Carpentaria by Alexis Wright
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Blurb from Goodreads
Carpentaria is Alexis Wright’s second novel, an epic set in the Gulf country of northwestern Queensland.
The novel’s portrait of life in the precariously settled coastal town of Desperance centres on the powerful Phantom family, leader of the Westend Pricklebush people, and its battles with old Joseph Midnight’s renegade Eastend mob on the one hand, and the white officials of Uptown and the neighbouring Gurfurrit mine on the other.
Wright’s storytelling is operatic and surreal: a blend of myth and scripture, politics and farce. The novel teems with extraordinary characters – the outcast saviour Elias Smith, the religious zealot Mozzie Fishman, the murderous mayor Bruiser, the moth-ridden Captain Nicoli Finn, the activist Will Phantom, and above all, the rulers of the family, the queen of the rubbish-dump and the fish-embalming king of time, Angel Day and Normal Phantom – figures of such an intense imagining, they stand like giants in this storm-swept world….
My review
I can see why Carpentaria won a Miles Franklin Award. It is a big book which tells an important story in a manner likely to be novel to many readers.
On its face, Carpentaria is the story of a town, Desperance, on the Gulf of Carpentaria, giving the reader an insight into tensions within the Aboriginal communities on the outskirts of the town and between them and the white people who live in the town itself. Underneath that, and far more importantly, it is a story about family, Country and Culture.
It was at first difficult for me to follow, as the first few chapters take an entirely non-linear path and at times appear somewhat unrelated. However, if the reader simply reads and accepts these chapters as separate stories, it soon becomes clear that they set the scene for the main events of the novel, as well as introducing many of the characters. Nothing is there by accident and no reading is wasted. The book is never entirely linear, but does become easier to follow, and the story easier to comprehend, as the reader learns more.
To try to explain more would give too much away. Let it suffice to say that Ms Wright’s work is meticulous, and I suspect each word was placed with care. The reader is in safe hands.
This is a review for the 2012 Australian Women Writers Challenge. You can see my full list of books here. You can find a full list of my reviews, and other posts relevant to the challenge, here.
Thanks for sharing your review – this is a book I know I should have read by now but have been putting off., I think its time to reconsider it
Shelleyrae @ Book’d Out
Yes, definitely! And not just because it’s good, but because it’s so different from anything else – first, because it tells a story about a group of Aboriginal Australians, and we don’t have enough of those (certainly not enough good ones, and certainly not enough by Aboriginal people), and secondly because of its structure and style. I would not dare to say that Ms Wright’s style is “an Aboriginal Australian style” or “a Waanyi style”, because I have no idea, but I suspect that at least some of the differences between this and every other book in the world are due to Ms Wright’s cultural heritage. Diversity is important for many reasons, and reading this book will give everyone some diversity in their literary diet.
That said, it’s not an easy read, so it’s worth leaving it until you have time to pay it attention.
[comment edited for clarity – should remember proof-reading is my friend!]
read this book a couple of years ago. It’s a challenging book but a fantastic reading experience. highly recommded
I think that this is a really important book- big in its themes, and it has a humour and voice that is very challenging and different. It’s probably the most striking and different book that I’ve read in a long time.
For a much more sophisticated review of this book, check out Tony’s review at Tony’s Reading List.
Thanks for the link Jo :) It really is worth staying with, even though some people might find it slow going. To be honest, I liked that pace – the weakest part of the book for me was near the end, when the mine incident seemed very rushed in comparison.
[…] (9) Alexis Wright: Carpentaria (Genre: Modern Literature/Award Winners) A brilliant novel about Culture, Country and Dreaming. Some effort required due to the often non-linear story, but well worth that effort. Everyone should read it. (Full review here.) […]
It’s good to know what to expect; some books just take a little more settling into. This one is on my TBR list, and I do hope to get to it as part of the AWW challenge, but if not this year then next; I’ll be sure to be ready to concentrate for the first bit, so that I can appreciate what she’s up to.
[…] Wright, Alexis. Carpentaria. Reviewed by: Kate Rizetti, M D Brady, Tony’s Reading List, Jo Tamar […]