8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gemmell writes brilliantly, 7 Sep 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Cleave (Hardcover)
THE desolate landscapes of central Australia, eerily beautiful and cruel, are superbly evoked in Cleave.
Nikki Gemmell's heroine, Snip Freeman, is a painter who, as a child, lived in the centre until her father Bud deserted her. Snip has occasionally lived with the Aborigines, but refuses to settle, flaunting her tough self-sufficiency. Prompted by her grandmother, she heads west from Sydney with a stranger, Dave, in search of Bud, her own childhood and, perhaps, a new life.
Gemmell writes brilliantly about the journey, about Snip's insistence that she feels lust, not love, for Dave, and later, about Snip and her father marooned in the desert, both hallucinating as they run out of water and hope.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A powerful novel. I couldn't put it down., 15 Aug 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Cleave (Hardcover)
I loved this book. It's a powerful novel with a wonderful driven energy. It's about a woman stranded in the desert - and the men she's escaping from and trying to find. Gemmell's voice is vivid and poetic, unlike any other I have read. She has created an intensely memorable character with her protaganist, Snip Freeman. I can imagine this novel having a huge fan base, particularly among the kind of readers who loved "The Beach." It's a book that had me in tears - and that doesn't happen often.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
moving, elegant prose: a story to fire your imagination., 3 Aug 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Cleave (Hardcover)
Unputdownable, a peach of a tale in which the Australian outback is evoked with harshly beautiful prose; haunting. Can't wait for Ms Gemmell's next book.
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