Past the Shallows by Favel Parrett

Past the Shallows is the debut novel for Favel Parrett and has been shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award.

This novel follows a Summer in the life of three Tasmanian brothers, Joe, Miles and Harry, after their mother has died in a car accident.

It is an evocative novel, filled with emotion and yearning for another way of life. As the story unfolds the sparse text intimates their father’s violence before he ever lays a hand on them.

The boys live under the shadow of their violent father and his irregular drunken beatings.

It is the character of Harry who is the heart and soul of this novel. As a reader, you can embrace his innocence as a ray of hope in the brothers’ lives.

It is only Harry, the youngest son, who escapes work on their father’s illegal fishing boat. His light hearted view of the world is contrasted against Miles and Joe’s oppressive and steeled ‘adult’ view of the world (yet Joe at 17 is the eldest of the three).

The depth of this novel lies in Parrett’s ability to draw the reader into the brothers’ lives without giving everything away up front. She uses the suggestive power of her writing style to great effect, particularly in the books striking concluding chapters.

Past the Shallows embodies the Tasmanian shoreline, rough and unrelenting – yet beautiful in its simplicity.

Animal People by Charlotte Wood

I highly recommend this book! Gee, how I wish I had written it!

From the very first page the storyline intrigued me. There was something about the language and the character of Stephen as an anti-hero that evoked feelings of comfort and familiarity. He is not special in any way, nor does it seem that he is living up to his potential, yet he still seems to be striving for happiness, safety, and love…. all those elemental aspects of life.

The novel follows one day in Stephen’s life. The urban setting, the symbol of the animal as it appears in the book (in several different guises), is telling of how we think of ourselves as humans, as the ‘other’.

Stephen as a character is lost; his reactions to events as they unfold throughout the book are reactive and almost always controlled by fear. I think this fear is mainly a fear of not wanting to be controlled or bound by something, particularly his relationship with Fiona. Which, in the end, is perhaps what he really wants the most in the world; he just thinks he shouldn’t want it.

I found the ending redeeming and satisfying.  I enjoyed the openness, the promise of something beyond the story.

After reading Animal People, you should read The Children by Charlotte Wood (Stephen first appears as a character in The Children).

Aside – Animal People was shortlisted for the Nita B Kibble Award and longlisted for the Miles Franklin Award in 2012.

Book Challenge: Books you may have missed!

For the next few weeks I’ll be giving myself a challenge to “fill the gaps” of the classic youth and junior fiction titles I didn’t read while I was growing up.

For a start, I’ve chosen the following five titles:

Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild

Nicolas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Black Beauty by Anna Sewell

Tale of Desperaux by Kate DiCamillo

There is no rhyme or reason behind choosing these titles, they are simply books I had heard good things about, and I hadn’t read them before!

Feel free to leave comment if there is a book from your child/ young adulthood that you think I should have read!

I will be posting my thoughts/comments/review of these books as I read them. Stay tuned...