"Dyschronia" by Jennifer Mills

"Dyschronia" by Jennifer Mills is one of the short-listed books for the Miles Franklin 2019 awards. It is set in South Australia and has an environmental/climate change angle which of course makes it a must-read book for me.

The first thing I want to say about this book is that Jennifer Mills' writing is beautiful, unique, and skillful. I wrote down several quotes from the book as I read it because I was so captivated by the words and how she captured the tricky ways in which time can seem to move:

"Three years since she'd seen Ivy, maybe four. Twice that long since she had left saying she needed time, as if time wasn't everywhere, seeping into every crevice."

"It wasn't right the way these moments, the worst moments, could tear out of their resting places. As if nothing ever passed into history, as if everything was only another layer of now, sticking over and over itself like old wallpaper."

"And time came off it's axis and rolled away".

"Time doesn't stop until it stops for good. It only heals until it kills."

These are just some of the examples of the way time is described in "Dyschronia", and similarly other concepts, are written in a multitude of different ways that each seems to capture the essence of the thing being described so perfectly, only to have that thing described again in a completely different way at another point in the story that is perfect from another view.

The book itself can be hard to follow in some ways, deliberately so, as most of the book is told from the point of view of Sam, who suffers from migraines that appear to forewarn of the future, and each chapter jumps back and forth in time and between what is really happening and what Sam has 'seen' through her migraines over several decades of her life. As I have read mentioned elsewhere, the other chapters of the book are reminiscent of the 'chorus' from Greek Tragedies like King Lear or Antigone, and are told from the point of the collective town members.

The story itself is dystopian/speculative fiction, set in South Australia in a town called Clapstone with many similarities to real world Whyalla, including multiple references to the giant cuttlefish that spawn in that special part of the world. The book deals with climate change, it appears to be set in the very close future, and looking back at our current time in a nostalgic way, but this is mixed with a depressing acceptance of the new reality of unviable land, forced relocations of towns and cities, living in 'domes', never-ending drought, the death of all sea life, hardly any birds except drones that look like birds or caged pet budgies.. the book is quite bleak, and depressing, because it feels like this is eerily familiar to what we are on the cusp of now with the general apathy and lack of leadership in this country to address global warming and the climate crisis with the urgency and seriousness that it deserves. It's like we are sleep-walking into a dystopian migraine of a future that seems all too credible:

"For our generation, the course of life seemed tilted towards growth. The boom was infinite, like the ocean."

"But there's no safe, not after tomorrow. We exist between emergencies, emergency responses, more emergencies."

I would give this book 10/10 for the writing and the uniqueness, but I'm giving it 9/10 overall because I found the last few chapters unsatisfying in tying up the loose ends and was a bit confusing. It was probably intentional, and maybe I was unsatisfied because I wanted a positive outcome, but the ending is probably more in keeping with the themes of the book.

Started reading on my kindle: 4th August 2019
Finished: 13th September 2019
My score: 9/10

Aussie Author stats: female author, new author to me, dystopian/speculative fiction genre.

"The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas" by John Boyne

 

A very sad and very powerful story of the Nazi concentration camps, told with a simplicity and innocence that reminded me of "the little prince". Unforgettable. It's hard to know what else to say about this book, but it's definitely now in the list of "must read" books when people ask me for recommendations. I think the book could be described as a fable and although it is written as a children's story and from the point of view of a 9-year old boy, it definitely covers some very challenging/disturbing/important moral issues at it's heart. I guess that's what reminds me of "the little prince" or perhaps even "the Alchemist". It tells the (possibly implausible) tale of two 9-year old boys on opposite sides of the fence at 'Out With' (alternative name for Auschwitz concentration camp) who become friends, despite one being the privileged German son of the Commandant of the camp, and the other being a Jewish boy from Poland who is imprisoned in the camp. I thoroughly recommend this book, although be warned it is not a happy book to read (obviously due to the topic) and you will probably need a box of tissues handy.

Started reading on my kindle: 27 Dec 2013
Finished: 30th December 2013.
My score 9.5/10.

