Heather Rose (1) (1964–)

BRUNY is a book which unfortunately (stupidly) sat in the reading piles here for, it turns out, way too long. Luckily our F2F bookclub was scheduled to read it last month, and I've never been so pleased that something was jolted out of stasis and into the current pile. It was, quite simply, fabulous reading. Even allowing for a bit of a technical hiccup at the end, everything else about BRUNY was absolutely perfect for this reader (and for the majority of the bookclub as well).

Set in show more Tasmania in a time period that could be anything between now, and any point in the future, this is a thriller that touches on politics, corruption, conspiracy, climate change, family tensions and connection, and the ever present threat of loss of autonomy and control (personal, place, and mindset). It does it all from the viewpoint of a family deeply embedded in local political and activist life. A grandfather unionist, a father politician, and now a son who is Liberal premier, a daughter who is the Leader of the Opposition, and a twin sister who is a professional negotiator, returning to the State she grew up in to assist her brother after a bomb attempts to destroy his big infrastructure program - a huge bridge between "mainland" Tasmania and the idyllic island of Bruny.

There's a lot going on in BRUNY and it's a bit of a genre buster. Part political commentary, part thriller, there's romance and family drama, delivered with dystopian elements, in a nicely laid back, verging on delightfully sarcastic style in places. The characters are brilliantly conceived and executed, and the tensions and family loyalties and interactions are utterly believable. There's humour, even laugh out loud moments, and there's a lot of cleverly developed threat and intrigue at the same time. It's fascinating how the tensions between the people of the island of Bruny and the main island perfectly mirror those between Tasmania and the mainland of Australia. BRUNY also addresses race relations and xenophobia, the exploitation of workers, feminism and the struggle that is coming to terms with ageing and terminal illness. If you're a reader that's normally decidedly leery of anything romantically inclined, here it's nicely low key, and somehow sort of felt right that novel that's mashing together so many genre elements, would include a bit of will they / won't they. In the same way if dystopian has you searching for the exits, there's nothing other-worldly about this version - making it even more chilling as a result.

What's most fascinating about BRUNY overall is the way that the timeline of the novel could be anywhere from now to any point in the future. Towards the end of the story, things get very complicated for everyone when Tasmania is hit by a cyclone, and I have to confess the idea of a cyclone that far down the globe didn't make me blink for a nanosecond (and then the week after that areas of WA never previously regarded as likely were hit by a cyclone and the third thought I had was, well BRUNY nailed that as well....).

At the heart of the whole thing though is the affect that politics and differing viewpoints have within the central Coleman family and the way that is reflected in the wider community. Development, exploitation, money above well-being, 'jobs and growth' in spite of environmental limitations, it's all here. The style is pitch-perfect though, never telling, showing the reader the eventualities, presenting scenarios that were real, believable and impossible to discount. At one point it started to feel less fictional thriller, more documentary.

As a side point, this was a novel that caused a rather unexpected event in our F2F bookclub gathering. Normally when we all love a book, the conversation turns to other things. This time it kept coming back to BRUNY, and everyone had something that resonated so strongly, so viscerally that they had to talk about it.

https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/bruny-heather-rose-0 show less

This book packs a punch. I don’t know what’s more explosive — the family drama or the political quagmire that Ace is investigating.

I really related to the sense of angst that abounds within the family and the lure of nature that author Heather Rose captures so viscerally. This is all despite what on the surface feels like a highly unlikely premise.

Except, that’s just it. If the Trump administration taught us anything, it’s that sometimes in politics, the truth is stranger than show more fiction.

'Bruny' is like a contemporary, female-driven Tom Clancy story (but far more emotionally intelligent). Heather Rose is a brilliant author — I adored her other, albeit completely different, book 'Museum of Modern Love'. show less

The Museum of Modern Love : a novel inspired by Marina Abramovic - Rose
5 stars

I knew very little about Marina Abramovic before I read this book. What little I knew, I didn’t like. The question of ‘But is it art?’ was less important to me than, ‘Is it physically and mentally healthy?’ And, there are more questions. Do artists have a responsibility to their audience if their work might do harm? If I’d ever thought about Abramovic, that is what I would have been thinking.

This book show more is concerned with possibly her most famous piece of performance art, the seventy-five days of The Artist is Present at MOMA in 2010. Abramovic sat, unmoving, in the Atrium of the New York City museum while over fifteen hundred people lined up to sit across from her to look into her eyes. More than 850,000 people observed from the sidelines. It was a heavily documented phenomenon.

The substance of this book is mostly about fictional characters who are influenced by the performance. Abramovic and several other real people are also treated as characters. Rose provided the art history background that leaves me much better informed about Abramovic and her work, but mostly the book is about the take-away of those who observed The Artist is Present.

“He was not my first musician, Arky Levin”

That’s a terrific first line. I was hooked. The omniscient narrator is never completely identified. I identified the voice as one of the creative muses. The perspective of this book changes from time to time; including the perspective of Danica Abramovic, Marina’s ghostly mother. But, mostly the story follows the composer, Arky Levin. Levin is at a crossroads professionally and in emotional crisis personally. He becomes obsessed with Abramovic, visiting the performance daily in what seems to be avoidance of his professional obligations and his personal trauma. It isn’t avoidance. It’s meditation and revelation.

The book continues through the 75 days, following Arky’s progress and dipping into the lives of other participants and observers. It delves into art history, explores the creative process, and prods at the philosophy and meaning of art. It was fascinating. It left me thinking new thoughts.

That’s good art. show less

I'm iffy about this book both while reading it and now that I've finished it. I've given it 3 stars which is unusual for me. If I am not taken by a book I stop reading it and move on. But here I just couldn't make up my mind (or my heart) about the story and everyone in it.

I have known about Marina Abramovic for some time and in lots of ways, without her, this book would not only not have worked, but would have been an entirely shallow piece of fiction, likewise the characters.

The more I show more write about this book the less I like it, so there, that's clarified now.

After I finished it I read that this book was described as "literary" which is something I have never truly understood. I believe it is a weasel word, a "fiction", as described in Sapiens. I have yet to read a coherent definition of what it means and how you can apply it to any book. So every time I come across it attached to a book so described I dont want to touch it. Had I come across that description before I read it I would not have started it.

For all I am left with is a hollow feeling like something has been taken from me and nothing given in return. In some ways the story is series of absences, the wife, the daughter and so on.

Having said all that, on a technical level it is written well and a story of sorts unfolds along the way.

But I never felt the story had real legs and needed the Marina Abramovic performance to give it some validity.

Bah! show less