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Oyster : A Novel
Book by Hospital, Janette Turner
434 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
16 people are currently reading
565 people want to read
About the author
Janette Turner Hospital
30 books79 followersBorn in 1942, Janette Turner Hospital grew up on the steamy sub-tropical coast of Australia in the north-eastern state of Queensland. She began her teaching career in remote Queensland high schools, but since her graduate studies she has taught in universities in Australia, Canada, England, France and the United States.
Her first published short story appeared in the Atlantic Monthly (USA) where it won an 'Atlantic First' citation in 1978. Her first novel, The Ivory Swing (set in the village in South India where she lived in l977) won Canada's $50,000 Seal Award in l982. She lived for many years in Canada and in 1986 she was listed as by the Toronto Globe & Mail as one of Canada's 'Ten Best Young Fiction Writers'. Since then she has won a number of prizes for her eight novels and four short story collections and her work has been published in multiple foreign language collections. Three of her short stories appeared in Britain's annual Best Short Stories in English in their year of publication and one of these, 'Unperformed Experiments Have No Results', was selected for The Best of the Best, an anthology of the decade in l995.
The Last Magician, her fifth novel, was listed by Publishers' Weekly as one of the 12 best novels published in 1992 in the USA and was a New York Times 'Notable Book of the Year'. Oyster, her sixth novel, was a finalist for Australia's Miles Franklin Prize Award and for Canada's Trillium Award, and in England it was listed in 'Best Books of the Year' by The Observer, which noted "Oyster is a tour de force… Turner Hospital is one of the best female novelists writing in English." In the USA, Oyster was a New York Times 'Notable Book of the Year'.
Due Preparations for the Plague won the Queensland Premier's Literary Award in 2003, the Davitt Award from Sisters in Crime for "best crime novel of the year by an Australian woman”, and was shortlisted for the Christina Stead Award. In 2003, Hospital received the Patrick White Award, as well as a Doctor of Letters honoris causa from the University of Queensland.
Orpheus Lost, her most recent novel, was one of five finalists for the $110,000 Australia-Asia Literary prize in 2008.
Orpheus Lost was also on Booklist's Top 30 novels of the year in 2008, along with novels by Booker Prize winner Anne Enright, National Book Award winner Denis Johnson, Philip Roth, Don DeLillo, Michael Ondaatje, Ian MacEwan, Ha Jin, and Michael Chabon.
The novel also made the list of Best 25 Books of the Year of Library Journal, and Hospital was invited to be a keynote speaker at the annual convention of the American Library Association in Los Angeles in June 2008.
The Italian edition, Orfeo Perduto, has been so well-received in Italy that it will be a featured title at the literary festival on Lake Maggiore in June 2010 where Hospital will be a featured author.
She holds an endowed chair as Carolina Distinguished Professor of English at the University of South Carolina and in 2003 received the Russell Research Award for Humanities and Social Sciences, conferred by the university for the most significant faculty contribution (research, publication, teaching and service) in a given year.
Her first published short story appeared in the Atlantic Monthly (USA) where it won an 'Atlantic First' citation in 1978. Her first novel, The Ivory Swing (set in the village in South India where she lived in l977) won Canada's $50,000 Seal Award in l982. She lived for many years in Canada and in 1986 she was listed as by the Toronto Globe & Mail as one of Canada's 'Ten Best Young Fiction Writers'. Since then she has won a number of prizes for her eight novels and four short story collections and her work has been published in multiple foreign language collections. Three of her short stories appeared in Britain's annual Best Short Stories in English in their year of publication and one of these, 'Unperformed Experiments Have No Results', was selected for The Best of the Best, an anthology of the decade in l995.
The Last Magician, her fifth novel, was listed by Publishers' Weekly as one of the 12 best novels published in 1992 in the USA and was a New York Times 'Notable Book of the Year'. Oyster, her sixth novel, was a finalist for Australia's Miles Franklin Prize Award and for Canada's Trillium Award, and in England it was listed in 'Best Books of the Year' by The Observer, which noted "Oyster is a tour de force… Turner Hospital is one of the best female novelists writing in English." In the USA, Oyster was a New York Times 'Notable Book of the Year'.
