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stelhan's review against another edition
4.0
An essential history of the great Tracker Tilmouth and of the fight for Aboriginal Self Determination in the 70s onwards. I often find Western style biographies too clinical and I preferred and enjoyed this style greatly.
tasmanian_bibliophile's review against another edition
5.0
‘A Western-style biography would never do for Tracker.’
‘Tracker’ is a biography of Tracker Tilmouth (1954-2015). It’s no standard, linear biography. Instead Alexis Wright has composed a collective memoir, drawing on interviews with Tracker as well as with family, friends and colleagues. It’s a life recounted in a series of stories, of reminiscences. I started reading the book knowing a little about Tracker Tilmouth, I finished the book wanting to know more.
Tracker Tilmouth was born in central Australia in 1954. He was taken from his family as a child and, with two of his brothers, was brought up in a mission on Croker Island. When he returned home, he set about transforming the world of Aboriginal politics. This book contains some of what he set out to achieve, the why and the how of it, from a number of different perspectives. It’s the telling of Tracker’s story that held my attention: the different memories people had, the recounting of anecdotes, Tracker’s drive, Tracker’s vision. His ability to make connections and communicate.
‘How do you tell an impossible story, one that is almost too big to contain in a single book?’
Ms Wright has grouped the stories into five sections:
Trying to Get the Story Straight
Becoming Dangerous
The Inspirational Thinker
The Vision Splendid
The Unreliable Witness.
In addition, the book also includes a list of People, Places and Organisations, Contributor Biographies, as well as Acknowledgements.
I found myself reading a contribution, and then (if I didn’t know who the contributor was) looking for more information about that contributor. Sometimes that gave me context, sometimes it didn’t. But the more I read, the less I cared about trying to fit all the components into some logical whole. It didn’t matter, the words seemed to be telling me, just accept. Just listen. And as I read, I learned more about some of the negotiations, understood better Tracker’s vision of economic independence, appreciated more of the cultural aspects, heard more of the voices involved.
‘Wrighty, I just want to bookend this. Let others tell the story. Let them say what they want.’
This is not an easy book to read, especially for those of us used to conventional Western biographies. Some of the contributors found him difficult to work with, some found him annoying. Many found him inspiring. I found myself reading parts aloud, imagining a conversation. I wondered about the reliability of memory, cringed occasionally at some of the anecdotes but finished with a deep respect for Tracker Tilmouth and what he tried to achieve.
This book has recently been awarded the 2018 Stella Prize. The Stella Prize is a major literary award celebrating Australian women’s writing.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
‘Tracker’ is a biography of Tracker Tilmouth (1954-2015). It’s no standard, linear biography. Instead Alexis Wright has composed a collective memoir, drawing on interviews with Tracker as well as with family, friends and colleagues. It’s a life recounted in a series of stories, of reminiscences. I started reading the book knowing a little about Tracker Tilmouth, I finished the book wanting to know more.
Tracker Tilmouth was born in central Australia in 1954. He was taken from his family as a child and, with two of his brothers, was brought up in a mission on Croker Island. When he returned home, he set about transforming the world of Aboriginal politics. This book contains some of what he set out to achieve, the why and the how of it, from a number of different perspectives. It’s the telling of Tracker’s story that held my attention: the different memories people had, the recounting of anecdotes, Tracker’s drive, Tracker’s vision. His ability to make connections and communicate.
‘How do you tell an impossible story, one that is almost too big to contain in a single book?’
Ms Wright has grouped the stories into five sections:
Trying to Get the Story Straight
Becoming Dangerous
The Inspirational Thinker
The Vision Splendid
The Unreliable Witness.
In addition, the book also includes a list of People, Places and Organisations, Contributor Biographies, as well as Acknowledgements.
I found myself reading a contribution, and then (if I didn’t know who the contributor was) looking for more information about that contributor. Sometimes that gave me context, sometimes it didn’t. But the more I read, the less I cared about trying to fit all the components into some logical whole. It didn’t matter, the words seemed to be telling me, just accept. Just listen. And as I read, I learned more about some of the negotiations, understood better Tracker’s vision of economic independence, appreciated more of the cultural aspects, heard more of the voices involved.
