Review: Put Your Feet in the Dirt, Girl by Sonia Henry

 

Title: Put Your Feet in the Dirt, Girl

Author: Sonia Henry

Published: 30th May 2023, Allen & Unwin

Status: Read May 2023 courtesy Allen & Unwin

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My Thoughts:

Despite the success of her provocative semi-autobiographical debut novel Going Under which highlighted the brutal treatment of medical interns in Australian hospitals, the stress of her Fellowship exams, a broken heart, and being on the frontline of the pandemic left Sydney GP Dr Sonia Henry desperate for a change of scenery. Told with honesty, humour, and heart, Put Your Feet in the Dirt, Girl recounts Sonia’s experiences over the next two years or so while serving as a locum in the outback regions of Australia.

Within days of joining an agency specialising in staffing remote areas, Sonia was making the long journey to the Pilbara region in Western Australia to fulfil a 40 day contract as the sole doctor in a mining town with a population of 300 people. It’s an experience that inspires a mix of awe and terror, both personally and professionally, as Sonia struggles to better understand herself while doing her best to provide health care for the people who live there. She highlights the human cost of the challenges of access to treatment equipment and resources, for both staff and patients, and the frustrating failure of the wealthy mining companies to invest their obscene profits in the health and welfare of the people who work for them.

After three months in the Pilbara, Sonia moves on to outback New South Wales, and from there, to the Northern Territory. In each region she exposes communities plagued by similar disadvantages due to a dearth of access to medical care and resources. I learned that with great swathes of regional and remote Australia having few, and/or no permanent GP’s, severely understaffed hospitals and, at best, sporadic access to specialists, chronic medical conditions, such as diabetes and heart disease, and mental health issues including depression and addiction, are badly managed, if it all. First Nations people are particularly vulnerable to poor health outcomes, though poverty among the population in general is a major contributor, especially for anyone living some distance away from metropolitan or well resourced regional centres.

Only by ‘putting her feet in the dirt’, and her interactions with colleagues, friends, and patients whom she meets on her travels, including a ringer who reads Tolstoy, a dream-walking elder, and a woman determined to end her life on her own terms, has Sonia come to understand some truths about Australia, but also herself, and she urges others to do the same.

Put Your Feet in the Dirt, Girl is an entertaining, candid, and thought-provoking memoir that I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend.

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Happy Pride Month!

 

Fiction by Australian Queer Authors
to read during Pride Month

(covers linked to Goodreads)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Review: Time After Time by Karly Lane

 

Title: Time After Time

Author: Karly Lane

Published: 2nd May 2023, Allen & Unwin

Status: Read May 2023 courtesy Allen & Unwin

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My Thoughts:

In Karly Lane’s latest rural romance novel, Alice Croydon is forced to choose between the love of her life and her life-long ambition in Time After Time.

When Alice is offered the opportunity to apprentice at a world renowned fashion label in London, her highschool sweetheart Finn issues her an ultimatum. Alice is torn, she loves Finn and her life in her small country hometown of Gunnindi, but, with the encouragement of her beloved Gran, chooses to go, planning to stay just a year, hoping that Finn will forgive her when she returns.

I can’t reveal what happens after Alice makes her choice without spoiling the story completely, but when Alice finally returns to Gunnindi she is not the same person she was when she left. I liked Alice and I enjoyed her journey, but to be honest the ‘second-chance romance’ reunion didn’t quite work for me personally.

Alice’s grandmother was probably my favourite character in Time After Time, I particularly admired the decision she made to be true to herself. I also liked Alice’s colleagues in London, and laughed at her interactions with the formidable seamstress, Marcella.

Though only about half the book is set in the fictional town of Gunnindi, Lane vividly evokes Australian rural communities, and gives due recognition to its challenges, especially for farmers. I really liked that Lane raises the issue of preserving and revitalising rural industry and it’s many benefits for regional areas.

Written with the warmth, humour and heart for which Lane’s rural romances are known, Time After Time is an engaging read

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Review: Family Baggage by Ilsa Evans

 

Title: Family Baggage

Author: Ilsa Evans

Published: 8th March 2023, HQ Fiction

Status: Read March 2023 courtesy Harlequin/Netgalley

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My Thoughts:

Family Baggage by Ilsa Evans is a heartfelt story that explores family relationships, unfolding over a period of a week in early 2020.

Upon their mother’s sudden death, the task of disseminating and disposing of Enid’s belongings is left to her daughters, Kathryn, Georgette and Annie, whom she privately thought of as The Sorter, The Settler and The Sook. Gathering at their childhood home Kat, the eldest of the three, is prepared with an agenda and colour coded stickers, plus a sensible plan for the immediate care of their brother Harry, who is unable to live independently. The youngest, Annie, immediately resents her sister taking charge and seems overly concerned about getting her share, while George just wants to get through the week without breaking down completely.

