Chris Flynn's Mammoth

For the second COVID month in a row, we were able to meet in person - appropriately socially distanced of course. How nice it was - and now full it was. With none of us able to travel, our usual depleted winter turnout was again not in evidence!

Our chosen book was the recently published novel, Mammoth, by Irish-born Australian writer, Chris Flynn. It's a surprising novel, narrated by a mammoth fossil, telling his story to a bunch of other, mostly incomplete, fossils, as they await going on sale at an auction. As usual, we started with our First impressions.

First impressions

While no-one disliked the book, our first impressions fell into two camps, those who loved or really liked it, and those who enjoyed it but didn't love it.

Those who loved, or really liked it, said:

• Loved it, quirky, humorous. 
• Enjoyed it, comic.
• Ripping yarn, great imagination. 
• Very interesting read, loved being reminded of her knowledge of old/prehistoric history; found the encounters between ancient and modern civilisation interesting; felt the novel was too short to get sick of it; and liked the ending.
• Didn't like beginning, because the humour felt too corny but grew to like it; liked how it looked at human brutality; loved his commentary on writing (including such issues as veracity and believability, tone) and loved Mammut's statement that "No story’s gold from beginning to end", suggesting that this is the novelist fending off in advance criticisms of the boring parts of his novel.
• Enjoyed the book, an easy read and an interesting diversion in COVID-infested Melbourne (emailed in.)

Those who liked it, but were more luke-warm, said:

• Enjoyed it, but the banter was too disneyesque, and the narrative was confusing. 
• Started with a bang, but got sick of it at the end.
• Enjoyed the start, but got tired as it progressed, some of it was intriguing, but other parts were laboured.
• Found it a clever concept, but got tired of the banter; however did enjoy Googling some of the historical information; felt Mammut went on a bit and didn't like T. bataar’s contemporary voice. 
• Strange, cartoonesque, fragmentary 

Subsequent discussion

Our discussion was rather fragmentary, a bit like some found the book was! It was interrupted by a lively discussion about Blue Cornflower Corningware, which one member had discovered now has vintage status. It was a case of ancient Corningware facing off against ancient fossils!

In terms of the writing, we all agreed that the two epilogues were wonderful, and we also liked the book's opening with Thomas Jefferson's letter. In terms of criticism, besides the style of humour, various members felt there were some unnecessary digressions and some over-explication (such as in the Cuvier section.) 

A member commented that the novel felt like an Irish tale, and noted Palaeo's comment that

"this tale of the Irish siblings is damn fine storytelling. I'm pretty confident none of it is true, but, hey, I'm past that now" (p. 206)

She commented that this reflects the old idea of never letting the facts get in the way of a good story, but, she said, Flynn did weave a story around facts. 

Another member commented that the idea of collecting "memories", of exploring the idea "if these bones could talk", was inspired. And one proffered that Flynn was brave to write about America the way he does.

Of course, we discussed his exploration of environmental degradation, species extinction, and climate change. Some felt it was hard to believe that some of the ideas are true, such as the impact of mammoths (and their stamping on the ground) on climate change. However, others pointed to research, such as this and an Economist article shared by a member, which gives the idea some credence. One member shared the mammoth's comment early in the novel:

“Our world was changing and there was nothing we could do about it.” (p. 44)

She suggested this helplessness is exactly how our animals and land would be "feeling" today. 

We couldn't help turning to Australia, with one member noting the impact of introduced hooved animals on the Australian environment. We also discussed recent forecasts that the koala could be extinct in under 50 years. And what are we doing about it, one member asked? Still allowing development to continue in a rare koala habitat area! Unbelievable!

We also noted the reference in the novel to people in the 19th century not believing scientists, such as Cuvier's theory of extinction, just as there are people now who don't believe climate scientists. 

One member quoted the statement made late in the book - “Relentless growth is not sustainable” (p. 252) - and asked how do we find the balance between destructive "relentless growth" and human desire to imagine, create, improve? 

We talked about other contemporary concerns Flynn weaves in through the story, such as racism, speciesism, and the idea of history being in the hands of the survivors.

Related to this is another of the novel's concerns - trophy mentality, or, the idea of self-aggrandisement through big animals. This idea is introduced in the novel's opening - Thomas Jefferson's letter enquiring about the availability of mammoth bones. The fossils talk about the equation of large animals with men and power. Pterodactyl tells the group of being using in Hitler Youth training: 

We were presented to the eager teens as proof that Germany had once been the centre of might in Europe and the origin point for life on earth. Your mastodon friend in particular was elevated as a symbol of strength … I was referred to as the Reptilian Eagle, an apex predator who dominated the skies. It would have been a compliment, had it not come from the mouths of maniacs. (p. 159/160)

The novel was, in fact, inspired by a 2007 auction in Manhattan of fossils - those represented in the novel - that Flynn had read about. One of the novel's two epilogues chronicles some of the outcomes of that auction, at which celebrities like Nicolas Cage and Leonardo Di Caprio vied for big fossils! As Pterodactyl continued from the above:

Yet again the hominid males appropriate motifs of power from the natural world in order to make themselves seem strong. (p. 160)

The novel also provides a potted view of human history through selected - fragmented as some in the group thought - events. The focus, in particular, was human brutality, which is something Flynn himself has seen in Ireland. He has had guns pointed at him, and he has heard nightmarish stories, he has said. In the novel, he chooses historical events/times like British suppression of Irish rebels, the Nazis, the decimation of Native Americans to make his point about the way humans behave and treat others, about their relationship to power.

The novel also represents are rather fun roll call of some of the 19th century's top palaeontologists and naturalists. Many of us enjoyed reading about them, and researching them in Wikipedia and elsewhere.

In the end, this book that garnered mixed responses generated quite a wide-ranging discussion.

Present: 10 members

The Overstory by Richard Powers

This major novel was the subject for our June book club. It was the Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction in 2019.

The Pulitzer Prize website says:

‘An ingeniously structured narrative that branches and canopies like the trees at the core of the story whose wonder and connectivity echo those of the humans living amongst them.’

This book was a massive undertaking as one of our members said. It is 625 pages long and some readers found the size challenging. In addition it has a large number of characters and time periods.

This novel was also awarded the William Dean Howells Medal in 2020 and nominated for the Man Booker in 2018. This is Richard Power’s 12thnovel. It was published in 2018. It has been critically acclaimed by many major authors including Barbara Kingsolver, writing for The New York Times.