‘Wrighty, I just want to bookend this. Let others tell the story. Let them say what they want.’
This is not an easy book to read, especially for those of us used to conventional Western biographies. Some of the contributors found him difficult to work with, some found him annoying. Many found him inspiring. I found myself reading parts aloud, imagining a conversation. I wondered about the reliability of memory, cringed occasionally at some of the anecdotes but finished with a deep respect for Tracker Tilmouth and what he tried to achieve.
This book has recently been awarded the 2018 Stella Prize. The Stella Prize is a major literary award celebrating Australian women’s writing.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
corrinda's review
4.0
Fascinating insight into a charismatic and magnetic character. Could almost be a business or political strategy book in a way. The huge number of people telling their stories from their perspectives gave a 360 view of Tracker the person, the strategist and the political, economic, social and environmental context that he worked in. Authentic and genuine, cunning and searingly clever.
fiona_gs's review against another edition
5.0
I DID IT!!!
I have finished this epic insightful look at who this awsome aboriginal person a saw on TV s few times was. I did find the book hard going in the density, issues and the real insight going on with Native Title and the raw deal that our first Australians have been dealt and in large part have accepted. That made me feel guilty amd ashamed. I found it sad that the ideas Tracker had most never saw the light, if they did the world would be changed for the better. It took abit to get into it due to the different cultural way of telling the story but found it more fulfilling than the standard western linear way of telling someone story. This was more raw, beautiful, funny and eye opening this way.
Well worth the read.
I have finished this epic insightful look at who this awsome aboriginal person a saw on TV s few times was. I did find the book hard going in the density, issues and the real insight going on with Native Title and the raw deal that our first Australians have been dealt and in large part have accepted. That made me feel guilty amd ashamed. I found it sad that the ideas Tracker had most never saw the light, if they did the world would be changed for the better. It took abit to get into it due to the different cultural way of telling the story but found it more fulfilling than the standard western linear way of telling someone story. This was more raw, beautiful, funny and eye opening this way.
Well worth the read.
keepingupwiththepenguins's review against another edition
4.0
I've posted my full review of Tracker on Keeping Up With The Penguins.
How do you go about writing the autobiography of a man who was larger than life? The short answer is, you don’t. Tracker is not neat, linear life story told in a single voice. Rather, it is a “collective memoir”, drawing upon the ancient traditions of oral histories, whereby one man’s incredible life is related through the stories of dozens of people. Alexis Wright is not a narrator, but a collaborator, bringing together friends, family members, colleagues, politicians, and countless others to paint a portrait – detailed, contradictory, and powerful – of one of Australia’s most beloved Aboriginal leaders.
How do you go about writing the autobiography of a man who was larger than life? The short answer is, you don’t. Tracker is not neat, linear life story told in a single voice. Rather, it is a “collective memoir”, drawing upon the ancient traditions of oral histories, whereby one man’s incredible life is related through the stories of dozens of people. Alexis Wright is not a narrator, but a collaborator, bringing together friends, family members, colleagues, politicians, and countless others to paint a portrait – detailed, contradictory, and powerful – of one of Australia’s most beloved Aboriginal leaders.
ollie_again's review against another edition
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
4.75
What was he like? He was mad. But I think that is the best way to be because even in your madness you can achieve a lot of stuff. It breaks down barriers and opens up doors. He had a big heart, and he gave his time and energy to a lot of people and his expertise which was short on the ground I suppose, but he always says that he knew everything and did everything. That was how mad he was.
Two things, one: this book is not 'just' about Tracker Tilmouth but about much more, and two: every biography should be written in this format. The collective memory of people rather than one person making one story, and I was surprised that there were contributions from Tracker himself too. Maybe this brick of a book is not the easiest thing to read but it definitely covers a lot and paints quite a full picture about Tracker Tilmouth. As it says on the cover, it's as much of a tribute to him as anything else.
