2008 books

[peteryoung]

22) Doris Pilkington (Nugi Garimara), Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence, 1996
Pilkington's mother Molly was one of three young Aboriginal girls who in 1931 made a 1,600-kilometre trek back home through the Western Australia desert, mostly barefoot and without maps, after their escape from the Moore River Native Settlement near Perth. Despite her fictionalisation of the factual backbone of the story this often feels like an academic paper, though this isn't a book to be criticised for its schizophrenic style, the story itself is impressive enough though I have yet to see the film. Recommended.

Comments

[hnpcc]

I must have missed this review when you wrote it, so I had to come and see your impressions. An academic paper feels about right - although, there was also a sense of a direct transcript of an oral history about it at times. And yet, the story is still powerful enough to come through.

I've yet to track down the library's copy of the sequel - I've read an extract of it, and it's apparently sadder than Rabbit Proof Fence.

[peteyoung.livejournal.com]

I wasn't aware there was a sequel!

[hnpcc]

Under the Wintamarra Tree - it continues Molly's story after she returned from the Rabbit Proof Fence journey, and is essentially also Doris's story. I read an interview with Doris Pilkington in which she said she thought the second book was actually more powerful and moving than the first - but I don't think it would film as well, and as a result not as many people are aware of it.