There’s plenty of emotion in Family Baggage, fuelled largely by raw grief. Fond reminiscences give way to reignited resentments, Annie in particular seems determined to find fault with her sisters, annoying Kat, and bewildering George. Evans deftly captures the complicated relationship between the women, who may be in their fifties, but tend to interact with each other as if they are still children, a regression anyone with a sibling will likely relate to.

George’s discovery of her mother’s journal introduces an element of mystery to the novel. The entries eventually expose facets of Enid’s life that shocks her daughters, who react in different ways, triggering more conflict. Learning her mother’s secrets leads George in particular to reflect on her own life, and the choices she has made as a woman, a wife, and a mother. This prompted me to ponder the narrow view I have of my own mother, and that my children, now young adults, probably have of me.

Well timed humour is used to good effect, cutting through the tension that often permeates the novel. I also delighted in the oblique references to Evans’ Majic series (which was a favourite of mine).

A moving and thought-provoking novel, Family Baggage is an engaging read.

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Review: The Rush by Michelle Prak

 

Title: The Rush

Author: Michelle Prak

Published: 3rd May 2023, Simon & Schuster AU

Status: Read May 2023 courtesy Simon & Schuster

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My Thoughts:

The Rush is an exciting and gripping debut thriller from Michelle Prak set in the outback of South Australia.

Quinn is late returning to the isolated Pindarry Hotel on the Stuart Highway, where she works and lives, when, through the rain, she spies a badly injured man on the roadside, and unable to leave him there, drags him into her car.

Andrea is anxious when her husband leaves her at the Pindarry Hotel to help an elderly farmer whose property is flooding. With the pub sandbagged and their employee, Quinn, due to arrive any minute, Andrea resolves to stay calm for the sake of her sleeping two year old son, until the power goes out, and a stranger comes to the door demanding to be let in.

Hayley, traveling from Adelaide to Darwin on the Stuart Highway with her boyfriend Scott and backpackers Livia and Joost, is only concerned for her carefully planned itinerary when the rain starts on their second day of travel. But then the roads begin to flood, and as tensions among the foursome grow, Hayley finds herself in a desperate rush for sanctuary.

The Rush is a fast-paced read as it largely unfolds from the perspectives of Quinn, Andrea, Hayley and Livia over a period of about two days. Suspense is introduced early, and built on effortlessly. The threats are recognisable and engender empathy for the characters at risk. Red herrings belie a breathtaking climactic reveal, that provides a unique twist on the story’s themes.

Prak somehow renders the vast landscape of outback South Australia claustrophobic  as the characters converge on Pindarry. The violence of the storm, as it strips away modernity, releases a feral energy that enhances the oppressive atmosphere.

A well crafted addition to the oeuvre of rural Australian crime fiction, The Rush is an immersive and riveting read.

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Review: I’ll Leave You With This by Kylie Ladd

 

Title: I’ll Leave You With This

Author: Kylie Ladd

Published: 31st January 2023, Michael Joseph

Status: Read January 2023 courtesy Penguin Books

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My Thoughts:

I’ll Leave You Like This is a moving and thought provoking novel from Kylie Ladd exploring grief, family, and the complex bonds of sisterhood.

Over lunch on the third anniversary of Daniel O’Shea’s shocking and untimely death, Clare announces to her sisters that she plans to seek out the recipients of their brother’s donated organs. For Clare, for whom loss has become all too common, it’s a way to affirm Daniel’s life, and perhaps her own. Eldest sister Allison thinks Clare’s mission is morbid and is impatient with the whole idea, as she is with most things. Bridie is indifferent until, ‘in between’ film projects, she see’s its potential as an award winning documentary. Emma, the youngest of the siblings, is happy to offer Clare her support, but only Joel, Daniel’s former lover, is truly enthusiastic about the project.

A novel driven by character and theme rather than plot, I’ll Leave You Like This unfolds from the alternating perspectives of each of the four sisters.

I enjoyed getting to know the sisters, who are well rounded and relatable characters. Ladd has created distinct personalities for each woman, who have quite disparate temperaments and lifestyles. Each is affected differently by their grief not only related Daniel’s death, but also the loss of their parents in quick succession some years before. The sisters also struggle with their own issues, among them infertility, self harm, stress, and loss of confidence, and feel unable to turn to each other for support. Their dynamic feels authentic, and is rendered with insight into the sometimes complicated bonds of siblings.

As a registered donor myself, I personally strongly feel that organ donation is a wonderful legacy. Clare’s mission allows Ladd to explore some interesting questions not only about what it means to the recipients, but also to the relatives of the donor. I certainly empathise with Clare’s desire to connect with the people who carry a part of her brother, but I also understand why recipients may be uncomfortable with any contact.

