"Pride and deepest fear": Kate Grenville's Dark Places - Review (of sorts) by Katherine Howell

Last year I stood in the authors’ green room at the Brisbane Writers Festival while friend and author Veny Armanno introduced me to one of my writing heroes, Kate Grenville. I’m not sure what I gabbled out: whether I told her about the snail-mail fan letter I’d sent via her publisher years before, telling her how much I loved her work and that I too was writing a book; whether I said how thrilled I was when she wrote back to thank me and wish me all the best. 

I have a feeling that I didn’t manage to say anything very sensible at all, but I remember that when I held out for signing my copy of her new book, Sarah Thornhill, and my beaten-up, brown-paged, dog-eared and worn copy of my all-time favourite of her books, Dark Places, that she turned that one over and over in her hands and said, ‘Now this is well-loved’.

              

Dark Places tells the story of Albion Gidley Singer, father of Lilian who was the star of Grenville’s book Lilian’s Story which was actually published first. Grenville has said that having put Albion on the page in LS, where he abuses, stalks, threatens, and assaults Lilian before finally having her committed to an asylum, she wanted to explore how he became that man. Sounds grim, I know. And it is—but at the same time Dark Places has an extraordinary voice I can’t get enough of and a dramatic irony that makes its reading a total joy.

I wanted to write in detail here about the character of Albion, getting across the sense of how he strives for his father’s approval and is hurt by his careless dismissal but then later does the same to Lilian with a complete lack of insight; how he believes that women are always thinking about sex, that even baby Lilian when she stamps in his lap knows exactly what she is doing, that when they say no they really mean yes and actually more please; how when he feels threatened or weak (which is often) he takes his fear and anger out on those around him—but to boil down Grenville’s deft prose into anything more than that bald summary is beyond me.

‘I lay under the coarse cold sheet [in the boarding school dorm], with no possibility of arms around me, and felt a fear like no other, a fear that squeezed cold tears out from under my tight-shut eyelids. “I cannot bear it, I cannot,” I tried to tell that fear, but it would not leave me, but froze my heart with its emptiness, left me sucked dry and shivering, a dead leaf in the wind. I lay very still and tried to resist that nagging fear, like a flow of cold water, that was never far from me, the fear that this was what life was, for ever and ever until you died: being locked up within yourself, all alone, having to pretend all the time, every minute, that you were absolutely perfectly all right.’ (16)

‘But if I unfolded the petals of my embattled self to Cargill, if I allowed his arms around me, his whisper in my hair, and the fondness in his eyes: if I let myself be undone by all this, and stand naked in the blast of love, I would risk the worst death of all. I would not survive such a death as that, as Cargill having opened my soul and then with his mild manner moved on, leaving me flayed. It was pride and deepest fear, and it left me dry-eyed and stony-hearted later, leaning on a fence, thinking with despair how much life I still had to live.’ (25)

Pride and deepest fear sums up Albion perfectly: it is what drives him in every situation. All makes him sound terrible, I know, and he is, and yet . . . it is a book I will read many times more.

Guest reviewer Katherine Howell is the author of the Detective Ella Marconi crime series. Silent Fear is the the fifth book in the series and will be released tomorrow, February 1, 2012. Her work has won awards and is published in multiple countries and languages. She teaches workshops in subjects including editing and suspense. So far, only one of Katherine's books, Frantic - her debut novel - has been reviewed for the AWW 2012 challenge. (See here for the review.)           

AWW upcoming releases and reviews

February sees the launch of new books by a number of outstanding Australian women who have offered their support to the AWW2012 challenge, including prize-winning author Margo Lanagan, Fantasy writer Tansy Rayner Roberts and crime author Katherine Howell.

Katherine Howell's new crime thriller, Silent Fear, is released this Wednesday, February 1. For a sneak peek, Katherine suggests going over to Varuna's website to hear her read an extract. Katherine will be AWW's first guest author to review for this blog, writing on Kate Grenville's 1994 novel Dark Places.

This Thursday, February 2, authors Margo Lanagan and Tansy Rayner Robers will jointly launch their novels at The Hobart Bookshop. (Details on Tansy's website here.) Margo's new release is Sea Hearts; Tansy's is Reign of Beasts the final book in The Creature Court trilogy.

Both Margo and Tansy have also agreed to be guest author reviewers for this blog. Tansy has yet to decide which book to review and Margo will discuss Kate Forsyth's forthcoming release, Bitter Greens. (Both Margo and Kate are best known for writing Young Adult Fantasy novels, however Kate's new book is written for adults.)