Due Preparations for the Plague won the Queensland Premier's Literary Award in 2003, the Davitt Award from Sisters in Crime for "best crime novel of the year by an Australian woman”, and was shortlisted for the Christina Stead Award. In 2003, Hospital received the Patrick White Award, as well as a Doctor of Letters honoris causa from the University of Queensland.
Orpheus Lost, her most recent novel, was one of five finalists for the $110,000 Australia-Asia Literary prize in 2008.
Orpheus Lost was also on Booklist's Top 30 novels of the year in 2008, along with novels by Booker Prize winner Anne Enright, National Book Award winner Denis Johnson, Philip Roth, Don DeLillo, Michael Ondaatje, Ian MacEwan, Ha Jin, and Michael Chabon.
The novel also made the list of Best 25 Books of the Year of Library Journal, and Hospital was invited to be a keynote speaker at the annual convention of the American Library Association in Los Angeles in June 2008.
The Italian edition, Orfeo Perduto, has been so well-received in Italy that it will be a featured title at the literary festival on Lake Maggiore in June 2010 where Hospital will be a featured author.
She holds an endowed chair as Carolina Distinguished Professor of English at the University of South Carolina and in 2003 received the Russell Research Award for Humanities and Social Sciences, conferred by the university for the most significant faculty contribution (research, publication, teaching and service) in a given year.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 77 reviews
September 2, 2016
I've read a lot of haunting novels before, but really, there's something very unique about this one. Oyster is an excellent novel, one that not only looks at the lives of a small group of people living in the outback, but also examines the madness connected with power, secrecy, religious mania and money. Definitely recommended, this is one of the most thought-provoking works of fiction I've ever read. There's nothing ordinary in terms of novel structure, -- the story is not told linearly, but in bits and pieces of looking backward. The characters aren't warm and fuzzy people, so you may not find people here with whom you can identify. They do jump out in 3-D, however, and to me, that's much more important than finding someone likeable. Overall, I found Oyster to be an excellent novel and I can't wait to get to her other books on my home library shelves. Amazing. Simply amazing.
now for the long version:
"People see with the madman's eyes. For true madness has this gift, and this potency, that it makes its own complete world. It has its own space. Others can enter it."
A man known only as Oyster literally stumbles into the small opal-mining town of Outer Maroo, Queensland a few days before Christmas at 2:23 one afternoon. Clad all in white, his clothing stained with blood, he comes into this little off-the-map outback town and things are never the same again. Neither are the inhabitants of this hidden drought-ridden world of its own, where many of the people are happy to be away from the prying eyes of the government. It is a town cloaked in its secrets, which are not made privy to the reader at the outset. What is made very clear is that something terrible has occurred in this place; as the novel unfolds, just what's happened is revealed little by little. Before Oyster's arrival, the inhabitants of Outer Maroo -- -- the cattle graziers, the opal miners and the members of the Living Word fundamentalist congregation all got along just fine. But once the people allowed themselves to be "seduced" by this man, described by one person as being like
"one of those bacterial forces that blindly and ruthlessly seek out the culture that will nourish them,"
life completely changes, and for the worst. This new, uneasy coexistence is also threatened by the "foreigners" who come into Outer Maroo, at first the swarms of Oyster's followers looking for something meaningful in their lives, and then the ones looking for loved ones who had come there and had never been heard from again. Slowly the "foreigners" begin to outnumber the townspeople, a situation which has potential to threaten those who hold the biggest secrets and the most to lose -- and as young Mercy Given notes, when "Jake Digby occasionally arrives with passengers, ... no passengers ever leave with him again." A teacher brought in for the 13 schoolchildren is only one of their number; the arrival of two more who'd come to search for their children at the beginning of the story will be the last.
In this eerie, sometimes verging on the edge of surreal novel, much of what the reader knows is transmitted via Mercy, whose father once led the Living Word congregation. He had built his congregation on the notion that God speaks quietly to each man, and that "No one, no other living soul, can hear what God says to you." With the coming of Oyster, though, Pastor Given's words and his position are usurped by a man who sees the potential of Oyster's usefulness, Dukke Prophet, a man with plenty of secrets of his own and a paranoia that becomes infectious; the Book of Revelation is his testament, hellfire and brimstone are his weapons, and the church is his personal zone of power.
