David Malouf: Remembering Babylon

I have to admit, this was the first book by an Australian I ever read. And, I’m pretty sure, the first one about Australia and its history too.

The story is about Gemmy, an English boy who at young age finds himself shipwrecked at the coast of Australia and gets adopted by a tribe of Aborigines and spends 16 years living with them. After that time, as the settlers start to inhabit the land, he encounters a group of white kids and goes with them back to their village. And that’s where Gemmy’s trying to regain his “whiteness”, ability to speak English again and fit in with the local society. It proves difficult, for both, Gemmy as well as those who decide to provide him with a place to sleep and a seat at their dinner table.

In the end things don’t end as we’d like them to – the smooth assimilation of two cultures isn’t easy and the question is whether anyone even makes an effort to make it happen or whether people just prefer to push through, whatever the cost.

There are a few interesting characters in the book. There is of course Gemmy himself and the kids that find him in the swamp. There is the schoolmaster, George Abbot, an Englishman who got send to Australia by his rich uncle, not exactly by his own choice. He tries to fit in and find himself a purpose but struggles terribly. Until he meets Leona, a girl his age who lives with her aunt in a house away from the village. Mrs Hutchinson and Leona are considered a bit crazy by the villagers as they live on their own and do not integrate with the rest of the society. But that’s exactly where Gemmy finds himself a shelter when everyone else gave up on him.

Interesting read, definitely a breadth of something new for me, very enjoyable and so I’ll give it 3 hearts for that.

But now I need something light, women’s literature maybe to get a bit of a rest from the challenge. But I’ll be back to it soon!

My rating: YYYYY