The Burial in Aussie Readers

Mar 30, 2013 Brenda rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-on-kindle, 2012-release, aussie-authors, own-read, historical-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. When twenty-two-year-old Jessie was released from prison after serving two years for horse rustling, she immediately began working for Fitzgerald Henry (Fitz) on his property in the vast bush of NSW Australia. This was a condition of her release; she had no say in it at all. Fitz was a cruel and harsh man, and his treatment of Jessie was such that she was desperate to escape her tormenter. When Aboriginal stockman Jack Brown was also hired by Fitz, the two became kindred spirits. Thrust together When twenty-two-year-old Jessie was released from prison after serving two years for horse rustling, she immediately began working for Fitzgerald Henry (Fitz) on his property in the vast bush of NSW Australia. This was a condition of her release; she had no say in it at all. Fitz was a cruel and harsh man, and his treatment of Jessie was such that she was desperate to escape her tormenter. When Aboriginal stockman Jack Brown was also hired by Fitz, the two became kindred spirits. Thrust together in the stealing of horses for Fitz, they both wanted to get away from his demanding, threatening and drunken influence.

But when Jessie discovered she was pregnant to Fitz, she was terrified - her future looked bleak. And after a frightening night of horror and fear, Jessie frantically headed away from the farm on her beloved horse, Houdini, as fast as she could possibly go. She had done a terrible thing, but she wanted to be free – she must be free; no-one must find her….not even Jack Brown.

With the premature birth and subsequent death of her baby, Jessie found herself extremely ill. Delirious, suffering from blood loss and severe dehydration, her thoughts tormented her.

As Jessie’s story continued, it was narrated by the spirit of her dead baby. The link between mother and child was strong – as Jessie struggled, her extreme courage shone through. With depth of character, humility and determination, Jessie kept going, trying to stay one step ahead of her pursuers as she headed for the mountains which were beckoning her.

Jessie Hickman was a bushranger in Australia in the early twentieth century – Courtney Collins has used her story as an inspiration for The Burial in an unusual but powerful way, with the result being one which had me gripped by the intensity, while at the same time fascinated by the concept. I’ve never read a book quite like this one, but I enjoyed it none the less. A wonderful debut from an Aussie author to watch out for, and one I have no hesitation in recommending.
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Sep 17, 2012 Mish rated it really liked it

Shelves: australian-authors

Wow! This book has truly taken me by surprise. From the shocking events on the first chapter I knew from that moment on that it was going to be an extraordinary piece of storytelling. This story is loosely based on the legendary bush ranger Jessie Hickman.

Jessie, 22 year old, is serving a sentence of 2 year in prison for horse rustling. Upon her release she is placed in the hands of a guardian, Fitz, to work on his remote property in the Hunter Valley, to ‘break in’ and training wild horses. Be Wow! This book has truly taken me by surprise. From the shocking events on the first chapter I knew from that moment on that it was going to be an extraordinary piece of storytelling. This story is loosely based on the legendary bush ranger Jessie Hickman.

Jessie, 22 year old, is serving a sentence of 2 year in prison for horse rustling. Upon her release she is placed in the hands of a guardian, Fitz, to work on his remote property in the Hunter Valley, to ‘break in’ and training wild horses. Believing this to be her break to start a fresh life, she has actually falling into the hands of a cruel and sinister man who took advantage of Jessie’s unfortunate situation; he raped and beat her black and blue, and blackmailed her into horse and cattle rustling (again!) along with her secret lover. In her desperation to free herself from the clutches of this man, Jessie has committed a horrendous crime. She’s on the run from the law, her lover and a group of men who wants to claim the substantial award for her capture, Jessie heads towards the highest mountain on her beloved horse to escape.

However Jessie is not alone. There’s a spirit that is deeply connected to Jessie and won’t leave her side. It is though this spirit that we see and hear of Jessie’s pain staking journey through the harsh Australian climate for survival, and who will also give us a glimpse into Jessie’s tragic pasts.