I found this book to be absolutely brilliant, and I would definitely recommend it to people who are looking well beyond the mainstream for an incredible read. It may not be everyone's cup of tea, and I have seen many reviews that call it boring and sleep-inducing. However, on a personal level this novel satisfies my need for the very different. I loved this book. That's all I can say.
now for the long version:
"People see with the madman's eyes. For true madness has this gift, and this potency, that it makes its own complete world. It has its own space. Others can enter it."
A man known only as Oyster literally stumbles into the small opal-mining town of Outer Maroo, Queensland a few days before Christmas at 2:23 one afternoon. Clad all in white, his clothing stained with blood, he comes into this little off-the-map outback town and things are never the same again. Neither are the inhabitants of this hidden drought-ridden world of its own, where many of the people are happy to be away from the prying eyes of the government. It is a town cloaked in its secrets, which are not made privy to the reader at the outset. What is made very clear is that something terrible has occurred in this place; as the novel unfolds, just what's happened is revealed little by little. Before Oyster's arrival, the inhabitants of Outer Maroo -- -- the cattle graziers, the opal miners and the members of the Living Word fundamentalist congregation all got along just fine. But once the people allowed themselves to be "seduced" by this man, described by one person as being like
"one of those bacterial forces that blindly and ruthlessly seek out the culture that will nourish them,"
life completely changes, and for the worst. This new, uneasy coexistence is also threatened by the "foreigners" who come into Outer Maroo, at first the swarms of Oyster's followers looking for something meaningful in their lives, and then the ones looking for loved ones who had come there and had never been heard from again. Slowly the "foreigners" begin to outnumber the townspeople, a situation which has potential to threaten those who hold the biggest secrets and the most to lose -- and as young Mercy Given notes, when "Jake Digby occasionally arrives with passengers, ... no passengers ever leave with him again." A teacher brought in for the 13 schoolchildren is only one of their number; the arrival of two more who'd come to search for their children at the beginning of the story will be the last.
In this eerie, sometimes verging on the edge of surreal novel, much of what the reader knows is transmitted via Mercy, whose father once led the Living Word congregation. He had built his congregation on the notion that God speaks quietly to each man, and that "No one, no other living soul, can hear what God says to you." With the coming of Oyster, though, Pastor Given's words and his position are usurped by a man who sees the potential of Oyster's usefulness, Dukke Prophet, a man with plenty of secrets of his own and a paranoia that becomes infectious; the Book of Revelation is his testament, hellfire and brimstone are his weapons, and the church is his personal zone of power.
I found this book to be absolutely brilliant, and I would definitely recommend it to people who are looking well beyond the mainstream for an incredible read. It may not be everyone's cup of tea, and I have seen many reviews that call it boring and sleep-inducing. However, on a personal level this novel satisfies my need for the very different. I loved this book. That's all I can say.
June 19, 2012
Oyster by Janette Turner Hospital is brilliant. Set in the isolated Australian Outback town of Outer Maroo, the towns inhabitants are struggling to survive a heat wave, drought, and an awful smell that seems to hang over the town. You know something ominous and dreadful has happened but you have to wait while the suspense builds and events are slowly revealed. Many of the residents of the town are just as secretive and, perhaps, delusional as the many young followers of the cult leader who calls himself Oyster. There is a cult, an illegal opal trade, some dark secrets and the terrible knowledge that foreigners are not welcome and mysteriously disappear in Outer Maroo.
Hospital carefully and skillfully develops her characters through some incredible prose. The writing is really incredible as you have to carefully piece clues together, sometimes from very dream-like inner thoughts of characters, to start to make sense of what has happened and is happening here. The terror felt by the characters is palatable. Much of the apocalyptic story is told through the thoughts of young teen Mercy Givens, but it isn't told in a linear narrative. The thoughts of other characters add to the chorus trying to tell the complete story.
