DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
- How successful do you think Thea Astley is in her attempt to incorporate Aboriginal perspectives in this novel, through the characters of Manny Cooktown and Normie Cooktown?
- If you can find a copy of the book, read Peter Prior’s account of the 1930 incident in Renarta Prior, Straight from the Yudaman’s Mouth: The Life Story of Peter Prior Before, During, and After the Robert Curry Days, Never Told Before (Townsville: James Cook University, 1993). What do you make of Astley’s use of this source material?
- Why do you think Astley chose to focus the bulk of the novel on the white characters? What themes and issues does this focus allow her to highlight?
- Make a list of examples where Astley makes her language do the work of poetry. Which examples do you think work best, and why?
- Why do you think Astley presents Mrs Curthoys’ and Leonie’s stories in the first person? What relationship do you see between their sometimes-feminist perspectives and the novel’s central concern with racism and Aboriginal-white relations?
- What do you see as the advantages - and maybe disadvantages - of writing this novel as a series of stories about such historical events focussed on various characters, rather than as a straightforward narrative with a single authorial point of view?
- ‘Cycle of despair’ was the phrase used to describe Palm Island’s history in a recent TV program (ABC’s 7:30 Report, 22 July 2009). What light does Astley’s historical novel shed on the causes and effects of this cycle of despair?
