Book Description
Mutant Message Down Under is the fictional account of an American woman's spiritual odyssey through outback Australia. An underground bestseller in its original self-published edition, Marlo Morgan's powerful tale of challenge and endurance has a message for us all.
Summoned by a remote tribe of nomadic Aborigines to accompany them on walkabout, the woman makes a four-month-long journey and learns how they thrive in natural harmony with the plants and animals that exist in the rugged lands of Australia's bush. From the first day of her adventure, Morgan is challenged by the physical requirements of the journey—she faces daily tests of her endurance, challenges that ultimately contribute to her personal transformation.
By traveling with this extraordinary community, Morgan becomes a witness to their essential way of being in a world based on the ancient wisdom and philosophy of a culture that is more than 50,000 years old.
Download Description
Experience the spiritual odyssey story of an American woman in Australia and discover the wisdom of an ancient culture through its compelling, powerful, life-enhancing message for all humankind -- a message that can save our world from destruction and fill our lives with a great sense of purpose.
Customer Reviews:
Total Fantasy - not based in fact........2007-10-04
Please, if you read this book (and I recommend that you DO NOT) consider it complete fantasy. Yes, it has been labled as "fiction", but the author claims it is based on her actual experience. Google her name, or the book title, and read the controversy surrounding this book.
Aside from the controversy, it is poorly written, and the author's racist language is offensive. Don't buy it, and don't read it.
Total disrespect for another's cultural beliefs.......2007-08-02
I read this book a few years ago, with utter disbelief. As the review above states, there is no way this woman knew anything about Australia, apart from what she may have garnered off the internet. I rate this book 1 star only because there wasn't a zero star option.
It is a fact across all Aboriginal peoples (and there are more than 1) that a man would NEVER reveal any tribal secrets to a woman and vice versa. This one fact alone tells me the book is utter rubbish. I'm only sorry the Aborigines of Australia could not take a class action against this woman. Don't buy the book. Come to Australia and see for yourself.
Interesting But.....A Fairy Tale/Hoax.......2007-07-09
My wife, a Holistic Healer, is totally enamoured with this book and it's "lessons" of life, living and healing.
After reading it, I looked for more info about the author. Wow, the whole book is apparently a fabricatation to make money and/or advance the ideals of New Age spirituality.
If I had known it was untrue from the beginning, I probably would have enjoyed it for what it was, a story about living in the desert and native ideas of living, one with the earth. However, I feel I wasted a lot of emotion believing her adventures were mostly true experiences. I had doubts numerous times about the truthfulness of experiences she described. She covers for that possibility by claiming in her Forward that the book was a "fictionalized" account to protect the tribe,it's members and their location.
I give it 2 stars because it was an interesting read about living in the outback, and about spiritual beliefs even if her story has turned out to be totally untrue.
Mutant Message.......2007-06-21
Good easy read. A look into your inner self and how you look at the world.
Take It For What It Is: Fiction. Period........2007-06-12
I read this book in my 20s, and then again 2 years ago. It is charming and weaves in many of the indigenous traditions that we'd all like to incorporate into our lives. However, this book is a work of fiction and has very little to do with authentic aboriginal culture. This taints the credibility of the author and her book. So, let it inspire you to seek out authentic indigenous lifeways. But be sure to take this book for what it is: fiction.
Amazon.com
The late Bruce Chatwin carved out a literary career as unique as any writer's in this century: his books included In Patagonia, a fabulist travel narrative, The Viceroy of Ouidah, a mock-historical tale of a Brazilian slave-trader in 19th century Africa, and The Songlines, his beautiful, elegiac, comic account of following the invisible pathways traced by the Australian aborigines. Chatwin was nothing if not erudite, and the vast, eclectic body of literature that underlies this tale of trekking across the outback gives it a resonance found in few other recent travel books. A poignancy, as well, since Chatwin's untimely death made The Songlines one of his last books.
Customer Reviews:
Annoying interjections.......2007-05-22
The first sentence sounded promising:"In Alice Springs - a grid of scorching streets where men in long white socks were forever getting in and out of Land Cruisers - I met a Russian who was mapping the sacred sites of the Aboriginals." And indeed what follows in the next thirty or so chapters is a very readable and insightful travelogue of a British (author? archaelogist? historian?) "going bush" with Arkady Volchok, trying to learn about the mythical Aboriginal songlines. Not understandably, then, the author throws in bits and pieces of the protagonist's notebooks, which all more or less anthropological citations and thoughts from very different sources. The concept reminded me a bit of the motif in "The English Patient", where Almasy carries a copy of Herodotus' The Histories with him, adding his own notes and observations. Fortunately, in Ondaatje's novel, this remains a motif which does not disrupt the plot itself. With "The Songlines", however, I found myself flicking impatiently through the interjection-pages in order to get back to the story.