The plot of Oyster, originally published in 1996, shows influence from a couple cults - Jim Jones and Jonestown in 1978 and especially David Koresh and the Branch Davidians in 1993. Knowledge is powerful and dangerous. The natural and enforced seclusion of the inhabitants of Outer Maroo combined with a suspicion of strangers, and a predisposition to believing in charismatic leaders all combine to make for an explosive story with a moral.
The quality of Janette Turner Hospital's writing is what carries this novel, as much as her brilliant plot.
Very Highly Recommended http://shetreadssoftly.blogspot.com/
Hospital carefully and skillfully develops her characters through some incredible prose. The writing is really incredible as you have to carefully piece clues together, sometimes from very dream-like inner thoughts of characters, to start to make sense of what has happened and is happening here. The terror felt by the characters is palatable. Much of the apocalyptic story is told through the thoughts of young teen Mercy Givens, but it isn't told in a linear narrative. The thoughts of other characters add to the chorus trying to tell the complete story.
The plot of Oyster, originally published in 1996, shows influence from a couple cults - Jim Jones and Jonestown in 1978 and especially David Koresh and the Branch Davidians in 1993. Knowledge is powerful and dangerous. The natural and enforced seclusion of the inhabitants of Outer Maroo combined with a suspicion of strangers, and a predisposition to believing in charismatic leaders all combine to make for an explosive story with a moral.
The quality of Janette Turner Hospital's writing is what carries this novel, as much as her brilliant plot.
Very Highly Recommended http://shetreadssoftly.blogspot.com/
April 20, 2012
There are a few books that for me epitomise the harsh reality of Australia's landscape and the secrets it hides: Andrew McGahan's The White Earth, Xavier Herbert's Poor Fella My Country, Alexis Wright's Carpentaria and now I'm adding to that list Turner Hospital's Oyster. I loved, loved, loved everything about this book. The subject matter - the uneasy alliance and then conflict between a cult and the small outback town out in the wilds of western Queensland - rang so true. If you have never lived in (or visited) outback Australia it is hard to understand that it can be, particularly in small isolated mining townships, like living in an alternate universe. The normal rules of society don't apply. Turner Hospital captures this essence of the other-worldliness of outback Australia perfectly. The town, its inhabitants, the violence of the landscape and of the people who live in it, particularly to the outsiders who bring the events of the past few years to a head, are all magnificently captured. Just a brilliant book.
May 18, 2019
Setting: Queensland, Australia; 1990s-2000. In the isolated and insular opal mining town of Outer Maroo in outback Queensland (population 87), strangers are not welcome - indeed, the town has managed, by fair means and foul, to keep itself off the radar of Government and doesn't even appear on any maps. Even within the community itself, there are internal frictions between the opal miners, cattle and sheep ranchers and church-going fundamentalists - but they all band together when facing outside threats. The only time they didn't was when they allowed a man called Oyster to worm his way into the community with the promise of rich opal finds to the benefit of all in the community. But when he sets up his own cult community at Oyster Reef and begins to populate it with backpackers recruited from the coastal resorts of Queensland and further afield, the community leaders see their isolation coming under threat - the actions that they take to rectify this are alluded to throughout the book. However, the relatives of missing backpackers who travelled to Outer Maroo to join Oyster's community start to appear in town and, when two such 'strangers' appear searching for a missing son and stepdaughter respectively, the town's guilt comes to the fore and opinion within the community is polarised - some want to help the strangers and some to hinder.....
A dark and atmospheric read, populated with great characters, the harsh Outback landscape being one of them. Loved the setting and totally gripped by the story and discovering all that the small community had to hide - 8.5/10.
A dark and atmospheric read, populated with great characters, the harsh Outback landscape being one of them. Loved the setting and totally gripped by the story and discovering all that the small community had to hide - 8.5/10.
July 29, 2010
Great novel. I somewhere read the question whether a landscape can be something like a character in the novel and I have to say "yes". It definitely was the case in Oyster. Janette Turner Hospital is an excellent writer. She brilliantly connected the charcters of the novel with the landscape, the heat .....and especially the silence and the guilt. It all intertwined.
When somebody is interested to read more about the subject (religious cults), I really recommend Shiva Naipaul's (brother of V.S. Naipaul) Black and White (in the US: A Journey to Nowhere). It is about Jonestown. There are familiarities between this case and the novel.