Have you read these authors' other works? Have you written a review?

Aboriginal Women Writers – The fight for Literacy and Literary Freedom

To celebrate Australia Day 2012, Australian Women Writers approached a number of prominent indigenous Australian women, including well-known fiction writer and National Year of Reading Ambassador, Dr Anita Heiss. Dr Heiss had a prior commitment writing for Mamamia and instead sent a list of her 10 favourite fiction titles (see below). Another Australian woman writer, Dr June Perkins, stepped in to discuss Indigenous women writers who paved the way for the success of contemporary authors such as Dr Heiss and others. Thanks, both Anita and June.

AWW's first guest blog: "Aboriginal Women Writers – The fight for Literacy and Literary Freedom and a true name calling" by Dr June Perkins

 
My search to understand and identify Aboriginal women’s literature began naively and in earnest with a letter to Oodgeroo (Noonuccal).* I was probably twenty and had heard a lot about her work in Aboriginal people gaining citizenship rights and was keen to interview her for an article I was writing. Instead she said I should contact younger people like Lydia Miller (Kuku Yalanji) as she was more contemporary than Oodgeroo.

I was interested in Aboriginal women’s literature because as a girl (Bush Mekeo/Írish/French Australian background) I wanted to find out about the stories of the original people of the land I lived in and see if they had anything in common with my own experience. 

I had forward-thinking teachers who had shared the sorry history of the treatment of Aboriginal people in Tasmania and so-called Aboriginal issues were not invisible to me. From a young age I was mistaken as Aboriginal and subsequently subjected to a lot of racist comments at school.

This made me both upset to be name-called and curious – and I was lucky to have people around me, including an Aboriginal girl from Mornington Island who was boarding and went to my school, and another classroom friend, to see that Aboriginal people were in many ways just like everyone else and I wondered why they were so put down.

They were not token friends, but very caring girls, and the girl from Mornington told the best ghost stories! Actually, come to think of it, my friends were all a mini united nations and we didn’t fit any moulds of what you might call "mainstream".

Many of the early writers like Oodgeroo and, with respect, the recently passed away Ruby Langford Ginibi (Bundjalung), began with a sense of connection to place, people and history. They wore the mantle of spokesperson for the cause of Aboriginal rights to be respected, acknowledged and treated the same as any other human being because they had realised the pen is a mighty tool in the fight for justice. There are so many writers that should be mentioned, like Jackie Huggins (Bidjara), a fearless academic and wonderful writer who wrote an innovative biography with her mother, Aunty Rita, who is still an active intellectual teaching in the university system.

For Langford-Ginibi, incarceration, justice and identity formed the themes of her life writing whilst for Oodgeroo, a poetry exploring people, place and environment was a major concern. Oodgeroo was also noted for her friendship with Judith Wright.

This fight for justice was often a heavy burden to bear, and it could have led to the pigeonholing of Aboriginal women’s writing, to be eternally from the fringes and fixated upon the human rights agenda, but instead they became the footsteps to follow in and add to. Aboriginal English made its way into Aboriginal literature so that writers were not forced to simply fit the canon of other Australian literature, but this in itself was a battle.

Now many years later, and having been mentored at a playwrights conference by Lydia, a wonderful actress, I am happy to say that I always look out for up-and-coming Aboriginal women writers. For me they can write about any topic from Murri lives in the Bush, like Vivienne Cleven's, Bitin’Back, to an Aboriginal woman bureaucrat in Paris like Anita Heiss (Wiradjuri). The beauty of Aboriginal women’s writing is its current diversity and moving away from set definitions.

There are many Aboriginal women writers in Australia who created the opportunities for the writers of today – not only Anita Heiss, but also Kerry Reed-Gilbert (Wiradjuri), Alexis Wright (Waanyi Nation), and Jennifer Martiniello (Arrente/Chinese/Anglo-celtic). I was happy to interview several of them when I was a uni student and to learn not only about their writing but their philosophies on life. They are different and yet many maintain close friendships with each other – Anita and Kerry are in constant touch, and another friend of theirs working in radio put me onto interviewing them. They encourage each other and the new generation of up and coming Aboriginal writers, both men and women.

Today’s writers, whilst they will often tackle identity and the continuing need for the recognition of Aboriginal people in the constitution, have created a literary freedom for a future generation of writers. They have been able to strive for a unity in their diversity of genres and voices – and have asked to be recognised as a non-homogenous group. 