"Burial Rites" by Hannah Kent

 

Written by an Australian, the Goodreads website describes this book as "A brilliant literary debut, inspired by a true story: the final days of a young woman accused of murder in Iceland in 1829". This is the final book that I chose to read as part of the Aussie Author Challenge.

Started reading on my kindle: 3rd November 2013
Finished: 10th November 2013
My score: 8.5/10

This book is bleak in many ways; set in Iceland in the 1800s; dealing with a woman convicted of murdering 2 men; the last woman in Iceland to be executed; and this book is a fictional account (based on a lot of historical knowledge) of this convicted woman's last few months 'imprisoned' on a remote farm. However, I found this to be a great book, almost poetic in some of the descriptions, despite the austere characters and landscape. You end up really feeling for the 'criminal' Agnus, and the book develops into a bit of an inevitable tragedy, reminding me of reading King Lear or Antigone. Very impressive book for such a young and new South Australian author. I look forward to reading more by this author in the future.

"Everything I Knew" by Peter Goldsworthy

I read this book as part of the Aussie Author Challenge. I have previously read two other books by this author ("Wish" and "Honk if you are Jesus") both of which I thought were excellent. This book was quite different. It was set in Penola, South Australia. It reminded me more of Tim Winton's style of writing rather than the style I associate with the other Peter Goldsworthy books I've read. Basically it follows the story of a young teenage boy and his infatuation with his teacher. Some very creative aspects, but inevitably tragic, like a train crash watched in slow motion. The ending was not satisfying to me, and actually reminded me of when I had creative writing assignments at school and was criticised for ending my stories with "and then she woke up and it was all a dream". Peter Goldsworthy is  a great writer and captures so many details of the era and the atmosphere of a small country town in South Australia, but it left me wanting more from the last 1/4 of the book. 
 
Started reading on my kindle: 19th October 2013
Finished: 26th Oct 2013
My score: 6/10

"Ghost Child" by Caroline Overington

This is the second book I have read by the Australian author Caroline Overington. Similar to "Sisters of Mercy" it is written in a realistic crime/mystery style which deals with some pretty dark and unpleasant aspects of child abuse and failures of the welfare system and foster carers in Australia. It is a novel, but told in a way that seems very real, and with lots of little details that make the story convincing. The story is told from several people's viewpoints, including Lauren, Harley and Hayley - 3 siblings whose brother died at the age of 5 under suspicious circumstances. Despite the troubling topics raised in this book, I give it 8.5/10. It's definitely not a happy feel-good story, but brought up lots of issues to think about and I have the feeling I wont be forgetting this book any time soon. I preferred "Sisters of Mercy" but both were well written and I'd definitely be keen to read other books by this author.

Read on my Kindle: 11th - 12th June 2013.
My score: 8.5/10

"The Light Between Oceans" by M.L. Stedman

This is the second book I have read in my part of contributing to the Australian Literature Month promoted on the "Reading Matters" blog. M.L. Stedman is a female Australian writer, and this is her first novel. I had not heard of this author before, but a friend recommended this book to me a couple of weeks ago and I thought I would give it a go immediately so I could hopefully finish it during April.

The book "The Light Between Oceans" is set in Western Australia, starting in the 1920s. The main character introduced is Tom - a decorated (and emotionally somewhat scarred) returned soldier from the First World War, who starts a new peacetime life as a Lighthouse Keeper. He is posted to a remote island situated between the Southern and Indian Oceans. Just before he is posted to the island, he meets and later marries a young woman, Izzy, who seems to represent the complete opposite in nature to Tom - vibrant, carefree, vs quiet and measured. I don't want to give away any more of the story line, except to say that the book is the story of their life together on this island, isolated for the most part from mainland civilisation, and how their relationship and life develops and then is completely ripped apart by a single shared secret.

The novel is well written, extremely sad, in fact has elements of a classical tragedy - reminding me at times of how I felt when I first read Shakespeare's "King Lear" or "Othello" - although the storyline and characters are completely unique.It deals with issues of trust, ethics/morality, right/wrong and the strength of the bond between mother and child.

I read this book on my Kindle from 9th April - 24th April 2013.
My score is 8/10