Black and White
When somebody is interested to read more about the subject (religious cults), I really recommend Shiva Naipaul's (brother of V.S. Naipaul) Black and White (in the US: A Journey to Nowhere). It is about Jonestown. There are familiarities between this case and the novel.
Black and White
August 12, 2017
Chilling and evocative. I have a few quibbles with the organization and I wouldn't say that Turner Hospital's writing is always elegant, but it certainly is effective. Often a real page-turner, although sometimes gets in its own way, and slows the pace with unnecessary repetition (see organization quibbles). Could have been tightened up a bit, and feels about 50-100 pages too long. The author does a fine job describing the environment of the Australian Outback, and provides a creeping sense of suspense and foreboding through most of the book.
June 8, 2018
★★★☆☆ | 3.5 Stars
This is a difficult book for me to review. On the one hand, there is a wonderfully diverse set of characters and exceptional plot. On the other, the writing style veers into purple prose territory far too often. Whilst no doubt Turner Hospital is a talented writer, I feel like some of her metaphors turned into long-winded tangents that got in the way of the plot. They would sometimes go on for pages and I would forget what was happening. A shame because the story itself is really fascinating and the characters compelling.
This is a difficult book for me to review. On the one hand, there is a wonderfully diverse set of characters and exceptional plot. On the other, the writing style veers into purple prose territory far too often. Whilst no doubt Turner Hospital is a talented writer, I feel like some of her metaphors turned into long-winded tangents that got in the way of the plot. They would sometimes go on for pages and I would forget what was happening. A shame because the story itself is really fascinating and the characters compelling.
December 17, 2010
I remember reading this around 2000 and thinking it was incredible. I just reread it and it is indeed amazing. Her writing is incredibly beautiful and the story and characters are perfect. However, I was much more disturbed by it this time (cults, destruction, etc.). I only recommend it to for the brave.
Read
August 14, 2025This is an incredible book. The writing itself, both the words and the phrasing, draw you into the mood and slightly threatenting atmosphere of this small, isolated and officially non existent outback town. A literary thriller of the first rate. An amazing meditation on the meaning of belonging and oppression. Totally convincing and chilling.
November 7, 2020
Story: Great.
Characters: Great.
80% of the book being over-the-top inner thoughts and reflections that added very little to the story: Ugh.
Characters: Great.
80% of the book being over-the-top inner thoughts and reflections that added very little to the story: Ugh.
February 27, 2022
I thought this was an incredible novel. I was surprised by how relatable I found the simmering freakiness of Outer Maroo to some of the experiences I had growing up in a small inland community -- really subtle things I hadn't really thought about until reading this book. Of course, as you progress through the book Hospital distills that freakiness to nightmarish extremes that I hope few people have experienced.
I've read other Goodreads reviews of this book that say the writing is too convoluted and I couldn't disagree more. This book is from the perspective of people whose brains are getting fried by extreme heat every day! I thought the flow and style of the book were perfect for the plot and didn't find it to be a slog at all.
I've read other Goodreads reviews of this book that say the writing is too convoluted and I couldn't disagree more. This book is from the perspective of people whose brains are getting fried by extreme heat every day! I thought the flow and style of the book were perfect for the plot and didn't find it to be a slog at all.
September 6, 2017
Hospital has drawn some very compelling characters and created a great deal of tension in this book. What happens to an isolated community comprised, for the most part, of people who have secrets and want to keep them? The reader is led to delve into several secrets and to discover a place where evil is very much alive and active.
April 27, 2021
I'm in a reading slump and I'm not sure if this book was the cause or the victim. I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and 3 stars. The second part was good, but the first 75% was a tough slog to get through.
September 7, 2022
I am still not sure exactly what I read. It had me intrigued and perplexed in equal measure. It took me until halfway through the book to start to enjoy it. Whilst this was a book that I had to really engage my brain with, the messages were clear and served as a warning on so many levels. To use a well-known phrase: absolute power corrupts absolutely.
