Reviews

Tree Palace by Craig Sherborne

nicmacc's review against another edition

4.0

Loved this sad sometimes happy story of a family of squatters set in rural Australia. There was love in there somewhere holding the family together by a thread throughout. Beautifully written, I re-read a few passages as you do, because it sounded so eloquent in parts and I loved the way he described the rural locations, very accurate.

archytas's review

3.0

This was one of those you really want to like more than I did. I can't comment on the accuracy of the portrayal of life for the underclass in rural Victoria, as it isn't something I know anything about. The simple writing style leads to some beautiful language - it isn't a surprise Sherborne is a poet - but also serves at times to create a sense of 'simple' in the thinking of the main characters, which seems false. There is almost a dream-like quality to their social isolation, as if the expectations and day-to-day of the mainstream are obscured to them, which was certainly not my experience of urban poverty, and I suspect is a simplistic take on social exclusion. On the other hand, the equisite detail of the trap-upon-trap that poverty and that exclusion imposes rang very true.
More significantly though, the book just dragged, despite the lovely language. I was never sure what the point was, and while the ending implied a journey, I'm not really sure the rest of the book really earned that.