A City Out of Sight

To the Wild Sky #2

by Ivan Southall

Five teenagers are heading for a remote outback station for a weekend of adventuring. But when the pilot of the small plane they are travelling in suffers a sudden heart attack, the adventure becomes all too perilous. In a tale reminiscent of William Golding's Lord of the Flies (1954), the children begin to turn on each other. Can they put their differences to one side and make it back to safety?

143 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Ivan Southall was an award-winning Australian writer of young-adult fiction and non-fiction. He was the first and still the only Australian to win the Carnegie Medal for children's literature. His books include Hills End, Ash Road, Josh, and Let the Balloon Go. Also notable is Fly West, a book of true stories based on his experiences flying in Short Sunderland flying boats during the Second World War.

Winner of the Dromkeen Medal (2003).

Reviews

[Stef Rozitis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Much of this story was interesting. Trauma is part of the story of each of the characters and they process it differently. I liked that unlike Lord of the Flies there is not a sense of reverting to some sort of theoretical savagery, this was based more on what I think science and anthropology tell us that humans' survival instinct is to cooperate. I didn't like Gerald's "top man" narrative, which is to say I found it very believable that he would have been raised to believe that but more deconstruction of his assumptions of superiority and being born to rule would have been welcome.

Jan was a very badly treated character in the book. Gender wise it was a bit disappointing that out of only 2 female characters one was "the sexy one" and one was "the ugly one" and they were pretty much written to type. I thought Jan was invited as Carol's best friend so seeing any evidence at all of friendship between the girls might have been nice. Also while I saw that Jan was difficult I think she was to universally disliked when she was actually being no more domineering than Gerald and a lot more useful.

Gerald's lazy choice to go off exploring while other people are working with their hands should not have paid off as well as it did. Nevertheless highlights were things like Carol overcoming her "weak girl" upbringing and becoming a hunter was great. It bought into all her insecurities and identity work which was a strength in the book. Everyone constructs and reconstructs themselves constantly but with experience and the interpersonal limiting what is allowed in terms of identity formation.

I understand that this was a sequel that had been demanded over 2 decades and that Southall was reluctant to write one because he liked readers having to speculate. I suspect a few more writers these days should take his attitude.

[Janelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

The sequel to To The Wild Sky.

[Jo]

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/14553090