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The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith
Jimmie Blacksmith is the son of an Aboriginal mother and a white father. A missionary shows him what it means to be white - already he is only too aware of what it means to be black. Exploited by his white employers and betrayed by his white wife, Jimmie cannot take any more. He must find a way to express his rage.
The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith is based on an actual incident that occurred at the turn of the century. Set against the background of a turbulent Australian history, Thomas Keneally records with clarity the chant of a troubles man.
The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith is based on an actual incident that occurred at the turn of the century. Set against the background of a turbulent Australian history, Thomas Keneally records with clarity the chant of a troubles man.
184 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1972
76 people are currently reading
1689 people want to read
About the author
Thomas Keneally
116 books1,241 followersThomas Michael Keneally, AO (born 7 October 1935) is an Australian novelist, playwright and author of non-fiction. He is best known for writing Schindler's Ark, the Booker Prize-winning novel of 1982, which was inspired by the efforts of Poldek Pfefferberg, a Holocaust survivor. The book would later be adapted to Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List (1993), which won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Often published under the name Tom Keneally in Australia.
Life and Career:
Born in Sydney, Keneally was educated at St Patrick's College, Strathfield, where a writing prize was named after him. He entered St Patrick's Seminary, Manly to train as a Catholic priest but left before his ordination. He worked as a Sydney schoolteacher before his success as a novelist, and he was a lecturer at the University of New England (1968–70). He has also written screenplays, memoirs and non-fiction books.
Keneally was known as "Mick" until 1964 but began using the name Thomas when he started publishing, after advice from his publisher to use what was really his first name. He is most famous for his Schindler's Ark (1982) (later republished as Schindler's List), which won the Booker Prize and is the basis of the film Schindler's List (1993). Many of his novels are reworkings of historical material, although modern in their psychology and style.
Keneally has also acted in a handful of films. He had a small role in The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (based on his novel) and played Father Marshall in the Fred Schepisi movie, The Devil's Playground (1976) (not to be confused with a similarly-titled documentary by Lucy Walker about the Amish rite of passage called rumspringa).
In 1983, he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO). He is an Australian Living Treasure.
He is a strong advocate of the Australian republic, meaning the severing of all ties with the British monarchy, and published a book on the subject in Our Republic (1993). Several of his Republican essays appear on the web site of the Australian Republican Movement.
Keneally is a keen supporter of rugby league football, in particular the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles club of the NRL. He made an appearance in the rugby league drama film The Final Winter (2007).
In March 2009, the Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, gave an autographed copy of Keneally's Lincoln biography to President Barack Obama as a state gift.
Most recently Thomas Keneally featured as a writer in the critically acclaimed Australian drama, Our Sunburnt Country.
Thomas Keneally's nephew Ben is married to the former NSW Premier, Kristina Keneally.
Often published under the name Tom Keneally in Australia.
Life and Career:
Born in Sydney, Keneally was educated at St Patrick's College, Strathfield, where a writing prize was named after him. He entered St Patrick's Seminary, Manly to train as a Catholic priest but left before his ordination. He worked as a Sydney schoolteacher before his success as a novelist, and he was a lecturer at the University of New England (1968–70). He has also written screenplays, memoirs and non-fiction books.
Keneally was known as "Mick" until 1964 but began using the name Thomas when he started publishing, after advice from his publisher to use what was really his first name. He is most famous for his Schindler's Ark (1982) (later republished as Schindler's List), which won the Booker Prize and is the basis of the film Schindler's List (1993). Many of his novels are reworkings of historical material, although modern in their psychology and style.
Keneally has also acted in a handful of films. He had a small role in The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (based on his novel) and played Father Marshall in the Fred Schepisi movie, The Devil's Playground (1976) (not to be confused with a similarly-titled documentary by Lucy Walker about the Amish rite of passage called rumspringa).
In 1983, he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO). He is an Australian Living Treasure.
He is a strong advocate of the Australian republic, meaning the severing of all ties with the British monarchy, and published a book on the subject in Our Republic (1993). Several of his Republican essays appear on the web site of the Australian Republican Movement.
Keneally is a keen supporter of rugby league football, in particular the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles club of the NRL. He made an appearance in the rugby league drama film The Final Winter (2007).
In March 2009, the Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, gave an autographed copy of Keneally's Lincoln biography to President Barack Obama as a state gift.
Most recently Thomas Keneally featured as a writer in the critically acclaimed Australian drama, Our Sunburnt Country.
Thomas Keneally's nephew Ben is married to the former NSW Premier, Kristina Keneally.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 127 reviews
March 13, 2022
Keneally holds up a mirror to our questionable past - confronting and absorbing.
September 15, 2021
I had two reasons for wanting to read this book, firstly my on and off long term project to read as many Booker shortlisted and longlisted books as possible, and secondly because every Keneally book is different, and they are almost always enjoyable and thought provoking.
This time the setting is rural New South Wales in 1900, and the main protagonist Jimmie Blacksmith is the child of an aboriginal mother by a white father, who is educated enough to believe that he has a chance of succeeding on his own terms (and indeed is more literate than many of the white settlers), and for a while he manages to find fairly well paid work and acquires a poor white wife, but he finds himself thwarted by racist attitudes and injustices that eventually lead him to a violent protest against white Australia that turns him into an outlaw wanted for multiple murders.
Keneally handles this material with a surprising degree of sensitivity and sympathy (given than this book was published in 1972), and a feeling for the many injustices suffered by the aboriginal population.
This time the setting is rural New South Wales in 1900, and the main protagonist Jimmie Blacksmith is the child of an aboriginal mother by a white father, who is educated enough to believe that he has a chance of succeeding on his own terms (and indeed is more literate than many of the white settlers), and for a while he manages to find fairly well paid work and acquires a poor white wife, but he finds himself thwarted by racist attitudes and injustices that eventually lead him to a violent protest against white Australia that turns him into an outlaw wanted for multiple murders.
Keneally handles this material with a surprising degree of sensitivity and sympathy (given than this book was published in 1972), and a feeling for the many injustices suffered by the aboriginal population.
November 19, 2011
The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith by Thomas Keneally is based on the life of an Australian bushranger called Jimmy Governor. Fictionalised as Jimmy Blacksmith, the character takes several steps down the social ladder in terms of his name, but remains at the bottom of the pile in reality by virtue of being not only black, but also an Aborigine. As Jimmy Blacksmith, however, the character is not without skills. He speaks English and can build a uniform fence as strong and even as anyone. He can work as hard and deliver as much as any hired hand, except, of course, by definition.