September 6, 2020
This book knows what a good build-up is. It moves slowly, spreading the hot, scorching atmosphere of a lost little town way in the outback of Australia. Something seems to have happened, something that pervades the very structure of life there, but for the longest time the novel keeps the truth to itself, only reveiling bits and pieces. Outer Maroo is weird, and something isn't right. But nobody is talking about it, and therefore the reader is suspended in an seemingly breathless state.
Bit by bit we learn about the town and its people, and the emerging mix of religiousness, hatred for the government and a black trade system sucks you in without really telling you where the connections are. The characters manage to stay remote and very real at the same time. And there are many of them, female and male, all great and complex.
With all the foreshadowing that could mean everything or nothing, with the heavy fascination the beautiful prose evokes, the payoff can be tremendous. Even if somehow you knew what must have happened it still manages to be a punch in the gut, making you re-read certain sentences and tearing through the last 250 pages.
I honestly didn't expect much from this - but it's a little gem. I might even upgrade it to five stars, it's definitly a candidate.
Bit by bit we learn about the town and its people, and the emerging mix of religiousness, hatred for the government and a black trade system sucks you in without really telling you where the connections are. The characters manage to stay remote and very real at the same time. And there are many of them, female and male, all great and complex.
With all the foreshadowing that could mean everything or nothing, with the heavy fascination the beautiful prose evokes, the payoff can be tremendous. Even if somehow you knew what must have happened it still manages to be a punch in the gut, making you re-read certain sentences and tearing through the last 250 pages.
I honestly didn't expect much from this - but it's a little gem. I might even upgrade it to five stars, it's definitly a candidate.
July 10, 2011
The town is quite and the people are hiding something. 'Oyster' is about a town in the middle of the outback, Outer Maroo is so remote it’s not on any maps. So far from anywhere that anything could happen and no-one would know.
This story creeps up on you. Hospital expertly teases by revealing only parts, dropping only hints. As the pieces fall into place, the pace quickens. Religious fanaticism, black-market opals, outback rednecks, fear, heat and isolation combine with fascinating characters and result in a tense climax.
Hosptial is a skilful storyteller; her lyrical images and desert mirages lingered with me for days after I finished reading this book.
This story creeps up on you. Hospital expertly teases by revealing only parts, dropping only hints. As the pieces fall into place, the pace quickens. Religious fanaticism, black-market opals, outback rednecks, fear, heat and isolation combine with fascinating characters and result in a tense climax.
Hosptial is a skilful storyteller; her lyrical images and desert mirages lingered with me for days after I finished reading this book.
October 18, 2019
When I first read this book I was most impressed with the beauty of Ms Turner Hospital’s writing and the way she evokes the feel of a tiny, isolated settlement in the Queensland outback with its red earth, gum trees, heat, dust and rugged characters.
The second time around I could still appreciate the beauty of the language for a while but slowly I was getting tired of the endless and often repetitive metaphors and similes (the “old Fuckatoo roosting again” is mentioned about 500 times) and in the end I felt that there was actually very little plot wrapped up in lots and lots of words. Of the inhabitants and visitors only Mercy stood out as an interesting and memorable character.
The second time around I could still appreciate the beauty of the language for a while but slowly I was getting tired of the endless and often repetitive metaphors and similes (the “old Fuckatoo roosting again” is mentioned about 500 times) and in the end I felt that there was actually very little plot wrapped up in lots and lots of words. Of the inhabitants and visitors only Mercy stood out as an interesting and memorable character.
April 9, 2019
This was a difficult book at the start, and it took a while for me to find my way, but once I did, I became caught up in the story right to the end. The story is told in fragmented pieces that made it hard to follow at times, and it was a difficult read at times, but I'm so glad I read it. It is an amazing story that pulls you into the pages and doesn't let you go...you will never forget it. Such interesting characters, but the main character is the landscape of the Australian outback. The author brought it to life beautifully. It is an exceptional book and I highly recommend it.
December 24, 2011
A fabulous story by an Australian writer, now professor at the University of South Carolina, about a charismatic religious/con-artist who attracts 100's of youth from around the world to his commune in the Australian outback. The conflicts and interactions among him, his group and the local townspeople could not be described any better. I could feel the heat of the fire, smell the sweat and the fear. What an amazing ride!