Spoiler alert :

It is the story of 9 main characters living in the United States who all identify with particular trees: chestnut, mulberry, maple, oak (for a married couple), fir, beech and cedar. Each chapter in the ‘Roots’ part of the book includes a small drawing of some leaves and sometimes fruit. (An unusual feature for a novel.) The story of trees in America starts with the first Europeans arriving in the country but the main characters' lives begin in the 1960s till the present day. It is a sad tale of young activism and vandalism trying to save forests and loving trees and their subsequent lives. Some characters stay true to their ideals and one person is killed. The remaining eight find later life very difficult.

The two academics are amongst the strongest characters, they are Adam Appich and Patricia Westerford. He is a psychologist and researcher and she is a scientist. The other two prominent voices are those of an American of Indian ethnicity, Neelay Mehta, who grows up to be a technological wiz with his own company and staff devising fascinating games about ‘natural’ worlds, and an American engineer who is a daughter of a Chinese migrant, Mimi Ma. It is a huge book encompassing very different personalities and different life paths. Some of them cross paths towards the end of the novel.
   

First impressions

• Wanted to read it as had heard about it. Loved it but it took time to get into. Felt she had a responsibility to read it. 
• Enjoyed it but found it complex and hard to put it together
• Well written but grappling with it nevertheless
• Thought I would love it as I love trees but didn’t finish it 
• Loved it and wanted to read it as it was on everyone’s list in 2018/19, really liked the way the story was interwoven like the trees with their roots getting interwoven
• Liked the way trees were characters in the novel
• Daunted by the size of it but determined to finish it
• Liked the way the 9 characters set the framework for the novel
• Enjoyed the ‘Roots’ part of the novel much more than the rest – felt I needed some explanations for it
• Got engaged but lost the plot and the characters at times, as many of us did, found it a bit contrived also 
• Is it a polemic or not? Not sure
• Not a study of human nature but allegorical? 
• Powers is writing with a purpose and a passion for forests and trees. He has said that this book has changed him forever.
• Loved the way there were magical parts – like being in a forest – looking at the land from the canopy (walking or sitting up high enough to be part of the forest).
• Took me on a journey with such joyful and challenging knowledge
• Need to read it again and again – could be studied in great detail
• Not a perfect book 
• Didn’t like any characters except the academic Patricia
• Reminds me of Tolstoy— depth of knowledge and references to life’s challenges from birth to death and grief and way of living one’s life
• Does it change your mind about the environment – probably not – talking to the converted

Ensuing discussion

Structure of the work is most unusual – arranged according to the parts of a tree: Roots, Trunk, Crown and Seeds. The largest section is the ‘Trunk’ part.

Characters:

We talked about Neelay, the amazing digital wiz whose life is changed by a tree when he falls from a branch. He taps into a fantasy wonderland of Nature more nuanced and wonderful than reality. He keeps wanting his staff to create more excitement for players of his video game.

We discussed Patty (Patricia) who spends a huge part of her life in the forests and succeeds in setting up a seed bank for the future of mankind. She is deaf and has other issues however she, like the others, are all challenged by the society in which she lives. 

We all applauded Patricia’s success in court as an expert witness. She loves the forests with a passion and great knowledge, and we felt very sorry for her when she was ridiculed for her research conclusions which in time turn out to be correct. Powers is showing that we can make a difference but the odds are stacked against anyone trying. That is the trouble with an existential threat. 

We discussed Nicholas (Nick) and his family’s story of looking after chestnut trees until they all disappear. However, one chestnut tree reappears in someone else’s backyard -- Ray and Dorothy’s little suburban forest. A possible spark of hope? There is a beautiful scene when Ray who is greatly disabled by a stroke and Dorothy realise that they are rekindling their marriage, after many unhappy years, by learning more about nature and allowing nature to overtake their backyard. 

An example of more branching images and interconnections – Dorothy and Ray using the ‘decision tree’ to identify the trees in their yard by their characteristics. (page 552)

We also discussed Olivia Vandergriff who is like a spirit of the forest and slightly wacky. She hears voices and takes Nick on a road trip according to her voices. Some people felt that after her experiences and accidentally (?) dying for a second time, the book didn’t progress. However, others felt that Olivia inspired other characters, particularly Mimi, and some others had a reference back to Olivia and her death. She didn’t expect to achieve anything and she didn’t but she tried. 

Each character brings some different aspect of personality and opinions to the story. For instance Mimi’s dad is a sad Chinese man who takes his three daughters fly-fishing in Fish lake which is where Patricia parks on her way to Yellowstone Park. There are these linkages all through the novel. For instance, Powers writes about Mimi: 

‘The oldest girl, named for a Puccini opera heroine, will soon be wanted by the feds for fifty million dollars of arson.

Two thousand miles to the east, a student sculptor …(will) live to walk past the tree again, thirty years later, but only because of swearing to the Puccini heroine that no matter how bad things get, he won’t kill himself.’ (page 165)

Mimi’s dad killed himself so she doesn’t want that to happen to anyone else. We liked the section talking about Mimi’s Dad’s scroll which shows fishing. We also appreciated Winston (Mimi’s dad) saying sorry to the bear near the lake. 

Mimi asks her father what he said to the bear (that was preparing to attack) – he said

'Apologise!… people very stupid… forget everything...where they come from, where they go.. Don’t worry. Human being leaving this world very soon. Then the bear get top bunk to himself again'. (page 47)

Part of the author’s theme of leaving the world to itself to sort out and continue.

We also talked about the scene when the trees are cut down in front of Mimi’s office. This was where she met Douglas and had a moment of enlightenment.

This novel is full of misfits – because they are like us? The reader could draw allusions to Biblical stories such as those of Paul and Moses? 

The author himself moved to live in a forest and felt it changed his life still living in the Great Smoky mountains of Tennessee.

Title: The Overstory

We thought the title was good – it relates to forests and to one of the climactic parts of the book when Olivia and Nick are delicately balanced on the platform high up in the forest’s canopy. One member remembered the story of other people living high in the trees in the Tarkine, Tasmania. It could also be interpreted as having a mythic atmosphere? 

Forests

This book makes people think about forests more – after reading it you don’t feel the same anymore. However we don’t think it will change people’s ideas about climate change if they are not already convinced of it by the science.

