Drown Them In The Sea
August 30th 2007 20:58
Image: ipgbook.com
Drown Them In The Sea – not the most appealing of titles, is it? But because it displayed a Vogel Winner badge and an attractive, rural Aussie cover, I picked it up with the intention of padding out my Australian authors reading list.
Millvan is the owner of Arbour, a property that has been in his family for three generations, and in his advancing years he is determined to leave it to oldest son Murray. They’ve had some bad seasons though, and the bank is breathing down their necks while they wait for rain and good wheat crops.
But Millvan knows there are other ways of staying afloat, like logging the pines that his grandfather and father left down by the river. The timber brings good money, and the land can be used for more wheat. What would his ancestors think? Today, a landowner cannot afford to be sentimental, not by a long stretch, and a desperate man, in desperate times will do desperate things – but nature is not always agreeable.
This is a good first novel that gives a simple and realistic portrayal of life on the land today. It opens with the instinctive wanderings of Millvan’s half-dingo work dog, which does a great job of placing the reader just where he needs to be – on the land. We meet the human components soon enough, and although there is little time to get to know them well, that certain dogged characteristic of the Australian farmer is quickly recognisable. But how often do we really consider these care-takers of crops?
During the recent drought stricken years, I was told by a ‘city dweller’ that “these people trying to farm the outback were crazy …” and that “they shouldn’t even be attempting to make that land productive”.
A realistic but unsupportive attitude to say the least!
I’ve no doubt there are many hundreds of Millvans out there struggling on an unforgiving parcel of land that, (right or wrong) has been made their home and I can only imagine how hard it would be to walk off your land. But I do know that I could never be so presumptuous as to believe it would be easy.
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