A Far-flung Life

Set over fifty years in the Western Australian outback, this is the saga of the MacBride family that is beset by a string of tragedies triggered by a vehicle colliding with a kangaroo. (Most country Australians will have had similar experiences with these animals, so it’s not a rare occurrence.) After losing his father Phil and brother Warren in the crash, Matt suffers brain damage and is on a long road to recovery. As the sole surviving sibling, he will have responsibility for the family’s station of Meredith Downs, helped by his mother, Lorna, and to some degree by his only sister, Rose, and later on by Rose’s illegitimate son, Andy.
 
The magnificence isolation of Western Australia is beautifully conveyed in the writing, as is the authenticity of life and politics in this tough and challenging terrain. There’s an interesting range of secondary characters, who reflect the various complexities of humanity.
 
However – and this is where it becomes difficult to appraise this novel impartially – there’s a disturbing and dispiriting basis to the story. Much of our modern, civilised society now accepts, and even embraces, inclinations or diverse behaviours that in the past would have seen you ostracised, beaten, even executed, and few taboos remain. This novel tackles one of them. Here, a certain event is justified by alcohol and mental incapacity and its description has an unsettlingly romantic quality to it. For some readers, this will be an outrage and an instant turn-off. Others, like myself, may persevere for a while through the darkness of what follows, but at the half-way mark I admitted defeat and scanned much of the remainder to get to the resolution. Another concern is that the ancient reasons for this particular taboo are not reflected in the relevant character’s portrayal, i.e. no physical or mental issues, the opposite if anything. Even if this is fiction, is this some sly way of projecting a future where this taboo becomes acceptable?
 
With any other plot device, the quality of the prose would have guaranteed a high rating, with perhaps a few marks off for the annoying erratic switches between present and past tense. But for just saddening and depressing me, one star.
 
 
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