There are many sections discussing the landscape of old growth trees. One member discussed Simon Schama’s book on landscape and art. Schama particularly talks about German landscape painting which often shows forests with a range of trees, as well as growth and death. 

Powers, the author, does not talk about the First Nations people of the US in this novel. There is only one small reference to them in one of the protest scenes when the young people are trying hard to save a forest.

In discussing the forests we talked about oaks and their beauty. One member also talked about forest bathing in Japan where you can be at one with Mother Nature. 

Powers is quoted as saying that ‘all good stories will kill you a little’. Books can do this. 

Conclusion

Is this book saying ‘we are stuffed’ as far as saving the trees and thus the planet? There are different opinions on this matter. But we think Powers is saying that personal connections with nature, especially trees, are vitally important and will help save us ? Life will continue despite everything.

Many of us are troubled, even discombobulated, by the news every day so Patricia’s seed bank leads to hope. There are seed banks in place in Australia as well as overseas, which do hold good for some species of flora. 

This month we were very happy to return to meeting in a member’s home, suitably socially distanced.

Present: 10 members

There was still love by Favel Parrett

This book is short and sharp about life for people living behind the Iron curtain and being a migrant in an Anglo-Saxon dominated Australia. It is largely the story of 2 families, one living in Prague and one in Melbourne. They are related by their grandmothers being not only sisters but also twins. The perspective is from the grandchildren’s point of view. Ludek is the little boy living in Prague with his Babi. Life is hard for Babi and her grandson but also for the population of Prague. Ludek’s Australian great aunt (Mana) and uncle (Vilem) visit from Melbourne and tell him about Mala Liska who recounts the Australian part of the story. Ludek is intrigued why Aunty Mana left Prague and travelled to Australia. 

It’s a story in dated sections beginning in Melbourne 1980, Prague 1980, Prague in March 1968, Melbourne 1980,  Prague 1942, Prague 1980, Melbourne 1980, Prague 1938, Prague 1980 and Prague 1978, Prague 1981 and Melbourne 1981 and then Prague 1921.  We learn a little of Czech history with the invasion in 1968 by the Russians and we hear of the racism experienced by migrants in Australia and the general difficulties of working and living in a country with a different culture and language.

First impressions:

• Enjoyable, tender, good hearted, perspective from children’s point of view is painful and unusual, structure is good
• Very little happens but there is a lot going on
• Delightful, almost not there, such fleeting stories, tricky working it all out, the grandma connection is intriguing, thought it might come to more than it does, not totally satisfied and not totally successful
• Loved it, poignant, intimate, first person dialogue and perspective
• Similarities between the children although they live on opposite sides of the world
• Beautifully written, just gorgeous, slow read which fits in with our current Covid-19 sate of lockdown, gentle
• Tale of loss for the people and country and with such a light touch for the story and the characters 
• Enjoyed children’s perspective, enjoyed the author interview with Richard Fidler (see Radio national— Conversations)
• Poignant, deeply personal
• Sad, quiet, tale of leaving people and places behind
• Excited to read it as a 2^nd generation migrant from Eastern Europe with knowledge of Prague and Czechoslovakia, a bit dissatisfied too as the story was a bit too spare, would have liked more. Could relate to gherkins (best in the world) and apricot dumplings (love them). Could have been a bit warmer.
• Was I reading a whole book or just essays stretched out? I read the review published 2 years ago about a 6-year-old going up stairs. Also expected the people to be Jewish as people I knew in Melbourne who lived similar lives were Jewish. (Supposedly lives of migrants not able to re-establish themselves to the way they were in their home country. ) 
• It also expanded my view of Melbourne from my memories of my childhood.

Ensuing discussion:

LOVE

Why is it called : There was still love ?

‘Still’ has 2 meanings – the stillness and the continuity ? The Magician says:

‘I put the broken in my suitcase and take them with me until they are ready to go home again.
There is still love’ (page 181).

It is an ambiguous phrase – so much loss. There is a sense that the two children are greatly loved although dislocated from their parents. Their grandparents are stepping up. This causes the lives of the grandparents to be constrained. The children look back fondly on their growing years with their grandparents and it makes it all so poignant.

For instance, near the end there is a scene where Ludek has left his grandmother and is living in the country with his Mother and his new family and he misses the dirty city and his Babi. 

‘But sometimes Ludek missed the flat on the third floor, just him and Babi, no one else. He missed his city, where he ran and ran the old streets and was invisible.’  (page 185-6)

We would have liked more detail about the girl’s background which is not explained or told to the reader. Maybe this is what Favel Parrett is trying to say that we cannot know everything or it is too hard to tell.

Ludek’s Mother almost defects from the theatre troupe in Australia but she cannot because she loves her little boy, Ludek still in Prague.  The scene is portrayed through the eyes of the little girl who meets Ludek’s Mother, Alena. 

‘I’m going to try to stay here’ Alena tells Mala Liska (page 84) but it proves too difficult.

Mala Liska’s grandpa says to her 

"...they only let her come on tour because her son stays there, her mother stays there, her brother….It’s very complicated.” (page 85)

This brings up the idea of choice in life – we take it for granted in the west but many people do not and cannot take it for granted, especially pre 1989 in Eastern Europe.

HOME

This is a common theme throughout – quest for home – poignantly in the scene of Eva (Babi) walking home during the invasion in August 1968 

‘The Soviet flags fly. The huge guns point ahead.
“you should get home”. A voice behind her – soft.  A man, bright eyes burning.
…
“Those bastards!” he says. He is young, maybe a student.  She is old. She cannot do this again. She cannot fight anymore… “You should get home” he says again. … she must get home. (page 133-4)

That links up with Eva in the supermarket in Melbourne when she gets overwhelmed by the choice of products. We can all relate to this feeling. It is alienating. 

Another angle on ‘home’ comes from Vilem in 1942 in Australia. Here he has to call himself Bill to not incur a racial slur.

‘The only way to live now is to keep moving forward and not look back. It is the only way his heart can keep on beating and not break. He must look forward and not behind.
He must never look behind.’ (page 103)

This is the refugees ‘lot’ according to one of our members. 

Another reader talked about the film Goodbye Lenin which was shown in 2003 and is set in communist East Germany in 1989.

