Inside the Island / The Precious Woman

by Louis Nowra

Paperback

First published March 15, 1981

About the author

Louis Nowra (born 12 December 1950) is an Australian writer, playwright, screenwriter and librettist. His most significant plays are Così, Byzantine Flowers, Summer of the Aliens, Radiance, and The Golden Age. In 2007 he completed the The Boyce Trilogy for Griffin Theatre Company, consisting of The Woman with Dog's Eyes, The Marvellous Boy and The Emperor of Sydney. Many of his plays have been filmed.[1]
He was born as Mark Doyle in Melbourne. He changed his name to Louis Nowra in the early 1970s. He studied at Melbourne's La Trobe University without earning a degree. In his memoir, The Twelfth of Never, Nowra claimed that he left the course due to a conflict with his professor on Patrick White's The Tree of Man. He worked in several jobs and lived an itinerant lifestyle until the mid-1970s when his plays began to attract attention.
His radio plays include Albert Names Edward, The Song Room, The Widows and the five part The Divine Hammer aired on the ABC in 2003.[2]
In March 2007, Nowra published a controversial book on violence in Aboriginal communities, Bad Dreaming.
Nowra has been studied extensively in Veronica Kelly's work The Theatre of Louis Nowra.
He resides in Sydney with his wife, author Mandy Sayer.

From Wikipedia

Reviews

[Ananya Ghosh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am really glad I took up the Australian literature course because otherwise I would have remained alien to a brilliant side of literature that is unlike any other.

After reading so many brilliant plays, I think I love dramas too, which I was previously doubtful about. I have only read Inside the Island but there is no goodreads entry for it separately.

Australian literature requires you to have a little background about what the history of the land is, and I admit there are so many versions that had been repressed for so long, but its easier for readers now because most of it has been uncovered thanks to post colonial and post modern ideas. So, Australian literature is essentially rooted in the violence against the indigenous population there before the colonial settlement, and white Australian works are filled with the absence of those aboriginal spirits that were wiped off the land and indigenous works describe their pain and horrors at the forceful removal of their race off the land. So essentially, land becomes an important concept in almost all Australian literature, where it either haunts the white consciousness or fights for the original race.

Now that we have done a crash course in Australian literature, we can get back to the review.

This play deals with Australian themes of landscape, and being written by a white Australian playwright, deals with the absence of the aborigines that were removed from the land while the protagonist's father built his property of wheat fields, mill and a mansion. It discusses other issues like belonging with the colonial England as well.

The story revolves around the Dawson family, wealthy landowners who attend a cricket match and picnic with a soldier troop camping nearby and due to poisoning, the soldiers go mad and wreak havoc on the landscape. In the end, many of the soldiers die along with the protagonist's family, except her and makes the reader question human guilt and attitudes.

It is a very thought provoking read, even if you are not analysing it critically, because I feel that the protagonist Lillian, a thoroughly villainous and biased character is somebody we should read this for.

[Georgia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have only read Inside the Island and it was a really good read (If you like plays).