Saturday, August 07, 2004
Jessica - Bryce Courtenay
This book has been adapted into a two part mini-series which aired recently on Australian TV. The mini-series was quite good, and thinking that the book is always better than the show I borrowed it from a friend.
I have an interesting relationship with Bryce Courtenay’s writing; it seems that I either love it or am completely indifferent. ‘April Fool’s Day’ is one of my favourite books ever, and certainly the most powerful book I have ever read. ‘Power of One’ and ‘Thomo and Hawk’ are similarly brilliant. However, ‘Tandia’ and ‘The Potato Factory’ failed to grab my interest. They weren’t bad, merely ordinary. Unfortunately, I now have a third book to add to this list.
The TV adaptation must be applauded, it is incredibly faithful to the book, with only minor changes made, until towards the end where some of the despair is removed, to allow the audience to feel that the good guy has some reward. In the book no such reward is forthcoming. The title character faces hardship after hardship in an almost unending series of devastations.
Having watched the show I already knew the major twist (it is hardly a twist, more revealed information). What annoyed me about the book was that there was an active attempt to hide this information. I realize that any foreshadowing would probably have made it patently obvious, but I think that the correspondence shared between the two characters involved would have contained more hints if the author was being fair to the truth.
The portrayal of life in the bush in the early 20th century is probably the chief allure of the book. I think most Australians feel a kind of pride for those people who managed to make a living off the inhospitable land that they were faced with. And it is stories like these that make me think that we should be doing more to help those people. Drought is a constant problem and seems only to be alleviated by floods; added to that, they have to compete in a market place with products from the cheap labour of Asia and South America, and the heavily subsidized goods from the EU and US. I am not sure that either of the political parties in Australia is giving sufficient thought to this. The harsh truth is that there are just not enough votes in the bush, and the city folk seem to resent that they subsidise those that live in the country. I think that we need to remember that Australia came to be where it is now on the sheep’s back.
But this is meant to be a book review, not a polemic. The book is written in third person and goes constantly through rapid POV changes. While this is handled with skill and there is seldom confusion as to whose eye’s we are seeing through, it does, at times, seem jarring and prevents a narrative flow. There are points where the writing becomes repetitive and while I think that this is meant to indicate a pattern of circular thinking in a character, it got annoying.
There is also a large section which exists to attack the government policy during the Aboriginal stolen generation. There is enough information there that I am interested to follow it up and learn more about this tragic period of Australia’s history, but it seemed to be there as more of a political statement than as a furthering of the narrative. The story is based heavily (entirely??) on the life of a real person and I suppose as such it is to be expected that the major events would be focused on closely. Jessica attempts to help an Aboriginal friend who has had her children unfairly, though lawfully, confiscated. I just think that this section was both overly long and more concerned with government policy and the public’s casual racism, than with the characters. But like the character of the bush I think that it is important that more Australians know what went on during this period, and how that government policy and public opinion at that time is still affecting the Aboriginal people today. It is hard to criticize this too much because if Courtenay had written a non-fiction essay or book on the subject then it would never have reached the audience that Jessica will have.
Unfortunately the book as a whole was not up to the standard of some of his exceptional work. If you want to know the story, and it is worth knowing, it is probably worth trying to track down a copy of the mini-series. It is very faithful to the book and will take you less time to go through.
I have an interesting relationship with Bryce Courtenay’s writing; it seems that I either love it or am completely indifferent. ‘April Fool’s Day’ is one of my favourite books ever, and certainly the most powerful book I have ever read. ‘Power of One’ and ‘Thomo and Hawk’ are similarly brilliant. However, ‘Tandia’ and ‘The Potato Factory’ failed to grab my interest. They weren’t bad, merely ordinary. Unfortunately, I now have a third book to add to this list.
The TV adaptation must be applauded, it is incredibly faithful to the book, with only minor changes made, until towards the end where some of the despair is removed, to allow the audience to feel that the good guy has some reward. In the book no such reward is forthcoming. The title character faces hardship after hardship in an almost unending series of devastations.
Having watched the show I already knew the major twist (it is hardly a twist, more revealed information). What annoyed me about the book was that there was an active attempt to hide this information. I realize that any foreshadowing would probably have made it patently obvious, but I think that the correspondence shared between the two characters involved would have contained more hints if the author was being fair to the truth.
The portrayal of life in the bush in the early 20th century is probably the chief allure of the book. I think most Australians feel a kind of pride for those people who managed to make a living off the inhospitable land that they were faced with. And it is stories like these that make me think that we should be doing more to help those people. Drought is a constant problem and seems only to be alleviated by floods; added to that, they have to compete in a market place with products from the cheap labour of Asia and South America, and the heavily subsidized goods from the EU and US. I am not sure that either of the political parties in Australia is giving sufficient thought to this. The harsh truth is that there are just not enough votes in the bush, and the city folk seem to resent that they subsidise those that live in the country. I think that we need to remember that Australia came to be where it is now on the sheep’s back.
But this is meant to be a book review, not a polemic. The book is written in third person and goes constantly through rapid POV changes. While this is handled with skill and there is seldom confusion as to whose eye’s we are seeing through, it does, at times, seem jarring and prevents a narrative flow. There are points where the writing becomes repetitive and while I think that this is meant to indicate a pattern of circular thinking in a character, it got annoying.
There is also a large section which exists to attack the government policy during the Aboriginal stolen generation. There is enough information there that I am interested to follow it up and learn more about this tragic period of Australia’s history, but it seemed to be there as more of a political statement than as a furthering of the narrative. The story is based heavily (entirely??) on the life of a real person and I suppose as such it is to be expected that the major events would be focused on closely. Jessica attempts to help an Aboriginal friend who has had her children unfairly, though lawfully, confiscated. I just think that this section was both overly long and more concerned with government policy and the public’s casual racism, than with the characters. But like the character of the bush I think that it is important that more Australians know what went on during this period, and how that government policy and public opinion at that time is still affecting the Aboriginal people today. It is hard to criticize this too much because if Courtenay had written a non-fiction essay or book on the subject then it would never have reached the audience that Jessica will have.
Unfortunately the book as a whole was not up to the standard of some of his exceptional work. If you want to know the story, and it is worth knowing, it is probably worth trying to track down a copy of the mini-series. It is very faithful to the book and will take you less time to go through.
