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A review by blakew321
The Potato Factory by Bryce Courtenay
3.0
Lanah found this one at the school library.
Well I thought this book was a 3-star read. There were moments that were good and fun, including the end which tempted me to give it a higher rating. But I had to remember my experience whilst reading the entirety of the book and some parts were just not fun. Sometimes it seemed to drag on about unrelated things. I think this book probably could have been done better if it was like half the size. I swear like half of it was infodumps, which is alright because you can tell he did a lot of research and so he was providing context. But like still, please find a more engaging way of delivering this information.
That being said, I loved the characters in this book. Mary is someone you want to see succeed in life, Ikey you secretly love for his mischievous, villainous ways and his slow discovery of compassion, and Hannah you want to see die in a hole. Perhaps the characterisation wouldn't have been quite as strong as it was if the book was shorter, but to be honest I think that's alright. The more minor characters were done alright as well. I have emotional connections (whether positive or negative) with Bob Marley, Sparrer Fart, Marybelle Firkin/Sperm Whale Sally, Tiberius Potbottom, Mr Emmet, Billygonequeer, Tommo and Hawk even though they all have wack names which I can't really believe existed. All of the characters were very vibrant which made for amusing scenes when they interacted, even if they were twice as long as they needed to be.
Getting a glimpse into the history was really nice. The horrible conditions for the poor and destitute during 19th century London were reinforced to me, especially through some scenes which I don't think I was old enough to read. This made me think about the people that are living like this in industrialising nations today. It was also very good to learn about Van Diemen's Land as a burgeoning penal colony, which is what attracted me to the book in the first place.
I thought the portrayal of racism and sexism were pretty realistic, yet nice. Our favourite characters didn't necessarily think they were better than the Aboriginal and African people they encountered, but still didn't immediately empathise with their cause. For example, Ikey, out of kindness, tells an Aboriginal man that he must change to "be like us" in order to survive, instead of accepting him as fine as he how he is (which I'm sure a YA author would have made him do). Mary is constantly told that she cannot be a clerk because she is a woman, even by characters that we are supposed to like - but this doesn't mean she doesn't succeed. However there were a few times when Courtenay was like "women don't think about this like men do" where I was like *ugh cringe*. He also uses the N word far too many times for my liking. During dialogue I suppose it's okay, but during descriptions? The narration is omniscient and sometimes speaks about discrimination from a more modern standpoint so I was like why are you saying these things?
Overall, I'm still excited for the next book, because this one ended in a nice way with a happy character moment. Some parts of The Potato Factory were really boring, but the characters made me like it anyway. I just hope I never have to read another book where a prisoner's purse is described over and over and over again. *shudders*
P.S. Whoever wrote the blurb is a bad blurb writer. Everything that is described there happened by page 610! Like what the heck! You're not supposed to write what happens during the entire book!
Well I thought this book was a 3-star read. There were moments that were good and fun, including the end which tempted me to give it a higher rating. But I had to remember my experience whilst reading the entirety of the book and some parts were just not fun. Sometimes it seemed to drag on about unrelated things. I think this book probably could have been done better if it was like half the size. I swear like half of it was infodumps, which is alright because you can tell he did a lot of research and so he was providing context. But like still, please find a more engaging way of delivering this information.
That being said, I loved the characters in this book. Mary is someone you want to see succeed in life, Ikey you secretly love for his mischievous, villainous ways and his slow discovery of compassion, and Hannah you want to see die in a hole. Perhaps the characterisation wouldn't have been quite as strong as it was if the book was shorter, but to be honest I think that's alright. The more minor characters were done alright as well. I have emotional connections (whether positive or negative) with Bob Marley, Sparrer Fart, Marybelle Firkin/Sperm Whale Sally, Tiberius Potbottom, Mr Emmet, Billygonequeer, Tommo and Hawk even though they all have wack names which I can't really believe existed. All of the characters were very vibrant which made for amusing scenes when they interacted, even if they were twice as long as they needed to be.
Getting a glimpse into the history was really nice. The horrible conditions for the poor and destitute during 19th century London were reinforced to me, especially through some scenes which I don't think I was old enough to read. This made me think about the people that are living like this in industrialising nations today. It was also very good to learn about Van Diemen's Land as a burgeoning penal colony, which is what attracted me to the book in the first place.
I thought the portrayal of racism and sexism were pretty realistic, yet nice. Our favourite characters didn't necessarily think they were better than the Aboriginal and African people they encountered, but still didn't immediately empathise with their cause. For example, Ikey, out of kindness, tells an Aboriginal man that he must change to "be like us" in order to survive, instead of accepting him as fine as he how he is (which I'm sure a YA author would have made him do). Mary is constantly told that she cannot be a clerk because she is a woman, even by characters that we are supposed to like - but this doesn't mean she doesn't succeed. However there were a few times when Courtenay was like "women don't think about this like men do" where I was like *ugh cringe*. He also uses the N word far too many times for my liking. During dialogue I suppose it's okay, but during descriptions? The narration is omniscient and sometimes speaks about discrimination from a more modern standpoint so I was like why are you saying these things?
Overall, I'm still excited for the next book, because this one ended in a nice way with a happy character moment. Some parts of The Potato Factory were really boring, but the characters made me like it anyway. I just hope I never have to read another book where a prisoner's purse is described over and over and over again. *shudders*
P.S. Whoever wrote the blurb is a bad blurb writer. Everything that is described there happened by page 610! Like what the heck! You're not supposed to write what happens during the entire book!