They are happy to share their perspective as specific to a language group, urban or rural environment – and have pulled apart what it means to be black, Aboriginal, Indigenous and an Aboriginal woman. Aileen Moreton Robinson (Geonpul) and Leah Purcell (Goa Gungurri Wakka Wakka) both have works that tackle that diversity and need not to be subsumed into other’s agendas. Purcell’s Black Chick’s Talking is a remarkable set of interviews with a diverse group of creative Aboriginal women – which has an accompanying film, paintings and explores Aboriginal women’s creativity.

Aboriginal women writers have branched out to become fully part of the mainstream, and participate in genres like the "chick lit" written by Heiss in books like Paris Dreaming, as well as in film making. Although Heiss is not a writer anyone can pigeonhole having tackled almost every writing genre you can imagine and given it the stamp of her witty writing style.

Aboriginal women do not feel confined to write literature that is expected of them (there is a whole school of research into Aboriginal literature and art), but rather literature where they can explore new horizons. Yet, their unique ways of seeing the world can be incorporated into whatever fiction they write in subtle ways. They can pose questions like Am I black enough for you? and interrogate their own position with a freshness and humour past generations would not have even dreamed of – perhaps because back then it would have been a luxury and there were other more pressing needs.

Many Australians, particularly Aboriginal and well educated, are concerned at the low rates of literacy for many Aboriginal children. The Aboriginal Literacy Foundation states that 87% of Indigenous children in regional and remote areas struggle to read and write and fall well below the national literacy benchmarks. Many Aboriginal women (Heiss does lots of work in this area and so does runner Cathy Freeman) work extremely hard to encourage Aboriginal children to consider writing and reading cool things to do. Their commitment to education, literacy and in Heiss’s case the promulgation of other Aboriginal writers they respect and admire is inspiring. This is something that Aboriginal writers do not shy away from but embrace as communal responsibility.

The Aboriginal women of today, like those of the past, form footsteps for future Aboriginal women to walk in. Perhaps today’s dream is that one day Aboriginal people will walk alongside not only other Australian writers but Australian readers in terms of achievements in literacy.

*June's note: The language group/nation of Aboriginal women is included in brackets where I have been able to find it. 

June Perkins is a guest blogger for ABC open, poet and digital storyteller who is about to launch ebooks on the recovery from Cyclone Yasi process. She has guest blogged for Ilura Gazette and Critical Mass, and is currently a guest blogger for the Aftermath  project for ABC Open in North Queensland. You can find June on Facebook, Twitter (@gumbootpearlz), Flickr, as well as at her blogs: Aftermath, Pearlz Dreaming (WordPress), Unity Garden, Gumbootspearlz and at Book Creators Circle. 

*

AWW writes: Which writers did Oodgeroo and early Indigenous Australian women writers pave the way for? Indigenous Australian writer Dr Anitia Heiss shares her list of "10 favourite novels by Indigenous Australian women":

1. Butterfly Song by Terri Janke 
2. Bitin’ Back by Vivienne Cleven 
3. Too Flash by Melissa Lucashenko
4. Carpentaria by Alexis Wright 
5. Swallow The Air by Tara June Winch 
6. Every Secret Thing by Marie Munkara 
7. Purple Threads by Jeanine Leane 
8. Watershed, by Fabienne Bayet-Charlton 
9. Legacy by Larissa Behrendt 
10. The Boundary by Nicole Watson

Have you chosen any of these books to read and review for the AWW challenge? If so, please comment below with a link to your review(s). Which other books by Indigenous Australian women - fiction and nonfiction - could you recommend? 

Welcome to 2012

Last October I was talking to an indigenous woman of the Biripi nation who lives here in the Blue Mountains (pictured above). We were discussing the possibility of creating a website for Australian women writers, back when this AWW reading/reviewing challenge was little more than an idea. I told her I'd like to feature her on the blog once it was up and running, even though her work has yet to be published.

This writer, who prefers to keep her name private for now, was shocked at the suggestion. Although I'd been working with her and her writing for several months, the idea that she could genuinely be considered a "writer" seemed to her outlandish, let alone for her to be the first featured on the AWW blog.

I challenged her. What better way to honour women whose voices have been silenced than by honouring an unpublished Aboriginal woman writer? Although she has yet to be published in print media, her songs have been heard: she has had a dedicated audience of one, usually over the phone; I know for sure she's a writer because her work, for me, consistently passes the Emily Dickinson test:

If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only ways I know it. Is there any other way?