There was much nostalgia for the old ways in Eastern Europe. But we were reminded by this same member that those regimes were not benign, but punished their people and the effects have been passed down the generations. There are also a couple of scenes of people being watched to convey the surveillance of authoritarian regimes. Spies in other words travelling and keeping watch on the theatre troupe, for instance.

The book also explores the history of Czechoslovakia. Mention is made of the Munich Agreement before the Second World War and the feeling that the West would not rescue the people of Eastern Europe including the callous drawing of borders done by the allies.  ‘This was a huge scar on the soul of the Czech nation’. This is a quote from our member who has considerable knowledge and love of this country.

Ludek loves his city and the people. He is very kind to Mrs Blaza, the old lady downstairs.  She is all crumpled in her chair. And he discovers that she has died and asks himself where is her family. 

‘The city was full of old women left behind, left to keep everything going – to carry the old goddam world by themselves.’ (page 167) (Atlas metaphor.)

The statue of Atlas is an important feature of the city that he loves. He has trouble finding it then one day he comes across it:

 (Ludek) ‘wanted to tell Atlas how he had tried so hard to find him….’ (page 121).  

This leads him to think about his Mother so far away from home in Australia. 

There is the fun scene of Ludek and his grandma riding the sled which was a bit fantastical. But she came alive for Ludek and they enjoyed each other’s company. (Pages 171-179) But it was an important scene too because they talked about missing those they loved and not living with them – Babi’s sister (Mana) and Ludek’s Mother. 

‘Ludek put his head against her strong frame and hugged her back. And he didn’t care who saw him. His babi.’ (page 179) 

 There is also the scene of him pulling out the old tape recorder and playing the Rolling Stones music so that his grandma could dance. 

The characters have a complicated vision of home and the changes which occur over time.

GRANDMOTHERS

There is the sense that the grandmothers kept the family secure and together which they do in many societies, (such as African and Indigenous ones). They also keep culture going and keep raising the next generation.  

The book is a tribute to grandmothers and their strength. The statue of Atlas is a good metaphor for the grandmothers. 

PRAGUE

1980 in Prague has been largely forgotten about ,including by us in Australia, and how traumatic life was for the population and this book reminds us. Life was very different for them from us in Australia and it was not so long ago. It forced people to look inward and not trust strangers. Czechs tried to feel free away from the city so many acquired summer cottages in the countryside. That was the only place they felt liberated. Our member who knows this part of the world visited Prague in 1981 and found it a grey place where people avoided looking at you and there were no greetings. She also told us you could be imprisoned for leaving flowers at the John Lennon wall and he was singing about peace. However, once the Berlin Wall came down colour was restored to the city and the sun shone and there were flowers.   

Bill was a good character – quite gorgeous. He missed the theatre. It is ‘home’. We talked about his meeting with Mana. We also talked about his feeling that you must keep moving and not look back. But he is sad about their lives in Australia. He wishes it was better than it proved to be. This is particularly so when they are new to Melbourne in 1942 and they have to work on integrating into the new society. Language is a big barrier but they both work hard at it. (pages 102-103)

The Black Light Theatre of Prague is largely unknown to this group of Australians sadly, except for our member who has connections with this part of the world. The Magician is still alive and was the manager of the troupe, someone noted..  

European men in Melbourne eating cake were part of the texture of life growing up there in the 1960s and 1970s. Migrants brought their habits and managed to find little enclaves where they could get together. There was nostalgia for home. Sometimes thought migrants went back to heir home country but found it had moved on. It is a complicated vision of home.

We also discussed the gymnastics that was so popular in the 1960s. Mass displays especially of ribbon gymnastics. Triumph of the gods! We all remember marching at school.

STYLE

A member said ‘I liked the use of the suitcase motif. I loved how tight it was. Not a wasted word and how Parrett made one scene convey the bigger picture, like the scene in the shop when Mana is called a “stupid wog” (to convey racism) and the couple of scenes where the characters are being watched by spies.

Lots of short sentences and sentences with punch or a plea. For example, on page 119 

‘Ludek put his head in his hands.
Please call.’   

We felt that this book is also wispy. We were all trying to understand the story – and the suitcase is the main link throughout the book from the opening page. A book about migration and home and love. 

‘You must close up tight, protect your most needed possessions … your heart, your mind, your soul. You must become a little suitcase and try not to think about home’.  (page vii)

One reader felt that Parrett is trying to craft the story out of the little she knows about the personal histories of her family.  

This was another book club meeting via zoom which seems to be getting easier for us but still not nearly as good as meeting in person.

Members present : 12

Too much lip by Melissa Lucashenko

Another Covid 19 meeting conducted through Zoom from our living rooms.

Too much lip won the Miles Franklin Literary Award for Literature 2019 and was a Queensland Literary Awards Winner. It was also shortlisted in 2019 for the Stella Prize, the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, the NSW Premier’s Literary Award and the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards.  

**CONTAINS SPOILERS**

This novel by indigenous Australian writer Melissa Lucashenko is the story of Kerry Salter and her dysfunctional family set in the fictional town of Durrongo, a place in northeast New South Wales (near Lismore or Casino). Kerry has stolen a Harley Davidson bike and travels from Brisbane to see her family because her grandfather is dying. Kerry’s life is turbulent as her girlfriend has recently thrown her out of their accommodation too. When she arrives she discovers that part of ‘their’ country is going to be sold to a developer to build a prison. This is an area considered sacred to their Bundjalung culture. It is also an area they have spent a lot of time in during their childhood. Kerry is determined to stop this development proceeding. There are many other issues being dealt with by the family, such as poverty, child abuse and neglect. Her sister Donna has been missing for many years and they are still grieving for her. We later discover that Donna suffered terrible child abuse from her grandfather and set up a new life for herself in Sydney. Accidentally Kerry discovers that Donna is working in the town and encourages her to reconcile with the family. The book ends on a positive note.   

