The Secret River

The Secret River
by Kate Grenville

The Secret River
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Book Summary Information

Author: Kate Grenville
Edition: Paperback
Published: 2007-04-10
ISBN: 1841959146
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Canongate U.S.

Book Reviews of The Secret River

Book Review: A mixed bag, but not my bag.....
Summary: 2 Stars

I found this book to be quite a mixed bag. I am fascinated by Australia and really enjoyed the historical information about living conditions in England and Australia, about the settlers sent to Australia as a sort of deliverance from what was really another planet and about the Australian aborigines and their reactions to the settlers/invaders--- all of this was well worth reading. It is somewhat Micheneresque, but better, I think.

Now, on to "not my bag". There is a sort of sadistic streak in some current literature which requires that the reader bow his head and take a beating as his just reward in this hideous and flawed world in which we are all guilty of terrible depredations toward the innocent and the weak. I felt that THE SECRET RIVER partakes heavily of that cake, and having consumed it many times before, I just didn't want to eat it once again. I didn't want to read about the violence, the betrayals, the terrible weakness, misery and guilt of individuals/invaders/predators. That's why I have given a relatively well-written book two stars. I admit it's a personal vantage point which not everyone shares, and, no doubt, many others will find this book more enjoyable than I did.



Summary of The Secret River

The Orange Prize–winning author Kate Grenville recalls her family’s history in an astounding novel about the pioneers of New South Wales. Already a best seller in Australia, The Secret River is the story of Grenville’s ancestors, who wrested a new life from the alien terrain of Australia and its native people. William Thornhill, a Thames bargeman, is deported to the New South Wales colony in what would become Australia in 1806. In this new world of convicts and charlatans, Thornhill tries to pull his family into a position of power and comfort. When he rounds a bend in the Hawkesbury River and sees a gentle slope of land, he becomes determined to make the place his own. But, as uninhabited as the island appears, Australia is full of native people, and they do not take kindly to Thornhill’s theft of their home. The Secret River is the tale of Thornhill’s deep love for his small corner of the new world, and his slow realization that if he wants to settle there, he must ally himself with the most despicable of the white settlers, and to keep his family safe, he must permit terrifying cruelty to come to innocent people.

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