The narrator’s voice was the best part of this story. It was pure and magical, and the only way I can describe it was that I had a sense that I was witnessing the events from up above, like I was floating the whole way through. Yet it can be raw and honest when it needed to be, especially when describing Jessie’s pain and mental anguish but I could also feel a sense of pride in the voice and encouragement to get through it. It was beautifully written and poetic, and the bond between Jessie and the narrator was quite strong and remarkable…so strong in fact that I didn’t feel any sympathy or connection to side characters. I wasn’t remotely interested in their story, it was all Jessie and the narrator for me.

Wonderful debut by a very talented writer. I’m really excited to see what she’ll come up with next. Highly recommend it
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Sep 23, 2012 Shelleyrae at Book'd Out rated it really liked it

Shelves: provided-by-publisher, aussie-author, arc-are

The Burial is a poetic, reimagined tribute to the extraordinary life of legendary Australian 'lady bushranger', Jessie Hickman. Set in the 1920's, as Jessie flees the law after murdering her brutal husband, this is a brooding novel narrated by Jessie's dead newborn child, whose spirit remains tethered to her mother.

I admire the lyrical nature of this novel with it's spare yet evocative phrasing. Collins paints incredible scenes, Jessie lying bleeding by the river barely conscious, the menace and ...more

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Dec 17, 2012 Joanne rated it really liked it

Courtney Collins' first novel is a real page turner! What makes the pages fly so quickly is not only the well crafted story, but the lyrical language in which it is told. Australia being my adopted home, I have very much enjoyed the literature. It is rife with stories of those who heroically overcame the odds, and who survived, not only a brutality and injustice they did not deserve, but also the harsh landscape into which they try to escape. What are the qualities that make this possible? They ...more

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Sep 19, 2012 Bree T rated it really liked it

Shelves: arc, australian, literary, aww2012, re-telling, survival

Jessie is 22 when she is released from a 2yo jail sentenced for horse-rustling. As a condition of her release she is required to have secured employment for herself so that the prison can release her to a sort of guardian and let go of its own responsibility of her. Most women list ‘housekeeping’ or the like on their papers but Jessie lists ‘horse-breaking’ and it is for this reason that she is apprenticed to Fitzgerald ‘Fitz’ Henry. Fitz has a cabin deep in a valley and it isn’t long before he’ Jessie is 22 when she is released from a 2yo jail sentenced for horse-rustling. As a condition of her release she is required to have secured employment for herself so that the prison can release her to a sort of guardian and let go of its own responsibility of her. Most women list ‘housekeeping’ or the like on their papers but Jessie lists ‘horse-breaking’ and it is for this reason that she is apprenticed to Fitzgerald ‘Fitz’ Henry. Fitz has a cabin deep in a valley and it isn’t long before he’s using Jessie’s skills to assist him in his business of horse-rustling and cattle skimming.

Then Fitz hires part-Aboriginal stockman Jack Brown to help after Fitz is hurt in an accident and laid up for a while. Fitz pays only some of the time but a job is a job for Jack who is also blackmailed by Fitz into staying. He knows that in any investigation, the powers that be are going to believe Fitz over him and it’ll be him and/or Jessie that take the fall for any illegal activity. So even though Jessie and Jack both long to leave Fitz behind they are bound to him.

Fitz also took Jessie because he was lonely for the company of a woman in his remote valley. Jessie is more clever than most, managing and timing Fitz’s advances to have the least impact on her but eventually she falls pregnant to him. When one night changes everything for Jessie, she knows that deep into the mountains is the only place she can escape.

I won a copy of an uncorrected proof of this one from the publisher a couple of months ago and put it into my pile for September, the month of its official release. Loosely based on parts of the life of Elizabeth “Jessie” Hickman, The Burial is a fascinating story set in a harsh time where women had a very different role. This book hooked me from the start with its unusual narration and lovely writing and the desperate sadness that underscored the opening events.