First impressions

• Immensely readable, enjoyable, got into lingo although I don’t know about Indigenous languages; very colourful and passionate people.
• Language interesting, and wonderful characters although I only got half way through it
• Terrific book with 3D characters, not all doom and gloom; confronting issues, domestic violence, drinking, dispossession, humour but with a positive feel.
• Felt like a Bundjalung version of the film Muriel’s wedding. 
• Black humour despite the terrible backstories.
• Excellent story which flowed, enjoyed the twists and turns, warm emphasis on kinship.
• Very engaging and larger than life characters, humour carried you along, though having read other books by Lucashenko found this one a little predictable and a little jarring. Felt also that Steve who adores Kerry was a little bit of ‘Chick fantasy’. The whole book is underpinned by experience but the happy ending was a little contrived.
• Well-written, gritty, compelling, very realistic, probably? Didn’t really ‘enjoy’ it and found it a tough read.
• Raw and confronting, realism so amazing.
• Really compelling black humour, but didn’t actually laugh. Window on a culture outside my frame of reference.
• Lots of horrible episodes but Lucashenko ties up the loose ends. Heard it on audible with an Indigenous reader which made it authentic.
• A plot-driven issues novel, which makes a contribution to truthtelling. Fiction can tell stories which white people can hear and understand more, perhaps, than by learning about Indigenous lives from political conversations or by reading historical works. Loved the roundness of the characters, most flawed but engaging.

Fiction can help explain why indigenous people behave like they do. Melissa lays bare some of their problems. She was worried about writing this revelation because she thought she might receive criticism from her mob and others but apparently this has not happened. ‘I loved that she was brave enough to show dysfunction within Indigenous communities while also showing the causes of the dysfuntion.’  

Ensuing discussion

Melissa Lucashenko appeared at the Canberra Writer’s Festival in 2019 and talked about carrying a heavy weight writing for her mob. She is trying to explain some fundamental differences in thought systems and culture to white Australians. This novelist is fundamentally a storyteller and is quite fierce and scary. (Her long years working on public policy and with women prisoners has made her very strong.)

All descriptions are from her real experiences or those of others she knows. The scenes are all very grounded.

Did we like the title?  Yes, we loved it and felt it was most appropriate not only for Kerry but also about other characters in the novel too, especially some of the children. One member also thought that it was cheeky. 

Kerry’s honesty is brilliantly stated:

'too much lip, her old problem from way back. And the older she got, the harder it seemed to get to swallow her opinions. The avalanche of bullshit in the world would drown her if she let it…’ (page 206).

One member talked about her discomfort at the way her Indigenous friends ‘talked' to their children. She was shocked by their yelling and the way everybody stood up to each other in a loud way, so different from the way she behaved with her kids.

We discussed the issue of anger and how it is related to poverty and race. In the novel there is mention of living on a mission and having nothing, no job and not being allowed to retain Aboriginal culture. The poverty is very real in this book.

Larrakin behaviour combined with poverty and dislocation and drunkenness are all issues for this family.

Love, Steve and whitefellas in the book

The question of a love interest and Steve, a good white fellow was one we debated at some length. Some members thought the ‘love affair’ was a little overblown as Kerry was so rude to him and so dismissive of his opinions. One member wondered if the publisher had suggested this romance angle as a selling point. Steve, Kerry’s friend, is also required for the steamy sex scenes. He is the one good whitefella who is accepted into the family and even invited to go with the other men for a ‘Men’s camp’ and men’s business. Steve learns to stand up for himself against Kerry when their relationship is strong and starts to treat her a bit more like her family does by criticising her for being so rude. 

There is a sense in which we should be able to hear what life is like for people like Kerry. It is better to listen, and that is what Steve does to large extent. 

There are very few other white men in the novel apart from him and the main ‘baddie’, Mayor Buckley. Mayor Buckley is the man everyone hates and who suffers at the conclusion of the novel. 

Humour

Humour is dispensed throughout the novel, and a welcome antidote to the ‘heavy’ issues tackled. We appreciated the way Lucashenko makes fun of Indigenous culture. For instance, about totems as shown in the scene when Brandon is playing on his computer and his uncle encourages him to go and play outside and climb a tree.

Brandon looked at Black Superman like he had two heads.
'What for ? I’m an eel. Eels don’t climb trees’. …
'Eels don’t use iPads, either’. (page 76) 

Indigenous people, just like any people, use their culture in any way they can. This is shown on television in the last few years with all the new Indigenous comedy shows especially. 

There are many scenes of great comedy – the exorcism, the scene when Ken is terrifying everyone with the rifle and Kerry thinks that Steve might have called the cops.

‘No other excuse needed : bang bang, bang.
Oh my God, they killed Kenny’. (p274) 

This is a reference to the TV show South Park. 

Style and culture, and characterisation

We also discussed the ‘magical realism’ present or not in the novel. One member noted that Indigenous people don’t necessarily see it that way. Alexis Wright was quoted as saying that that description refers to white attitudes, whereas for indigenous people it is all real. What is concrete after all?

We also commented on the amazing names for characters, for example Dr No, Shark, Black Superman. We also liked Pretty Mary (Kerry’s Mum) and Tall Mary. The people at the mission where these older folk grew up were to blame for the lack of imagination with names.  

One reader mentioned that birds for First Nations people are very important too – they bring messages and play a big role in their culture. This member has seen indigenous guides in the Northern Territory talking to birds. The birds can be totems or ancestral beings. 

In the first chapter, Kerry converses with some birds. It is very funny but also is indicative of her relationship with the natural world and totems of the local people. 

Three waark flapped down on the road beside her, drawn to the flattened remains of a king brown which looked to have lost a fight with Scruffy McCarthy’s cattle truck. 

The birds stared at Kerry, cawing obnoxiously before they turned to their snake… the eaters and the eaten of Durrongo, having it out at the crossroads. You don’t see old mate Freddy McCubbin painting that, do ya? .. 

I’m not the only one in Durrongo plagued by arseholes then, Kerry noted. (pp. 7,8)

The scene where Kerry is trying to encourage Brandon to be an enthusiast of the outdoors is hilarious. 

'You ever set a chook shed off?' ... Kerry crowed again.
‘You try!’ she urged. Sulky at first Brandon gradually got into it. … (p77)

Language is a big part of this novel. We all felt the way Lucashenko wrote it was very well done. It seemed forbidding at first to some of us but her use of indigenous words made it authentic. We all understood what she was saying despite no translations. 

Another aspect of the novel is the resolution of the problem of Donna. Uncle Richard is the main mediator between the family and Donna. He is also the first to believe her story of the abuse she suffered from her grandfather and how she protected Kerry. The novel is excellent in explaining that the family doesn’t do forgiveness as that is not the issue for Indigenous people. That is a white person’s concept. It is more a concept of truth-telling. We all thought of the Truth and Justice courts held in various countries in order to cope with past injustices. Ken is required to apologise and there might be punishment. 