Bruce Chatwin wrote half a book..........2007-04-17
The Songlines really captured my attention. Human ecology, cultural anthropology, human evolution, cultural imperialism, Songlines, Native Australians ("aborigines"), travels... this is a book with information about a people and a place. I enjoyed the flow and pace of the story, and I hope I learned the reality of Native Australian culture.
However, Bruce Chatwin chose to use this book to publish assorted observations, quotes, and reflections from other travels. For me (me), they affected the flow of his storytelling, my ability to focus on the theme - Australia, not nomads - and the ending. Perhaps this is a style thing, and I don't know if Chatwin applies this style in his other books.
Didn't work for me. I wanted a conclusion to his original story.
Aboriginals in Australia.......2007-03-13
In Alice Springs the narrator called Bruce meets Arkady Volchok, an Australian citizen who is mapping the sacred sites of the Aboriginals. Arkady is fascinated by them, by their grit and tenacity and their ways of dealing with white people. Arkady speaks a couple of their languages and he is often astounded by their intellectual vigour, their memory and their capacity to survive.
It was during his time as a schoolteacher in Walbiri that Arkadi learned of the labyrinth of invisible pathways which meander all over Australia and are known to Europeans as Songlines - a way for Aboriginals to sing out the name of everything that crosses their path during their wanderings: birds, animals, plants, rocks, waterholes and so sing the world in existence.
When a route is suggested for a new Alice to Darwin railway line, Arkady's job is to identify the traditional landowners, to drive them over their old hunting grounds and to get them to reveal which rock or soak or ghost-gum is the work of a Dreamtime hero. Bruce is happy to join Arkady and to spend some time "out bush".
The reader of this novel learns a lot about Australia and the Aboriginals. The plot and the characters however are a bit thin. One finds it hard to sympathise with the Aboriginal figures appearing in the story. What they have to say and the way they express themselves amounts to practically nothing. It seems as though they need the white people to tell their stories and traditions.
Best of the best.......2006-10-02
This is the kind of writing/reflecting many people do while travelling and is not a "how to" type of travel guide. I've recommended this book to several thoughtful people, given it to many thoughtful teens as they begin to self-discover, and re-read the book twice. VERY nice writing, good thoughts, great ideas about humans.
The Songlines.......2005-12-17
As i never wanted to go to Australia, i have to say that after reading this book i have not changed my mind, but it is not a point. It is not a book about traveling in Australia. It is more a book about walking, for example. As i like walking, i have found in this book so many great examples of what the walking is about, it is not just moving from one point on the Earth to another, it is also philosophy. And so on...this book is highly recommended for those who knows what the word "travel" means. In present time many people travel, but just a few ones deserve to be called "traveller". Bruce Chatwin is among them.
Average customer rating:
- An amazingly authentic Australian adventure!
- Walkabout With Caroline
- A cracking good read
- fast-paced and global in scope
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Blood Junction
Caroline Carver
Manufacturer: Mysterious Press
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ASIN: 0892967706 |
Book Description
When journalist India Kane travels from Sydney to the outback town of Cooinda for a reunion with her friend, Lauren, she has no idea of the town's appalling history. Forty years earlier an entire aboriginal family had been massacred there. Picked up by an off-duty cop when her car dies en route, India arrives in Cooinda to find that Lauren has disappeared. The next day Lauren's body-and the cop who helped India-are found murdered. India, the last person to have seen the cop alive, is arrested for murder. India knows that she has been framed for the murder, and resolves to find out why Lauren died. In time, she ties these deaths to the earlier massacre and discovers a beautiful, yet awful truth about her own history.
Customer Reviews:
An amazingly authentic Australian adventure!.......2002-12-29
I read this mystery in a paperback edition brought back from Australia by a friend who visited there this summer. I found the author's evocation of the Australian outback fascinating and her use of aboriginal history absolutely riveting. I just had the privilege of seeing the new film, RABBIT PROOF FENCE, which tells the story of the Australian government's program to separate "half-caste" Aborigine children from their mothers in the 1930's. The film immediately revived memories of Ms. Carver's fantastic mystery novel, and I recommend both highly. You may also want to buy the RABBIT PROOF FENCE movie tie-in edition of the book that the film is based on. It would make a great pair of reads: one fiction, and the other non-fiction on the same subject!
