Category: HF Reading Challenge

#BlogTour #BookReview The White Girl by Tony Birch @RandomTTours

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The White Girl BT PosterWelcome to the penultimate day of the blog tour for The White Girl by Tony Birch. My thanks to Anne at Random Things Tours for inviting me to take part in the tour and to HarperCollins for my digital review copy.  Do check out the post by my tour buddy for today, bookstagrammer Atomic Books 1976.

The White Girl CoverAbout the Book

Odette Brown has lived her entire life on the fringes of Deane, a small Australian country town. Dark secrets simmer beneath the surface of Deane – secrets that could explain why Odette’s daughter, Lila, left her one-year-old daughter, Sissy, and never came back, or why Sissy has white skin when
her family is Aboriginal.

For thirteen years, Odette has quietly raised her granddaughter without drawing notice from welfare authorities who remove fair-skinned Aboriginal children from their families. But the arrival of a new policeman with cruel eyes and a rigid by-the-book attitude throws the Brown women’s lives off-kilter. It will take all of Odette’s courage and cunning to save Sissy from the authorities, and maybe even lead her to find her daughter.

Bolstered by love, smarts, and the strength of their ancestors, Odette and Sissy are an indomitable
force, handling threats to their family and their own identities with grace and ingenuity, while never
losing hope for themselves and their future.

Format: Paperback (272 pages)    Publisher: HarperVia
Publication date: 28th April 2022 Genre: Historical Fiction

Find The White Girl on Goodreads

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Disclosure: If you buy a book via the above link, I may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops

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My Review

The White Girl is the first book I’ve read by Tony Birch, an author I had never come across before being invited to participate in this blog tour. However on the strength of this book I’ll definitely be searching out more of his work.

“Trouble? Our people have been in one sort of trouble or another from the first day we set eyes on a white person.” 

I knew vaguely about the discrimination faced by the indigenous people of Australia but the experiences of Odette and her granddaughter gave me a first-hand insight into the daily realities of their lives: enforced segregation, the separation of families, restrictions on freedom of movement and the withholding of the right to citizenship. I found it shocking to think that the sort of discrimination one might associate with the period before the abolition of slavery could still be taking place in Australia in the 1960s.

Alongside the state-sponsored discrimination, Odette and fellow Aboriginal people are subject to racial abuse and threats of violence meaning they need to exercise caution about where they go or what they say, all the time on their guard in case they breach the petty rules governing their lives. Such an environment acts as a kind of shield for those with violent and racist inclinations.

The despicable attitude towards Aboriginal people is exemplified in the character of Sergeant Lowe whose warped sense of superiority (reinforced by the legal framework of the ironically named Aborigines Protection Act) convinces him he has a duty to ‘protect’ the children of indigenous families. ‘He would begin with auditing each of the Aboriginal children under his guardianship with a view to deciding the best outcome for their future welfare.’ That ‘welfare’ includes removing children from their families and placing them in institutions.

Odette is the most wonderful character who demonstrates amazing fortitude and a willingness to put the interests of her granddaughter, Sissy, before her own.  The relationship between Odette and Sissy is lovely too, with Sissy showing an increasing maturity as the book progresses and that she has inherited the sharp wits of her grandmother. I also loved Odette’s friend, Millie Khan, one of the few people who has the courage to confront Lowe. ‘Oh, you’ve looked after the welfare of our young girls for a long time now. Most of them are dead, disappeared or were sent mad by what you did to them in the institutions.’

In the book’s poignant epilogue, we learn just what Odette’s love and determination has achieved but also the tragic consequences of the discrimination meted out to the indigenous people of Australia.

The White Girl is a beautifully written and absolutely enthralling story of unconditional love and courage in the face of adversity.

In three words: Powerful, moving, poignant

Try something similar: A Long Way From Home by Peter Carey

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Tony Birch Author PicAbout the Author

Tony Birch is the author of three novels: the bestselling The White Girl, winner of the 2020 NSW Premier’s Award for Indigenous Writing, and shortlisted for the 2020 Miles Franklin literary prize; Ghost River, winner of the 2016 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Indigenous Writing; and Blood, which was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award in 2012. He is also the author of Shadowboxing and four short story collections, Dark As Last Night, Father’s Day, The Promise and Common People; and the poetry collections, Broken Teeth and Whisper Songs. In 2017 he was awarded the Patrick White Literary Award for his contribution to Australian literature. Tony Birch is also an activist, historian and essayist.

