Cameron Stewart (4)
Author of Why Do Horses Run?
For other authors named Cameron Stewart, see the disambiguation page.
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It is a measure of how powerful the writing is in Cameron Stewart's debut novel Why Do Horses Run? that I have mixed feelings about it.
As it says on his website, Cameron Stewart is interested in flawed characters trying to do their best. His flawed character in Why Do Horses Run? is Ingvar — who walks out of his own life and tramps like a modern-day swaggie for three years in the solitude of the Australian bush, rendered in exquisite detail by an author who knows it intimately.
Ingvar show more sleeps rough, and he speaks to no one, but carries a notepad to briefly communicate his needs when necessary. Refusing all engagement with other people, he keeps a journal which gradually reveals his pain and guilt to the reader, and his daughter Lotte 'speaks to him' from the afterlife.
Ingvar's wanderings halt when he encounters the widow Hilda, who is not yet ready to cast off the remnants of the life she had with a philandering husband, and there are intimations that some kind of healing could begin. He encounters both kindness and cruelty in the local community, but he's not ready for friendship and he rejects any kind of solace.
Mayor, a wise old Bunjalung man, finds Ingvar drunk down at the river, and tries to give Ingvar a sense of perspective. He knows that the books can't ever be balanced, and he recognises the self-inflicted harm:
But Ingvar blunders off into the bush with his tequila. He has to get away from humans and their words.
No reader could be indifferent to this man's profound grief as he punishes himself for what he has done. And yet...
... I kept thinking of the character who is offstage and has no voice for the entire novel: Lotte's mother Isobel who has lost both her daughter and her husband. She is doubly bereaved.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2024/08/04/why-do-horses-run-2024-by-cameron-stewart/ show less
As it says on his website, Cameron Stewart is interested in flawed characters trying to do their best. His flawed character in Why Do Horses Run? is Ingvar — who walks out of his own life and tramps like a modern-day swaggie for three years in the solitude of the Australian bush, rendered in exquisite detail by an author who knows it intimately.
Ingvar show more sleeps rough, and he speaks to no one, but carries a notepad to briefly communicate his needs when necessary. Refusing all engagement with other people, he keeps a journal which gradually reveals his pain and guilt to the reader, and his daughter Lotte 'speaks to him' from the afterlife.
Ingvar's wanderings halt when he encounters the widow Hilda, who is not yet ready to cast off the remnants of the life she had with a philandering husband, and there are intimations that some kind of healing could begin. He encounters both kindness and cruelty in the local community, but he's not ready for friendship and he rejects any kind of solace.
Mayor, a wise old Bunjalung man, finds Ingvar drunk down at the river, and tries to give Ingvar a sense of perspective. He knows that the books can't ever be balanced, and he recognises the self-inflicted harm:
'Youve done a number on yourself, young fella. Driven yourself into a ditch. Come over to my place. I'll get some food into you.' (p.217)
But Ingvar blunders off into the bush with his tequila. He has to get away from humans and their words.
No reader could be indifferent to this man's profound grief as he punishes himself for what he has done. And yet...
... I kept thinking of the character who is offstage and has no voice for the entire novel: Lotte's mother Isobel who has lost both her daughter and her husband. She is doubly bereaved.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2024/08/04/why-do-horses-run-2024-by-cameron-stewart/ show less
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