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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best Epistolary Novel Ever?, 27 Jun 2004
The once popular genre, associated with Richardson, Laclos, Scott, Fielding, Sterne and Austen has pretty much fallen out of fashion. Kneale revives it brilliantly here. He employs 19 seperate narrators to tell this tale of exploitation, genocide, greed, adventure and misadventure. In the hands of a lesser artist, such a crazy quilt arrangement would lead to chaos. Kneale manages the seperate voices like a master marionette artist. Each character rings true, even the most eccentric. Each scene, even the most fantastic, remains true to the logic of the book as a whole. No small accomplishment, indeed. The narrative focuses primarily on the arrival of Europeans (primarily English settlers) to the island of Tasmania and to the expansion of their "civilization" in the middle of the 19th century. In order for this civilization to thrive and expand, the aboriginal population had to go. They just didn't fit in. Several of them, including one of the narrator's (Peavy's)mother, were downright intractable. Conflict ensues. Though the aboriginal peoples come out on the short end of the stick, one half-caste does enact some good old fashioned revenge towards the end of the tale. The other main thread deals with a scientific exhibition led by a minister (Wilson) in search of The Garden of Eden, and a doctor (Potter) interested in collecting human samples of various peoples in the hope of advancing his theory of a natural order of races, just as Darwin had advanced his theory of the order of species. A third English passenger, a young geologist named Renshaw, doesn't figure as prominently in the plot as the aforementioned, but does provide some clear-headed satirical insight into the goings on. The funniest and most sympathetic character, apart from the Aboriginal narrators, is Illium Quillian Kewely, an old salty smuggler from the Isle of Man, Captain and proud owner of the uniquely designed sailing vessel "The Sincerity." He, Peavy, and Renshaw provide the only reliable main narratives. He's also one of the most colorful and memorable characters in recent fiction. He and his Manx-speaking crew are involved in an entirely different mission than that of the passengers. The manner in which Keale juggles the intertwining plots is another example of his artistry. The villains are true rotters. The Reverend Geoffrey Wilson is full of conceit and self delusion. His sole preoccupation is with securing fame and fortune by proving his hair-brained notion that Tasmania is the actual location of the Tigris and Euphrates mentioned in Genesis. His stubborn pig-headedness will have dire consequences for the expedition. The manner in which Kneale eventually deals with him is brilliant. Wilson's mortal enemy is Dr. Thomas Potter. Potter is based in part on Jean-Louis Agassiz, whose evolutionary theories involved a break-down of races into various categories, the dark races occupying the bottom rung. Such categorizing had obvious ramifications on much of the history and conflict of the 20th century. The fact that Potter's top rung of the evolutionary ladder is occupied by "the Saxon Type" is meant as an historical harbinger. The only enjoyable thing about either of these characters is that they hate each other so vividly. Their animosity sustains many of the humorous episodes of the novel, until it turns more serious towards the end. Potter's fate is another piece of grand invention on Keale's part. If you're in the mood for a big, grand read, by a novelist at the top of his game, look no further. This one definitely moves to the top of my chart for novels read in 2004. It's thoroughly enjoyable, absorbing literature of the first rank. BEK
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