Walkabout With Caroline.......2002-11-15
"Blood Junction" is two-thirds of an amazingly fine debut. The feel of the desolate, huge Outback is with us every page. Her sense of the country and the Aborigines is right up there with Bruce Chatwin's "Songlines." (yes, that good!). Ms. Carver's characterization of her lead character, India Kane, makes for fascinating reading. India is strong, mysterious, but beautifully flawed. And then there is the plot---to put it succinctly, it lacks continuity. After a fine, tightly written prologue, we are plunged into the main story line wondering what, if anything, the prologue was meant to foreshadow.
India Kane is to meet her best friend in the remote outback town of Cooinda. Her car breaks down, and she receives a lift from a kind young man to her destination boarding house. No friend greets her; she awakens the next morning only to be arrested by a policeman for the murder of the kind young man (who turns out to be a policeman) and her friend. This is a cop from hell, someone who would make the worst of the LAPD look like pussycats. That India has no motive and has never been in this town in her life doesn't seem to bother the detective in charge, nor is her lawyer too concerned with her rights. A kindly Aboriginal policeman protects and shelters her. He is a very well developed character who gets dropped inexplicably never to be heard from again. And so it goes. Sometimes, when I would turn a page, I was convinced I'd skipped a few pages (I had not) because there would be a great leap in time, action, and locale.
You think of Nevada Barr, who has her own problems with over busy plots, when you read some of Ms. Carver's excellent word pictures of the Outback. I do think most readers will enjoy this debut effort in spite of the non-structured plot. She clearly has verve, a sense of humor, and her own sometimes odd take on what makes a decent human being. I am looking forward to further outings with India Kane. 3-1/2 stars.
A cracking good read.......2002-10-19
I couldn't put it down. I spent a Sunday buried in it till I had double vision but kept going. I'm amazed that a 22-year-old could do this. It raised so many issues for me as an Australian - Outback attitudes, Aboriginal roots, a sense of place....I've been to places like this and could taste the dust. Diet Simon, Cologne.
fast-paced and global in scope.......2002-09-27
India Kane is looking forward to her reunion with her best friend Lauren in the small Australian outback town of Cooinda. Before she reaches her destination, a good Samaritan who turns out to be an off-duty policeman picks her up. He drops her off at the place where she's supposed to meet Lauren, but her pal is not there. India goes to the place where Lauren resides hoping to find her there.
After waiting overnight, Lauren goes back into town where she is arrested for the death of Lauren and the off-duty police officer who picked her up. She has an alibi but nobody can find him leaving Lauren in jail until a mysterious benefactor posts $250,000 bail. More death's occur connected to the story that Lauren was working on and India, who is also a journalist, intends to discover what is going on or die trying.
BLOOD JUNCTION is the winner of the Crime Writer's Association New Writer's Award and it is very easy to see why. The story line is fast-paced and global in scope yet uses a local homicide to turn the plot into an international conspiracy. The heroine is a strong woman, capable of surviving on her own in the Outback as well as in the city and hopefully India will star in an ongoing series.
Harriet Klausner
Book Description
Australian aboriginal people have lived in harmony with the earth for perhaps as long as 100,000 years; in their words, since the First Day. In this absorbing work, Lawlor explores the essence of their culture as a source of and guide to transforming our own world view. While not romanticizing the past or suggesting a return to the life of the hunter/gatherer, Voices of the First Day enables us to enter into the mentality of the oldest continuous culture on earth and gain insight into our own relationship with the earth and to each other.
This book offers an opportunity to suspend our values, prejudices, and Eurocentrism and step into the Dreaming to discover:
• A people who rejected agriculture, architecture, writing, clothing, and the subjugation of animals
• A lifestyle of hunting and gathering that provided abundant food of unsurpassed nutritional value
• Initiatic and ritual practices that hold the origins of all esoteric, yogic, magical, and shamanistic traditions
• A sexual and emotional life that afforded diversity and fluidity as well as marital and social stability
• A people who valued kinship, community, and the law of the Dreamtime as their greatest "possessions."
• Language whose richness of structure and vocabulary reveals new worlds of perception and comprehension.
• A people balanced between the Dreaming and the perceivable world, in harmony with all species and living each day as the First Day.
Voices of the First Day is illustrated throughout with more than 100 extraordinary photographs, bark paintings, line drawings and engravings. Many of these photographs are among the earliest ever made of the Aboriginal people and are shown here for the first time.Â
Customer Reviews:
Mostly the author Dreaming, not the Aborigines.......2007-10-12
Voices of the first day
I bought this book not long after it was first published in 1991. I was attracted to the book because the form and binding looked good and I didn't have any books about Australian Aborigines yet. As far as appearances go, the book looks great. Nice division in chapters, wonderful illustrations.
