Review by seclement - All Our Shimmering Skies

seclement 's review for:

All Our Shimmering Skies by Trent Dalton

2.5

adventurous hopeful sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

After having read 2 Trent Dalton books that I loved, I was pretty disappointed in this. It had a lot of Australian stereotypes in it, which isn't necessarily unique for him, but it really didn't land for me this time, especially with the Aboriginal characters and the Japanese pilot who drops from the sky. There's the usual mix of magic and reality, and the young, naive central character, which you see in his other books. But when you combine it with WWII Australia (and the Australian mythos around what it was like then), a mix of stereotypical characters who were difficult to connect to, and an account of Australian landscapes seemingly written by someone who doesn't seem to have spent much time there; I just struggled to even get through the story. Although the stereotypes might have aligned with the time at which the story takes place, he doesn't really nail the narrative to make that work. I have said a few times that I think Dalton is one of Australia's best modern fiction authors, but I think I have to put a caveat on that now to say he is at his best when he writes more in line with his own experience, with characters who have tough lives and weird, wonderful, and sometimes tragic coping methods, in Australian cities and suburbs. This book had its moments, but don't start here if you are new to his work.

Also, this was far longer than it needed to be, given the story

Content Warnings