- Paperback: 608 pages
- Publisher: Sceptre; New Ed edition (21 Jun 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0340624752
- ISBN-13: 978-0340624753
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.8 x 4.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 508,592 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
Acclaim for Thomas Keneally: 'A great storyteller' -- The Times 'The best Australian writer alive' -- Auberon Waugh 'A novelist of high quality and great daring...a marvellous storyteller' -- Scotsman
Review
Acclaim for Thomas Keneally:
‘A great storyteller’ (The Times )
‘The best Australian writer alive’ (Auberon Waugh )
‘A novelist of high quality and great daring...a marvellous storyteller’ (Scotsman )
‘A great storyteller’ (The Times )
‘The best Australian writer alive’ (Auberon Waugh )
‘A novelist of high quality and great daring...a marvellous storyteller’ (Scotsman )
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Having read almost every novel Thomas Keneally has written my initial reaction to reading this particular offering was luke warm. It certainly isn't one of the best books Mr. Keneally has produced and yet the workmanship and story telling within it are still impressive enough to warrant it a worth while effort.
The book encompasses several different stories intertwined through different eras and localities. Perhaps the finest perculiarity of this novel is the way in which the author uses the stories and locations to parralel each other. For example it is possible to view Bettany's own views on his assigned labourers to Prim's views of slavery in the Sudan. Likewise Prim's feelings of alienation of being a Westerner in Africa and her relationship with Sherif a Sudanese Muslim could be sen to mirror John Bettany's unease at being a son of a convict and his relationship with a convict woman too.
To sum up, Keneally successfully proves his talent for accurate historical story telling and yet the story lacks the depth to be compared with denser and more powerful previous efforts such as Schindlers Ark.
The book encompasses several different stories intertwined through different eras and localities. Perhaps the finest perculiarity of this novel is the way in which the author uses the stories and locations to parralel each other. For example it is possible to view Bettany's own views on his assigned labourers to Prim's views of slavery in the Sudan. Likewise Prim's feelings of alienation of being a Westerner in Africa and her relationship with Sherif a Sudanese Muslim could be sen to mirror John Bettany's unease at being a son of a convict and his relationship with a convict woman too.
To sum up, Keneally successfully proves his talent for accurate historical story telling and yet the story lacks the depth to be compared with denser and more powerful previous efforts such as Schindlers Ark.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book sees Thomas Kenneally up to his usual tricks of testing the reader with a whole series of stories inter-twining each other through time and location.
Parallels run through the whole of this novel. Bettany's gratitude for his assigned labour against prim's horrid fascination of the slavery situation in Sudan.
The death of Long and Bettany Senior comes along around the same time in the book that Dimp's marriage disintergrates.
A new start for Bettany and Bernard as Prim atempts her new start.
This is quite a deliberate ploy by Kenneally and makes the novel an interesting yet perhaps slightly predictable storyline.
Format:Hardcover
Two very different sisters' divergent careers are bound together by a diary kept by a Victorian ancestor who established an outback sheep ranch at the fringes of civilisation in convict-filled New South Wales. One sister is hoping to make a film based on the story; the other is living out some of the diary's complex themes of inter-racial and inter-class relationships working for a charity - Ausfam - in civil-war-torn Sudan.
The narrative of Bettany's successful struggle to establish his sheep farm and sell his wool ties together themes of exploitation, corrupt officialdom and human marital relationships that overflow into the sisters' very different lives.
This book shows the author of Schindler's Ark again addressing issues of compassion and suffering with great understanding and a compelling sense of period and place. Both rural NSW and urban and rural Sudan are vividly brought to life, and the intricate parallels and allusions that cross between the stories make this a thought-provoking, very intelligent novel.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
2 stories in one - historical and modern
The book tells the story of John Bettany and his rise to succes and the trials that befall him. Running alongside this is the story of his ancestors,two sisters, and their... Read more
Published on 21 July 2001 by kadavies@btinternet.co.uk
Bettany's Book is an intriguing and interesting exercise.
I admire Mr Keneally's talent immensely and understand what he is trying to do, but to acclaim "Bettany's Book" as the "Great Australian Novel" as the blurb on... Read more
Published on 1 July 2001 by Mme Roslyn Mor
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