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A review by ahbartlett
Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay
3.75
A fever dream book that turns out is the perfect book to read mostly in its entirety when you yourself are off sick from work for a fever. I also got quite homesick for the sunburned country reading this!
Picnic at Hanging Rock seems to be a book (and later movie adaptation) that defined many Australian women of a certain age, at least in my family. While it is a captivating mystery and character study, I think it mostly serves as an interesting slice of life of the first and second generation British coloniser to Australia - especially reading the juxtaposition of upper class British customs with The Bush surrounding them. It’s a habitat our characters fundamentally do not understand, and this is why the much disputed ending makes sense to me; The Bush claimed what does not belong there. The most explored character in this book is arguably The Bush. I think this is what makes it a true Australian novel.
Many undertones of queerness in this book, whether or not intended to be explicit by Lindsay! I have no doubt many a gay Aussie teen has written an essay about this.
Picnic at Hanging Rock seems to be a book (and later movie adaptation) that defined many Australian women of a certain age, at least in my family. While it is a captivating mystery and character study, I think it mostly serves as an interesting slice of life of the first and second generation British coloniser to Australia - especially reading the juxtaposition of upper class British customs with The Bush surrounding them. It’s a habitat our characters fundamentally do not understand, and this is why the much disputed ending makes sense to me; The Bush claimed what does not belong there. The most explored character in this book is arguably The Bush. I think this is what makes it a true Australian novel.
Many undertones of queerness in this book, whether or not intended to be explicit by Lindsay! I have no doubt many a gay Aussie teen has written an essay about this.