After Story - Larissa Behrendt - 4.5 rounded up

[Booknblues]

Larissa Behrendt, a talented author who is also a lawyer who has worked on indigenous issues in both Australia and abroad has crafted a layered tale in her novel After Story.

On the surface it is a tale about a daughter, Jasmine who takes her mother, Della on a guided tour of literary sites in England. Della, the daughter of an indigenous woman and white man has never traveled outside of Australia before. Jasmine, a lawyer wants to connect with her mother while giving Della glimpse of her world.

The books chapters are divided by the days of the tour and on each day we are given a view of the location through both Della and Jasmine's eyes. We see how vastly different the experiences can be for them:

"I found Mum walking in the garden. ‘What did you think?’ I asked her as we got back onto the bus. ‘This garden is a nice place to bury your pets,’ she observed."

Jasmine felt that Della was dismissive of the classics and the tour, while Della was really impacted by the gardens and the nature on the tour. They both are learning about themselves through the tour and the classics are giving them insight into the indigenous story telling.

Behrendt confronts such issues of intergeneration trauma, misunderstandings in families and brings a new look at indigenous culture through a tour of England and the classics.

We visit places of importance to Virginia Wolf, Vita Sackville-West, Lewis Carroll, D.H. Lawrence, Shakespeare, Jane Austen, the Brontes among others. I thoroughly enjoyed the tour and did a google trip along with it.

It does move slowly and those who do not have an interest in the books and the tour will not be charmed as I was.

For me it was a truly delightful trip.

[Booknblues]

I forgot to say that this is a great character study.

Here is an interview with Larissa Behrendt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRCmi...

In the book there is a map of the tour and in the Afterword, Behrendt lists both the authors and their books and the places visited.

[Theresa]

This caught my eye on whatever list it was on. If ever a book was written for someone like me...thanks for your review and recommendation!

[Booknblues]

Theresa wrote: "This caught my eye on whatever list it was on. If ever a book was written for someone like me...thanks for your review and recommendation!"

I know that you will be googling all the sites up.

It is a really beautiful book which delves into some really hard issues.

There is even some lawyer talk but not in your field.