Written with warmth, wit and compassion, I’ll Leave You With This is an emotive family drama.

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Review: That Bligh Girl by Sue Williams

 

Title: That Bligh Girl

Author: Sue Williams

Published: 2nd May 2023, Allen & Unwin

Status: Read May 2023 courtesy Allen & Unwin

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My Thoughts:

In That Bligh Girl, Sue Williams blends historical fact with a fictionalised narrative to tell the story of Mary Bligh, the daughter of New South Wales fourth Governor.

The controversial role of Captain William Bligh (of Mutiny on the Bounty fame) in Australia’s colonial history is well known. Appointed the 4th Governor of NSW in 1806, Bligh was ousted by a coup, known as the Rum Corps Rebellion led by grazier and officer John Macarthur, less than two years later. But few probably remember that while Bligh hid under a bed from the 300 armed soldiers who stormed Government House, his daughter, Mary Putland (née Bligh), who had reluctantly accompanied her father to Australia, stood bravely at the gates wielding only a parasol, indignantly refusing them entry.

Mary’s courageous stand may be mentioned in historical records, which tend to favour men, but generally only in the context of her father’s biography. In That Bligh Girl Williams draws on meticulous research to give Mary her own voice and place in history.

Bright, spirited, stubborn, and a little spoilt, Mary had been planning on making a home with her new husband, Lieutenant John Putland, in Ireland when her father imperiously announced the couple would be accompanying him to New South Wales, where Mary would serve as the Lady of Government House in her mother’s stead.

Williams’s novel, unfolding from the perspective of Mary, and her convict maid, Meg Hill, stretches from Mary’s arduous six month journey to Australia, past the events of the Rum Corps Rebellion, to her eventual death in Paris in 1864. It shares her complicated relationship with her father, the tragic death of John Putland, and her life with her second husband, who later also served as the (acting) governor of NSW. I enjoyed learning more about Mary and admired her fortitude.

The character of Meg is mostly based on one of Mary’s maids, Susannah Harrison, but is more properly an amalgamation of several. Meg’s perspective provides additional context to Mary and her life in NSW, as well as information about the experience of female convicts in the colony.

Well written and interesting, That Bligh Girl is an engaging historical novel about adversity, courage, friendship, and love.

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Review: The Woman Who Knew Too Little by Olivia Wearne

 

Title: The Woman Who Knew Too Little

Author: Olivia Wearne

Published: 1st February 2023, HQ Fiction

Status: Read February 2023 courtesy HQ Fiction/Netgalley

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My Thoughts:

It’s late at night in December of 1948 when 29 year old policewoman Kitty Wheeler, nearing the end of her shift. spies a man in a suit slumped against the breakwall on Somerton Beach. Assuming he is sleeping off a few too many drinks and noting nothing amiss, she and her partner decide not to roust him. It’s a decision Kitty regrets when she learns the next morning that the man has been found dead.

As a policewoman, Kitty’s role is quite narrowly defined by her gender. She and her fellow female officers mainly deal with offences involving women and juveniles including domestic violence, prostitution, and runaways; patrolling to remind to uphold standards of public decency; and paperwork. Kitty wants to do more, and  volunteers to help the detectives investigate the case that becomes one of Australia’s most famous real-life unsolved cases*.

What I enjoyed most about The Woman Who Knew Too Little was learning about the role of women police officers in post WWII Australia. Their experience of misogyny was not unexpected given the time period, but I was surprised to learn they patrolled the streets late into the night, and that they wore no uniform, instead having just a pin worn discretely to identify them as police.

I thought centering the plot around the real-life Somerton Man investigation was an unusual choice. The broad details of the case are generally well known so there isn’t really any opportunity for Wearne to surprise the reader, or to provide a resolution to the mystery. However there were elements of Kitty’s perspective on the crime, the evidence, the investigation, and the public response that I found interesting. The glimpses of other cases Kitty was involved in, from the fake psychic to the tragedy of a missing toddler, added interest too.

Unfortunately I didn’t find Kitty to be a particularly compelling character, which is problematic since the story is related from the first person point of view. I also found the dynamics of her personal life to be a bit strange. Her relationship with her fiancé, Peter, was obviously doomed, and the introduction of Alec as a romantic rival of sorts didn’t really appeal to me.

While I found the historical elements of The Woman Who Knew Too Little, and the novel’s subject, of interest, I didn’t find the novel as engaging as I hoped.

*The Somerton Man was finally identified in 2022 through DNA but an explanation for the circumstances of his death is still elusive.