Donna behaved in the way many real victims do. They want to control their lives after the violation. She felt alienated from her family. 

Ken, her brother, is the other side of the equation. He had stayed and kept all the anger and hurt inside himself. Everybody deals with trauma differently. Kerry was different again as she had run away (or been pushed by her mother) and often through the book she wants to run back to Brisbane. But there is nothing for her there now. She is also bound to her family and to her country. 

Some of us thought it was a weird plot element that Kerry didn’t try harder to retrieve the stolen money from Mayor Buckley. But would that have made the ending less convincing? Due comeuppance for the white crook?    

We all liked the character of Uncle Richard. He is the strong wise man of the mob. He gives us insight into the hierarchies of the culture. He was a law man and had great authority. But he was also gentle and they respected him. He wasn’t ‘shouty’. His saying that it was all about ‘love’ resonated with everybody. 

Pretty Mary was another wonderful character. She was an alcoholic but also a very 3-D personality. We liked the scenes of her telling fortunes in her tepee. She also loved Pop and wanted to explain to Donna that he was a victim too.

‘Pop told me when he was dying, cos it was eating away at him, worse’n the cancer was', he said. 'Three coppers grabbed him in Brisbane as a kid. Fourteen-year-old. Locked him in the cells and took turns at him all night for winning the Silver Gloves when he was supposed to lose. … But now, if Donna don’t mind, we’ve said we’re sorry, and I’d like to put me old friend in the ground.’ …” (p 295)  

There is a lot of intergenerational trauma in this novel – and it reminded many of us of the memoir we read last month, Rick Morton's One hundred years of dirt, about his white family and their trauma to do with poverty and dislocation. Epigenetics applies in both instances but in different ways of course. Brutal behaviour on an older generation can greatly effect subsequent generations. This is highlighted at the beginning of this novel by the recounting of the boxing match and consequences meted to Kerry’s grandfather when as a young Indigenous man he wins a boxing match in Brisbane. It is then mentioned again at the end of the novel in relation to Donna as quoted above.

We all agreed that the novel’s real strength is her diversity of characters. The complex weaving of men and women, and the leadership by many of the women. This is so true in Indigenous communities today in Australia. One member heard an interview with Melissa Lucashenko about her daughter’s struggle with mental illness and the difficulty of dealing with it. The novelist has had a tough life herself so can write from first hand experiences.

The ending with Donny almost stranded on the island was a funny scene. It was a real island but also possibly a ghost of an island?

‘Nobody to keep him company all night but the ghost of Elvis, and the ancestors he’d never met; an idea that gave him horrors.’ (p. 314) 

Possibly there is a parallel to the scene with Pop in the morgue. 

Kerry later thinks  : ‘it was good to see some spirit returning to the boy. That whale on his arm must be doing him a power of good.’ (p. 315) 

 The scene of the burial of Elvis, the dog was an act of reconciliation – sorry business. One member wondered if it there was something else going on. 

Robbery and criminal behaviour is another strong theme throughout the novel. Bike stealing, Kerry pinching the items from the Town Hall, and the drugs shows an engagement with people on the wrong side of the law and the police. But the sense in which people steal to keep the family going is so insignificant to the larger question of white people’s theft of the whole of Australia. (This is still an issue 250 years to the day that Cook first arrived. Very pertinent.) This is eye opening and confronting to people like us. 

We all felt that the dialogue is well written. It's quite clipped and certainly not flowery. 

This is a great story told with energy and humour. It covers really tough themes in a complex and nuanced way. The characters and stories felt very real. A really worthwhile read. We briefly talked about how different books by Indigenous people are now, from 30 years ago. This novel has been praised by literary judges and awarded many prizes in Australia. You are rewarded too by reading it twice as one mmber managed to do. It contrasts strongly with novels of the past such as Sally Morgan’s My place. The group thinks we have moved a long way in our understanding of our First Nations people but there is still a long way to go. 

Members present : 12

  

One hundred years of dirt by Rick Morton

With COVID-19 social isolation in force, Minervans decided to meet via WhatsApp. Our discussion was therefore a ‘written’ one, and so is unlike any other normal bookclub meeting we have had.

Our book was Rick Morton's memoir One hundred years of dirt, which included essays on life in the Australian outback and our society’s attitudes to poverty, class, equality and family. As one member said ‘he used his life to explore ideas that he thinks are important.’

This ‘genre-bending’ memoir was published in 2018. Morton spent his early years on a cattle station near Mount Hewitt, Queensland. He and his older brother Toby and their parents lived a reasonable life for a few years until an awful accident occurred when Toby was severely burnt all over his body.

Deborah Morton and baby daughter flew with Toby to hospital in Brisbane and from that day on their family life was never the same. Rick and his father were left behind, and as their relationship was not caring before this accident, they both suffered great trauma being separated from Rick’s Mum. Rick’s Dad, Rodney was a product of a destructive father-son relationship.

Subsequently Rick and his siblings left the property and lived with their impoverished mother in a small town (Gympie?) outside Brisbane. Rick won a scholarship to Bond University and a cadetship at The Australian newspaper and eventually he has made a life for himself as a gay man happily living in Sydney working as a journalist. He is still racked by trauma and guilt about his early life and the life of his brother and mother. He also suffers guilt because his life is relatively well-endowed with money, education and promise.

The memoir not only includes details of family life but also Rick’s thinking and analysis of Australian society. It includes his thoughts on living in poverty, class attitudes, loneliness and questions of equality.

First impressions from our group

• Gritty, uncompromising, honest, lots to ponder
• Energetic discussion of big issues
• Tough, raw, painful but compassionate, some funny bits
• Searing moving memoir, hard scrabble, class and gender divides
• Violent toxic masculinity, raw female perseverance, analytical
• Intergenerational poverty and violence
• Bit chaotic, needs edit
• Fierce, compassionate, clear sighted, engrossing, loved its myth shattering themes
• Destroys bush resilience stereotyping
• Bravely written, shocking, sad, illuminating, loved it
• Too many themes all jumbled together
• Loved the language

The ensuing discussion

Structure

It has an interesting structure reflecting where he was in 2018 when it was published (aged 32). Some members didn’t like the way Morton jumps around but others liked it once they understood what he was doing. Others felt it was in a reflection and essay convention rather than a true memoir.

