Rod Howard

review to come - other paperwork more pressing just now
3 and a half stars

A "self gift" for Christmas. Had to chuckle a bit when I looked at what some people have shelved this as; African-American, science-fiction and mystical realism. I mean come on, don't people know where Australia is yet??

Two quotes at the beginning to ponder:

"Australian history is almost always picturesque; indeed it is so curious and strange, that it is itself the chiefest novelty the country has to offer, and so it show more pushes all other novelties into second and third place. It does not read like history but like the most beautiful lies. And all of a fresh new sort, no mouldy old stale ones. It is full of surprises and adventures, and incongruities, and contradictions, and incredibilities; but they are all TRUE, they all happened". - Mark Twain - Following the Equators, 1897..
(capitals = mine)

and

"The world is travelling toward the extinction of its magic. There may come a day when every part of the earth's surface will be intimately known, when the powers will have divided up all the habitable land....all the mountains will have been climbed, all the deserts explored, every strange fowl and beast dissected and classified.....There will come a day when narratives like M. de Rougemont's are the tritest commonplace and posterity will envy us our opportunities of credulity." - The Speaker - 24 September 1898.

With the world population arriving at 7 Billion late in 2011 (an increase of 180 people every minute of the day) = (stop breeding!!) I think the above "Speaker's" quote is not far wrong, it will be a sad day when nothing surprises us anymore & we have no fabulous unknown places left to visit. show less

Engrossing story of Australia's little known first novelist, the convict Henry Savery. For my full review, please see Whispering Gums: http://whisperinggums.com/2013/01/18/rod-howard-a-forgers-tale-the-extraordinary...