OK, now it gets tricky because I am going to review the contents. The author is indeed a person that can write. However the book is filled with well formulated sentences as "The landscape of Aboriginal Australia mirrored a living organism" that are vague in the extreme. The author makes a division in that everything about the Aborigines (where traditionally girls are raped at age 14) is good and everything about Western society is bad. This division might be ok in a cowboy movie, but that doesn't prevent Lawlor drawing heavily on the evil sciences of the West.
Lawlor idolizes the civilisation of Ancient Egypt and connects Aboriginal myth with theories about magnetic forces. This is done in with sentences like "Indigenous people believe..." and "some scientists have recently found evidence..." that must draw the reader into his stream of thoughts. My biggest problem is that the author is making assumptions on behalf of the Aborigines to which the working of Magnetic forces is completely foreign. The author suggests that a uniform culture existed among the natives (something I doubt it true) and refrains from telling the sad story of their history since Australia's discovery.
After reading through 391 pages the reader is left with little concrete information about the Australian Aborigines, some interesting viewpoints, and a lot of information about the earth's magnetism, Carl Jung, etc.
My conclusion is that this book falls short of its mark. It's more about the Dreaming of the author than the Dreaming of the Aborigines.
Voices of Bulldust.......2007-10-08
One of Australia's greatest anthropologists, William Stanner, urged people who are inspired by indigenous cultures to "...avoid banal projection and subjectivism. ("White Man Got No Dreaming", 1979). Lawlor does both and more. He is an armchair anthropologist who has never lived among indigenous Australians and spins a tale that has little bearing on the real world of indigenous culture. "Bulldust" is the Australian epithet for such radical departures from the truth. If you want to really grapple with indigenous Australian spirituality there are better texts by scholars who have actually lived with aborigines. Amazon readers should try Zohl De Istar's "Holding Yawalwu" as a case in point. It provides an account of her subject that combines insights into the "law" (spirituality) with the mostly rugged and raw day-to-day lives of indigenous Australians.
flawed, but informative.......2006-08-08
I'm in debate as to the true value of this book. On one hand, it discusses in a some depth the culture and issues of the Australian Aboriginal people. It's quite well researched and informative.
On the other hand, mixed throughout is a lot of distracting pseudoscience and adhesion to some minority theories of first peoples. The author also clearly doesn't understand human evolution - or choses not to. He writes very intelligently until he delves into some of these arenas. This really spoiles the book and will surely confuse a less knowledgable reader.
Additionally, the author preaches a bit much against modern civilization. These points have merit, of course, but he dwells far too long on them and becomes a bit preachy. Again, he makes good points and a solid arguement for the failings of modern civilization that are, for the most part, well respected stances/criticisms, but... this book really isn't the place for that pulpit IMHO. Make the point, but in less of a preachy way, and then move on. That would be my editorial advice to the author.
Once you pull out the pseudo-science, flawed evolutionary descriptions/criticisms, and preachiness, you are left with a book that should be 1/2 (or maybe even 1/3rd) the length - but filled with extremely valuable material that treats the Aboriginal culture(s) with great respect and understanding.
So, in summary: this book has tons of great incite and valuable information, but if you are not well versed on evolutionary biology, economics, anthropology and physics, I would steer clear. You need that background/education to pull the good from the bad information contained within. Which is unfortunate since the good information is very good.
I recommend a different book.
Twaddle!.......2005-10-28
Early on (p.137 is a good example) Lawlor clearly unveils his "extreme Green" biases. Obviously, he'd like several BILLION human beings to just evaporate (and take their cultural artifacts with them, thank you very much) so that his "dream of regeneration" could come to pass ... with Humanity reverting to "spiritually connected" neo-stone-age hunter-gatherer bands. It's hard to take an anthropological essay seriously if the author repeatedly throws Luddite tantrums, which are a notable "feature" of this book!
At Least it Gets You in the Door.......2004-07-08
Mr. Lawlor did a lot of research in preparing his book. He manages to extract a lot of anthropological data and present it in an interesting, readable fashion, particularly in the second section of his book on Aboriginal folkways. Perhaps the data is out of date, as some other reviewers have indicated; I really can't say, but the parts of the book dealing with this at least seem reasonable.
Unfortunately, once Mr. Lawlor departs from the straight and narrow you'll find yourself in a world of truly bizarre speculations on the nature of dreamtime, Aboriginal sensitivity to the magnetic field of the earth, the continent of Mu and all other sorts of lunatic New Age stuff, all of which pull the rug out on whatever parts of this book are arguably informative.
