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laura_reads_'s review
Amazingly well written and intelligent! My brain just can’t process it at the moment.
serendipitysbooks's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Praiseworthy is an epic novel, one of the more challenging and provocative books I’ve read recently. It often reads like a fable, albeit one heavy with dystopian overtones, but it’s also part satire, part tragedy, part farce, part … well the list goes on. And it’s definitely part good-old-fashioned yarn.
Praiseworthy is set in a small northern Aboriginal community beleaguered by a haze cloud and explores the continuing impacts of colonisation and of the climate crisis. The somewhat convoluted plot revolves around the Steel family. Father Cause is fixated on herds of feral donkeys as the solution to the climate crisis and his community ‘s economic dependence, while mother Dance communes with butterflies and moths and wants to return to her ancestral home in China. Their youngest son Tommyhawk spends too much time online, fears he is no longer safe in his own community thanks to the government and media fixating on paedophilia, and is determined to become white and powerful. It does get a bit messy and confusing at times especially when Tommyhawk unintentionally triggers a crisis in his family and community.
What makes this book so unforgettable is its use of language in ways which are both playful and powerful, plus its heavy use of metaphor and allegory. It’s heavily political and not always subtle. Proof in point is the name of the Steel’s oldest son - Aboriginal Sovereignty. At one stage he is pursued by the government and may want to take his own life. Towards the end there is a line which reads “Aboriginal Sovereignty never dies, for you cannot destroy what was infinitely existing in the law of country that always is, and always will be governing itself.” Like I said political, allegorical and not at all subtle.
This certainly won’t be a book for everyone but I do recommend it to readers who are ready to be challenged by the storytelling and by the story being told, a story which unflinchingly highlights the impacts of colonisation, abuse and neglect on contemporary Aboriginal society but also highlights the varied and unceasing resistance.
Praiseworthy is set in a small northern Aboriginal community beleaguered by a haze cloud and explores the continuing impacts of colonisation and of the climate crisis. The somewhat convoluted plot revolves around the Steel family. Father Cause is fixated on herds of feral donkeys as the solution to the climate crisis and his community ‘s economic dependence, while mother Dance communes with butterflies and moths and wants to return to her ancestral home in China. Their youngest son Tommyhawk spends too much time online, fears he is no longer safe in his own community thanks to the government and media fixating on paedophilia, and is determined to become white and powerful. It does get a bit messy and confusing at times especially when Tommyhawk unintentionally triggers a crisis in his family and community.
What makes this book so unforgettable is its use of language in ways which are both playful and powerful, plus its heavy use of metaphor and allegory. It’s heavily political and not always subtle. Proof in point is the name of the Steel’s oldest son - Aboriginal Sovereignty. At one stage he is pursued by the government and may want to take his own life. Towards the end there is a line which reads “Aboriginal Sovereignty never dies, for you cannot destroy what was infinitely existing in the law of country that always is, and always will be governing itself.” Like I said political, allegorical and not at all subtle.
This certainly won’t be a book for everyone but I do recommend it to readers who are ready to be challenged by the storytelling and by the story being told, a story which unflinchingly highlights the impacts of colonisation, abuse and neglect on contemporary Aboriginal society but also highlights the varied and unceasing resistance.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation, Suicide, and Death
emziesreads's review
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
This book gave my brain a workout in the best possible way. A deep dive into a family, an Aboriginal community, and the challenges of living as such when faced with the consequences of years of well-meaning, racist government policy. Throw in climate change and the pandemic, this novel is well worth the effort.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation, Death, Racism, and Suicide
clapton_pond's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
3.5
ciarafrances's review against another edition
challenging
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? It's complicated
3.0
belwau's review
challenging
dark
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
archytas's review against another edition
challenging
funny
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
"Planet scowled. He hated that skulk walk. He had a gutful of seeing kids walking their own country like black fugitives, but knew these were the ones who had travelled far in the country of nightmares, and as he intuitively picked all truths from his walk, he knew that this son had slipped beyond his reach."
"They asked him if he knew what this felt like, of how the have-nots dotted all around the planet experienced loss of destiny and their Aboriginal Sovereignty. Could he imagine the unimaginable scale of loss as they did and he thought he had, did he know the loss of all the millions of children enduring endless wars, forced migration, homelessness, famine, drought, greenhouse gas emissions, firestorms and rising seas, their future robbed? Did he know how to stop these things happening, because this was what a government employee should know how to stop, otherwise he was just swindling poor people like them by being paid on false pretences to drive that flash Avis rent-a-car around their community for nothing."
