I have been reading the book Four Fires, written by Bryce Courtney over the last week or so. I bought it second hand at a local second hand store for five dollars (two for ten dollars, otherwise six dollars by itself) as something to read at the airport and plane to/from Brisbane for the engagement part last week.
The story follows the lives of those in the Maloney family, living in a small country town in Victoria near the border to New South Wales. They are Catholics, but their family is flawed in many ways by bastard children, a drunkard war veteran male role model and the fact that they are the town's garbage collectors. It follows the family over a long period of time, and weaves a very rich and detailed story of their lives.
I wasn't too sure that I would like it originally but then I was definitely drawn more into it as I read, and Bryce Courtney does a really good job of writing it. Like it is written in the book, it is probably one of the best since the Power of One, though I also like Jessica as well having read many of his works.
One of the things about this particular book, and while Bryce these days writes a lot using Australian History, is the amount of research and detail that has gone in. Not only about Australian life of that period (pre-Vietnam war) but also the conditions and atrocities of war as seen in WWII and also during the Vietnam War itself. In his acknowledgements he thanks his two full-time researchers, and I think his ability to write with all that information to create a sense of realism is fantastic.
The only thing that I didn't like was the Epilogue, where it shifts a little from how the main part of the book is written, and then on the last page or so, the ending is easily spotted, though it depends I think upon your memory if you actually spot it before it is given away anyway a few lines later.
Great read, highly recommended.
The story follows the lives of those in the Maloney family, living in a small country town in Victoria near the border to New South Wales. They are Catholics, but their family is flawed in many ways by bastard children, a drunkard war veteran male role model and the fact that they are the town's garbage collectors. It follows the family over a long period of time, and weaves a very rich and detailed story of their lives.
I wasn't too sure that I would like it originally but then I was definitely drawn more into it as I read, and Bryce Courtney does a really good job of writing it. Like it is written in the book, it is probably one of the best since the Power of One, though I also like Jessica as well having read many of his works.
One of the things about this particular book, and while Bryce these days writes a lot using Australian History, is the amount of research and detail that has gone in. Not only about Australian life of that period (pre-Vietnam war) but also the conditions and atrocities of war as seen in WWII and also during the Vietnam War itself. In his acknowledgements he thanks his two full-time researchers, and I think his ability to write with all that information to create a sense of realism is fantastic.
The only thing that I didn't like was the Epilogue, where it shifts a little from how the main part of the book is written, and then on the last page or so, the ending is easily spotted, though it depends I think upon your memory if you actually spot it before it is given away anyway a few lines later.
Great read, highly recommended.
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