At best, one can say that books like this serve some purpose in that they inspire a new generation to go into anthropological research, rather like the old "Flash Gordon" serial no doubt inspired some people to go into nuclear physics. For this reason I'll give the book two stars. It could've been worse, as readers of "Mutant Message" would know.
Average customer rating:
- Sensational - combines best of Asimov and Tielhard de Chardin
- Keeper of Dreams
- first time out, a masterpiece
- Stunning imagery, resonant characters, compelling storyline.
- High praise and two thumbs up for "The Keeper of Dreams"
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The Keeper of Dreams
Peter Shann Ford
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0684872196 |
Amazon.com
The Keeper of Dreams is a juggler's novel: gods, men, kangaroos, tycoons, Japanese soldiers, and Martian robots (to name a few) tumble crazily through the story like a motley assortment of knives and beanbags. When Owen Bird, an amoral Australian billionaire, conspires to steal a tjurunga, or sacred stone, from an Aboriginal tribe, he sets in motion a timeless ritual of revenge. Unless the stone is recovered and the thief punished, the tribe's elders know that their people will die. They must summon the powers of a kudaitja,, or spirit-assassin, to avenge their people and bring Bird to justice. The chosen assassin is a man who knows both the ancient and modern worlds: Robert Erhard is a NASA scientist and a full-blooded Aborigine. His response to the call of the elders--first reluctant, then impassioned--leads him on a grim quest through the outback. He hunts not only the thief, but also his own memories, as his ritual burden moves him back to tribal and individual origins:
He felt himself shifting through a blazing membrane. On one surface he was Robert Erhard, scientist, designer and guide of robotic creatures bound for other planets. On the other, he was Tjilkamata, of the Spiny Anteater Dreaming, keeper of all his people's primal stories and songs. He drifted like a slow-moving whirlwind, churning from core to rim, feeling himself cross the membrane from one identity to the other and back. He felt emptiness at his center, and into its space, he sensed another presence, the avenging spirit of Wanampi striving to take possession of him.
Peter Shann Ford has produced a novel whose antipodean appeal largely outweighs several regrettable flaws. The lesser of these lapses is Ford's tendency to allow his authentic descriptions of Aboriginal tribal life to drift into sentimental paeans of praise, whose obvious earnestness does little to dispel the uneasy feeling that these powerful people are trapped in a saccharine made-for-TV movie. More significant, however, is the novel's problematic structure: Ford leaps across time and space, juxtaposing event and character to flesh out his characters' histories. His decision was inspired perhaps by the prismatic character of Aboriginal myth and mores, in which past and present infuse one another. Unfortunately, the jarring transitions slow the plot (which is, when allowed to unfold naturally, a real juggernaut) to a funereal pace.
Despite these hiccups, The Keeper of Dreams is that rare creature: an original, often gripping, thriller. That it dares to have a message as well as a story is to its author's everlasting credit. --Kelly Flynn
Book Description
Australia's ancient Aboriginal traditions and myths prove to be both powerful and real in The Keeper of Dreams, a deeply involving and evocative thriller in which contemporary greed confronts age-old taboos.
Deep in the central desert of the Australian Outback, a sacred stone that contains codes and carvings of an Aboriginal group's most powerful creation stories is stolen. If the stone is not recovered and the thieves not punished, Aboriginal elders know their people will die. And so, one by one, the three men who carried out the theft fall victim to an ancient justice, a ritual in which the victim is literally "sung" to death. The man who ordered the theft, however, remains outside the elders' power. To get to him, they must choose a ritual spirit-assassin -- a kudaitja.
Dr. Robert Erhard was raised in Australia by a white couple who adopted him when he was only a baby. He is a full-blooded Aborigine, one of Australia's Stolen Generations, now working in Houston, Texas, where he is a scientist and expert in interplanetary robotics. In the midst of his very "civilized" world, Robert is visited by an entity from his past who summons him home on a mission to avenge and save his people by recovering the stolen artifact. It is an ancient call that Robert has heard before, first when he was a child, and it signals a journey -- a spiritual and physical ordeal -- in which he must abandon everything he has become to honor his true identity, as Tjilkamata, his people's keeper of dreams, protector of all their secrets. It is his legacy and his fate to remain faithful to his people and their traditions, no matter how enticing or powerful the lure of his modern life.