 

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Review: The War Nurses by Anthea Hodgson

 

Title: The War Nurses

Author: Anthea Hodgson

Published: 12th April 2023, Michael Joseph

Status: Read April 2023 courtesy PenguinRandomHouse Australia

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My Thoughts:

Inspired by the experiences of Australian nurses, including the author’s great aunt, in Singapore during WWII, The War Nurses is a remarkable and moving story of courage, tragedy and friendship from Anthea Hodgson.

It’s 1941 when the Queen Mary sets sail carrying members of Australia’s armed forces overseas. Among them are volunteer enlisted nurses Margot, Beth, Lola, and Minnie, bunk mates who become friends on their journey. Stationed in Singapore, the women tend to the allied forces, proud to be of service, but they are forced to flee when the Japanese invade the island barely a year later. Herded onto the Vyner Brooke along with 60 other Australian nurses, over a hundred injured soldiers and dozens of expat evacuees, mostly women and children, the ship attempts an escape only to be strafed with bombs in the Bangka Strait.

The fate of Hodgson’s four heroines, and their fellow survivors, illuminate those of their real-life counterparts. Around 150 people survived the sinking of the ship and made their way to the closest shore clinging to rafts and debris. Tragically around fifty met their death on Radji Beach, among them 22 Australian nurses, at the hands of a party of Japanese soldiers, except for one lucky escapee. The rest of the survivors were captured, separated by gender, and then interned in camps until the war ended in 1945. Not all lived to be released.

I was already broadly familiar with the events on Bangka Island but the perspectives of the author’s characters create a sense of immersion in the ordeal. Written with genuine respect, compassion and empathy for the people on whom Hodgson’s characters are based, Margot, Beth, Lola, and Minnie are fully realised amalgamations. Hodgson relates how they endure their bleak circumstances with dignity, loyalty, wit, resourcefulness and determination.

As Hodgson later notes, many of the incidents in the story that seem unbelievable or exaggerated, are actually true. It’s a harrowing tale that brought me to tears more than once. That anyone survived, not just physically, seems almost a miracle. Yet the horror is tempered by warm and inspiring moments of friendship and support, small rebellions, and even a touch of romance.

A compelling novel, The War Nurses is a heartfelt and deserved tribute to the 65 members of the Australian Army Nursing Service who died and survived the sinking of Vyner Brooke.

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Review: Homecoming by Kate Morton

 

Title: Homecoming

Author: Kate Morton

Published: 5th April 2023, Mariner Books

Status: Read April 2023 courtesy Mariner/Edelweiss

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My Thoughts:

“Home, she’d realised, wasn’t a place or a time or a person, though it could be any and all of those things: home was a feeling, a sense of being complete. The opposite of ‘home’ wasn’t ‘away’, it was ‘lonely’. When someone said, ‘I want to go home’, what they really meant was that they didn’t want to feel lonely anymore.”

Homecoming is a captivating novel, the seventh from bestselling author Kate Morton.

When London-based journalist Jess Turner-Bridges learns the beloved, indomitable grandmother who raised her, Nora, has been hospitalised after a fall from the attic stairs, she returns home to Sydney after a twenty year absence. Jess is distressed to find Nora in a frail and confused state, and desperate to learn what precipitated the accident.

Jess is stunned when her search leads her to uncover a family tragedy that had been kept from her. Hidden beneath her grandmother’s pillow is a true crime book, titled ‘As If They Were Asleep’, that documents an investigation into the shocking deaths of Nora’s sister-in-law and four young children on Christmas Eve some sixty years earlier in the small South Australian town of Tambilla.

While the narrative shifts back and forth in time, it does so in a unique way. In the present much of the story is related through Jess, and occasionally her estranged mother, Polly, while the events of past unfold from several perspectives, and through excerpts from the book, as Jess reads it.

Impressively, Morton sustains the intriguing mystery of what really happened to the Turner family at ‘Haylcon’ until the very end, slowly teasing out the secrets, deceptions and betrayals that reverberate among three generations. I was genuinely surprised by several of the plot reveals, and though Homecoming is a fairly hefty length it’s well paced.

The meaning of home is one of the central themes Morton explores in her story, along with motherhood, family, and identity. Nora, Polly and Jess are complex characters, whose lives, and relationships with each other, are each shaped by the events in Tambilla in both direct and indirect ways. The author also touches on the issue of mental health, and the joys of literature.

With vivid description and evocative prose, Morton brings her settings to life. I felt as if I could find my way around Darling House, on the cliff-edged of one of Sydney’s most exclusive suburbs, Vaucluse, where Nora raised both Polly, and Jess; and through the grounds and rooms of the grand stone hall of ‘Halcyon’ in rural Tambilla where the Turner family lived.

An enthralling and atmospheric tale, beautifully told, Homecoming is a stellar read, I recommend.

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