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What Members Thought
I'm not sure I can really review this book fairly as I'm pretty sure that a lot of what is going on here passed me by. There's some glorious language, some snippets of blistering satire and the bones of a richly allegorical novel here, but it's swamped by cultural references that I mostly missed, shifts in tone that left me baffled rather than engaged and a kind of stream of conscious approach that overwhelmed me. I got a lot out of Wright's previous book (Carpenteria), but here I think she's ki
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Immersive writing that really tackles the hero/saviour trope. Jacqui Katona, the audiobook narrator was also amazing to listen to.
This is an exceptional book and so dense in meaning and symbolism that it's hard to take in on a first reading or while listening to. I did find it an easier to listen to rather than read. However, after listening to it this time I'll have another attempt at trying to read it in the future to pick up more from it. It's a very worthy winner of the awards that have been bestowed on it.
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Every once in a while you pick up a book that you immediately want to buy copies of for half (or all) of your friends. This is one of those books.
"The Swan Book" is set in a future Australia, where much of the world has been devastated by global warming and subsequent climate change. Whole nations have been swallowed by the sea, and entire peoples made refugees. Australian Aboriginals are living underneath the Intervention, essentially locked into camps in the north of the country.
Obilivia Ethyl ...more
"The Swan Book" is set in a future Australia, where much of the world has been devastated by global warming and subsequent climate change. Whole nations have been swallowed by the sea, and entire peoples made refugees. Australian Aboriginals are living underneath the Intervention, essentially locked into camps in the north of the country.
Obilivia Ethyl ...more
Very challenging book to read. A story with myths and dream time actual and fictional stories intertwined into the story. A protagonist who is totally removed most of the time from what is going on around her, indeed mostly unaware as she lives in a swan spirit world and converses with other very distinct aspects of her personality in the form of ghosts. I might have to read it again one day to really understand it. But it is a book that lets you peak at the mindset of Indigenous Australians. At
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The Swan Book is hard to describe but I fell into it totally.
On some levels it's quite different from Wright's Carpentaria but on others it retains that special essence which makes this author's work so amazing. Allegorical, emotive and urgent.
While this probably isn't for everybody I'd urge you to give it go. ...more
On some levels it's quite different from Wright's Carpentaria but on others it retains that special essence which makes this author's work so amazing. Allegorical, emotive and urgent.
While this probably isn't for everybody I'd urge you to give it go. ...more
Sep 25, 2013
Cornelia
marked it as to-read
Dec 30, 2013
Donna
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May 26, 2014
Cian
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Aug 04, 2014
Rachel Watts
is currently reading it
Aug 28, 2014
Kay
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Jan 18, 2015
Chris
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Jul 06, 2015
Belinda
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Aug 04, 2015
Judy
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Oct 17, 2015
Ceels
marked it as to-read
Dec 20, 2016
Lia
marked it as not-for-me
Jan 08, 2017
Kira
marked it as to-read
Jan 27, 2017
Mary
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Apr 26, 2017
Katya
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Mar 29, 2019
EmJay
marked it as to-read
