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A review by gigiivid
The Healing Party by Micheline Lee
4.0
I recently received this in a Goodreads review and I was keen to read it due to the fact that the author and I have studied the same degree at the same university! I promise there's no bias in that fact haha....
This was a really beautiful story. It was extremely frustrating, and not the sort of story that immediately draws you in, but I can't say that that was not due to poor writing, but perhaps just the nature of the characters or the topic itself. It was a difficult novel to read because it was so raw and there often was no conclusion to any one thought or moment, which in the end gave it a strong sense of reality. I see that Helen Garner inspired the author to write, which amuses me because this was on every level more enjoyable then a Garner read. Perhaps because it was of a more straightforward nature and because there was some sense of familiarity in the main characters (the protagonist, Natasha, in particular, was as imperfect as characters come and very real).
The elements about Christianity might turn off people (it was very much the focus of the novel alongside the family relationship) but I thought that it was integrated in a way that didn't alienate a non-Christian reader. The way in which the family bonded, fought and grew together through their beliefs was not exclusive to Christian believers and could easily be applied to a number of other family traditions (there was a mention in the novel about AFL being akin to Christianity in Melbourne, and I can almost see in a comical sense a parallel of this novel being about the White Australian family that is obsessed with football).
I wasn't completely engrossed by this but it was an honest, refreshing read that was uncomfortable at times and similarly touching. I love reading good Australian fiction and I think this genuinely captured a portrayal of Australian family life and relationships that other authors have failed to completely convey. For a reader that enjoys stories about the family dynamic and in particular the relationships between parents and their children, I think this would easily be a highly recommendable read, even if it is ultimately inconclusive in many ways.
This was a really beautiful story. It was extremely frustrating, and not the sort of story that immediately draws you in, but I can't say that that was not due to poor writing, but perhaps just the nature of the characters or the topic itself. It was a difficult novel to read because it was so raw and there often was no conclusion to any one thought or moment, which in the end gave it a strong sense of reality. I see that Helen Garner inspired the author to write, which amuses me because this was on every level more enjoyable then a Garner read. Perhaps because it was of a more straightforward nature and because there was some sense of familiarity in the main characters (the protagonist, Natasha, in particular, was as imperfect as characters come and very real).
The elements about Christianity might turn off people (it was very much the focus of the novel alongside the family relationship) but I thought that it was integrated in a way that didn't alienate a non-Christian reader. The way in which the family bonded, fought and grew together through their beliefs was not exclusive to Christian believers and could easily be applied to a number of other family traditions (there was a mention in the novel about AFL being akin to Christianity in Melbourne, and I can almost see in a comical sense a parallel of this novel being about the White Australian family that is obsessed with football).
I wasn't completely engrossed by this but it was an honest, refreshing read that was uncomfortable at times and similarly touching. I love reading good Australian fiction and I think this genuinely captured a portrayal of Australian family life and relationships that other authors have failed to completely convey. For a reader that enjoys stories about the family dynamic and in particular the relationships between parents and their children, I think this would easily be a highly recommendable read, even if it is ultimately inconclusive in many ways.