Minutes November book: Bereft

Bereft

by Chris Wolmersley

(chosen by JP)



JP initially chose Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, but decided to read it first before confirming her choice.  It is a series of independent short stories which are all interlinked, but JP found it very difficult to read, and fearing the other No.1 Melbourne Ladies would find the same she decided not to risk a low rating! In her last minute, frantic scramble to find an alternative, Bereft became her 'it'll do' book.

About the author:

Chris Womersley’s fiction and reviews have appeared in Granta, The Best Australian Stories 2006, 2010 and 2011, Griffith REVIEW, Meanjin and The Age. His debut novel, The Low Road, won the Ned Kelly Award for Best First Fiction. His second novel, Bereft, won the Australian Book Industry Award for Literary Fiction and the Indie Award for Fiction, and was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award, The Age fiction prize and the Australian Literature Society Gold Medal.

(general biographical detail from publisher's website)

What the publisher says about the book:

It is 1919. The Great War has ended, but the Spanish flu epidemic is raging across Australia. Schools are closed, state borders are guarded by armed men, and train travel is severely restricted. There are rumours it is the end of the world.
In the NSW town of Flint, Quinn Walker returns to the home he fled ten years earlier when he was accused of an unspeakable crime. Aware that his father and uncle would surely hang him, Quinn hides in the hills surrounding Flint. There, he meets the orphan Sadie Fox — a mysterious young girl who seems to know more about the crime than she should.
A searing gothic novel of love, longing and justice, Bereft is about the suffering endured by those who go to war and those who are forever left behind.

What we discussed about the book:

• How would we describe this novel if asked to pinpoint its genre? Ghost story? Crime fiction? Literary fiction?  Magic realism? Do such labels matter? Do they affect how likely we are to pick up a book in the first place?
• Did we think Sadie was real? What influenced our thoughts about this?
• Sadie was originally written as a boy - how would this have changed the story?
• What were our feelings towards the mother? Did we want her to find out the truth before she died?
• Could Quinn have done more at the time of Sadie's death? What motivated the actions he took?
• Did we have any doubts about Quinn's character throughout the story?  Did we believe his version of events?
• How reliable is the third-person narrator?
• How multi-dimensional was Robert Dalton? Did we find aspects of him almost a caricature?
• What was the purpose of the sacrifical lamb scene?
• How the author used language to paint quite graphic images (e.g. the representation of war, rape scenes, the lamb scene)
• What was the point of the mystic imagery built up throughout the novel in relation to Sadie? Was it used to the best effect? Were we expecting it to go further and push into the realms of magic realism?
• Were the horrors at home shown to be worse than the horrors of war?
• How did we think Dalton had power over Gracie?
• How did the visits Quinn made to his mother create almost a Scherazade-style telling of the story?
• The impact of the idea that there isn no word to describe the mother who has lost a child. Is 'bereft' that word?
• What was the purpose of the seance? Was it a way to connect the living and the dead in a 'plausible' way?
• Was it credible that Dalton found Sadie in the dark and without a tracker - the two things that Sadie said he wouldn't be able to do?
• Did Part Four (The Angel of Death) work for us?
• Was it a satisfying or unsatisfying ending? What did we think had happened?
• Our favourite passage from the book:

His mother sighed. 'It is a strange bargain one makes with the gods - that in return for the purest love imaginable one must endure the constant fear that something dreadful will happen to your child, and that it will be your fault for bringing them into the world. The number of times I thought of you. Mothers never believe their children are dead. I have seen it in others, the ones with sons killed in the war. God, it's awful. Months after they have received those telegrams they still stand at their kitchen windows and watch the gate for a sign of them. I wake in the night. One's child,' she went on in a trembling voice, 'is always one's child, no matter what age they might be. You worry when your child makes a noise, when he doesn't. It's a terrible kind of love. Terrible.'

And then we were sidetracked into:

• The concept of love a mother has for a child - the responsibility that comes with that
• The impact of the Spanish flu on Australia/the world in the post -World War 1 period.

In other news, we discussed:

• Imported food - the testing requirements...are they stringent enough? Is Australian food subjected to equally stringent testing?
• How delicious Gypsy's desserts were - especially given her oven was broken, and she'd had to impose on her neighbours to actually cook them!

Ratings:
Range: 7 to 9
Average: 8

Next book: Room by Emma Donoghue (chosen by CH)