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A review by blbstorey
The Paperbark Shoe by Goldie Goldbloom
4.0
An interesting book I picked up on a whim from a shelf in my library. Beautifully and brutally written novel about displacement in the Australian outback during WWII. The narrator, Gin - an albino; her husband, Toad - an odd dwarf of a man with repressed homosexual urges; the Italian POW, Antonio - longing for his family and fascinated by Gin. The three come together in a collision of wants and desires that are never going to be fulfilled.
It IS very well-written, though I was a bit confused by the last twenty pages or so, what the point was. I feel it was a weak ending, but otherwise, the book was amazing in its descriptions and characters and the sense of being in the middle of nowhere, with few options, in a time of desperation and confusion.
Recommended, but not five stars.
It IS very well-written, though I was a bit confused by the last twenty pages or so, what the point was. I feel it was a weak ending, but otherwise, the book was amazing in its descriptions and characters and the sense of being in the middle of nowhere, with few options, in a time of desperation and confusion.
Recommended, but not five stars.