August 15, 2011
What a great novel! Turner Hospital's writing style is razor sharp, and she handles the blending of fantasy segments with "real" events, so well. You feel like you're inside of multiple characters' heads, but you don't REALLY know what's happening until the end... very suspenseful, I couldn't put it down!
May 1, 2012
I have always enjoyed Turner Hospital's writing and this book was no exception. I found myself rereading passages just to soak them in and it was a gripping story to boot. The way she wrote the landscape as the overriding force...
July 28, 2010
This book is an intense experience, set in an isolated world. At the end, characters speak of "going back to the map," and some of them make it, maybe.
August 19, 2010
Intense and powerful. Somewhat draining like the heat of the desert. Those curious about cults would like this.
September 1, 2010
I love this book--it is really beautifully written, though also sad and creepy. I haven't read anything else by her, but I'm guessing I'd like her other books as well.
October 7, 2012
Loved this! I know well the outback landscapes and feral characters she describes.
August 14, 2014
Tossed after a few pages.
Read
September 9, 2020Writing too convoluted. Boring.
March 16, 2013
I gave this a 3.5 stars. It was an unsual but interesting read.
January 2, 2024
A doomsday cult story set in the Australian Outback, told in the most unusual fashion.
Through a series of flashbacks, one liners, dreams, and metaphor we get the story of the coming of a messianic character called Oyster to the outback town of Outer Maroo – west of Brisbane, north of Adelaide, and east of Alice Springs, a place off the map, populated only by sheep graziers, Murri (aboriginals), opal miners, and those wanting to escape from an unhappy past. Oyster brings the message of untold riches to be found in the black opal, the most valuable in that precious stone family, lying under the ranches of elders Andrew Godwin (100,000 acres) and Dukke Van Kerk, aka the Prophet, (250,000 acres).
Opal hunters and runaways flock into Outer Maroo, and from there travel to Oyster’s Reef, a commune built by its eponymous leader on the site of the new opal mine. Like all outback towns, the locals are wary of outsiders, except for Oyster who has everyone in his spell. However, this utopia soon becomes dystopian, for travel outside is prohibited (petrol is rationed), mail is withheld, women start getting pregnant (Oyster is sowing his seed liberally) while others are dying under the intense heat, the Australian government and its agencies are labelled Satan and his disciples, the rancher’s begin arming, while Old Fuckatoo (the wind that howls in that part of the continent) gathers force to hit the town and the Reef like it did once before in the previous century.
Those who challenge the new order are silenced: like Susanna Rover, the schoolteacher, whose fate we discover only in a throw-away piece of narration, and Rev. Given who is deposed from the local church in favour of Oyster, so that the latter can preach his fire and brimstone message of the coming Armageddon.
Oyster’s behaviour becomes increasingly paranoid, leading to the opal mine burning down three years after he arrives, and Outer Maroo burning down a year later. The causes are unknown, although human intervention is implied, helped by Old Fuckatoo who keeps the town constantly polluted with the smell of Sulphur, dead animals, and other unpleasant odours.
Of course this rather simplistic story line is not delivered in chronological order, and that was my problem. We start a week before the end and then go forward and back in time, jumping POVs of the main characters: Mercy Given, 16-year-old daughter of the Reverend, who works in the post office-general store, and who is traumatized by her visit to Oyster’s Reef in search of her brother; Jess, barmaid, survivor, and sexually hungry railway brat; Major Miner, Jess’s older lover, WWII vet, and explosives expert who is still fighting nightmares of the Fall of Singapore; Dorothy Godwin, kleptomaniac wife of the sexually promiscuous rancher Andrew; Nick and Sarah, parents of rebellious children who were lured to the Reef only to disappear.
Stories that jump around like this and offer snippets of information along the way, from which the reader has to piece together the whole, are somewhat gimmicky; they beg the question of whether there is sufficient meat on the bone that it has to be rationed out sparingly and confusingly? Most of the action takes place in people’s recollections, imaginings, and dreams, and through oblique references – i.e., off-stage. A line of dialogue will suddenly plug a hole in our storyboard, and that too, an often incomplete line: “Did everyone….?” (meaning, did everyone die?).