Jessie was such a wonderful character, so complex and fleshed out. Her life was one of tragedy and unfortunate circumstances and it was clear she’d had very little going for her most of her life. She had the love of her father but his death led her being given away to a circus at about 9 years old and there she worked until the circus folded around the time of the war when it was quite obvious that the owners were German and towns were only giving them a negative reception. Jessie then drifted, making a living out of thieving until she was finally caught and sent to jail. Upon her release from jail she was entrusted to Fitz who turned out to be a hard drinking, hard hitting criminal with the power to blackmail Jessie into keeping quiet and continuing to help, Jessie knowing that only one word from him would have her back in jail in a heartbeat. I felt for Jessie in so many ways during this book, even though she’d been in trouble in her life it wasn’t hard to really get behind her and want her to escape her situation and get out of the situations she found herself in. I feel that Collins did such a good job in portraying a tough vulnerability to Jessie, the sort of woman that knew how to take care of herself when she had to but who was also in other ways, quite helpless and a victim of her circumstances.

She wished that she could skin herself, that she could pare herself right back to bone and pull apart those bones and reconstruct herself again – p143

That quote I think sums up Jessie perfectly in my mind. She is full of regrets, of the things she wishes she had one, or could have done, the way in which she wishes things could have been and yet she’s not the type to overly dwell on these things for feel sorry for herself either. It is what it is and she is what she is and all she knows how to do is keep going forward, keep moving, keep trying to free herself until she finds what she is looking for, if she ever can.

I think my favourite thing about this book was the narration, which I don’t want to give away for fear of spoiling it for people because it really does have quite an impact when you realise just who is narrating most of this book for you. I think it’s a heartbreakingly beautiful idea and I loved it even though it made me so sad to think about it. It just gave this book a touch of uniqueness, a little bit of an edge that I think boosted it and made it a much more effective story.

A deceptively deep and emotional story set in remote Australia with a strong but yet also vulnerable character and some truly lovely writing.

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Dec 08, 2013 Tracey rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: australian, fiction, crime, historical, 2013

Courtney Collins ‘The Burial’ is a slightly unusual reimaging of the life of Australian female bushranger Elizabeth Jessie Hickman. The narrative is told through Hickman’s dead child who tracks and reports on her mother’s journey.
There is a lovely rhythm to the writing, there are short bursts of beautiful descriptions and there is an array of characters that are wonderfully constructed. Yet there is bleakness, a true sense of loneliness that seeps through this novel and makes you wonder how any Courtney Collins ‘The Burial’ is a slightly unusual reimaging of the life of Australian female bushranger Elizabeth Jessie Hickman. The narrative is told through Hickman’s dead child who tracks and reports on her mother’s journey.
There is a lovely rhythm to the writing, there are short bursts of beautiful descriptions and there is an array of characters that are wonderfully constructed. Yet there is bleakness, a true sense of loneliness that seeps through this novel and makes you wonder how any of this can end well.
The colonial Australian Collins has constructed is a man’s world and Jessie is trying to navigate a way through so she can survive. For that is really what the basis of the story is about is Jessie’s need to survive on her own terms. That survival commences with the death of her child and from there we discover Jessie has murdered her husband and is trying to make it to the relative safety of the mountains. Intertwined through this is Jessie’s past story, her family and involvement in the circus
Jessie’s situation is further complicated with her lover Jack Brown and Sergeant Barlow both with reasons of their own, are endeavouring to locate her. A local landowner frustrated by the lack of police response to his missing cattle accuses Jessie of murder, theft and witchcraft and places a bounty on her head, enough to attract a number of the wrong kind of men keen to claim it.
It would be wrong to sell the book as a bushranger adventure story as it is far more than that. What Collins captures is the loneliness of the bush, the isolation of living on farms and the harshness of making a living on the land. While death is everywhere the counterpoint is the will to survive. That the land and people are unforgiving and if you do not have the ability to meek out an existence you will be quickly cast aside. There is a wonderful exploration of the role of women and children in colonial Australian. Through the tales of Jessie’s early life the harsh reality for children is obvious. Many find themselves without parents at a young age and have to find the best way to survive. For the women there is nothing but a bleak existence at the violent hands of men who are drunks and boors.
As a debut novel it is impressive and does tackle some interesting themes but I am not wholly convinced that the novel overall works. I am not sure why but when I finished I was in a quandary as to whether I really enjoyed the story. For all the imagery and the themes, the story itself just seemed to be slightly under done.
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