A Great Story

My apologies if i repeat ideas already covered by others..have had this saved as a draft for a while.... I definitely thoroughly enjoyed this book. I felt quite refreshed to read a relatively simple story with a beginnning, middle and end and I found the subject completely intriguing as I've never given much thought to the way the convict system worked and the challenges that faced those sent to Australia. The language of Kate Grenville was soothing and poetic and yet simple and painfully poignant in parts. In my head and heart Wil remained 'lost' throughout the story from the beginning feeling overshadowed by the other William Thornhills in his life until the end where he remained feeling empty and without a home.

I agree that the interaction between Wil and his 'slaves' was intriguing and gave an insight into Wil's character - a wish for power and prestige but not really having the know how to consistently present his authority. I loved the description of the first time he discovered he was 'strolling' after an early power struggle with Dan, having the feeling of power wash over him to allow him to feel as a gentleman would in London. However he could never really hold his authority as in the end it was Dan who pushed him into the final attack by convincing him that Sal would leave unless he "got rid of the blacks". My only criticism is that i suddenly felt detached from the story as the last chapter 'Thornhill's Place' began, time had passed and whereas in the previous parts of the story I felt that the story had few gaps, now I felt that i didn't completely understand how the Thornhills had achieved such wealth and status, is that just the way it happened, that the longer you stayed in Australia the more senior you became in the community? And I wondered how much of Wil's allowing the use of his boat helped to 'buy' some of the prestige that he later enjoyed. But maybe that was just a tactic of Grenville, to allow the reader to detach from the characters that i felt i knew quite well, and allow the story to end.

I also found the descriptions of Wil's verbal interactions with the Aborigines rather amusing and well described, maybe because i have similar difficulties communicating with some of my students and have found myself nodding and smiling to utterances that i cant fully decipher. I felt that the confusion and frustration that occurs when people can not understand each other to be fascinating in the sense that often we construct our views of what people say to fit what we think they would be saying...anyone who has spent some time in a foreign country will agree that you can often have a 'conversation' with someone and then later realise that perhaps they didn't really say what you thought, and didn't necessarily understand as well as you originally beleived.

I guess overall, i found the book totally enjoyable as well as provoking thought about 'big' issues but without being contrived or pretentious, really just presenting a story without any opinion.

Its exciting to see the superfriends blog growing and growing and judging by the previous bloviations you are all doing better than me at explaining your opinions when writing... Maybe its been too long since i've been at uni and too much time conversing with under 5's but i'm really struggling with writing my ideas!