Thomas Keneally’s novel is highly successful in its presentation of white people’s assumptions of superiority. Knowing that they occupy a level much higher up the Victorian pyramid of life that has God and The Queen at the top, they can be imperially confident that anything they might think or do must necessarily outshine what the likes of Jimmy Blacksmith can achieve. When reality suggests a contradiction, then their position of privilege allows them to change the rules in order to belittle achievement and deny results.
To label such attitudes as merely racist is to miss much of the point. These whites, always eager to proffer judgment at the turn of twentieth century Australia, did not regard their attitudes as based on race. The relevant word was surely not race, but species, since the indigenous population was seen as something less than human. So even when Jimmy Blacksmith displays complete competence, strength, endurance or cooperation, even if he becomes a Methodist Christian, marries a white woman according to God and The Law, even if he speaks the master’s language, he remains by definition something short of human. An ultimate irony of Jimmy’s acceptance of his duty to marry the pregnant girl, by the way, is that the child turns out to be white, fathered by another of the girl’s recent acquaintances. So, as an oppressed black man, Jimmy Blacksmith is left carrying another white man’s burden.
Jimmy reacts against his treatment. His reaction is violent. He takes an axe to several victims, most of them women. He then flees and is joined in crime by his brother, Mort. Together they evade capture, despite being pursued by thousands until an inevitable fate materialises.
Jimmy Blacksmith presents several problems for the modern reader, however. Powerful it may be, but then Thomas Keneally’s attempt to render an accent in writing does not work. As a consequence, the dialogue sometimes seems confused and opaque. The author stated some years later that if he were to write the book now he would describe events from the perspective of a white observer. This would, however, render Jimmy an object, and the reader is often surprised by occupying the role of subject in this book.
Thomas Keneally does create some wonderful scenes. Jimmy’s shedding of blood is brutal, but is it any less brutal than the slaughter of thousands by the British? And in the end, did those with power treat their working class subjects any better than they treated Jimmy? Was the young white bride Jimmy took any better off than him by virtue of her species superiority?
Alongside Peter Carey’s Kelly Gang and, from a factual perspective, Alan Moorehead’s Fatal Impact, Jimmy Blacksmith provides a different and complementary insight. To experience the book’s power, the modern reader has to know something of Australia’s history and, crucially, something of the 1970s attitudes that prevailed at the time of writing. Any shortcomings then pale into insignificance when compared with the novel’s achievement.
Thomas Keneally’s novel is highly successful in its presentation of white people’s assumptions of superiority. Knowing that they occupy a level much higher up the Victorian pyramid of life that has God and The Queen at the top, they can be imperially confident that anything they might think or do must necessarily outshine what the likes of Jimmy Blacksmith can achieve. When reality suggests a contradiction, then their position of privilege allows them to change the rules in order to belittle achievement and deny results.
To label such attitudes as merely racist is to miss much of the point. These whites, always eager to proffer judgment at the turn of twentieth century Australia, did not regard their attitudes as based on race. The relevant word was surely not race, but species, since the indigenous population was seen as something less than human. So even when Jimmy Blacksmith displays complete competence, strength, endurance or cooperation, even if he becomes a Methodist Christian, marries a white woman according to God and The Law, even if he speaks the master’s language, he remains by definition something short of human. An ultimate irony of Jimmy’s acceptance of his duty to marry the pregnant girl, by the way, is that the child turns out to be white, fathered by another of the girl’s recent acquaintances. So, as an oppressed black man, Jimmy Blacksmith is left carrying another white man’s burden.
Jimmy reacts against his treatment. His reaction is violent. He takes an axe to several victims, most of them women. He then flees and is joined in crime by his brother, Mort. Together they evade capture, despite being pursued by thousands until an inevitable fate materialises.
Jimmy Blacksmith presents several problems for the modern reader, however. Powerful it may be, but then Thomas Keneally’s attempt to render an accent in writing does not work. As a consequence, the dialogue sometimes seems confused and opaque. The author stated some years later that if he were to write the book now he would describe events from the perspective of a white observer. This would, however, render Jimmy an object, and the reader is often surprised by occupying the role of subject in this book.
Thomas Keneally does create some wonderful scenes. Jimmy’s shedding of blood is brutal, but is it any less brutal than the slaughter of thousands by the British? And in the end, did those with power treat their working class subjects any better than they treated Jimmy? Was the young white bride Jimmy took any better off than him by virtue of her species superiority?
Alongside Peter Carey’s Kelly Gang and, from a factual perspective, Alan Moorehead’s Fatal Impact, Jimmy Blacksmith provides a different and complementary insight. To experience the book’s power, the modern reader has to know something of Australia’s history and, crucially, something of the 1970s attitudes that prevailed at the time of writing. Any shortcomings then pale into insignificance when compared with the novel’s achievement.
June 14, 2012
This book was very impressive. It didn't contain any of the 'poor aborigine' condescencion that usually occurs when a white person writes about the struggles of Indigenous life; the lack of white mans guilt writing was very refreshing.
What struck a chord with me most deeply was the idea that if you are not part of the status quo, no matter how hard you try to fit in, you will never be rewarded with the spoils of the status quo. The ideal life is held out to everyone as what you should aspire to, but the cruel trick is, that life is set aside for the very few. And for those that try so hard to attain, if you are not born into it, or do not fit the part, you will spend your whole life cruelly chasing the carrot, a carrot you shall never possess. And for those that lash out in frustration, they will be punished severely. Although this story was specifically about the plight of a young half caste trying to have the spoils of the white man, this moral can apply to anyone trying to 'rise above their station'
Definitely worth the read, the movie is pretty good too. It has that 1970's Australian charm to it.
What struck a chord with me most deeply was the idea that if you are not part of the status quo, no matter how hard you try to fit in, you will never be rewarded with the spoils of the status quo. The ideal life is held out to everyone as what you should aspire to, but the cruel trick is, that life is set aside for the very few. And for those that try so hard to attain, if you are not born into it, or do not fit the part, you will spend your whole life cruelly chasing the carrot, a carrot you shall never possess. And for those that lash out in frustration, they will be punished severely. Although this story was specifically about the plight of a young half caste trying to have the spoils of the white man, this moral can apply to anyone trying to 'rise above their station'
Definitely worth the read, the movie is pretty good too. It has that 1970's Australian charm to it.
