Reviews

A Kindness Cup by Thea Astley

jacquelinepon's review against another edition

dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

textpublishing's review against another edition

‘This timely and attractively priced reissue is a welcome chance to reconsider [Astley’s] rich oeuvre. Astley’s work is characterised by her irony and unflinching scrutiny of social injustice. In A Kindness Cup, she was at the top of her impressive form…This short novel is one of Australia’s finest.’
Stuff NZ

bemma_204's review against another edition

5.0

language like Shakespeare. every sentence required two readings before it sucker punched you with its implications.

stefhyena's review against another edition

2.0

It is well written in the sort of hard to read heavy sense. The sort of stuff they might make you read at uni, that is good for you (or so you hope). It was based on an actual occurence, the way things actually were in Australia. A lot of the details seemed plausible but having struggled through the whole thing I wanted some little patch of redemption or hope...something. It was all so bleak, such a scathing indictment of masculinity (although several different masculinites were portrayed they were all pretty much corrupt while all the feminities were irrelevant and trivial). Because of the paralells to how the political climate is now- the brutality, the lack of compassion I wanted a grain of hope.

I didn't really enjoy it. I wanted to like it for its complexity and criticism but I couldn't. Perhaps I don;t get it on some level?

wtb_michael's review against another edition

4.0

A short, angry book about the violence and murder of colonisation and the ways it was minimised and hidden. Astley was ahead of her time - this is a brutal book about masculinity, racism and the (often unspoken - especially in the 1970s) suffering that underpins modern Australian history.