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tricky's review against another edition
5.0
I have never read Thea Astley before and I have to say I was quite overtaken by this novel.
I was swept into the world and her writing is such that you are just sucked into this lovely rhythm of words. The story resonates because so many people have been touched by small country towns that struggle to survive. Once the central part of the community the gradual demise due to drought, crime, foreclosures so creeps up and the town becomes a husk.
There are several character threads that weave their way through the story and none make for a happy ending. There is bitterness and anger in this book and each character is so real.
I am still coming to grips with what I have read and the book does linger with you.
A great book and should be an Australian all-time classic
I was swept into the world and her writing is such that you are just sucked into this lovely rhythm of words. The story resonates because so many people have been touched by small country towns that struggle to survive. Once the central part of the community the gradual demise due to drought, crime, foreclosures so creeps up and the town becomes a husk.
There are several character threads that weave their way through the story and none make for a happy ending. There is bitterness and anger in this book and each character is so real.
I am still coming to grips with what I have read and the book does linger with you.
A great book and should be an Australian all-time classic
dfv's review against another edition
4.0
Book club time, and it was nice to read something I might normally skip over: Thea Astleys' Drylands from 1999. Although some story lines ending up unresolved or had characters that never reappeared, it reminded me in parts of Wake in Fright (drinking, uneducated heathens, suspicious of book readers, treating women as owned, violence), there were some wonderful tensely written scenes - the part aboriginal nomad naming his white half brother in a public meeting; women being removed by force from a writing workshop by their suspicious husbands; wealthy families drinking with the local police and being untouchable. I end up enjoying it quite a bit, though it was a bit uneven. 4 stars.
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