I for Isobel by Amy Witting

I for Isobel by Amy Witting
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"Am I good enough? Yes I am." This is the constant refrain Michelle Obama posited in her recent autobiography, Becoming. These words resonate when reading Amy Witting's, I for Isobel, first published in 1989. I read the version published by Text Classics in 2014 with an introduction by Charlotte Wood.

How to begin describing this book? Many reviewers have talked about the deceptively juvenile or "beginner reader" sounding title of the book. It certainly is a broad hint at the subject matter. Isobel is our heroine and the I, or examined self, is paramount in this story.

I was going to call this a coming of age story. And then I saw another reader had called it a bildungsroman which I had to go and look up on Google. Ignorance is not bliss for this little black duck. Having read the Wikipedia article, I now think Künstlerroman is a more accurate description i.e the development of an artist.

Isobel labours as a child to navigate her way through a complex, some may say tortuous, relationship with her mother. As the psychologist says, let's remember our parents were children once too and wonder what happened to poor Isobel's mother to make her the way she was, dear children. Isobel (and her mother one suspects) longs for love, to be good, to be accepted, to fit in. A Catholic education offers heavenly intercession which works for a short while but Isobel always feels an imposter. Her true awkward self blurts out when she's in society; there are many occasions when she doesn't recognise the voice that comes out of her mouth. No don't worry, she's not schizophrenic; she's just a bit of a loner. She is most at ease when reading or escaping into the world of her imagination. At one point in the novel, she hugs a book to her chest to get her through a difficult day, warding off evil and giving her the confidence she needs. We chart Isobel's course through adolescence and finally adulthood as she discovers her tribe to a degree, or, if not her tribe, at least her calling and the joy of being comfortable in her own skin.

I was intrigued by this reasonably slim volume at 181 pages and surprised how long it took me to read it. I would like to read it again but I need a sustained period of uninterrupted leisure to do so and I would want to be sure of a group of fellow readers to explore certain passages. So yes, maybe a good book club read.

There were some passages in the book which I just did not understand and found quite frustrating. The style of writing is at times so introspective that I think unless you were Isobel, you could not really understand what was going on. I did enjoy recognising parts of my own youthful experience growing up in Sydney suburbs, such as Glebe.

So who would enjoy the book? Writers. Would-be writers. Readers. Anyone who loves books, reflection, pondering on the meaning of life and psychology.

This is a book about bad mothers, boarding houses, Catholicism, poetry, self. Give it a burl and let me know your thoughts.

View all my reviews

Life According to Literature Tag

Some bloggers have contributed to a meme started by Brona's Books.  I found this on Theresa Smith Writes blog (via That Moment in Time) and Lisa on ANZ Lit Lovers picked it up too.

THE RULES: Using only books you have read during the year (2019), answer these questions. Try not to repeat a book title. 

Here's my take on the meme....

Describe yourself: The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett
How do you feel: Never Mind by Edward St Aubyn
Describe where you currently live: On Chapel Sands by Laura Cumming
If you could go anywhere, where would you go: Bruny by Heather Rose
Your favourite form of transportation: Sea Prayer by Khaled Hosseini
Your best friend is: Blue Dog by Louis de Bernieres
You and your friends are: Too Much Lip by Melissa Lucashenko
What’s the weather like: Peak by Chip Conley
You fear: Invitation to the Waltz by Rosamond Lehmann
What is the best advice you have to give: Best Foot Forward by Adam Hills
Thought for the day: One Life by Kate Grenville
How would I like to die: A Recipe for Dreaming by Bryce Courtenay

My soul’s present condition: One Day by David Nicholls

That was fun!  Let me know if you give it a try too!

Book Review - The Overlanders by Dora Birtles

I picked up The Overlanders as my first read for 2020 for a number of reasons.  It was on my TBR list last year (but never got read), it was a reasonably slim volume at 212 pages (achievable) and it was also a Virago (of which I read precisely zero last year - sad face). 

Early on in my reading, I reported to my son I was already enjoying it despite being only being nine pages in; “Let’s watch the movie together. It could be fun.” I said.  “Read the book first,” he intoned “The movie might spoil it.”  We tend to assume the book was written before the movie was made but in this case, it was quite the reverse.  Dora Birtles was originally employed as a researcher by the movie’s producer/writer Harry Watt.  Her role grew to become more of script adviser and casting consultant.  The movie was made in 1946 and the book published in 1947.  Dora says: “The book had great success.  Ten editions.  I got a station wagon, one of the first six in Australia, out of it.  No more bicycling.”  The film was also a great success.  Dora called it “The Crocodile Dundee of its time.”

I grew up on a steady diet of Seven Little Australians et al, so the writing is familiar, if sometimes politically incorrect.  Aborigines are referred to as Abos or blacks.  It’s set during WWII and the Japanese are called Japs.  But the female characters are strong and hardy.  They can catch and throw down a steer when required and head off a stampeding mob; very satisfying indeed.

Dora reminds us that “Patriots in Sydney were very fond of Russia in those days. At that time the Russians retreating from the German eastern offensive were said to be destroying what they could not carry with them.”  The filmmakers wanted to create a story that would enshrine the scorched earth policy and is based on a real cattle trek that happened during the war.  Apparently, the Minister for Food’s slogan was “Bully beef not bullets” but I'm having trouble finding that easily in Trove.  An army marches on its stomach and all that.

