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namakurhea's review against another edition
5.0
If you want to read horror, read history.. This particular book by Kim Scott is about a genocide. But this genocide is not done through gas chambers, but rather through the process of forced assimilation by “breeding of the colors” and separating individuals from their indigenous families and origins.
It is a brutal and painful book to read. But it is one that screams out to you so that you don’t forget.... so that we don’t forget.
It is a brutal and painful book to read. But it is one that screams out to you so that you don’t forget.... so that we don’t forget.
amy_heferen's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
scarfoot's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
maddyclair's review against another edition
5.0
A must-read Australian contemporary fiction novel. If you want to read more First Nations literature, start here.
frankie_s's review against another edition
3.0
I got a lot from this book, and I’m glad I read it. It’s deeply affecting and sad and important and made me think about the impossibility of forgetting what hasn’t even been remembered. When your ancestors are both abusers and abused, the deep damage that can do. The rotten lie of Australian settler culture. The magical realism elements are effective. I only give it three stars because very often I could not follow it for many pages at a time. Temporally and in terms of relationships described it was deeply disorienting - likely intentional, but it really made it hard to stay engaged.
rivqa's review against another edition
5.0
Benang is a difficult read, as one would expect from a novel about the attempted genocide of Aboriginal people through "biological absorption". The matter-of-fact narration of the layers of tragedy only add to the grimness. And yet there is also joy, survival and triumph. Every word of this heartbreaking book is placed so deliberately and perfectly. Scott's prose is a constant reminder that the past is the present, and is likely to be the future too.
tien's review against another edition
writing too choppy for my liking and magical realism factor just wasn't working for me either.
archytas's review
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
"‘Must’ve been a couple of the old people survived, after all,’ he said. Ernest did not ask for an explanation. Did not say, ‘Survived what?’ Even then it was obvious. It was not the sort of question anyone bothered to put, and very few people wanted it answered. "
The first half of Benang, I struggled to find the rhythm - the book's traumatised narrator, the constant switches in timeframe, the lack of clarity of who was related to who made it often confounding. I suspect that is partly the point - the book's characters do not have stability or certainty, and so neither does the reader. "Look at us, stuck out in the sky like branches from which the rest of the tree has been cut and carted away."
I found myself more engrossed as it progressed. Around the halfway mark, I was deeply absorbed in this family saga, and the various strands of experience Scott draws together. There is pleasure in putting together the pieces, heartache at the loss, humour from our protagonists predicament, discomfort and intense joy at survival. It's not the least demanding read, but it provides rich rewards.
"There is no other end, no other destination for all this paper talk but to keep doing it, to keep talking, to remake it. For Sandy and Fanny it was companionship, it was reminders that somehow this was the same story despite the surface confusion. Even where strange animals had stripped the land to its essentials, to bone, to the bare contours of the land, it just made you turn inward all the more, to the bones of yourself."
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape, Violence, and Genocide
colesa's review
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0