Ride on Stranger

According to the PEN Macquarie Anthology of Australian Literature edited by Nicholas José) (2009), which includes an excerpt from Ride on Stranger, Kylie Tennant was sued for libel over one of the scenes in it. In satirising the social life of the Communist Party of Australia, she apparently made one of her characters identifiable, so Angus & Robertson withdrew the edition and paid up £250. But unless that was included in Kerryn Goldsworthy’s Introduction to the 1990 A&R edition, I didn’t know that when I scrawled my thoughts in my journal. In 2006, I had not read anything else by Tennant, and as you can see, I was a bit dismissive.

6th October, 2006
Beware: spoilers

Written in 1943 and made into a tele-series in the 1980s, this is show more probably the most well-known of Tennant’s novels. In her day, I think she was as popular as George Johnson.

It’s the story of Shannon Hicks, whose father works in the butter factory and whose mother wanted something better for her daughter. It’s ironic then that Shannon ends up back in small town Kerluit (?sp) milking cows. Then again, maybe not, because she left school prematurely, and never stuck at anything.

She is destined to be alone and independent, and yet she is the one on whom others depend—because she has an innate ability to learn new skills and to organise. She goes to live at her Aunt Edith’s Sydney boarding house as an unpaid skivvy, but leaves when Edith marries a snake-oil salesman called Vincent Sladder (who eventually ends up in gaol.) Shannon goes on to work in a variety of jobs unworthy of her and nearly marries Quilter, for whom she organises a political campaign. She mixes with anarchists and lefties and has a harshly cynical view of the world. I didn’t like her much.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2021/01/24/ride-on-stranger-by-kylie-tennant/ show less