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A review by desterman
Laurinda by Alice Pung
3.0
Set in the late 1990s, Lucy is a fifteen-year-old girl of Chinese born Vietnamese heritage, who arrived to Australia as a baby with her parents on a refugee boat. She lives in a modest home in Melbourne’s working-class suburbs with her hard-working parents and baby brother. After completing an entrance exam, Lucy is surprised when she achieves a scholarship place at the elite and expensive private all girls’ school, Laurinda. Initially Lucy tries to remain relatively invisible in this new space, but is soon sucked into the power dynamics that exist around the queen bees of her year group, known as The Cabinet.
Alice Pung’s excellent debut novel perfectly examines the way class, education, race, prejudice, and elitism clash at various pressure points in Australian society. The power dynamics and politics in this kind of system is astutely examined in the novel through the intricate characterisation and relationships that Pung skilfully creates. The novel delves deep into what is often seen as simply the nastiness and privilege of upper middle class teenage girls and slowly, but painfully uncovers the inner machinations of this sort of behaviour. Similarly, through Lucy’s life outside of Laurinda, the novel examines the hardship of those at the opposite end of society, working to the bone to make a better life for their children. What is most impressive though is Pung’s ability to convey how difficult it is for Lucy to transverse the space between these two worlds whilst staying true to her sense of self.
The novel is separated into a prologue (at Lucy’s old school) and four parts, each representing the four terms Lucy spends at Laurinda. This gives a good sense of the passing of time, but also the way in which Lucy changes and develops over time because of these new experiences. The novel is written in first person and positioned as one long letter to one of Lucy’s former best friends, Linh. This offers the reader with a thoughtful perspective of the events, firmly positioning us as outsiders with a view to the inside, much like Lucy herself.
Whilst aspects of the novel feel a little dated now, it is still a fine reflection on peer pressure and how difficult it is to establish and hold fast to your own identity while others are working so hard to diminish it.
Alice Pung’s excellent debut novel perfectly examines the way class, education, race, prejudice, and elitism clash at various pressure points in Australian society. The power dynamics and politics in this kind of system is astutely examined in the novel through the intricate characterisation and relationships that Pung skilfully creates. The novel delves deep into what is often seen as simply the nastiness and privilege of upper middle class teenage girls and slowly, but painfully uncovers the inner machinations of this sort of behaviour. Similarly, through Lucy’s life outside of Laurinda, the novel examines the hardship of those at the opposite end of society, working to the bone to make a better life for their children. What is most impressive though is Pung’s ability to convey how difficult it is for Lucy to transverse the space between these two worlds whilst staying true to her sense of self.
The novel is separated into a prologue (at Lucy’s old school) and four parts, each representing the four terms Lucy spends at Laurinda. This gives a good sense of the passing of time, but also the way in which Lucy changes and develops over time because of these new experiences. The novel is written in first person and positioned as one long letter to one of Lucy’s former best friends, Linh. This offers the reader with a thoughtful perspective of the events, firmly positioning us as outsiders with a view to the inside, much like Lucy herself.
Whilst aspects of the novel feel a little dated now, it is still a fine reflection on peer pressure and how difficult it is to establish and hold fast to your own identity while others are working so hard to diminish it.