January 25, 2009
Based purely on how he seems to come across in interviews, I'd avoided reading any Thomas Kenneally. I had always suspected that his books would be a little too smug, too self-satisfied for me to handle.
Thankfully, The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith proved me wrong.
The novel - now a curriculum staple - is a fictionalised tale of crime and punishment, but mostly is about the interaction between Caucasian and Aborigine circa Australian Federation. The titular character is a half-caste, so not at home in black or white worlds - and this frustration leads to murder and evasion.
It's a risky plan, attempting to write black history from a white perspective. Kenneally himself admits he wouldn't think himself so bold to be able to do the same today. Still, for the indelicacy of the approach, there is a real sense of the spiritual rubbing against the colonial - of the yaw and pitch of the country of the time.
Thankfully, The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith proved me wrong.
The novel - now a curriculum staple - is a fictionalised tale of crime and punishment, but mostly is about the interaction between Caucasian and Aborigine circa Australian Federation. The titular character is a half-caste, so not at home in black or white worlds - and this frustration leads to murder and evasion.
It's a risky plan, attempting to write black history from a white perspective. Kenneally himself admits he wouldn't think himself so bold to be able to do the same today. Still, for the indelicacy of the approach, there is a real sense of the spiritual rubbing against the colonial - of the yaw and pitch of the country of the time.
December 12, 2022
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith was published fifty years ago this year. Is it officially a classic now?
Written by the Australian author, Thomas Keneally, it the story of a half breed aboriginal man (Jimmie Blacksmith), whose mother was white and father was an aborigine. The Reverend Mr. Healy takes Jimmie on as a protégé, and does his best to impart “white” social values on the young man. Reverend Healy advises Jimmie to attain “home, hearth, wife and land.” He encourages him to marry a “white girl” and to take a “job”. The effect on Jimmie is that he rejects aboriginal society because of its “shiftlessness,” alcoholism, and sexual immorality. When Jimmie strikes out on his own, the only jobs he can only find are low end, poorly paid, and his employers cheat him anyway.
About halfway through the story Jimmie loses it, and commits a heinous crime. He eludes the authorities through the last half of the book (until the final chapter when he finally gets his comeuppance.)
The bigger theme of this book is the decimation of one culture by another and truly mirrors the similarities in American history with Native Americans and blacks.
Definitely a read that gives pause to ponder.
The 52 Book Club Reading Challenge - 2022
Prompt #50 - A person of color as the main character
The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith was published fifty years ago this year. Is it officially a classic now?
Written by the Australian author, Thomas Keneally, it the story of a half breed aboriginal man (Jimmie Blacksmith), whose mother was white and father was an aborigine. The Reverend Mr. Healy takes Jimmie on as a protégé, and does his best to impart “white” social values on the young man. Reverend Healy advises Jimmie to attain “home, hearth, wife and land.” He encourages him to marry a “white girl” and to take a “job”. The effect on Jimmie is that he rejects aboriginal society because of its “shiftlessness,” alcoholism, and sexual immorality. When Jimmie strikes out on his own, the only jobs he can only find are low end, poorly paid, and his employers cheat him anyway.
About halfway through the story Jimmie loses it, and commits a heinous crime. He eludes the authorities through the last half of the book (until the final chapter when he finally gets his comeuppance.)
The bigger theme of this book is the decimation of one culture by another and truly mirrors the similarities in American history with Native Americans and blacks.
Definitely a read that gives pause to ponder.
The 52 Book Club Reading Challenge - 2022
Prompt #50 - A person of color as the main character
March 12, 2022
A compelling, powerful, dark novel set in Australia in 1900. Jimmie Blacksmith, young aboriginal half blood is made conscious of his whiteness by a missionary. Jimmie leaves his aboriginal tribe to gain acceptance in the white man’s world. He marries a white woman. He is treated poorly by white bosses even though he works hard and very competently. Unfortunately through no fault of his own, he cannot succeed in the white man’s world and one event causes him to explode.
This book was shortlisted for the 1972 Booker Prize.
This book was shortlisted for the 1972 Booker Prize.
July 29, 2017
The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith is a slightly fictionalised account about Australia's first Aboriginal outlaw (Jimmie Governor). Kenneally leaves no stone upturned in making a story out of a piece of history- the way he handled Schindler's Ark.
Jimmie Blacksmith is a half-black aborigne whose tribal resignation and faith in Emu-Wren's spirit is outweighed by his Methodist upbringing under the tutelage of Mr.Neville. He harbors the hope of owning land, marrying a white woman and becoming an equal in the 1900 society just around the time Australia became a federation. When he marries a white woman, both the natives and the whites put him down till his spirit can take the injustice no more.
Leading to a series of brutal murders, Jimmie Blacksmith along with his poor brother Mort, who is loyal to his half brother as a fellow spirit of Emu-Wren, are constantly ahead of their pursuers making them outlaws with a reward. As a side commentary we also have opinions of the proposed Australian federation, the hangman's position in the society, the Boers war in South Africa and the prejudices and exploitation of the 'settlers' against the natives.
The book takes on an almost non-judgmental tone all through the book and hence we see the moment of madness with a clarity normally impossible for brutal crimes. One would need a stomach to digest the gruesomeness - not just the murders but the snapping of spirit. Actual snippets from the newspapers of the time describing the sentiments at various stages of the manhunt made for interesting reading.
The book is written in simple English and looking at the number of reviews, a little known treasure.
Gritty read!
Jimmie Blacksmith is a half-black aborigne whose tribal resignation and faith in Emu-Wren's spirit is outweighed by his Methodist upbringing under the tutelage of Mr.Neville. He harbors the hope of owning land, marrying a white woman and becoming an equal in the 1900 society just around the time Australia became a federation. When he marries a white woman, both the natives and the whites put him down till his spirit can take the injustice no more.
Leading to a series of brutal murders, Jimmie Blacksmith along with his poor brother Mort, who is loyal to his half brother as a fellow spirit of Emu-Wren, are constantly ahead of their pursuers making them outlaws with a reward. As a side commentary we also have opinions of the proposed Australian federation, the hangman's position in the society, the Boers war in South Africa and the prejudices and exploitation of the 'settlers' against the natives.