The man behind the theft of the sacred artifact is Owen Bird, a ruthless and bullying multibillionaire industrialist who believes, because of his great wealth and power, that he is above the law. However, forces beyond his control begin to emerge when he is critically injured on an Outback buffalo hunt. Airlifted to a hospital emergency room, he has his first experience of the terrifying powers of the men who seek him and the stolen artifact.
As ancient lore propels Robert deeper into the heart of the vast Australian Outback in pursuit of his prey, Owen Bird summons his own assassin to protect himself.
The ensuing duel, matching the forces of ancient sorcery against modern technology and tactics, is both horrific and mesmerizing.
The Keeper of Dreams is based on genuine myths and legends indigenous to the Australian continent. Author Peter Shann Ford spent ten years researching Aboriginal history and lore, and authenticating stories with tribal elders, who subsequently approved this book.
Customer Reviews:
Sensational - combines best of Asimov and Tielhard de Chardin.......2005-10-05
This is a brilliant novel. It has a daring premise and vivid descriptions from secret rituals in the mysterious red desert of central Australia to the real science and dazzling technology of NASA's next great mission to Mars. This is an adventure that races from the bleeding edge of high technology to our most profound primal origins. The insights into Aboriginal tribal life and beliefs are stunning and the ending is a cliffhanging, nail-gnawing climax to a very thoughtful thriller. Stock up on rations and buckle in for a fabulous read.
Keeper of Dreams.......2004-12-02
This book is one of the worst i have read. Very confusing, the way it switches back to Owen then to Robert. Then when you start a new chapter, the book would add a new character, then after a few pages, it would finnaly tell you who this person is. Also, this book has very bad language, and should not be read by younger children. Also during the flashback, when the younger version of robert is in the train with Maureen, why did the author incorprate the peeing in the wind? Disgusting! NOT A PAGE TURNER
first time out, a masterpiece.......2001-09-06
The theft of a precious artifact results in a thrilling dual between the Australian Auborigines who owned it and the highroller who stole it to add to his collection. Beautiful descriptions bring the Australian outback and Ayers Rock dramatically to life. spellbinding! Based on authentic aboriginal belifs and practices. Read it. You won't be dissapointed
Stunning imagery, resonant characters, compelling storyline........2000-09-26
This tale simply draws one into the world of the Outback. I've read several fictional accounts of life among the Aboriginal peoples of Australia, but this one is truly beautiful. I read it in an afternoon; I simply was entranced with the lush prose and depth of character portrayed. I look forward to the next novel from this author!
High praise and two thumbs up for "The Keeper of Dreams".......2000-09-14
This story is a real page turner, I couldn't put it down (very sticky binding). I really enjoyed Fords writing style, the way he developes his charecters and his attention to detail. I highly recomend this book to anyone who likes what I like.... (A good book)
Average customer rating:
- The Cream of murder mysteries!
- Everything Old is New Again
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Murder Down Under
Arthur W. Upfield
Manufacturer: Touchstone
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ASIN: 0684850591 |
Amazon.com
For readers who thought they'd exhausted the list of Golden Age mystery writers, Australian author Arthur Upfield (1888-1964) is often a pleasant surprise. The tales of Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte (or Bony, as he is known) offer all of the major pleasures of Christie, Tey, and Doyle; but Upfield's works also carry the freshness of his island continent setting and of his "half-caste" hero. Bony, born of an aborigine mother and a white father, is a genius of criminal science and also a classic gentleman. Suave and always impeccably dressed (except, of course, when in disguise), he solves mysteries through patience. As he often repeats to John Muir--one of the many young men he tutors: "Never race Time. Make Time an ally, for Time is the greatest detective that ever was or ever will be." Through Bony, Upfield's progressive series frequently explores the foundations of Australian race prejudices and defies them with Bonaparte's genial wit and disarming smile.
In Murder Down Under the detective is on holiday in western Australia but inevitably winds up with a working vacation, this time assisting young Sergeant Muir. Farmer George Loftus has disappeared, and his car was found smashed along the world's longest fence in the wheat town of Burracoppin. The days before Loftus's disappearance are filled with clues that point to Leonard Wallace, owner of the Burracoppin Hotel. Loftus had given Wallace a ride from Perth back to the hotel, and the pair had shared drinks in the bar before driving off together at 1 a.m.--shortly before the disappearance. Wallace claims that the two had argued and that he had left the car well before the accident. Now, Bony must parse truth and fiction in his inimitable style. Along the way, however, he meets the bizarre Mr. Jelly, an amateur criminologist who collects portraits of murders and who may have some insights into the case. Murder Down Under is a true classic: a rich world of quirky characters and fascinating scenery built around a complex and satisfying puzzle. Other adventures of Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte: The Bone Is Pointed, The Bachelors of Broken Hill, and The Mystery of Swordfish Reef. --Patrick O'Kelley
Customer Reviews:
The Cream of murder mysteries!.......2007-10-12
The setting is Australia, and the protagonist is half-aborigine, half-caucasian, detective wonder, Napoleon Bonepart.... Boney to his friends. Boney ALWAYS tells his superiors, in advance, that he will solve even the most difficult of crimes, and he does. The only thing is, his superiors are always pressing him on time and they unfailingly threaten to fire him on every case he works. Boney just mildly smiles and says, "Well, if you have to, then go ahead." But they dare NOT fire him, though (and Boney knows it too!) -- Boney is the top crime-solving detective in the whole of Australia.
