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Love Like Water
A piercing discussion of racial relationships, this powerful and sensual love story is about Cathy, a young woman from the country who moves away from home and has her beliefs and sense of identity challenged. As she falls for Jay, her friendship with Margie, a wild city girl always up for a good time, is confronted. Lively characters, deep emotion, and humor collide in a tough city in the harsh but beautiful landscape of central Australia. Emotionally charged and intense, this complex and important novel explores the blurred boundaries between black and white, city and country, lover and friend.
360 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
October 3, 2024
Not my cup of tea! I found the characters quite unlikeable and all the tension and conflict felt thoroughly forced. Was looking forward to finishing it the whole read.
October 16, 2018
I didn’t like this at the start - it wasn’t in the style of the book I’d been reading before and I found it a bit too real. But that turned out to be the beauty of it. It was real and relatable and quietly powerful.
The story was of a girl moving to Alice Springs to make a fresh start, with her bestie from school. She meets a guy from a totally different background and they are immediately attracted to each other. She learns about the shit that aboriginal people have to put up with. They both learn about themselves. It’s a good book.
The story was of a girl moving to Alice Springs to make a fresh start, with her bestie from school. She meets a guy from a totally different background and they are immediately attracted to each other. She learns about the shit that aboriginal people have to put up with. They both learn about themselves. It’s a good book.
March 10, 2017
Set in Alice Springs, during the 80s, Love Like Water is about Cathy, a young white woman looking for a new life after a loss, and Jay, an Aboriginal DJ, trying to find a way to survive. It's a typical, very Australian, coming of age story, with the added stresses of racial tension and the pressures Indigenous people face. The setting is harsh, but beautiful, and the physical and emotional landscapes are poetically and movingly described.
January 11, 2013
I knew nothing about this book before I started reading it, only that it was set in Alice Springs and that it was written by an Australian woman. It was one that I randomly picked off the shelves in the library. (Incidentally, I used to do that an awful lot – just pick up books at random. Now it feels like I look for recommendations, then read reviews and I’m almost too prepared before I read. This challenge is helping me return to my ‘just pick it up’ roots!)
Love Like Water is about three people – Cathy, Margie and Jay – who are all newcomers to Alice Springs. I believe the book is set in the early nineties – there’s talk about basketball and early Yothu Yindi, and the three characters are coming to terms with being adults, being alone and being in Alice Springs. The main story belongs to Cathy and Jay. Cathy is from an outback station, where she’s always followed the expected path – she’s gone away to boarding school, come home, supported her brother (who was always going to inherit the property) and found a local boy to get engaged to. But when her fiance is killed in a plane crash, she packs up and follows her friend Margie to Alice Springs.
Jay, on the other hand, is following a job opportunity to Alice Springs. He’s gained success as a DJ in Sydney and has been offered the morning radio spot for the Aboriginal radio station in Alice Springs. He’s coming to terms with his urbane background, and his family background which is so different to the Aboriginal people in Alice Springs. Additionally, there’s a pervasive racism which allows him to be popular and ‘seen’ in some areas of town, while dismissing him in others.
Finally there’s Margie. Her story isn’t as big and overwhelming as Jay or Cathy. Instead she acts more like a mirror, her point of view reflecting off the other two, who soon meet and find themselves developing a deep relationship.
This was such a lyrical read, the words often read like music. It was easy to fall into the story and almost let it take you along, even when the story made unpleasant twists. Although Cathy, Jay and Margie don’t always make good decisions, they are likeable people and you want them to have good lives. I would easily read more about both Cathy and Jay, as well as the other richly written minor characters in the story. I would highly recommend this book to others, and I look forward to searching for more from Meme McDonald
On a separate point, this was classified and shelved as a young adult book – which demonstrates what a broad range you can find in young adult. These characters are in early adulthood – their early 20s – but they’re definitely not the teenagers, or even the young school leavers, that you usually find in young adult books. I wonder why this wasn’t published as an adult book, and whether there’s a place – and where that is – for stories about people in their early 20s.
This review originally appeared at Adventures of a Subversive Reader
Love Like Water is about three people – Cathy, Margie and Jay – who are all newcomers to Alice Springs. I believe the book is set in the early nineties – there’s talk about basketball and early Yothu Yindi, and the three characters are coming to terms with being adults, being alone and being in Alice Springs. The main story belongs to Cathy and Jay. Cathy is from an outback station, where she’s always followed the expected path – she’s gone away to boarding school, come home, supported her brother (who was always going to inherit the property) and found a local boy to get engaged to. But when her fiance is killed in a plane crash, she packs up and follows her friend Margie to Alice Springs.
Jay, on the other hand, is following a job opportunity to Alice Springs. He’s gained success as a DJ in Sydney and has been offered the morning radio spot for the Aboriginal radio station in Alice Springs. He’s coming to terms with his urbane background, and his family background which is so different to the Aboriginal people in Alice Springs. Additionally, there’s a pervasive racism which allows him to be popular and ‘seen’ in some areas of town, while dismissing him in others.
Finally there’s Margie. Her story isn’t as big and overwhelming as Jay or Cathy. Instead she acts more like a mirror, her point of view reflecting off the other two, who soon meet and find themselves developing a deep relationship.