The book takes on an almost non-judgmental tone all through the book and hence we see the moment of madness with a clarity normally impossible for brutal crimes. One would need a stomach to digest the gruesomeness - not just the murders but the snapping of spirit. Actual snippets from the newspapers of the time describing the sentiments at various stages of the manhunt made for interesting reading.
The book is written in simple English and looking at the number of reviews, a little known treasure.
Gritty read!
January 20, 2013
This is a really good read and now I understand why Keneally is held in such high regard. The central theme of the novel is war - the whites are at war with the blacks and British rule (Federation looms as the novel's backdrop), whilst the blacks are at war with themselves as their culture is subverted by the dominate white rule. And of course poor Jimmie who is at war with himself. Jimmie is displaced as he neither identifies with his clan nor the whites but not through lack of trying and his ultimate response to this is probably understandable.
Although I'm sure that Keneally isn't an authority on Indigenous culture and beliefs, I do believe that his interpretations are probably quite close to the truth. I particularly like the scene where Jimmie and co come across the ritual 'womb' of another clan and both the blacks and the white (without giving too much away) are strongly affected and try to undo the damage but failed which to me is significant as at the time this novel was published in the 1970s, the Australian Govt was attempting to "undo" the damage that 190 yrs of white settlement had caused but as time would show, all of their strategies and initiatives were as useless as Jimmie & friends trying to restore the ceremonial site. Keneally's novel reflects the truth of the situation, that these two cultures cannot co-exists rather white culture has and will destroy the other.
Although I'm sure that Keneally isn't an authority on Indigenous culture and beliefs, I do believe that his interpretations are probably quite close to the truth. I particularly like the scene where Jimmie and co come across the ritual 'womb' of another clan and both the blacks and the white (without giving too much away) are strongly affected and try to undo the damage but failed which to me is significant as at the time this novel was published in the 1970s, the Australian Govt was attempting to "undo" the damage that 190 yrs of white settlement had caused but as time would show, all of their strategies and initiatives were as useless as Jimmie & friends trying to restore the ceremonial site. Keneally's novel reflects the truth of the situation, that these two cultures cannot co-exists rather white culture has and will destroy the other.
November 9, 2017
I have been sitting for quite a time trying to order some words for a review of this.
I have not read any Keneally before. I have many on my To Read.
A brutal story. A peep at the brutality of colonial occupation of this continent and airing of attitudes toward the original peoples. Attitudes that I so wish were ones we could say were well in the past. But sadly no, talking with many people in daily life makes me sadly aware of attitude to race in modern Australia.
I am glad I read this title via audio book medium as I know I would have stopped turn pages in a paper book and put it aside pretty early, but it is easier to press on when someone else is reading it to you.
And I would not have put it aside because of disquiet at the brutality or the story itself, that brutality was a part of daily life in that time and this and many other places. But rather, because each word just screamed at me that so little has changed in so many ways in people's mind set. How we still do not acknowledge the true manner of settlement, how we still try to bury the full history of land wars, murder, massacre and brutality, how the common narrative is that "the natives are a primitive Stone Age culture" even though all the modern research is full of information about a truly amazing and complex society managing a fragile land with great care.
Mr Keneallys' writing is incredible. He is a prize winner for very obvious reasons. Hence my 4 star rating.
In many ways I wish I had not read this, but I have. One of those classic titles we are told we must read I guess.
I have not read any Keneally before. I have many on my To Read.
A brutal story. A peep at the brutality of colonial occupation of this continent and airing of attitudes toward the original peoples. Attitudes that I so wish were ones we could say were well in the past. But sadly no, talking with many people in daily life makes me sadly aware of attitude to race in modern Australia.
I am glad I read this title via audio book medium as I know I would have stopped turn pages in a paper book and put it aside pretty early, but it is easier to press on when someone else is reading it to you.
And I would not have put it aside because of disquiet at the brutality or the story itself, that brutality was a part of daily life in that time and this and many other places. But rather, because each word just screamed at me that so little has changed in so many ways in people's mind set. How we still do not acknowledge the true manner of settlement, how we still try to bury the full history of land wars, murder, massacre and brutality, how the common narrative is that "the natives are a primitive Stone Age culture" even though all the modern research is full of information about a truly amazing and complex society managing a fragile land with great care.
Mr Keneallys' writing is incredible. He is a prize winner for very obvious reasons. Hence my 4 star rating.
In many ways I wish I had not read this, but I have. One of those classic titles we are told we must read I guess.
October 27, 2020
Cripes I liked this one a lot. Exceedingly radical in its politics, it brutally skewers both Australia's self-mythologising and the hypocrisy of religion. It's also unique in the sense in which it presents an unflinching series of incredibly violent scenes, yet manages to do so in the context of a complex and sympathetic portrait of the titular character.
While the notion of a white author writing from the perspective of an Aboriginal man is problematic in the modern era, for 1973, Keneally's approach here is both convincing and compassionate. Highly recommended.
While the notion of a white author writing from the perspective of an Aboriginal man is problematic in the modern era, for 1973, Keneally's approach here is both convincing and compassionate. Highly recommended.
August 9, 2020
My first Keneally and will deffo read more - excellently well written on all levels including the very tricky job of portraying elements of aboriginal culture. Ostensibly a simple tale of crime/punishment, I found it hauntingly/disturbingly allegorical/existential wrt race-relations "baked in" right from the early days of the formation of a "new nation". Can't give it 5 stars though cos .
March 28, 2014
In July 1900, in New South Wales, two aborigines, Jimmy Governor and his brother, violently revenged themselves for injuries done to them by their white employers. With ingenuity and courage, they evaded their pursuers for five months in the mountains south of Brisbane...
*
The novelist Thomas Keneally, then still only in his mid-30s and not widely known outside his native land, took this real-life story from the Australian past and fashioned out of it a sweeping epic of vengeance and pursuit. One wonders how it was received on publication, as Keneally holds up an unflinching mirror to white racism and hypocrisy which, to be sure, must have been practically inevitable when confronted with a civilization seemingly as 'primitive' as that of the Aborigines. There is double daring in his inhabiting the cosmology of a half-breed Aborigine as he goes through his wronged life, only to explode in rage in the end, with rifle and axe in hand. Throughout, with his jagged cadences, Keneally evokes the rugged majesty of the Australian landscape, its mountains, forests and plains, defying all the puny attempts of the white settlers to tame it, a land more mythological than real. The narrative voice is oblique, knowing, lurching between irony and pity and outrage, quite defying my flailing attempts at description or classification.
