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A review by roie
The Harp in the South by Ruth Park
5.0
My mother named me Rowena after Rowena Darcy in this book, she finally gifted me this book for my 21st birthday and I demolished it. The characters in this are so unequivocally Australian it almost feels like I'm reading a story about my family even though this is set nearly a century ago now.
I think the thing I loved about this is even though it is so of its time and a lot has changed since Ruth Park wrote this, so many of themes are still current issues that resonate so easily with many Australian people. The whole middle section with Roie and her terrible experiences with men and sexuality are so relevant to current social discourse and it really hit hard with me. Then towards the end, after you've been dragged through so many terrible experiences there are some really lovely chapters that are just such a relief to finally reach.
Because this was written just after World War Two, there is quite a lot of uncomfortable language and conversations around race that I found quite hard to read, but although the language is quite old there are really great moments of progressiveness for the time specifically with Roie and Charlie.
Other than that, this is incredible and if it isn't a text in the Australian English Curriculum it definitely should be.
I think the thing I loved about this is even though it is so of its time and a lot has changed since Ruth Park wrote this, so many of themes are still current issues that resonate so easily with many Australian people. The whole middle section with Roie and her terrible experiences with men and sexuality are so relevant to current social discourse and it really hit hard with me. Then towards the end, after you've been dragged through so many terrible experiences there are some really lovely chapters that are just such a relief to finally reach.
Because this was written just after World War Two, there is quite a lot of uncomfortable language and conversations around race that I found quite hard to read, but although the language is quite old there are really great moments of progressiveness for the time specifically with Roie and Charlie.
Other than that, this is incredible and if it isn't a text in the Australian English Curriculum it definitely should be.