I already mentioned that this book is about much more than just the title person. Because words used in connection to Tracker Tilmouth range from an Aboriginal leader, activist, visionary, political thinker or entrepreneur, you can imagine that his life was filled with people from all over and his experiences and dare I say adventures go in all different directions. So this book spans from Tracker being Stolen generation, over his academic avenue to him being the Director of Central Land Council. His successes and failures, good parts of his life and the not so good ones too. It would take ages for me to cover everything I learnt from this book, as currently I have about sixty sticky notes shoved into it and I'm in the middle of going through them. In the second half of the book, the focus is much more on the political and activist part of Tracker's life and if I'm being completely honest, sometimes I was a bit lost. I got the main points of Tracker's plan but in no way I can recall everything the book talks about. While I have some knowledge of Australian politics, it's nothing amazing and this book quite expanded my horizons.
I was taken aback by the fact I actually laughed too during this book. While Tracker's humour was sometimes not for me, some stories and notes about him made me chuckle. Overall, Tracker Tilmouth is a person I would describe (and I'm pretty sure one of the contributors did too) as bigger than life. It's difficult to wrap my head around one person living through so much, it was like Tracker had more hours in a day than the rest of us.
(Only slightly negative note is that the indexes at the end were confusing to navigate for me. They were alphabetical by surnames but with the first names still preceding the surnames, so searching for something was a bit messy. Maybe it's some norm I'm not familiar with but it took some time to get used to.)
crazybooklady_'s review
3.0
Tracker by Alexis Wright is this year's Stella Prize winner. A collective memoir of the legendary Tracker Tilmouth, this epic read tells of everything from Tracker's childhood removed from his family and brought up on a mission to the charismatic Aboriginal leader running around federal parliament winding up all the politicians. A forward thinking advocate for the self-determination of Aboriginal people Tracker was controversial and explosive. Wright has used interviews from Tracker and his family members to politicians and numerous government employees to bring the notorious Tracker to life within the pages.
I'm not going to lie, I had many complicated thoughts about Tracker. I absolutely loved some aspects of this epic time but also struggled with other aspects of it. Overall, I loved the idea behind the writing of this one. Communal storytelling is an important aspect of Aboriginal culture, with all their histories and legends passed down orally and I think it is perfectly representative of this fascinating man for his life to be told in such a complex piece of work pulled together by Wright. Tracker was an amazing and intelligent leader worthy of all six hundred pages of this tome.
On the other hand it is an extremely long read to be taken as a marathon and not a sprint, there is simply too much to be taken it to race through this one. If it were fiction I would say it needed some heavy editing, however, how can you cull a person's life story? With Tracker you simply can't. I will note that the colloquial language that is used, while honest and representative, can get confusing and a little exhausting over time. Reading Tracker will also be made easier by having an understanding of Australian politics of the time and notable players in the landscape of the time.
In all honesty, if this book hadn't have won I likely would have given up and not finished it. I am glad that I persevered though despite the tedium as I feel there was much to be learned and gained from this reading experience. Tracker is most definitely worth a read but it possibly helps to go in prepared for what it is and plan to read it at a slower pace to allow yourself to soak up all the information without it becoming overwhelming
I'm not going to lie, I had many complicated thoughts about Tracker. I absolutely loved some aspects of this epic time but also struggled with other aspects of it. Overall, I loved the idea behind the writing of this one. Communal storytelling is an important aspect of Aboriginal culture, with all their histories and legends passed down orally and I think it is perfectly representative of this fascinating man for his life to be told in such a complex piece of work pulled together by Wright. Tracker was an amazing and intelligent leader worthy of all six hundred pages of this tome.
On the other hand it is an extremely long read to be taken as a marathon and not a sprint, there is simply too much to be taken it to race through this one. If it were fiction I would say it needed some heavy editing, however, how can you cull a person's life story? With Tracker you simply can't. I will note that the colloquial language that is used, while honest and representative, can get confusing and a little exhausting over time. Reading Tracker will also be made easier by having an understanding of Australian politics of the time and notable players in the landscape of the time.
In all honesty, if this book hadn't have won I likely would have given up and not finished it. I am glad that I persevered though despite the tedium as I feel there was much to be learned and gained from this reading experience. Tracker is most definitely worth a read but it possibly helps to go in prepared for what it is and plan to read it at a slower pace to allow yourself to soak up all the information without it becoming overwhelming
meganori's review
2.0
Some entertaining anecdotes, interesting information, and thought provoking insights. But overall, I found this book mostly boring and too long. Disappointing because I had expected to like this.