Above all, there is the miraculous sense of compression that Keneally achieves with his many-voiced narrative: how else to explain the fact that a book that comes in at less than 180 pages leaves you feeling like you have tussled with a monumental epic, leaving you with that same feeling of understanding, illumination, exhaustion? I have yet to read his magnum opus Schindler's List but on the evidence of this book, there is much to look forward to in his entire oeuvre.
P.S. Here is the controversial movie version by Fred Schepisi:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTMLm...
*
The novelist Thomas Keneally, then still only in his mid-30s and not widely known outside his native land, took this real-life story from the Australian past and fashioned out of it a sweeping epic of vengeance and pursuit. One wonders how it was received on publication, as Keneally holds up an unflinching mirror to white racism and hypocrisy which, to be sure, must have been practically inevitable when confronted with a civilization seemingly as 'primitive' as that of the Aborigines. There is double daring in his inhabiting the cosmology of a half-breed Aborigine as he goes through his wronged life, only to explode in rage in the end, with rifle and axe in hand. Throughout, with his jagged cadences, Keneally evokes the rugged majesty of the Australian landscape, its mountains, forests and plains, defying all the puny attempts of the white settlers to tame it, a land more mythological than real. The narrative voice is oblique, knowing, lurching between irony and pity and outrage, quite defying my flailing attempts at description or classification.
Above all, there is the miraculous sense of compression that Keneally achieves with his many-voiced narrative: how else to explain the fact that a book that comes in at less than 180 pages leaves you feeling like you have tussled with a monumental epic, leaving you with that same feeling of understanding, illumination, exhaustion? I have yet to read his magnum opus Schindler's List but on the evidence of this book, there is much to look forward to in his entire oeuvre.
P.S. Here is the controversial movie version by Fred Schepisi:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTMLm...
December 5, 2014
It would be fair to say that the majority of the Book Club I belong to (ie everyone but me) hated this book - the violence, the narrative, the characters. It met with near universal approbation. At the time of Book Club, I hadn't finished it but was enjoying it - enjoying the metaphor, the story and I generally like Tom Keneally's writing. I thought his forward to this most recent edition was suitably modest. Then we hit the last 3 chapters and the book really fell away. The enormity of the story just got lost in sheer tedium. I really came to the book knowing nothing of it but vague awareness of it as an "Australian Classic". I had thought it had a contemporary setting: that's how ignorant I was. It is set at the time of Federation so there is a rich vein of racism that is tapped into. I think Keneally does a superb job of writing the mounting rage that grows in Jimmie with each successive beating down of his aspirations. I thought the violence was well written. The characters for the most part are well constructed although the criticism of one-dimensional is pretty valid. But that does suit the story, which is a narrative of oppression at its heart. The final hiding out goes on for way too long, the tension between Jimmie and his pursuers isn't fully exploited, the whole "mystical" Mr McCreadie & the scene with the "henge" (for want of a better word) is clunky and the ending just peters out. And what's with those letters, Jimmie reads at the school? I'm just not sure what purpose they served. It is an ambitious book and a serious attempt at giving voice to an Aboriginal perspective and turning a light of the dark stain on our National identity. I wonder if TK would embark upon such a task now?
February 19, 2021
I read this for one of the book groups I attend which is this year (2021) reading Australian and New Zealand novels. I also watched the 1978 movie directed by Fred Schepsi which closely follows the book . The book is Keneally's fictionalised account of the true story of Austalian bushranger (outlaw) Jimmy Governor (1875-1901) , who is also the subject of a poem Poem "The Ballad of Jimmy Governor" by Australian poet Les Murray .
It is a short book (178 pages) but challenging. Keannelly attempts to tell Jimmie's story from growing up a mixed race child, taken under the wing of Rev and Mrs Neville at the Mission station and brought up with European/white values to better himself through hard work. And although he is a good worker, competant, reliable, thorough others treat him badly, don't pay him. He doe snot get a reference from one farmer he works for because the farmer cannot write, Jimmie can. He marries a pregnant white girl in good faith believing he is the child's father. He sees this as another step up, but upon its birth the child is clearly not his. When farmers refuse to pay Jimmie and his family are running out of food his life turns on its head. After his massacre of the farmer's wife, daughters, and woman boarder school teacher, Jimmie, wife, and his brother go on the run.
Keneally seeds this story with titits about the birth of the Australian Federation, the Boer War in South Africa and the life of the executioner.
Reading this today this book raises questions about the fictionalisation of factual histories, the clash of cultures then and now, the role of the author in these.
Not particularly a book I would recommend to snuggle down with during COVID lockdowns, but it is a provocative book club read, and it will I feel remain with me in years to come.
It is a short book (178 pages) but challenging. Keannelly attempts to tell Jimmie's story from growing up a mixed race child, taken under the wing of Rev and Mrs Neville at the Mission station and brought up with European/white values to better himself through hard work. And although he is a good worker, competant, reliable, thorough others treat him badly, don't pay him. He doe snot get a reference from one farmer he works for because the farmer cannot write, Jimmie can. He marries a pregnant white girl in good faith believing he is the child's father. He sees this as another step up, but upon its birth the child is clearly not his. When farmers refuse to pay Jimmie and his family are running out of food his life turns on its head. After his massacre of the farmer's wife, daughters, and woman boarder school teacher, Jimmie, wife, and his brother go on the run.
Keneally seeds this story with titits about the birth of the Australian Federation, the Boer War in South Africa and the life of the executioner.
Reading this today this book raises questions about the fictionalisation of factual histories, the clash of cultures then and now, the role of the author in these.
Not particularly a book I would recommend to snuggle down with during COVID lockdowns, but it is a provocative book club read, and it will I feel remain with me in years to come.
March 5, 2023
I’m fascinated by the reviews of people giving one star for this book. Apart from one person saying “I don’t like the way my ancestors were portrayed in this book”, the rest seem to hedge around the fact that aboriginal people are portrayed as characters with strength. “I don’t like the language”, “I don’t find it believable”, or simply “I don’t like it.”
It’s an uncomfortable book about uncomfortable things. Tightly written, not at all uplifting, this is a book that makes you uncomfortable through acknowledging aspects of colonialisation and human nature that we’d rather pretend don’t exist.
