A review by stefhyena
The Harp in the South by Ruth Park

2.0

Beautifully painted details, convincing tragedy- from bedbugs to brothels to little boys that go missing. The trouble is that overall it works to romanticise the domestic violence, alcoholism, abject poverty and loneliness it depicts. In doing this it valorises the gender order. There's also casual racism which I think the author is trying to work to dismantle in a 1940s sort of a way that seems half-hearted now.

But it's not enough because at the end of the book Mumma and Roei and Dolour all turn to their heterosexual dyads and away from each other. And although Roei will never be beaten and economically abused like Mumma has been- that's if anything the least convincingly written detail.