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A review by gitli57
Carpentaria by Alexis Wright
challenging
emotional
funny
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
There are some books and some writers that are beyond any superlatives I can find. They are working on a different plane and are simply necessary. Alexis Wright's Carpentaria goes straight to my short list of necessary books.
It is an Aboriginal Australian story of family, cleansing, return, place, home and survival in the face of merciless white settler colonialism, represented by a mining corporation. This will resonate for many Native American people, of course, because our experiences have often been so similar. So are the multi-generational family dysfunctions that often result from these cultural stresses and displacements. And still, Indig folks world over continue the struggle with a stubborn hope and even a sense of humor, which Wright captures perfectly.
There are a lot of well written novels and memoirs out now dealing with these things, but in Carpentaria, Alexis Wright does so with an ancient and powerful voice. Reading her is like sitting around a fire listening to a master Indigenous story teller.
Which means the story rules are different here. Heads up - modern dominant culture writers did not invent discontinuity or non-linear time sense. And as I have said in other reviews, if something happens that seems outside the norm, that doesn't make it "magical realism". It's how the world works if you are really connected to it. It's not supernatural or magic just because western science hasn't figured out how to measure it.
It is an Aboriginal Australian story of family, cleansing, return, place, home and survival in the face of merciless white settler colonialism, represented by a mining corporation. This will resonate for many Native American people, of course, because our experiences have often been so similar. So are the multi-generational family dysfunctions that often result from these cultural stresses and displacements. And still, Indig folks world over continue the struggle with a stubborn hope and even a sense of humor, which Wright captures perfectly.
There are a lot of well written novels and memoirs out now dealing with these things, but in Carpentaria, Alexis Wright does so with an ancient and powerful voice. Reading her is like sitting around a fire listening to a master Indigenous story teller.
Which means the story rules are different here. Heads up - modern dominant culture writers did not invent discontinuity or non-linear time sense. And as I have said in other reviews, if something happens that seems outside the norm, that doesn't make it "magical realism". It's how the world works if you are really connected to it. It's not supernatural or magic just because western science hasn't figured out how to measure it.