This is one of his (Upfield's and Boney's) best mysteries of all time. Here, Boney is on a Busman's Holiday when he gets pulled into a missing person investigation in a small outback village. He follows clues just as the great Sherlock Holmes did, acting upon the most obscure pieces of evidence and information -- a shred of cloth here, a cigarette butt there, or, a partial footprint in the dust. Boney is an expert tracker and "evidence finder," thanks to his aboriginal blood on his mother's side of the family.
"The Rabbits" also come into this one in a big way -- they pretty much always do in Bonepart mysteries, and it's a fascinating aspect of each work. (For those who don't know, Australia is PLAGUED with millions of rabbits and they have government agencies, and lots of "rabbit fences," to help deal with them).
The thing I like most about Bonepart is his lack of concern for invading the privacy of suspects -- search warrants be damned! He sneaks right into suspects' houses and meticulously goes through their dresser drawers, sometimes to his demise! He also utilizes "the locals" as assistant amateur detectives to help him solve the case.
When you finish this one, you'll rush right out and grab another Napoleon Bonepart mystery. Why Upfield's works have remained so obscure, I have no idea -- but I'm darned glad I found him. All his mysteries are real page turners.
To summarize, I hate saying, "Better than Christie".... but, in this instance, I will do so with pleasure. Plenty of atmosphere and action. Real Cream.
Everything Old is New Again.......2000-01-05
If you like stylized mysteries, Agatha Christie, Australia, or unusual detectives you will probably enjoy this book by Arthur Upfield. The setting is Western Australia of the '30s to '50s. The unusual detective hero is the half-Aboriginal and half-white Napoleon Bonaparte ("Bony"). His struggle is to fit himself into the full range of Australian life, while being an outsider to both cultural worlds.
The real treat here is the insight you get into life in Western Australia in the first half of the 20th Century. Like Christie, the book is somewhat mannered in its approach. But the detailed view of Australians trying to live an "English" life in this remote corner will remain with you for a long time.
Upfield's view of the Aborigine in Australian society was probably quite daring for its time, but today it may make you shudder at its racist overtones. Never mind, keep on reading. This isn't life today in Australia; it is life as viewed through Australian eyes forty or fifty years ago. You will find yourself rooting for Detective Napoleon Bonaparte with his Aboriginal wisdom and Dreamworld view of crime and mystery.
Book Description
Following her modern classic and worldwide bestseller Mutant Message Down Under, Marlo Morgan's long-awaited new novel is a tale of self-enlightenment about aboriginal twins separated at birth and the search for roots that reunites them form opposite sides of the globe.
Once more Morgan unveils the inspiring aboriginal worldview while pointedly exposing the plight of an ancient race rapidly becoming extinct as a result of more than two hundred years of systematic discrimination.
Message from Forever follows the lives of Australian aboriginal twins who were taken form their young mother by Christian missionaries. The baby boy is sent to a huge sheep ranch, where he grows up with little adult supervision and random affection. On his own, Geoff develops his talent as an artist, producing work at a level well beyond his five years. The boy is adopted by an American minister and is raised in New England with little sense of who he is or of his cultural heritage. His sister is given only the first name Beatrice by the nuns at an Australian orphanage, where she encounters continual racism and experiences shattering looses for the first eighteen years of her life.
Upon reaching adulthood, Beatrice leaves the orphanage to work at a boardinghouse. Beatrice hungers to know more about her ancestral roots. She walks away from her life in the city to strike out into the northern desert nation, where she goes on a walkabout with a small band of Aborigines.
Geoff does not fare so well in America. As a teen, he runs away from home and slips into a life of crime, alcohol, and alienation. His addictions destroy him, and he finds himself on Death Row with little sense of how he got there. After decades of learning about people in the Outback, Beatrice leaves her nomadic life to become a "runner between both worlds." She returns to the Mutant world as a political activist fighting for aboriginal rights of citizens arrested and convicted of crimes in foreign countries, as well as a champion of the rights of adults who were taken from their native culture as children. Her life's work bring her into contact with her lost brother, though neither is aware of their relationship.