Regularly when I listen to this writer's lyrical, heart-felt, devastating words, the hairs over my body stand on end. I don't know whether her short pieces are prose or poetry or prose-poetry; I do know her work sings with a power that, as a creative writing tutor, I have only rarely felt when reading students' work. To me, she's a writer, published or unpublished.

A few weeks later, in November, she asked me what was happening with the website. Nothing, I told her. Quite a few had joined the Australian Women Writers Facebook page and I'd networked with a handful of booksellers, but I couldn't see myself dedicating the time and effort to create a website when the numbers of those interested seemed so few. She told me to create the website up and people would come.

I thought about what she said and realised she was right. I had to get on with the task and trust the effort would be rewarded in some way. Then I came up with the "challenge" idea.

That night and the next day, the next week and the next month, I dedicated my time to creating the Australian Women Writers website and 2012 Reading and Reviewing Challenge. As I've blogged previously, I received help from unlikely sources, bookbloggers and authors mostly, dedicated readers who thought nothing of giving up their own time. 

Just before New Year, I met up with my writer friend, along with a bookblogger from Sweden and an artist from Lawson. We grouped together at the picnic area above Minnihaha Falls in North Katoomba during a rare moment of sunshine amid a very cool, wet summer. My friend had offered to do a ceremony to launch the book challenge and, with it, usher in the New Year. I imagined I'd feel nervous, awkward, self-conscious, but I felt none of those things.

First, she lit a sage stick ("Borrowing from the Native American tradition," she said*) and danced around us, chanting - words without meaning, sounds that came to her specially for the purpose.* Brushing the ground and air with smoking twigs, she swept us up in her chant, explaining that the ceremony would shift and dissolve stagnant areas, and usher in good things for the website, for clear communication:

Yirripinni yirripinni yirrapinni 

Wanganinni 

Wirra wurra wurra

Djirribaa, djirribaa, djirriba 

Booroongulli, booroongulli, booroongaa**

After, she gave us snapped off gumtree branches and invited us to dance in a circle, all of us chanting, "Djirribaa, djirribaa, djirribaa/ Booroongulli, booroongulli, booroongulli."

I'd like to say I felt something spiritual during this ceremony, some fundamental shift. But the reality was it was over all far too quickly... In the days following, I was still busy with my visitors; I didn't know what I would write for the first entry on the blog. January 1st came and went without me getting time to meet up again with my friend or to post anything. Then her dog died and our planned meeting to discuss my feature on her was postponed again...

I still wanted the first official post of the AWW blog to be about her, so I waited.

Now it's January 18 and this post seems way too late to proclaim, "Welcome 2012". But I realise, the timing doesn't matter. We did usher in the New Year, back in that picnic area above Minnihaha Falls. We blessed this venture and wished it well, directed our wills to summon up a creative, co-operative energy for all the women (and men) who have signed up to give their time and effort to this challenge; we willed that we might all be connected in some way, so that we could support and encourage each other as we attempt to overcome the barriers that have kept women silent. 

An aspect of what we hoped for then has already come to pass. Since January 1st, a dedicated group has been reading books, writing reviews, and sharing our joy in discovering talented Australian women writers via blogs, Twitter, Facebook and GoodReads. Already links to over 100 reviews have been posted to the AWW Challenge page, and one participant (Jo Tamar) has already finished! A group of us has already begun a Twitter Australian Women Writers on Wednesday review discussion via the #AWW2012 hashtag.

As for the feature on my friend? I'm still hoping she'll overcome her shyness and allow me to profile her properly on this blog, maybe as a "Guest Reviewer" - if not as "soon-to-be-published". (I am encouraging her to submit her work and already have had one editor of a literary journal express interest...)

My friend was right about creating the blog first, instead of waiting for people to come; maybe I'm right about the quality of her writing? We'll see.

My thanks to everyone who has signed up to this challenge. My original pre-launch post, thanking everyone who helped compile the lists, disappeared somewhere in cyberspace while I was trying to edit it on cyberspace, but you know who you are, right?

Happy reading.

Elizabeth Lhuede (co-creator of Australian Women Writers 2012 Challenge)

* I gave my friend a copy of this post and she asked to make certain changes, including the reference to the sage stick.
** My friend explains the sounds she used in her chant in this way: "These words, letters and tones arrive or are given for this particular undertaking. The words themselves don't have a specific meaning. It is about the tones and the notes. If these words resemble any word in any indigenous language and bring offense, it was not the intention. They were simply sung for their resonance."