A review by georgiarybanks
Gould's Book of Fish: A Novel in Twelve Fish by Richard Flanagan

adventurous challenging funny medium-paced

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

2.0

Earlier this year I read Flames and The Rain Heron by Tasmanian author, Robbie Arnott. I loved both books and eagerly signed up to hear Arnott speak at the 2020 Melbourne Writers Festival. In his session Arnott spoke about reading Gould’s Book of Fish (which is set in Arnott’s home state of Tasmania) and thinking “I can’t believe someone is allowed to write a book like this”. That had me intrigued. So I borrowed the audiobook from my local library.

Unfortunately, Gould’s Book of Fish just wasn’t my brand of weird. I found it difficult to follow what was going on most of the time, due to the quite mad, unreliable narrator, William Buelow Gould. I’m not sure I would have made it to the end if I was reading instead of listening.

There were plenty of glorious sentences and witty satire throughout the book. It’s high brow and low brow all at the same time. I’m sure there were plenty more clever comments on colonialism, race relations, history, memory, capitalism and prison culture that went right over my head.

I’m not across the history of Sarah Island or the real life character that inspired Flanagan’s story. Maybe things would have been easier to follow if I’d had that context.

If you want to listen to 11 hours of a crazy convict’s delusions... then this is the audiobook for you! 

I'm glad this book inspired Robbie Arnott to write his own strange Tasmanian novels.