One member said, ‘This memoir in essay form isn’t linear but tight within that form. I think he had a great way of writing with digressions and it is basically chronological. I loved how each chapter had a theme.’

Another member disagreed ‘What we read could be a first draft for an even more powerful book – it jumped around too much.’ ‘It went off on tangents but all related to specific topics at the time’. One member felt some of the diversions detracted from the strength of his story.

Masculinity

Rick wrote well about the intergenerational trauma from father and son down three generations at least which his family has experienced and is still experiencing.

We all agreed that Rick is a hero. He is same age as many of our spoilt ‘children’ but one who has had to live through so much in comparison to our kids.

There is a horrifying level of "machismo" shown by his father and grandfather. It ruined their lives and the lives of their children ultimately. For instance, Toby is very like father Rodney and shows similar characteristics and self-destructiveness. Rick also went through a suicidal period in his life and took drugs to help kill the pain.

We had a short discussion about epigenetics. For more discussion of epigenetics see Wikipedia.

Nature and nurture are both vitally important in the life of a child.

So Rick’s idea of the outback Queenslander guy is not Crocodile Dundee – there is no softness in their violence. These guys are still bullying and killing women and gay men even in the 21st century.

The trauma of their childhoods and ongoing effects live with them throughout their lives and this environment made Rick escape. He is not like them. He is not like his father or his brother or his extended family. He is gay and educated and sensitive and caring about the females in his life. He would also like to be loved. This is closely linked to his sexuality too.

Gay and trans people

Sadly, gay and trans people have a record of self loathing and self harm when coming out. This is especially true for country kids. So Rick’s suicidal actions may have been partly due to being gay as well as everything else going on in his young life.

Poverty and class

There are lots of US studies on brain development of poor kids. They are measured from age 1, and show that they are behind from the beginning of their lives.

One member felt that the novel's main theme was a question of equality. So many people believe hard work will still get you rewards, but near the end of chapter 1, Morton states

the single experience of my sister’s road to this point detonates the argument that equality of opportunity is stitched into our nationhood. (Page 10)

Another member said he was strong about equality but was not sure where he was going with it.

Rick Morton challenges his readers to care about the poor and the disadvantaged.

Deborah, his mother

We discussed her for quite a while. Most members admired her resilience and her strength. ‘I thought she was amazing and gave her full credit’ for bringing up the children. They also thought she was long-suffering, heroic and loving. They loved her story that Rick is an alien and one day he would be recalled to the mother ship. One member quoted Rick's comment that Deb used the alien story as a way of not taking credit for the love and support she had given Rick.

Rick is caring and loyal to his mother. One member disagreed that his mother was quite so wonderful. She felt that Deborah was jealous of Rick’s life and education, and that she was sad that she had made wrong decisions about her life and was/is unable to grow as Rick has done.

Rick is very protective of his mother’s opinions, for example, about climate change. He feels that she is too busy putting food on the table to worry about such esoteric matters. Many members agreed with this proposition and felt for her. Poor people don’t have time to be ‘woke’. This is just so important to realise. I liked his Mum’s pragmatic approach to politics.

(I don’t agree – rich and poor alike can educate themselves if they want to in the 21st century.)

It was also felt that Rick’s Mum is similar to the women in Pachinko (see our review).

Toby

Rick’s older brother. He has always challenged life. He would not listen to Rick‘s sensible advice even when he was much younger and it was as if the two boys came from different families. We agreed that many of our kids are different too but maybe not quite so much.

Toby processes trauma differently from Rick. We felt that Rick’s depiction of the spur of the moment decisions that some young men make was good. ‘These guys skate close to disaster and sometimes it works and sometimes it does not’. Rick writers:

It’s the Faustian drama that punctures the lives of anybody who loves. (page 79)

Rick

Is he slightly autistic? The general opinion is that he isn’t but he certainly likes analysis and statistics. One member thought he is just being an old-style journalist using evidence.

Rick also doesn’t have any inhibitions about asking questions and stepping into traumatic situations because he doesn’t have any middle class ‘manners’. He isn’t preachy. He is also very honest.

He did suffer mental health issues. We thought that his reflections on memory were very apt. He is very open about the process he is going through to reconstruct the memories of his family history and his understanding of it.

Some members thought there were some funny stories in there amidst the other, such as the stories about the horse’s teeth and the attitudes to shooting pigs, and also the fence fight between Rick's grandfather and his brother.

We felt he was angry writing this book but he still had lots of compassion towards his family. One member said that ‘He still needed his Dad’s approval even though he was unlikely to achieve it. It’s an elemental thing needing a parent’s love.’

Bond University

When I went to University in 2005 I was the first of 21 cousins on my father’s side and a third of 10 on my mother’s side. As the nation moved towards a knowledge class, the Mortons doubled down in their suspicion of it. (page 156)

One member thought that Uni life was the equivalent for Rick to Toby’s struggles with drugs. They both bore a different cross. The University life separated him from his family and mother in particular but then it became an important thread in their relationship. Rick is still grief-stricken over his brother and mother.

The question of what separates my brother and I has haunted me for the better part of a decade. (page 96)

One member admired his courage (while still at Uni) nicking off to Singapore to witness the hanging of the young Vietnamese Australian.’

Journalism

Having a member who was a journalist gave us insights into this career. Rick was lucky to win a cadetship at The Australian. Our member who also worked there said it was a really tough place and ‘felt sorry for the news hacks’. The Commentariat elites got all the attention.

Most journalists are middle class now and don’t understand those from poor or violent backgrounds. We felt there was a similarity here with the author Trent Dalton (Boy swallows universe - see our review), who is also a young Queenslander working for The Australian. Dalton is still there but Morton has moved on to a decidedly left-wing paper now (The Saturday paper). He is also an occasional guest on The Drum on ABC Television.

One member thought Rick’s analysis of journalists is spot on. There are quotas for women, Catholics and private school types in the employ of the media. Most are now graduates from educated families. ‘Poor bloke working at The Oz surrounded by the right-wing elite. He must have been angry enough to write a book. He needed to redeem his mother.’

Conclusion

We wondered how his family felt about the book. In an interview Morton said that his brother hadn’t read it but his mother liked it.

