Reviews

Plains of Promise by Alexis Wright

archytas's review

informative reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

“The Aboriginal inmates thought the tree should not have been allowed to grow there on their ancestral country. It was wrong. Their spiritual ancestors grew more and more disturbed by the thirsty, greedy foreign tree intruding into the bowels of their world. The uprising fluid carried away precious nutrients; in the middle of the night they woke up gasping for air, thought they were dying, raced up through the trunk into the limbs and branches, through the tiny veins of the minute leaves and into the flowers themselves.”

It is astonishing that this is a debut novel. While more linear than Wright’s later fiction, the narrative weaves multiple storylines together, working at different layers of understanding and posing a kaleidoscopic perspective on what is fundamentally going on. Human agency and the inevitability of law are different ways of viewing the same thing. This is a tale of corruption, of Country out of sync, and of terrible consequences for the characters. It is also frequently funny. Wright doesn’t spare her characters from the worst of colonialism. Still, she chooses to focus on the people rather than what is inflicted on them, which somehow manages to make this not bleak, despite her refusal to soften reality. She also has an eye for life’s absurdities and a sense of wicked fun in showing us the pettier side of humanity. If I have a criticism here, it is that Wright tends to position all of her POV women as niaive, with the omniscient narrator, complete with witty voice, contrasting to the women’s unawareness of what is happening. This is more nuanced in later novels (although the arch omniscient narrator is a Wright trademark and does add to a slightly unearthly sense).
But, as is the case with all of Wright’s work, when I had finished, all I really wanted to do was start reading it again from the beginning.

rmerrill0927's review against another edition

challenging dark informative 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

2.5

claire_melanie's review against another edition

4.0

This was a brilliant book but very hard to read. I couldn't say I enjoyed it but it was brilliantly written, very evocative and lyrical but also tragic.

lynnenad's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

This book was so challenging to read. The writing is lovely but the authentic indigenous voice means the viewpoint of every character is very different to mine. The people in the book see the world entirely differently to a person brought up in euro-centric Australian culture, like me. This means interpreting the world through the eyes of the characters in the book is an extraordinary, unique and disconcerting experience. On top of that is the disaster of missions in traditional cultural communities which just makes you want to cry. A powerful book. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual violence, Mental illness, Racism, Kidnapping, Rape, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Domestic abuse, Colonisation, Pedophilia, and Suicide

isobelrose's review

adventurous challenging tense

3.75

cabeswaters's review against another edition

inspiring reflective

5.0

lauconn's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

gitli57's review against another edition

challenging dark funny informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

This is Alexis Wright's debut novel, so I wasn't necessarily expecting it to have the assuredness and mastery of Carpenteria or The Swan Book, which together put Wright well up my favorite authors list. But Plains of Promise is fine on its own and is pretty sure promise of the masterworks to come. The plight of Ivy, Elliott, Gloria and their Aboriginal families and the horrors of the mission schools in Australia are indelibly etched here. This is not a book for the faint of heart.

Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the U.S. are close cousins in many ways, not least in their savage mistreatment of Indigenous populations. Wright honors her Indigenous ancestors, their experiences and world view in all of her books, even when facing their shortcomings with honesty.

lisa_setepenre's review against another edition

5.0

In Australia's red centre, a woman is haunted by crows and driven mad by the seizure of her daughter. Ivy, the daughter, endures life at a Christian mission and is ultimately incarcerated in a mental hospital after her own daughter, Mary, is taken from her. Mary begins to work in the Aboriginal Coalition after discovering her heritage and returns to the mission that was at the centre of her mother's and grandmother's suffering. Here, Aboriginal spirituality clashes with colonial ruthlessness, and mythology mixes with reality.

Alexis Wright's Plains of Promise was a hard read. The subject matter is very dark and sad, illuminated by the stark brutality that Wright invokes. The writing style does not make for an easy, flowing read and I did find it hard going at first.

However, I am sorry to finish this book and there are a lot of strengths there. It is brilliantly creepy with the images it invokes and though much is explained, somethings are not. The prose is stunning at times – the final three pages were my highlight for what they invoked and revealed.