"In a world that does not change, the stories of all times continued to be told, and were serenading though the winds, and in the stillness across country, their fulness in truthfulness, never forgotten. "
This may not be the apocalyptic novel we deserve, but it is certainly the one we need. Praiseworthy is a triumph - an epic of breathtaking scope, packed tight with riches - satire, allegory, slapstick, wordplay, allegory and poetry - with characters larger than life and yet perfectly human-sized. It is belly-laugh funny, can't stop giggling funny, and yet so heartbreakingly sad at its heart, a book saturated with grief. That's not to mention the awe and the majesty. It is a lot, and the book feels like a lot. It is best savoured, and Wright rewards trust from the reader.
Some of it is so clever, it makes me want to write about it even at the risk of reduction. Wright eases you in with a hilarious first hundred pages or so, largely concerned with donkeys before the story moves to its more difficult themes. Some spoilers for the first 20% of the book follow.
The novel centres around one family in the homelands town of Praiseworthy. Each of the four central figures functions symbolically and as a character, often at the same time. One, Aboriginal Sovereignty, a 17-year-old boy accused of sex crimes for loving a 15-year-old, walks into the ocean to commit suicide, egged on by his 8-year-old brother Tommyhawk. Wright uses this event to explore, play with, satirise and critique contemporary politics/society, but also never loses sight that these are children and the tragedy of their loss (in different ways) for the whole community. She makes us feel this grief, eschewing ex machina solutions. There is a weariness almost beyond anger at the outrageous pile of crap Praiseworthy's residents must navigate, the demonisation of Aboriginal men, the bind of Basics Cards, work for the dole and other measures imposed through the Intervention and similar. Her people, even Dance, who focuses on joy through moths, are far too humanly flawed to neatly resolve the stupidly high number of challenges they live with (Wright gives her characters dignity not because they are heroic, but because they are human, demanding we want better for them without needing them to be superhuman). Ancestral spirits are arcane and unpredictable.
Similarly, Wright has just great fun with climate change, and the haze that blankets the town (I particularly enjoyed the cultural tourism bit) but never lets the reader lose sight of the reality that the characters can't breathe, of the stench and decay. This is a book about living in our times - the kind of living done by those who don't often get their stories told - and the absurdity, the beauty, the inexplicability of it all. And it really is magnificent.
"They asked him if he knew what this felt like, of how the have-nots dotted all around the planet experienced loss of destiny and their Aboriginal Sovereignty. Could he imagine the unimaginable scale of loss as they did and he thought he had, did he know the loss of all the millions of children enduring endless wars, forced migration, homelessness, famine, drought, greenhouse gas emissions, firestorms and rising seas, their future robbed? Did he know how to stop these things happening, because this was what a government employee should know how to stop, otherwise he was just swindling poor people like them by being paid on false pretences to drive that flash Avis rent-a-car around their community for nothing."
"In a world that does not change, the stories of all times continued to be told, and were serenading though the winds, and in the stillness across country, their fulness in truthfulness, never forgotten. "
This may not be the apocalyptic novel we deserve, but it is certainly the one we need. Praiseworthy is a triumph - an epic of breathtaking scope, packed tight with riches - satire, allegory, slapstick, wordplay, allegory and poetry - with characters larger than life and yet perfectly human-sized. It is belly-laugh funny, can't stop giggling funny, and yet so heartbreakingly sad at its heart, a book saturated with grief. That's not to mention the awe and the majesty. It is a lot, and the book feels like a lot. It is best savoured, and Wright rewards trust from the reader.
Some of it is so clever, it makes me want to write about it even at the risk of reduction. Wright eases you in with a hilarious first hundred pages or so, largely concerned with donkeys before the story moves to its more difficult themes. Some spoilers for the first 20% of the book follow.
The novel centres around one family in the homelands town of Praiseworthy. Each of the four central figures functions symbolically and as a character, often at the same time. One, Aboriginal Sovereignty, a 17-year-old boy accused of sex crimes for loving a 15-year-old, walks into the ocean to commit suicide, egged on by his 8-year-old brother Tommyhawk. Wright uses this event to explore, play with, satirise and critique contemporary politics/society, but also never loses sight that these are children and the tragedy of their loss (in different ways) for the whole community. She makes us feel this grief, eschewing ex machina solutions. There is a weariness almost beyond anger at the outrageous pile of crap Praiseworthy's residents must navigate, the demonisation of Aboriginal men, the bind of Basics Cards, work for the dole and other measures imposed through the Intervention and similar. Her people, even Dance, who focuses on joy through moths, are far too humanly flawed to neatly resolve the stupidly high number of challenges they live with (Wright gives her characters dignity not because they are heroic, but because they are human, demanding we want better for them without needing them to be superhuman). Ancestral spirits are arcane and unpredictable.
Similarly, Wright has just great fun with climate change, and the haze that blankets the town (I particularly enjoyed the cultural tourism bit) but never lets the reader lose sight of the reality that the characters can't breathe, of the stench and decay. This is a book about living in our times - the kind of living done by those who don't often get their stories told - and the absurdity, the beauty, the inexplicability of it all. And it really is magnificent.
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