These two first novels are based upon events and people from Australian history. Noni Durack recasts the story of the pastoralists of the north-west of Australia in terms of an enlightened awareness of land degradation, but the narrative remains oddly captive to the legend of heroic conquest that she is trying to critique. Wendy James, on the other hand, has written an elegant feminist account of the lives of women in Melbourne at the time of the struggle for women’s suffrage.
There are many strong moments in Durack’s Beyond the Legend, especially when she writes of the climate, the animals and the landscape of the Kimberley region, and when she is describing life in Sydney during World War II. This is a family saga about the men of the second and third generations of the great pastoralist family, the Galways. Durack’s main characters continue to be dazzled by the pioneer romance of the first generation; indeed, the narrative suggests, this story of white settlement of the harsh terrain is etched into their masculinity.
Beyond The Legend: A Kimberley Story by Noni Durack
Central Queensland University Press, $25.95 pb, 221 pp, 187678072X
Out Of The Silence: A story of love, betrayal, politics and murder by Wendy James
Random House, $32.95 pb, 351 pp, 1740513835
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