It’s an uncomfortable book about uncomfortable things. Tightly written, not at all uplifting, this is a book that makes you uncomfortable through acknowledging aspects of colonialisation and human nature that we’d rather pretend don’t exist.
September 30, 2023
Thomas Keneally is an Australian writer of historical novels who is best known for Schindler’s List. He doesn’t shy away from controversial topics, and The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith was also made into an art house film that critics loved but was a commercial flop. The story is about a mixed race Aboriginal young man who is caught between two cultures and realizes that he will never be treated with respect by the white landowners. He decides to start a race war and murders white families who have manipulated him. It’s an emotional and edgy story.
Read
May 22, 2017A tragic novel and yet so good at integrating the way racism In Australia paralleled some of what was going on in the Empire at the time Federation, or Australian independence, was being achieved. Just so hard for people of color to ever get ahead even when they are trying to play by the rules.
March 30, 2023
The plot was fine but the writing was meh and the way Jimmie went from affable black fella to murderous psycho was a bit too sudden.
August 12, 2017
Riveting. Powerful. A great book. Loved it. 5 stars
March 26, 2022
Confronting, but in a different way than I expected it to be, Jimmy is not the kind of Aboriginal man usual written about. He is a relatable character: hard working and rarely drinks; but he has difficulty merging both the traditional culture and white/Christian education in himself and of course he is not treated respectfully. The story indicates that this culture clash is the root of his problems and leads to him doing terrible crime and drag his family members along with him.
November 8, 2017
"And here the history of mean death and lust for booze and acquiescence to the white phallus, gun, and sequestration and all the malaise of black squalor, here it was, legible in the fracture lines of soft stones."
July 30, 2025
The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith by Thomas Keneally was shortlisted for The Booker Prize in 1972 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of... and inspired a wondrous film
10 out of 10
Schindler’s Ark is the most famous work by Thomas Keneally, albeit nine out of ten people would recognize Schindler’s List if asked and associate it with Steven Spielberg (it has become after all a classic and one of the best one hundred movies ever made) and if asked about the Australian author, they would have a difficult time trying to place him – unless of course they come from Down Under and they would not just know the name, well, one point one out of ten, but recognize much of what is described in the marvelous narrative, the oppression of the aborigines and the tumultuous events of the last century, 1900, when Australia was becoming a state, ‘federation’ that is discussed by some of the figures in the book, some of them with a preference, loyalty for the British – they would go on to fight in the Boer War, in south Africa, which was taking place at the same time, where many will die, most due to illness, not shot by their foes – others looking at their own states and not caring much for ‘Australia’ as a country http://realini.blogspot.com/2016/07/s...
The novel is based on the real life of Jimmy Governor, an indigenous man that had tried hard to accept, adopt European terms and rules and was still rejected, even if he had married a white woman (in the fictionalized version, he is in fact prompted by the priest to follow this path, acquire property, have a house and marry a white woman, in order to tame somehow the ‘blackness’ in him, which is seen by all the whites of that time (surely with a few, insignificant exceptions) as the cause of evil, and one of the employers is sardonic and insists that even if he will have children that will be part white and only one quarter black and then grandchildren where only one eight of the trace will remain, there is still nothing to do about it, it will be a heavy stone to carry…this and the other continuous insults would lead Jimmy to a breakdown and the horrors he would commit - as the Thomas Keneally makes clear, he also writes about the fact that he feels this work as a ‘chain around the neck…a lucky chain’
Our main character refers to Ned Kelley – t one point he is very suspicious and readers might or clearly fear he could shoot the man, when he says ‘a teacher has done it for Ned Kelley’- and that is another fabulous Australian saga, magnificent in the prose of Peter Carey, who has also won the Booker Prize for his ‘adjectival’ (to use one of the terms from Kelley’s lingua) writing…we have another outlaw who is running away from the law, he had been wronged, his family, mother and he takes justice into his own hands, the difference being that one is white and the other an aborigine, and the latter has had much more to bring him to the edge and then have him cross into the abyss of violence and mayhem that is horrifying http://realini.blogspot.com/2016/07/s...
One conclusion is clear early on – actually, from the first few lines and the introduction we see what type of story we are about to read – and it is summarized in the figure – a few thousand whites may have suffered at the hands of the indigenous, while the figure for the aborigines murdered is estimated at about two hundred and seventy thousand, however inaccurate that may be…there seems to be a move to try and repair some of the damage done, with leaders apologizing and admitting to some of the incredible tragedies that took place around that country…on the other hand they have a very sadistic immigration policy, which has applicants shipped to Papua New Guinea (or is it another far away island) and we discovered with the scandal surrounding the vicious Djokovic that people have stayed in that hotel for…years, waiting for a decision, an idea taken up by Britain, that plans to send immigrants to Rwanda, just like Denmark is planning or already doing and I have some fight to pick with Denmark, given that they were in a poll the ones who disliked my countrymen the most, even if I share that feeling…
Jimmie Blacksmith is a half caste, his white father has had intercourse with his mother (naturally, since it was the only way, until artificial insemination, in vitro and other means would appear) Dulcie, and that is something that many, in fact it looks like most men made a habit of, in spite of the condemnation, hypocritical and absurd as it was, the notion that those who favor the natives would lose their appetite for white females – which could be due to the fact that the aborigines would have some advantages – this custom was also encouraged alas, by the hospitality, good nature of the locals, who would not protest (Jimmy has an outburst and insists on this fact, that the whites would kill, not allow you to visit their wives) but on the contrary, it seems to have been a tradition to offer their women, just like the Eskimos have been reputed to do – it could well be a myth, like the ones regarding happiness – you find about the mistaken beliefs surrounding mirth from a classic by Harvard Professor Daniel Gilbert, Stumbling On Happiness, which looks at the belief that we would be happy, if only we were to live in California, a Pacific, Caribbean Island and research discovered The Hedonic Adaptation Effect, which means that once there, we would adapt and see the challenges, wild fires, cost of living, power cuts and so on, and stop noticing the benefits, the weather, palm trees, great beaches and that is the case for most human activities and things, with some exceptions, connected with unemployment, the loss of a loved one, very loud noise http://realini.blogspot.com/2013/06/s...
