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Book Review
May. 30th, 2009 06:41 pmThe Secret River
by Kate Grenville
This thoughtful and thought-provoking novel takes place at the beginning of the 19th century and traces the life of William Thornhill, a Londoner born into extreme poverty who is transported to Australia for theft, along with his wife and young children. There, they must carve out a life and a place for themselves, which inevitably brings them into conflict with the Aborigines. Grenville's main theme is an exploration of the uneasy and ultimately tragic interaction between the British colonists and the natives. She deftly examines the forces that set people above, beneath, and against each other, and the motivations behind acts of tyranny.
Thornhill is not a sophisticated man, but he is also neither an especially cruel nor violent man (unlike some of his fellow settlers). Wrapped inside the larger tragedy of the Aborigines is Thornhill's own more personal tragedy. Because of his own fears and desires for mastery, he is eventually swept into participation in a brutal act of extermination. Even though Thornhill goes on to become a prosperous man, he remains haunted by his actions and the absence they have created. The crux of the tragedy is not just his actions and their consequences, but the lingering sense Grenville gives the reader that Thornhill would have preferred an alternative way, but was unable, through lack of both courage and imagination, to find it.
by Kate Grenville
This thoughtful and thought-provoking novel takes place at the beginning of the 19th century and traces the life of William Thornhill, a Londoner born into extreme poverty who is transported to Australia for theft, along with his wife and young children. There, they must carve out a life and a place for themselves, which inevitably brings them into conflict with the Aborigines. Grenville's main theme is an exploration of the uneasy and ultimately tragic interaction between the British colonists and the natives. She deftly examines the forces that set people above, beneath, and against each other, and the motivations behind acts of tyranny.
Thornhill is not a sophisticated man, but he is also neither an especially cruel nor violent man (unlike some of his fellow settlers). Wrapped inside the larger tragedy of the Aborigines is Thornhill's own more personal tragedy. Because of his own fears and desires for mastery, he is eventually swept into participation in a brutal act of extermination. Even though Thornhill goes on to become a prosperous man, he remains haunted by his actions and the absence they have created. The crux of the tragedy is not just his actions and their consequences, but the lingering sense Grenville gives the reader that Thornhill would have preferred an alternative way, but was unable, through lack of both courage and imagination, to find it.
