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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A haunting novel for the subtle of mind, 12 May 2006
Carrie Tiffany's first novel is one which, if you're willing to take it on its own terms, will stay with you. If you come to it expecting a tightly paced, neatly wound-up story, you'll be disappointed. But if you instead just enjoy the sad, astute reflections of narrator Jean Finnegan, this novel will give you something back.
Jean is a seamstress on the Better Farming Train in the 1930s, which tours Australia teaching the latest scientific farming methods. We follow her from her time on the train, where she meets scientist-farmer Robert Pettergree, to several years later when they are married and living in the inhospitable Mallee area, trying to prove that it is possible to make the land profitable. Interspersed in this account are memories of Jean's and Robert's childhoods, as well as photographs, and annual harvest results charting the year's success - or failure.
In every sentence Tiffany offers absorbing, detailed observations about the world she has created, which bring it to life beautifully. But for the reader this world is also full of questions and holes and unexplained silences. Neither Tiffany nor her character Jean, offer any interpretation of the deeply troubling glimpses we read of husband Robert's childhood. Characters are introduced at the beginning and then silenced so that we never hear from them directly again. We get to know Jean Finnegan and her world, but only through a very narrow selection of her experiences; Tiffany does not allow us the illusion that we are seeing everything, and this creates an eerie uncertainty about the events described.
This book seems not to be about Australia between the wars, or about farming, or about the relationship between Jean and Robert, but about possibilities, about the course a life takes, and about evidence and knowing. It is wise, intelligent and understated, and would be a good read for anyone who likes books and has an appreciation for literary subtlety.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Science of Emotion, 13 Mar 2006
This novel was chosen as part of the UWA Perth International Arts Festival as the One Book for 2006. It's not difficult to see why, it teaches us so much about the difficulties the original Australian farmers faced in trying to grow crops on such complex land. It's great to read about the Better Farming Train - a self-contained education institution on wheels, educating communities on all aspects of land management, animal husbandry, sewing, health and nutrition. Carrie Tiffany manages to convey the main character Jean's struggle as a series of matter-of-fact events whilst still giving the reader a sense of Jean's emotions attached to the decline of her situation with her husband and farm. I loved the way there are photographs and charts interspersed with the story, showing us that we are reading a living diary of a woman living in a tumultuous part of Australian history. I loved that Jean is so devoted to her husband through it all, that as he moves further away from everything she gets closer. You see that she has such amazing strength. The book is a struggle between science and emotion, that by trying to create a positive outcome by mathematical and scientific means doesn't always work because agriculture, and life, just isn't like that. And the disappointment that even if we think we have the formula correct, something still doesn't work... I would recommend this book highly!
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Late Night Readers bookclub thought..., 24 April 2007
The protagonist of this Australian novel is Jean Finnegan, a young woman who has a job with a 1930s government initiative, the Better Farming Train, as a seamstress. Jean meets Yorkshire soil agronomist Robert Pettergree, and after a passionate relationship on board, the two leave the train to start married life together. They are determined to prove Robert's ideas correct, and try to turn the impoverished soils of the Mallee into rich, productive farmland. Furthermore, they give agricultural advice to friends and neighbours, which, in not proving fruitful, is ultimately not well-received.
We liked this gentle novel, naively narrated by Jean. While it was a little too gentle for some, everyone found parts that they could relate to. The historical setting of the Better Farming Train in the 1930s was a wonderful background for the story, and something that not many of us had come across. One of our group who had stayed in the Mallee in the past said that it resonated strongly with her.
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