Wanting (Audible Audio Edition) Richard Flanagan Humphrey Bower Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd Books
Download As PDF : Wanting (Audible Audio Edition) Richard Flanagan Humphrey Bower Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd Books
The new novel from the internationally acclaimed, best-selling writer Richard Flanagan.
A young Aboriginal girl, Mathinna, is adopted by the most celebrated explorer of the age, Sir John Franklin, and his wife, Lady Jane, to show that the savage can be civilized. When Sir John disappears while looking for the fabled Northwest Passage, Lady Jane turns to the great novelist Charles Dickens for help.
Inspired by historical events, Wanting is a haunting meditation about love, loss, and the way life is finally determined never by reason, but only ever by wanting.
Wanting (Audible Audio Edition) Richard Flanagan Humphrey Bower Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd Books
This is a truly great book by a great author. His wonderful novel The Narrow Road to the Deep South won the Man Booker prize but in my opinion Wanting is even better. It is terribly sad but with touches of subtle humour which at times is bitter but mostly very funny. It is the story of an aborigine girl who becomes an experimental object in the aristocracy’s idea of civilizing the barbarian.. Currently with this story which takes place in Van Diemen’s Land runs a story centering on Charles Dickens in London who is attempting to understand his deepest emotions and release his “frozen heart”. You will laugh at some of the characters, you will certainly cry but you will never forget the book.Product details
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Wanting (Audible Audio Edition) Richard Flanagan Humphrey Bower Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd Books Reviews
A wonderful story of the fantasy of the noble savage, bringing us back to earth
about human nature, our aspirations to moral superiority and inevitable
plunge into irresistible desire. We are who we are as we aspire to be more,
and to inflict our aspirations onto others, both as individuals and as cultures.
Worth reading if only for the depiction of Charles Dickens, brought to life
as larger than life and utterly Falstaffian.
I hesitate to give this novel a five star rating, only because of the sorrowfulness of the subject, and the historical setting. The novel switches between Tasmania and London, connecting two main characters through explorations in barren arctic, in the mid-1800's. The characters are based on historical figures,which I need not divulge here, as the author imagines their desires. The title could easily have been "Unrequited", for the emotional content is that of wanting and needing that someone. It is steps beyond a sexual need, to the root of human affection. The Victorian mind, both expansive and restrained, like the destiny of that small island which conquered the world, is centered in the heart of these people. And yes, there is a sacrificial lamb, whose simple beauty will draw the reader into this sad conflict of hearts. There is a potent undercurrent of racial superiority, that rancid disease that still affects all of humankind, so vividly pertinent in our own country to this day.
I bought the "immersion" set for the this book -- ebook and audiobook. The prose was well-written and powerful, and the reader did it justice, except that his Aussie or Tasmanian accent rendered the often-used word "heart" more like "hot." It was somewhat distracting (even though I've lived in Rhode Island many years and the state's native accent uses the same pronunciation!)
I find myself torn about the story. I found this book because I enjoy reading about 19th century Arctic exploration, and Wanting came up when I searched for books about Sir John and Lady Jane Franklin. It brought to my attention a piece of their story I was not familiar with, about the Franklins adopting an aboriginal girl named Mathinna while Sir John held the governorship of the island/penal colony, and then leaving her behind at an orphanage when they returned to England. Flanagan also looked with more depth than I've seen before into the life and personality of Lady Jane, famous for spending her fortune sending out rescue expeditions for her husband's lost Arctic expedition. (Fun fact here Our President's desk in the Oval Office is made from the timbers of the HMS Resolute, one of the rescue ships.)
On the other hand, Flanagan extrapolates from history, attributing some really despicable actions to the Franklins that are not historically supported from the scanty facts that are known, and his disclaimer at the end to the effect that "this is fiction" is quite weak. There's no bibliography -- the link he provides took me to an inactive webpage, so the reader has no way of separating fact and fiction. These were real people, to whom reputation was important, and Franklin's character was generally held in regard by his contemporaries. I really wish the author had made it clearer at the beginning that this was a highly speculative literary meditation or -- better yet -- that he'd used pseudonyms. In such a rich realistic stew of history and imagination as Wanting, I feel a strong ethical discomfort with using real people this way.
In any case, the other plot of the book is the turmoil of author Charles Dickens over his failing marriage. Flanagan anchors the two strands of his plot on a historical meeting -- years after her husband is lost, Lady Jane asks Dickens to rebut a scandalous claim about the fate of the expedition. He does so, and gets a little obsessed with the Arctic story as he does.
The common thread throughout is "wanting" -- each character trying to fulfill a different need -- for love, children, homeland, goodness -- but usually taking a route that will not lead them to it. The relationship of the two main plots is a little thin, and I'm not much of a Dickens reader, so I found those chapters lyrical and moving, but also too drawn out and contemplative for my taste. Dickens's angst gets a little repetitious. I would rather have seen more development of his love for his baby daughter Dora. We meet her once, only briefly, and don't feel the level of attachment implied, especially because he has many other children who are barely mentioned. On the other hand, there is a historically-based female character whose remarkable trajectory Flanagan attributes to an unfulfilled desire for children. Maybe she did want children. Or maybe she just wanted to live an active, exciting life denied to most women of her class and era. Please, can't women be fulfilled without children, or perhaps even relieved at not facing the considerable dangers of childbirth in the 1800's?
The Tasmanian part of the book is more grim and more eventful than the parts set in England. Flanagan is vivid and shattering in his descriptions of the aborigines -- their life before the colonists, their deadly internment, and the "progressive" efforts to make them live like Englishmen -- much like the story of native Americans. I wish Flanagan had spent more time with them, as themselves, and less on the English colonizers. Even with Mathinna, there is a greater distance, an opaqueness in her thoughts and actions that I didn't feel with the English characters. Yet the story of the aboriginals makes Dickens seem petty and self-absorbed by comparison.
So...clever starting point, beautiful writing, interesting events...but I am still conflicted and somewhat dissatisfied with how this novel spins out the story.
This is a truly great book by a great author. His wonderful novel The Narrow Road to the Deep South won the Man Booker prize but in my opinion Wanting is even better. It is terribly sad but with touches of subtle humour which at times is bitter but mostly very funny. It is the story of an aborigine girl who becomes an experimental object in the aristocracy’s idea of civilizing the barbarian.. Currently with this story which takes place in Van Diemen’s Land runs a story centering on Charles Dickens in London who is attempting to understand his deepest emotions and release his “frozen heart”. You will laugh at some of the characters, you will certainly cry but you will never forget the book.
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