We occasionally get philosophical insights: “Extremism is everywhere,” “Revenge never solves anything.” However, because their internal musings carry most of the story, the characters do not come alive on the page in real-time action until the final chapters of the novel.
To the author’s credit, this book was published in 1996 and the Doomsday Clock was set by Oyster for the year 2000. That was a time when long-form, digressive, and indirect literature was acceptable, even fashionable within the right circles. In today’s attention span-deprived time, where getting to the heart of the matter by Page 5 is paramount, I wonder whether this book would get the appreciation it deserves? Read it for a look back at a vanished form of writing, rich in complexity, as vanished as that small Outback town and its huge mineral wealth.
Through a series of flashbacks, one liners, dreams, and metaphor we get the story of the coming of a messianic character called Oyster to the outback town of Outer Maroo – west of Brisbane, north of Adelaide, and east of Alice Springs, a place off the map, populated only by sheep graziers, Murri (aboriginals), opal miners, and those wanting to escape from an unhappy past. Oyster brings the message of untold riches to be found in the black opal, the most valuable in that precious stone family, lying under the ranches of elders Andrew Godwin (100,000 acres) and Dukke Van Kerk, aka the Prophet, (250,000 acres).
Opal hunters and runaways flock into Outer Maroo, and from there travel to Oyster’s Reef, a commune built by its eponymous leader on the site of the new opal mine. Like all outback towns, the locals are wary of outsiders, except for Oyster who has everyone in his spell. However, this utopia soon becomes dystopian, for travel outside is prohibited (petrol is rationed), mail is withheld, women start getting pregnant (Oyster is sowing his seed liberally) while others are dying under the intense heat, the Australian government and its agencies are labelled Satan and his disciples, the rancher’s begin arming, while Old Fuckatoo (the wind that howls in that part of the continent) gathers force to hit the town and the Reef like it did once before in the previous century.
Those who challenge the new order are silenced: like Susanna Rover, the schoolteacher, whose fate we discover only in a throw-away piece of narration, and Rev. Given who is deposed from the local church in favour of Oyster, so that the latter can preach his fire and brimstone message of the coming Armageddon.
Oyster’s behaviour becomes increasingly paranoid, leading to the opal mine burning down three years after he arrives, and Outer Maroo burning down a year later. The causes are unknown, although human intervention is implied, helped by Old Fuckatoo who keeps the town constantly polluted with the smell of Sulphur, dead animals, and other unpleasant odours.
Of course this rather simplistic story line is not delivered in chronological order, and that was my problem. We start a week before the end and then go forward and back in time, jumping POVs of the main characters: Mercy Given, 16-year-old daughter of the Reverend, who works in the post office-general store, and who is traumatized by her visit to Oyster’s Reef in search of her brother; Jess, barmaid, survivor, and sexually hungry railway brat; Major Miner, Jess’s older lover, WWII vet, and explosives expert who is still fighting nightmares of the Fall of Singapore; Dorothy Godwin, kleptomaniac wife of the sexually promiscuous rancher Andrew; Nick and Sarah, parents of rebellious children who were lured to the Reef only to disappear.
Stories that jump around like this and offer snippets of information along the way, from which the reader has to piece together the whole, are somewhat gimmicky; they beg the question of whether there is sufficient meat on the bone that it has to be rationed out sparingly and confusingly? Most of the action takes place in people’s recollections, imaginings, and dreams, and through oblique references – i.e., off-stage. A line of dialogue will suddenly plug a hole in our storyboard, and that too, an often incomplete line: “Did everyone….?” (meaning, did everyone die?).
We occasionally get philosophical insights: “Extremism is everywhere,” “Revenge never solves anything.” However, because their internal musings carry most of the story, the characters do not come alive on the page in real-time action until the final chapters of the novel.
To the author’s credit, this book was published in 1996 and the Doomsday Clock was set by Oyster for the year 2000. That was a time when long-form, digressive, and indirect literature was acceptable, even fashionable within the right circles. In today’s attention span-deprived time, where getting to the heart of the matter by Page 5 is paramount, I wonder whether this book would get the appreciation it deserves? Read it for a look back at a vanished form of writing, rich in complexity, as vanished as that small Outback town and its huge mineral wealth.
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