The hero takes part in initiation – ‘The tooth was knocked out of Jimmie's mouth by Mungindi elders when the boy was thirteen, in 1891...so too he had been circumcised with stone, the incision poulticed over with chalk- clay and likewise the eyes’ but he would set ‘European goals for himself, encouraged by Reverend Neville, he would try hard, work for various white men, mostly farmers, putting up fences for them, with incredible speed and skill most often, only to be cheated by them, insulted, diminished, humiliated, told that there is nothing he can do to better himself, progress, he is a black man and there is an end to the story there – words to this effect – and it all grew worse, up to the point where he works for this farmer who owes back pay, but still refuses to get groceries for Jimmie Blacksmith, pushing him to starvation, with the pretext that the hard worker has visitors – his uncle Jackie Smolders aka Tabidgi has arrived with half-brother, Mort, and a cousin, Peter, and according to tribal tradition, the host has to offer shelter and food for his guests – and the farmer wants them gone, refusing subsistence, even when this was paid in full by the work done, and it is the white who owes the aborigine and this situation explodes, with the main character entering a frenzy of destruction, he targets the teacher that had offered his wife, Gilda, a position as servant, which would mean she would leave her indigenous husband, and in his madness, the humiliated Jimmy ends up killing many people, first in that household, but then he would start a ‘war of revenge’ against the whites that have hurt him…
Posted 10th May 2022 by realini
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10 out of 10
Schindler’s Ark is the most famous work by Thomas Keneally, albeit nine out of ten people would recognize Schindler’s List if asked and associate it with Steven Spielberg (it has become after all a classic and one of the best one hundred movies ever made) and if asked about the Australian author, they would have a difficult time trying to place him – unless of course they come from Down Under and they would not just know the name, well, one point one out of ten, but recognize much of what is described in the marvelous narrative, the oppression of the aborigines and the tumultuous events of the last century, 1900, when Australia was becoming a state, ‘federation’ that is discussed by some of the figures in the book, some of them with a preference, loyalty for the British – they would go on to fight in the Boer War, in south Africa, which was taking place at the same time, where many will die, most due to illness, not shot by their foes – others looking at their own states and not caring much for ‘Australia’ as a country http://realini.blogspot.com/2016/07/s...
The novel is based on the real life of Jimmy Governor, an indigenous man that had tried hard to accept, adopt European terms and rules and was still rejected, even if he had married a white woman (in the fictionalized version, he is in fact prompted by the priest to follow this path, acquire property, have a house and marry a white woman, in order to tame somehow the ‘blackness’ in him, which is seen by all the whites of that time (surely with a few, insignificant exceptions) as the cause of evil, and one of the employers is sardonic and insists that even if he will have children that will be part white and only one quarter black and then grandchildren where only one eight of the trace will remain, there is still nothing to do about it, it will be a heavy stone to carry…this and the other continuous insults would lead Jimmy to a breakdown and the horrors he would commit - as the Thomas Keneally makes clear, he also writes about the fact that he feels this work as a ‘chain around the neck…a lucky chain’
Our main character refers to Ned Kelley – t one point he is very suspicious and readers might or clearly fear he could shoot the man, when he says ‘a teacher has done it for Ned Kelley’- and that is another fabulous Australian saga, magnificent in the prose of Peter Carey, who has also won the Booker Prize for his ‘adjectival’ (to use one of the terms from Kelley’s lingua) writing…we have another outlaw who is running away from the law, he had been wronged, his family, mother and he takes justice into his own hands, the difference being that one is white and the other an aborigine, and the latter has had much more to bring him to the edge and then have him cross into the abyss of violence and mayhem that is horrifying http://realini.blogspot.com/2016/07/s...
One conclusion is clear early on – actually, from the first few lines and the introduction we see what type of story we are about to read – and it is summarized in the figure – a few thousand whites may have suffered at the hands of the indigenous, while the figure for the aborigines murdered is estimated at about two hundred and seventy thousand, however inaccurate that may be…there seems to be a move to try and repair some of the damage done, with leaders apologizing and admitting to some of the incredible tragedies that took place around that country…on the other hand they have a very sadistic immigration policy, which has applicants shipped to Papua New Guinea (or is it another far away island) and we discovered with the scandal surrounding the vicious Djokovic that people have stayed in that hotel for…years, waiting for a decision, an idea taken up by Britain, that plans to send immigrants to Rwanda, just like Denmark is planning or already doing and I have some fight to pick with Denmark, given that they were in a poll the ones who disliked my countrymen the most, even if I share that feeling…
Jimmie Blacksmith is a half caste, his white father has had intercourse with his mother (naturally, since it was the only way, until artificial insemination, in vitro and other means would appear) Dulcie, and that is something that many, in fact it looks like most men made a habit of, in spite of the condemnation, hypocritical and absurd as it was, the notion that those who favor the natives would lose their appetite for white females – which could be due to the fact that the aborigines would have some advantages – this custom was also encouraged alas, by the hospitality, good nature of the locals, who would not protest (Jimmy has an outburst and insists on this fact, that the whites would kill, not allow you to visit their wives) but on the contrary, it seems to have been a tradition to offer their women, just like the Eskimos have been reputed to do – it could well be a myth, like the ones regarding happiness – you find about the mistaken beliefs surrounding mirth from a classic by Harvard Professor Daniel Gilbert, Stumbling On Happiness, which looks at the belief that we would be happy, if only we were to live in California, a Pacific, Caribbean Island and research discovered The Hedonic Adaptation Effect, which means that once there, we would adapt and see the challenges, wild fires, cost of living, power cuts and so on, and stop noticing the benefits, the weather, palm trees, great beaches and that is the case for most human activities and things, with some exceptions, connected with unemployment, the loss of a loved one, very loud noise http://realini.blogspot.com/2013/06/s...