Connect with Tony
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#BookReview Elektra by Jennifer Saint

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ElektraAbout the Book

The House of Atreus is cursed. A bloodline tainted by a generational cycle of violence and vengeance. This is the story of three women, their fates inextricably tied to this curse, and the fickle nature of men and gods.

Clytemnestra – The sister of Helen, wife of Agamemnon, her hopes of averting the curse are dashed when her sister is taken to Troy by the feckless Paris. Her husband raises a great army against them, and determines to win, whatever the cost.

Cassandra – Princess of Troy, and cursed by Apollo to see the future but never to be believed when she speaks of it. She is powerless in her knowledge that the city will fall.

Elektra – The youngest daughter of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon, Elektra is horrified by the bloodletting of her kin. But, can she escape the curse, or is her own destiny also bound by violence?

Format: Hardcover (352 pages) Publisher: Wildfire
Publication date: 28th April 2022 Genre: Historical Fiction, Mythology

Find Elektra on Goodreads

Purchase links
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Disclosure: If you buy a book via the above link, I may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops

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My Review

I have a rather chequered history when it comes to retellings of Greek myths. I enjoyed Colm Toibin’s House of Names, which also focuses on Clytemnestra, Elektra and Orestes – but wasn’t blown away by it. Again, I found a lot to like about The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker but didn’t think she completely succeeded in giving a voice to the ‘silenced’ women. It was pretty much the same story with Jennifer Saint’s previous novel, Ariadne, which, whilst admiring the quality of the writing, I couldn’t get as enthusuastic about as other readers. I guess it’s partly because there are only so many ways you can retell a story that has been set down many times before. The author’s challenge is that, if they want to remain true to the original myth, they can’t change the outcome of events only try to explore the characters’ motivations.

To be rather simplistic, Greek tragedy seems to basically consist of people killing other people because they killed other people. ‘Blood must be repaid in blood.’ The story of the House of Atreus is one of patricide, matricide, matiricide and filicide. (I confess I had to look up the last two.)

Based on the book’s title, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Elektra’s story is the main focus. In fact, Elektra is a background figure for much of the book and it is Clytemnestra’s story that is most prominent. It’s also the one I found the most compelling. Her grief at the murder of her eldest daughter, Iphigenia, is raw, heartrending and completely understandable.  Her unwavering detemination to exact revenge on her husband borders on madness but the prospect of it, of planning it down to the last detail, is perhaps the only thing that keeps her from ending her own life. Never was the phrase ‘Revenge is a dish best served cold’ so apposite.

The sections from the point of view of Cassandra convey her anguish that she is unable to prevent the downfall of the city of Troy because her prophecies are destined never to be believed. She also provides a Trojan perspective which would otherwise be missing from the book.

I think the author set herself a challenge in making Elektra a character we can either understand or feel some sympathy for (assuming that was her intention). Elektra seems too accepting of her father’s actions – he did murder her sister after all. When she says, ‘Iphigenia was a sacrifice. The gods demand a heavy price sometimes, and it is an honour to pay it’ my immediate thought was, that’s easy for you to say.  She is also dismissive of her mother’s grief at Iphigenia’s death. ‘But my mother was not dead, so I didn’t understand why she was behaving as though she was’. Like a stroppy teenager, she seems to resent her mother’s lack of attention to her.

Ironically the character I most warmed to was Georgios, the farmer who proves a steadfast friend to Elektra, and later to her brother Orestes. I found myself feeling quite sorry for him when Elektra abandons him.  And I think he hits the nail on the head when he observes, ‘There’s a terrible crime, unbearable pain and then the lashing out of vengeance, and then it all begins again.’

Although the author puts the three women front and centre from a narrative point of view, I’m not sure a sense of female empowerment comes across that strongly, except perhaps when Clytemnestra takes over as ruler of Mycenae in Agamemnon’s absence. Ultimately, the fates of all three women are the consequence of the actions of men.

If you love Greek mythology I’m sure you will enjoy Elektra but I’m afraid – and I appreciate I’m in a minority here – I found the book rather slow.  Although it’s beautifully written, the story only really came alive for me at certain points.

I received an advance reader copy courtesy of Wildfire Books via NetGalley.

Try something similar: House of Names by Colm Tóibín

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Jennifer Saint Author picAbout the Author

Jennifer Saint is a Sunday Times bestselling author. Her debut novel, Ariadne, was shortlisted for Waterstones Book of the Year 2021 and was a finalist in the Goodreads Choice Awards Fantasy category in 2021. Her second novel, Elektra, is another retelling of Greek mythology told in the voices of the women at the heart of the ancient legends.

Connect with Jennifer
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