Beatrice gives Geoff the "message from forever," which outlines aboriginal philosophy and principles of good living, along with an offer to return to Australia. As we read the message with Geoff, we are challenged to stretch our concepts of identity, spirituality, and openness transcends injustice and degradation, directing us to live our lives in accordance with ageless values and simple wisdom.
Customer Reviews:
Not what I expected.......2005-12-03
I'm interested in Australia and the Aboriginals, so when I saw this book I read it. Boy, was I disappointed...
It's not badly written and I haven't read her other book, so I can't compare them, but the whole second part of the book also struck me (like some other reviewers) as a new-age message... Which is something I can only digest in really small portions, so I fully admit that I skipped pieces of the second part !
Another thing that bothered me about the book, was the fact that I was not emotionally involved with the characters. There were little bits of stories, but no real connection between them, or at least it didn't feel that way to me. Beatrices youth was written so detached ! I've read children's book about orphanages that gave me a lot more emotion. The whole puppy story was sad, of course, but for me there was no emotion in the writing...
Marlo Morgan accuses the Europeans of preaching, but she does the same thing. Of course they did a lot of damage to the Aboriginals when the came to Australia, I'm not denying that, but using that to sell books and make money (after the aboriginals protested against her book, she publicly admitted that her first book was fiction and a fabrication) it feels to me she is doing a lot of damage to the aboriginals herself !
A gripping, moving and compelling story.......2005-02-08
In so many ways Australia is a world apart. It's literally on the other side of the world. Their seasons are the opposite of ours. They speak that crazy Aussie English. But we have a lot in common too. We are both former British colonies founded mainly by people England wanted to be rid of. And when those settlers arrived in both places, they annihilated the dark skinned "savage" natives. When actual genocide had its limits, the settlers engaged in wholesale social, cultural and religious genocide in the name of "civilizing" and "Christianizing" the "savages". It's an indelible stain that both nations can never wash away.
This is the fictional account of an Aboriginal set of twins. Shortly after birth, this brother and sister were permanently robbed of the essentials that all children need to grow and thrive--loving parents, a family, personal identity, love, acceptance, and a nurturing culture and society. As a mother, I wept when I read this book. Even though this is fiction, I wept with the knowledge that what happened to Beatrice and Geoff happened to tens of thousands of Aboriginal Australians over several decades. This book is a must-read for anyone who cares about others.
Sad, Painful, Uplifting, Flawed.......2002-08-11
A young Australian aborigine woman gives birth to twins somewhere in the wilderness. It is a time when the aboriginal culture is rapidly being decimated by well-meaning but oppressive whites. The little girl is shipped off to a cruel Catholic boarding school. The little boy is shuffled here and there but eventually ends up in America, with an adoptive family who treat him with unbelievable insensitivity. Ultimately he finds himself imprisoned on death row.
The struggles of the two children are portrayed with clear, lucid prose in the first half of the book, a tale of great sadness and pain. In the second half, Beatrice, the girl, runs off in search of her ancestral roots, and finds The Real People, a handful of aboriginies who still live in the bush and are trying to maintain the old ways. Unfortunately this part of the book is not believable. The characters are one-dimensional, too, too good; and their coversation consists of long speeches full of new age jargon. The language they use is totally out of character with the simple people they are supposed to be. The author describes a utopian society of people with great wisdom and psychic powers, set against the cruel, intolerant and bigoted white society.
At the conclusion of the book, brother and sister are reunited, at least make contact, and she leaves him with a document that tries to summarize all the wisdom she has learned from the Real People.
In fact, some of it is good. The author has some wisdom to share and it is indeed uplifting. But it is not written in a believable and coherent way. Does any of this really come from Australian aboriginal culture? Or is this Celestine Prophecy Down Under? Hard to say. The presentation is just too one-sided, too slanted, to be really convincing.
TOTAL FICTION! Needs a zero star rating!.......1999-12-06
The "Message" of this book is new-age nonsense not wisdom from the aboriginal people of Australia. It's an example of further exploitation and misrepresentation of native people. Save your money!
A most thought provoking story that can change your thinking.......1999-07-28
I came across this book accidently when on vacation and found it to so riveting that I could not put it down until finished. I have told others who would appreciate Marlo's openness to the experiences that unfolded to her. How fortunate she followed...what else could she have done! She was called!
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The Celestine Prophecy
