Details Out Of Books Death of a River Guide
| Title | : | Death of a River Guide |
| Author | : | Richard Flanagan |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | First Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 382 pages |
| Published | : | 2004 by Atlantic Books (first published 1994) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Cultural. Australia. Tasmania. Literary Fiction |
Richard Flanagan
Paperback | Pages: 382 pages Rating: 3.89 | 1888 Users | 181 Reviews
Narration Supposing Books Death of a River Guide
Aljaz Cosini is leading a group of tourists on a raft tour down Tasmania's wild Franklin River when his greatest fear is realized—a tourist falls overboard. An ordinary man with many regrets, Aljaz rises to an uncharacteristic heroism, and offers his own life in trade. Trapped under a rapid and drowning, Aljaz is beset with visions both horrible and fabulous. He sees Couta Ho, the beautiful, spirited woman he loved, and witnesses his uncle Reg having his teeth pulled and sold to pay for a ripple-iron house. He sees cities grow from the wild rain forest and a tree burst into flower in midwinter over his grandfather's forest grave. As the entirety of Tasmanian life—flora and fauna—sings him home, Aljaz arrives at a world where dreaming reasserts its power over thinking, where his family tree branches into stories of all human families, stories that ground him in the land and reveal the soul history of his country.Identify Books In Favor Of Death of a River Guide
| Original Title: | Death of a River Guide |
| ISBN: | 1843542196 (ISBN13: 9781843542193) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Setting: | Australia Tasmania(Australia) |
Rating Out Of Books Death of a River Guide
Ratings: 3.89 From 1888 Users | 181 ReviewsWrite Up Out Of Books Death of a River Guide
This book was a bit too cleverly put together for my taste. Meaning that I was not able to follow the relations of the many characters who timewise covered almost two hundred years. Hence also the bigger themes - which I know were there - did not manage to touch me. At times the story managed to really captivate me but the feeling was easily destryed by the jumping storytelling.I have to admit that as a lover of Richard Flanagan I found this one a little disappointing. I struggled to get through the first third but then enjoyed the story after that initial struggle. I did find some of the use of names quite frustrating as they kept taking me out of the story, e.g. using whole names every time Couta Ho and Maria Magdalena Svevo were mentioned, as well as Aljaz referring to himself in the third person. Some sections of the book were extremely moving, such as what
I have been granted visions grand, great, wild, sweeping visions. My mind rattles with them as they are born to me.Aljaz Cosini and Jason Krezwa are river guides, taking a group of tourists on a raft trip down Tasmanias Franklin River. Rain falls, and the river is in flood. Flowing rapidly, the Franklin is more dangerous. One of the tourists falls overboard and drowns. Then Aljaz becomes trapped under a rapid, and as he drowns is beset with visions. It is said that drowning men will see their
hmm... not sure if Flanagan is trying to make up for the spiritual poverty of white settler Australians by appropriating indigenous cosmologies ( he endows his red-headed protagonist, who discovers hes like 1/32nd Aboriginal, with shamanistic powers of vision and omniscience) or if hes achieving something more interestingly ecocritical here - suggesting at a kind of kinship/stewardship potential that we all can (and should) share with the natural world. very fragmented, breaks with linear forms
It's an interesting story. I liked the beginning and then it got a bit too difficult to read. At least for me. I liked it because it was different, the writing idea is good and the overall plot is interesting.There are parts of dialogue that are difficult to understand for me as I'm not raised with the English jargon. And then there's the first person going to third in the same sentence which requires a six-times-over the same sentence to get the idea. You get the idea :)The book is a good read
It's probably a bad sign if you groan when there is another page and the book just won't end.
Am I to live? Is my life to be saved? Am I finally to be made visible? Other people who nearly die go down a tunnel and see a great light at the end. But all I have seen are people, the whole lot of them, swirling, dirty, smelly, objectionable and ultimately lovable people, and, I think, if it is to be my misfortune to return into the lamentable physical vessel that has been my body, it is them these people in the kitchens and office blocks and suburbs and pink leisure suits that I must make
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