By Reef and Palm

Becke's work is almost entirely forgotten today, and that's a great shame. It's been 120 years since this short story collection was published, and here we have one of the few 19th century Australian writers who was almost more interested in the lives and culture of the natives than in that of the white folk. Becke's writing is not staggeringly brilliant; another reviewer compared him to Jack London, and that seems fitting. But his strength is in short, powerful bursts of character study. Of people - well, primarily men - driven away from the society they had grown up in, discovering the charm and culture of a people very different to themselves.
Not stories I'll go back to again any time soon, and of course despite being open-minded show more Becke is not as "woke" as we might like him to be from a 2018 vantage point, but these are intriguing reads that graft another dimension on to the traditional narrative of 19th century Australian literature. show less

Great collection of short (some very short) stories by Louis Becke. This was his first collection, published in 1894. He has a sympathetic eye for life of the islanders and must have considered very tolerant for an era where racism was condoned.
Read Aug 2014