The hero takes part in initiation – ‘The tooth was knocked out of Jimmie's mouth by Mungindi elders when the boy was thirteen, in 1891...so too he had been circumcised with stone, the incision poulticed over with chalk- clay and likewise the eyes’ but he would set ‘European goals for himself, encouraged by Reverend Neville, he would try hard, work for various white men, mostly farmers, putting up fences for them, with incredible speed and skill most often, only to be cheated by them, insulted, diminished, humiliated, told that there is nothing he can do to better himself, progress, he is a black man and there is an end to the story there – words to this effect – and it all grew worse, up to the point where he works for this farmer who owes back pay, but still refuses to get groceries for Jimmie Blacksmith, pushing him to starvation, with the pretext that the hard worker has visitors – his uncle Jackie Smolders aka Tabidgi has arrived with half-brother, Mort, and a cousin, Peter, and according to tribal tradition, the host has to offer shelter and food for his guests – and the farmer wants them gone, refusing subsistence, even when this was paid in full by the work done, and it is the white who owes the aborigine and this situation explodes, with the main character entering a frenzy of destruction, he targets the teacher that had offered his wife, Gilda, a position as servant, which would mean she would leave her indigenous husband, and in his madness, the humiliated Jimmy ends up killing many people, first in that household, but then he would start a ‘war of revenge’ against the whites that have hurt him…
Posted 10th May 2022 by realini
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June 27, 2013
Certainly gives a person a lot to think about. The Australian history between the whites and the aboriginals is very painfully tragic and the story of Jimmie Blacksmith lays that tragedy out before us. All sides in this book were both victims and perpetrators. I was struck with sorrow for all of them.
According to the back cover, this book is based on a true incident. Jimmie Blacksmith is a half breed, born of a black mother and white father, a very common occurrence I am sure, as it also was in the U.S. He is raised in both tribal ways through his family and Christian ways through the local minister. Confused, part of both and neither, angry at injustices and demands on both sides he marries a white woman who delivers a baby that is not his.
He works hard and honestly and is cheated of his wages to the point of starvation. What money he does get is claimed by aboriginal relatives to buy liquor.
Jimmie gets murderously mad and he and his uncle commit horrific murders, Jimmie and his brother continue the murders. They are fugitives, Jimmie has declared war.
Very disturbing, heartbreakingly sad.
One of the most affecting scenes is when Jimmie, his brother Mort and the white school teacher that they are holding hostage go to a tribal site of ritual circumcision. How the three of them react, how they try to make repairs and fail; it was for me the saddest and most powerful scene in this book which is full of sad and powerful scenes.
According to the back cover, this book is based on a true incident. Jimmie Blacksmith is a half breed, born of a black mother and white father, a very common occurrence I am sure, as it also was in the U.S. He is raised in both tribal ways through his family and Christian ways through the local minister. Confused, part of both and neither, angry at injustices and demands on both sides he marries a white woman who delivers a baby that is not his.
He works hard and honestly and is cheated of his wages to the point of starvation. What money he does get is claimed by aboriginal relatives to buy liquor.
Jimmie gets murderously mad and he and his uncle commit horrific murders, Jimmie and his brother continue the murders. They are fugitives, Jimmie has declared war.
Very disturbing, heartbreakingly sad.
One of the most affecting scenes is when Jimmie, his brother Mort and the white school teacher that they are holding hostage go to a tribal site of ritual circumcision. How the three of them react, how they try to make repairs and fail; it was for me the saddest and most powerful scene in this book which is full of sad and powerful scenes.
May 31, 2011
The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith is the 7th novel by Thomas Keneally. Set around the time of Federation, it tells the story of half-caste Jimmie Blacksmith, initiated into tribal manhood by his aboriginal elders, he was, at the same time, taught by a Methodist minister. Under the minister’s influence, his criteria denoting the value of human existence were home, hearth, wife and land. And a white wife, say a farm girl, would mean his offspring would be quarter-caste, theirs but an eighth. Jimmie works hard to achieve his goals, but fails through no fault of his own, and the situation becomes explosive and violent. Keneally tells a great yarn, and manages to deftly convey the forces that battle inside Jimmie, as well as the attitude of whites to blacks and of blacks to whites at that time in Australian history. The story is told mainly from Jimmie’s perspective, but also from the view of the Methodist minister, the hangman, Jimmie’s maternal uncle Tabidgi and the fiancé of one of Jimmie’s victims. The debate about Federation rumbles in the background. Excellent prose, vivid descriptions, characters of depth and authentic dialogue. It is no wonder this tragic tale has become an Australian classic.
March 12, 2016
The Good:
This book is haunting. It's incredibly well written (and here I mean fancy prose) with a desperate cast of tragic human beings and amazing sense of time and place (northern New South Wales around the time of Federation).
The Bad:
The portrayal of the protagonist is about as apologetic as anyone could hope, yet he still isn't exactly sympathetic. This is somewhat mitigated by the provision of sympathetic peripheral characters. The story also sort of fizzles toward the end.
'Friends' character the protagonist is most like:
Jimmie spends his life trying to conform to a prejudiced society only to suffer continued humiliation. He is most like Ross .
This book is haunting. It's incredibly well written (and here I mean fancy prose) with a desperate cast of tragic human beings and amazing sense of time and place (northern New South Wales around the time of Federation).
The Bad:
The portrayal of the protagonist is about as apologetic as anyone could hope, yet he still isn't exactly sympathetic. This is somewhat mitigated by the provision of sympathetic peripheral characters. The story also sort of fizzles toward the end.
'Friends' character the protagonist is most like:
Jimmie spends his life trying to conform to a prejudiced society only to suffer continued humiliation. He is most like Ross .
December 10, 2017
This book was loosely based on the Breelong Murders. I am a descendant of the Mawbeys aka the Newbys that we’re murdered by Jimmy Governor aka Jimmy Blacksmith. I hav done quite a bit of research on the Breelong Murders and I found this book insulting to my family and to upstanding aboriginal citizens. Jimmy Governor was a violent man and became brain damaged in a pub brawl as someone hit him over the head with a brick. He wasn’t torn apart at all. Yes people mocked him not just my family but I too was mocked in my life and it never drove me to murder. I also found the book boring and stupid. I would not read any other of Thomas Keneally’s books. He changed the names so he couldn’t pay my family royalties and insulted us while doing it. None of the Maybeys appreciate this book.
July 21, 2021
A really interesting book. The language used made it hard to understand at times and the story changes between characters in the middle of chapters which made it hard to follow. However a gripping, harrowing storyline and an fascinating look into the deplorable relations between aboriginals and European settlers make this book a must read
September 22, 2016
If you live in Australia and like literary fiction, you must read this book. As a "new Australian," I was fascinated by the descriptions / explanations of Aboriginal culture. A beautifully written, truly great work.
October 31, 2016
A very good read about Jimmie Blacksmith and his brother who went on a killing spree and their escape through the Australian outback. Well written but at times a little confusing in the aboriginal dialect they used in the dialog.
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