
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? Yes
4.5
edphilp's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
tasmanian_bibliophile's review against another edition
5.0
‘I have been granted visions – grand, great, wild, sweeping visions. My mind rattles with them as they are born to me.’
Aljaz Cosini and Jason Krezwa are river guides, taking a group of tourists on a raft trip down Tasmania’s Franklin River. Rain falls, and the river is in flood. Flowing rapidly, the Franklin is more dangerous. One of the tourists falls overboard and drowns. Then Aljaz becomes trapped under a rapid, and as he drowns is beset with visions. It is said that drowning men will see their life flash before them. But Aljaz’s visions are not confined to his own life, not just a replay of a life about to end. Aljaz’s visions include the lives of his parents and their ancestors, they also include other aspects of human impact on Tasmania. Life and death, action and consequence.
‘Slowly people appear around me, faces of people I have never met but about whom I know everything.’
I found this novel both challenging and uplifting. Challenging because Mr Flanagan manages to describe aspects of Tasmanian history that many of us would prefer to forget or ignore, and uplifting because the language he uses to do this is so rich in imagery. This was Richard Flanagan’s first novel, published in 1994. While I didn’t like it quite as much as his second novel, ‘The Sound of One Hand Clapping’, I suspect this is because ‘Death of a River Guide’ makes me far more uncomfortable about the past. It is not an easy read, but I found it rewarding.
‘A river can grant you visions in an act at once generous and despicable, but even a river like the Franklin in full flood cannot explain everything.’
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
Aljaz Cosini and Jason Krezwa are river guides, taking a group of tourists on a raft trip down Tasmania’s Franklin River. Rain falls, and the river is in flood. Flowing rapidly, the Franklin is more dangerous. One of the tourists falls overboard and drowns. Then Aljaz becomes trapped under a rapid, and as he drowns is beset with visions. It is said that drowning men will see their life flash before them. But Aljaz’s visions are not confined to his own life, not just a replay of a life about to end. Aljaz’s visions include the lives of his parents and their ancestors, they also include other aspects of human impact on Tasmania. Life and death, action and consequence.
‘Slowly people appear around me, faces of people I have never met but about whom I know everything.’
I found this novel both challenging and uplifting. Challenging because Mr Flanagan manages to describe aspects of Tasmanian history that many of us would prefer to forget or ignore, and uplifting because the language he uses to do this is so rich in imagery. This was Richard Flanagan’s first novel, published in 1994. While I didn’t like it quite as much as his second novel, ‘The Sound of One Hand Clapping’, I suspect this is because ‘Death of a River Guide’ makes me far more uncomfortable about the past. It is not an easy read, but I found it rewarding.
‘A river can grant you visions in an act at once generous and despicable, but even a river like the Franklin in full flood cannot explain everything.’
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
_dawn_'s review against another edition
3.0
probably more like 2.5 stars. it's kind of all over the place and so hard to follow, I just wanted it to be over. and then when it was I was just irritated by it. oh well.
jgwc54e5's review against another edition
5.0
One of my favourite Flanagan’s. The whole history of Tasmania told through one mans life .