More Recent Reading

The Conversations at Curlow Creek by David Malouf (1996, 214pp). This was a good Australian story set in NSW, 1827. It’s about two men, one a bushranger who is to hang at dawn and the other the police officer who is to supervise the hanging. The novel tracks the conversations and thoughts of the two men throughout the night before the execution. I liked the Australianness of their situation – the bush; the convict connection; the Irish background of both men. I found the story a little tedious in the middle but the ending grabbed my attention by the throat.

The Little Karoo by Pauline Smith (1925, 160pp). I enjoyed reading the Karoo stories set in South Africa and discovering the tough, dour and pious people and the demanding lifestyle of Platkops dorp. The musical names and words and intriguing terms like inspanning and outspanning (hooking and unhooking oxen to the wagon) belied the daily struggle. I wonder to what degree the stories are autobiographical. I note Arnold Bennett says in his intro that Pauline left for school in England at the age of 12. My interest in Pauline Smith is a strange tale of coincidence which I hope to soon share with that endangered species - my blog reader.

Coincidentally I had also just finished reading Jon Cleary’s The Sundowners (1952, 336pp) which gives an interesting insight into the lives of shearers and their pursuit of hard work in an earlier rural Australia. The bushfires and droughts and pressures of the woolshed tested the sense of humour and the relationships of the main characters. I liked the way Cleary captured the dilemma between wanting to stay on the road with all its unpredictability and adventure with the yearning to settle down in a place of your own.