This was such a lyrical read, the words often read like music. It was easy to fall into the story and almost let it take you along, even when the story made unpleasant twists. Although Cathy, Jay and Margie don’t always make good decisions, they are likeable people and you want them to have good lives. I would easily read more about both Cathy and Jay, as well as the other richly written minor characters in the story. I would highly recommend this book to others, and I look forward to searching for more from Meme McDonald
On a separate point, this was classified and shelved as a young adult book – which demonstrates what a broad range you can find in young adult. These characters are in early adulthood – their early 20s – but they’re definitely not the teenagers, or even the young school leavers, that you usually find in young adult books. I wonder why this wasn’t published as an adult book, and whether there’s a place – and where that is – for stories about people in their early 20s.
This review originally appeared at Adventures of a Subversive Reader
September 25, 2012
An excellent book.
In my reading experience, love across the racial divide is a topic not much explored in Australian literature. What is remarkable about Love Like Water is the way it unpacks the ideal that race does not matter, and reveals the misunderstandings that arise from the cultural gulf between Black and White Australia. McDonald shows that racism does make race matter. It puts relationships at risk because it makes everything about such relationships difficult – and that is so whether the racism is overt or covert; whether it derives from hatred, guilt, fear or ‘pragmatism’; whether it is casual or unintended, or whether it is born of ignorance or from resentment. What is inspirational about this book is that it shows that there can be good will on both sides, and it offers hope that love can indeed transcend the barriers.
Set in the 1980s, the story is set in the symbolic heart of our country, Alice Springs in Central Australia, 440 km northeast of Uluru. The Alice has a population of about 30,000 of whom about 20% are Aboriginal. The Central Arrernte People are the traditional owners of the Alice Springs area but for social and religious reasons, and because of the town’s location and the services offered, The Alice is visited by Aboriginal Peoples from all over Central Australia and elsewhere. The White population is transient too, with ‘blow-ins’ on short-term contracts coming from all over the country and beyond. Tourism (mainly because of The Rock) dominates the economy but mining and pastoral industries are important too.
To read the rest of my review please visit http://anzlitlovers.com/2012/10/14/lo...
In my reading experience, love across the racial divide is a topic not much explored in Australian literature. What is remarkable about Love Like Water is the way it unpacks the ideal that race does not matter, and reveals the misunderstandings that arise from the cultural gulf between Black and White Australia. McDonald shows that racism does make race matter. It puts relationships at risk because it makes everything about such relationships difficult – and that is so whether the racism is overt or covert; whether it derives from hatred, guilt, fear or ‘pragmatism’; whether it is casual or unintended, or whether it is born of ignorance or from resentment. What is inspirational about this book is that it shows that there can be good will on both sides, and it offers hope that love can indeed transcend the barriers.
Set in the 1980s, the story is set in the symbolic heart of our country, Alice Springs in Central Australia, 440 km northeast of Uluru. The Alice has a population of about 30,000 of whom about 20% are Aboriginal. The Central Arrernte People are the traditional owners of the Alice Springs area but for social and religious reasons, and because of the town’s location and the services offered, The Alice is visited by Aboriginal Peoples from all over Central Australia and elsewhere. The White population is transient too, with ‘blow-ins’ on short-term contracts coming from all over the country and beyond. Tourism (mainly because of The Rock) dominates the economy but mining and pastoral industries are important too.
To read the rest of my review please visit http://anzlitlovers.com/2012/10/14/lo...
February 13, 2015
Wow! I'm not sure where to start with reviewing this book but for starters it is amazing. The descriptive imagery blew my mind. The author used words in such a way to make the ordinary into a thing of beauty, and beautiful things were defined and broadened.
The story had the feel of a Dreamtime, a legend, a fairytale all rolled together. It swelled and developed and took you to places and situations that are familiar and you know the outcome, but then you see them in a different light. It's a story of live and connection and finding yourself.
This isn't just a YA book, it's for anyone who has been lost and found and wandered and returned.
The story had the feel of a Dreamtime, a legend, a fairytale all rolled together. It swelled and developed and took you to places and situations that are familiar and you know the outcome, but then you see them in a different light. It's a story of live and connection and finding yourself.
This isn't just a YA book, it's for anyone who has been lost and found and wandered and returned.
May 21, 2009
This is a lovely exploration of a number of issues very close to the heart of a lot of Australians. Set in Alice springs, McDonald draws upon her formidable knowledge of, and understanding of, the often perilous issues surrounding Indigenous relations in Australia, and offers up this beautiful love story. It was shortlisted in the 2008 CBCA Book of the Year Awards, and had the final lines revised after the Rudd government's apology to the Stolen Generations in that same year.
September 8, 2010
Very well written, but kind of... disjointed. It seemed like a lot of sort of dreamily unrelated scenes and thoughts and observations from several different characters just mashed into one book. It was thoughtful and slow, not unpleasant. I rather liked it.
April 9, 2013
I really enjoyed this book especially after reading Maybe Tomorrow by Boori Pryor. It was written beautifully and I loved the honestly. Especialy the honesty of learning our ignorances and moving past them to become more aware. Loved the book.
September 25, 2012
Thankyou Meme! You opened my eyes to how how deep my ethnocentricity lies. The collaboration between you and Boori in all previous books took on a new light. Love like water delighted my romantic, my activist and my literary self!!
September 15, 2012
Fantastic story between the lines of Meme's life. Compelling and moves at a perfect pace to capture the emotions of the story.
November 2, 2018
funny lol moments
November 19, 2021
Very well written, with deep characters. Gave me a further insight into aboriginal culture
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews