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recuerdo's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
mimosaeyes's review against another edition
4.0
Bit closer to 3.5 stars, from me. I appreciate the visceral and unaffected storytelling fictionalising Eliza Fraser's real story. The context is steeped in Australian history, of course, and it speaks to the marginality of the antipodes that the closest comparison I have is something like Robinson Crusoe crossed with Heart of Darkness.
Which is to say that it's a deeply literary novel. I know that sounds silly, but if you've read a bit of White I think you'll get what I mean. Yet apart from the framing/bookending device of an outsider character's perspective (Miss Scrimshaw) and a few turns of phrase here and there, the language of this one didn't get to me the way other White novels do.
Still a good and absorbing read. I especially enjoyed the thematics of race and gender.
Which is to say that it's a deeply literary novel. I know that sounds silly, but if you've read a bit of White I think you'll get what I mean. Yet apart from the framing/bookending device of an outsider character's perspective (Miss Scrimshaw) and a few turns of phrase here and there, the language of this one didn't get to me the way other White novels do.
Still a good and absorbing read. I especially enjoyed the thematics of race and gender.
darcyburns's review against another edition
4.0
I had to read this book for year 12 English Literature and upon my first reading absolutely HATED it! After reading further into White's use of language and gaining contextual information on the thoeries of Freud and Jung, I really enjoyed re-reading it. I wouldn't say it was a pleasurable book, but ultimately satisfying to produce my own reading.
numbat's review
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
1.0
reflective of it's time and colonial shadow.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Sexual harassment, Rape, and Racial slurs
reign_kaur's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
I had to study this book for uni. It's definitely not something that I would have picked up to read for myself normally, but I'm very glad that I have read it now. Only because I now have a good point of view from the colonists point of view.
The language was very difficult for me to get my head around and sink into. I had to Google a few things. However A Fringe of Leaves is sarcastic, witty, crude and so very white Australian.
The topics discussed in the book are extremely heavy and racist.
If you do plan on reading it, you should note that Fraser Island's Aboriginal population went from 3,000 to 218 by 1904 due to the government's Aboriginal extermination program.
It's also concerning how Patrick White is considered to be an activist for Indigenous rights. He is a good writer, but it not a good person.
If you want to read a book about the horrible history of Fraser Island painted in a positive light from the perspective of the first settlers, then read this.
Or, you could do what I did and read Finding Eliza by Larissa Behrendt instead.
The language was very difficult for me to get my head around and sink into. I had to Google a few things. However A Fringe of Leaves is sarcastic, witty, crude and so very white Australian.
The topics discussed in the book are extremely heavy and racist.
If you do plan on reading it, you should note that Fraser Island's Aboriginal population went from 3,000 to 218 by 1904 due to the government's Aboriginal extermination program.
It's also concerning how Patrick White is considered to be an activist for Indigenous rights. He is a good writer, but it not a good person.
If you want to read a book about the horrible history of Fraser Island painted in a positive light from the perspective of the first settlers, then read this.
Or, you could do what I did and read Finding Eliza by Larissa Behrendt instead.
brynhammond's review
DNF 65%.
I am not continuing past the cannibal scenes. It's my first Patrick White and I am an instant convert to his writing. But I won't read his lurid inventions about Australia's First Nations. See this article:
https://www.killyourdarlings.com.au/2012/06/castaways-convicts-and-cannibals-patrick-whites-a-fringe-of-leaves/
'We certainly cannot accept the licence White takes with Indigenous Australia when we remember that this book was published one year after Gough Whitlam, of whom the author was a public champion, famously poured earth into the hands of Vincent Lingiari.'
From 5* to 1* as soon as she was 'captured by savages'. I was liking the adventure plot done in White's highly-styled language, and the shipwreck (about 50 pages of it) was tremendous fun: 'literary' sensibility meets the excitement often abandoned to genre. However, he failed to extend his literary imagination to his Indigenous people, and resorted to the worse part of sensation fiction. It sounds as if White should have known better.
I am not continuing past the cannibal scenes. It's my first Patrick White and I am an instant convert to his writing. But I won't read his lurid inventions about Australia's First Nations. See this article:
https://www.killyourdarlings.com.au/2012/06/castaways-convicts-and-cannibals-patrick-whites-a-fringe-of-leaves/
'We certainly cannot accept the licence White takes with Indigenous Australia when we remember that this book was published one year after Gough Whitlam, of whom the author was a public champion, famously poured earth into the hands of Vincent Lingiari.'
From 5* to 1* as soon as she was 'captured by savages'. I was liking the adventure plot done in White's highly-styled language, and the shipwreck (about 50 pages of it) was tremendous fun: 'literary' sensibility meets the excitement often abandoned to genre. However, he failed to extend his literary imagination to his Indigenous people, and resorted to the worse part of sensation fiction. It sounds as if White should have known better.
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