We all agreed that Rick Morton is incredibly open and honest in this ‘memoir’.

Rick explodes a number of myths about the great outdoor bloke.  As one member concluded, ‘Trent and Rick have given us a peek into what many kids live with that we have no idea about’.

Members present: 10

Carmel Bird's Field of poppies

Our second book for 2020 was something completely different, Carmel Bird's latest novel, Field of poppies. A story about a tree-changing middle-aged, middle-class couple, who retreat back to the city a few years later when the tree-change doesn't meet expectations, it bemused many in our group. Here, as usual, are our first impressions.

First impressions

Overall, not everyone finished it. Several enjoyed the book but didn't love it, while others greatly liked it. It was variously described as quirky, funny, weird, strange, odd. Many enjoyed the dialogues/conversations in the book - particularly between Marsali and William, and within the reading group.

• the digressions became tiring after a while. A couple particularly didn't like William's mansplaining, while others liked his WWWs (and laughed at the word play on World Wide Web).
• too much description of the painting, Field of Poppies at Argenteuil 1873; but another really enjoyed the art descriptions in the novel.
• irritating to start with, and didn't like the digressions, but as more deaths started to occur, it became more interesting.
• loved the really lush descriptions, and enjoyed the references to other books, like Virginia Woolf's Jacob's room.
• liked the description of country town Victoria, and life there.
• it read like a conversation. Another, though, commented on the "strange diary format".
• enjoyed it, but wasn't sure of the message.
• it took a while to get into it, but then started to feel it was like a conversation with a quirky, artistic, intelligent friend
• really enjoyed reading the book, though the tone tricky, and not quite sure Bird pulled off her goal.
• really enjoyed it, loving Bird's tone, and her satire on contemporary life with her darker message, a bit like "Nero fiddled while Rome burned".

The ensuing discussion

One member suggested that the message was in the first epigram:

We are within measurable, or imaginable distance of real Armageddon. Happily there seems to be no reason why we should be anything more than spectators. (Henry Asquith, Secretary of State for War, July 24 1914)

And another member shared a quote from the book that she felt summed it up for her:

Life's a sort of jigsaw, and the pieces of the picture have their own ways of drifting to the surface of the mind, of fitting together, sometimes in surprising ways.

We discussed irony and satire. We felt it was ironic that the tree-changers had returned to the city to live on the 42nd floor of an apartment, in Eureka Tower. Some felt the irony - Eureka being the name of a large gold nugget from the Victorian goldfields - was a bit heavy-handed. One member suggested that it was also ironic that Marsali's commune-living arty parents left their commune - this was during her childhood - to live in suburban Box Hill in Melbourne.

Some enjoyed the Preface with its commentary of contemporary life and society and vision of what's coming? As word lovers, we were inspired by "People forgot how to punctuate or spell" to share some anecdotes! We briefly discussed the line "Cinderella died in the end", a line which is picked up later in the novel in a reference to Beauty and the Beast, and fairy tales:

Beauty always falls in love with the Beast, who always turns out to be the Prince, but that's only the end of the telling, not the end of the lives of Beauty and her Beast-Prince. Life goes on until it doesn't. Cinderella died in the end, and so did Snow White.

We teased out the tree-changing satire, how the tree-changing life hadn't turned out to be as idyllic as out protagonists hoped - they were robbed, and a townsperson, Alice, disappeared. One member recounted her own childhood with a mother seeking romantic old houses which in fact really needed servants to maintain properly. She wonders why there's an attitude that you've "sold out" if you move to an apartment. Another shared a quote from late in the book which she felt explained much about the book:

When I go there for Mirrabooka nights I drive past the gate to Listowel and catch a glimpse of the house itself behind the trees. It's really so very like the house in the distance in the Monet, the dangerous fool's gold of the old lost dream house.

Early in the novel, Marsali talks about dream-houses in literature and her own uncertainty about the idea of "dream".

Anyhow, we enjoyed Bird's descriptions of modern life in a successful rural town, with the cafes and hair salons, reading groups and churches, greenie credentials (including green funerals), music groups and often self-consciously political or earnest artistic pursuits. It was all too real! And then, of course, there was the return of a mine to this historic mining community.

We discussed Alice and how Bird uses Alice in Wonderland as a foil for Alice Dooley. Without spoiling the ending too much, both disappear into the deep, but Alice in Wonderland survives while Alice Dooley doesn't. One member also suggested that Bird's use of foils or parallels, such as this one, isn't black and white, because the world Alice in Wonderland goes into is chaotic (reflecting, perhaps, the world of the 21st century world Marsali lives in.)

We discussed Hanging Rock, Joan Lindsay's Picnic at Hanging Rock book, and the place of lost children stories in Australian literature. There are missing children in this novel, though the main missing character in this novel, Alice Dooley, is not a child.

We discussed the importance of Monet's painting and the poppies. We noted that while the poppies are pretty on the surface, they also convey something sinister, something that starts, in particular, with WW1 and the poppies of Flanders. Some members, though, found it hard to accept the idea of the gun pointing from the house - but that's just the point. Our dreamhouses are not what they seem at all. They contain the seeds of destruction.

One member commented that Bird was also playing with the idea of fiction. Marsali kept reminding us that this was her memoir, so coincidences etc that are not accepted in fiction are OK. For example, Marsali tells us that it's perfectly fine that the two road accidents that more or less start and end the book's drama both involve kangaroos, as this is not fiction where such artifices are not accepted. (Bird adds salt to this wound by having the driver involved in the second accident spending time at a pub called The Kangaroo before he sets off on his fateful drive!)

We briefly touched on the allusions to Jonathan Swift (Marsali Swift, and her brother Gulliver), and that Gulliver's travels is also a satire on the state of society.

Late in the meeting, we returned to the meaning of the book, and the first epigram - the issue that the world is going wrong but we are not doing anything. As one member said, the book is about our current existential crisis - the fact that there's a disconnect in our lives between knowing that climate change, in particular, is a critical issue but our lives are too comfortable to act seriously upon it. How many will give up their overseas trips for example? Not many, we ruefully laughed. There was some discussion about what difference individuals can make. There was no resolution to this one!

Overall, most agreed that this is a book in which you can enjoy the ride rather than try to follow all the threads. Not all found it easy to glean its full meaning and intent.

Present: 9 members