So why, in this day and age, read this book?  Well, for a start, it’s a cracking good read.  The plot is compelling and rolls you along from one drama to the next.  There’s fording of rivers, trapping of brumbies, stampedes, broken bones, daring rescues and impossible feats of bravery and above all dogged perseverance, laced with dry humour. 

Birtles builds her characters up beautifully, from the somewhat gormless, shell-shocked Scottish sailor who abandons ship in Wyndham and decides to try droving, despite never having ridden a horse, to the wily old cattleman/trickster, Corky aka J. Claverhouse Corkingdale aka Jimmy the Snoot who realizes his droving days are numbered and is desperately looking for a get-rich-quick scheme.

Birtles’ language of the day had me googling furiously, looking up Rolls Royce station wagons: did such things really exist?  Yes, they did!  What on earth is a thorough brace waggon?  And so on.  But I enjoyed the hunt and I loved the writing.  Here’s a particularly evocative description of the homestead:

“He went in for a last look around the kitchen, opening the shallow drawer at the far end of the white-scrubbed kitchen table.  Ma’s cookery books lay in it.  He took one out, the mottled-covered, thick exercise book in which she had written out every special recipe ever since they were married, with the donor’s name on the top of every recipe.  It was like a garland of Ma’s friendships through the years: Rosa’s sago plum pudding and Miss Woodget’s special orange cake. “

Above all, there’s passion and love for the country which rang particularly true for me during these heartbreaking times.  Here is an impassioned speech by Dan McAlpine, the drover, which you could be forgiven for thinking was taken from an Extinction Rebellion protestor today:

“Exploitation’s wrong.  That’s the trouble with the whole caboodle down south.  That’s the trouble with the whole of this country from the coast to inland.  We’ve torn the heart out of it.  We’ve lost the timber and we’re losing the soil.  We’re losing the rivers and we’re losing the grass.  All these get-rich-quick exploiters think of nothing but money, how to make money as quickly as possible, and now how Australians are going to live twenty, thirty years from now.  Exploit men if you like, they can fight back, but the land can’t fight back.  Punish it too much and it gives up.  The desert creeps in.  I love the Territory too much to see it go the way of a lot of the rest of this country.  And it won’t take so long to ruin it.  It’s a peculiar country.  It’s got to be handled right by people who know it and can use it to the best advantage for the future as well as themselves.”

Australia’s population lives mostly on the eastern coast of Australia, clinging to its edge like limpets and bearing a deep love for the mysterious “outback”; rugged but beautiful terrain which is mostly inhospitable to humans.  You can imagine our real terror when we face the loss of what is usually considered “safe” country – the coastal strip - and are faced with the large, empty abyss of the interior.  Birtles’ tale reminds us that we have faced testing times before and that our national character will stand us in good stead in the toughest of times. Here's one more quote from her Afterword:

"War breeds a strange state of mind.  There is all the anxiety, the fear, the dread, the burdens of being alive and keeping going and the sudden need of pleasure, of real friendships, of hilarity.  In that climate, we made The Overlanders."

I hope you enjoy this book as much as I did.

PS I have since tried to find the movie on the net.  I looked for it on Kanopy, SBS On Demand, ABC iView, Netflix, Stan etc.  I could only find it on Daily Motion which is just hideous, full of ads, so I can only recommend that you try finding a copy at your local library or, in Australia, at one of the National Film and Sound Archives' Access Centres.  Gold Coast City Council Library has a copy on DVD which I have ordered or keep an eye out for it on free-to-air.  It's sure to pop up again sometime soon. 

Australian Women Writers Challenge #AWW2020

I've decided to sign up for the AWW2020 challenge.  It's great having reading goals and this is one I'm particularly passionate about.  If you are interested in finding out more, go to this page here.

I'm setting my sights low to avoid disappointment.  I really hope I exceed them.  I am going for the Stella level, which is to read 4 books by Australian women writers and review 3 of them.  

There is a searchable database of reviews of books here.   How good is that?

In 2019 I read 41 books of which 14 were by Australian women writers as follows:

Serina Bird - The Joyful Frugalista
Georgie Dent - Breaking Badly
Sandy Docker - The Cottage at Rosella Cove
Kitty Flanagan - 488 Rules for Life
                           Bridge Burning and other hobbies
Kate Grenville - One Life 
                           Dark Places
Bri Lee - Egg Shell Skull
Jaclyn Moriarty - Gravity is the Thing
Liane Moriarty - Nine Perfect Strangers
Heather Rose - Bruny
Gabbie Stroud - Teacher
Charlotte Wood - The Weekend


So, theoretically, I smashed it and can claim the Franklin level, only I can't remember if I signed up for the challenge!  And I had to review at least six of them.  Whilst I gave reviews of some of them on Good Reads I need to be honest and say they were at the most two or three-sentence reviews which I don't think pass muster. So my goal for 2020 is to write decent reviews of maybe 300 words maximum and following the excellent guidelines here, here and here.

What books do I hope to read?  Well, I have started The Overlanders by Dora Birtle which is really interesting.  And a Virago.  And I really want to read more Viragos.

Wish me luck and let me know if you are going to join in too.