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A Dutiful Daughter
'MY PARENTS ARE OF A CERTAIN TYPE OF PERSON...ABOUT WHOM YOU CULD SAY THAT...THEY'RE SAFER IN JAIL.' SHOCKED AT THE ONSET OF PUBERTY AND THE CATASTROPHE SHE BELIEVES IT BROUGHT ON HER PARENTS, BARBARA HAS SINCE BEEN A MOST DUTIFUL DAUGHTER. BOUND IN DOMINANCE OVER THEM, SHE TENDS HER AFFLICTED PARENTS, MANAGING THE BEASTS AND THE LAND SINGLE-HANDED ON THE ISOLATED MARSHLANDS OF CAMPBELL'S REACH. IT IS HER BROTHER DAMIAN WHO REVEALS THE SECRETS THAT THE FAMILY HAS SHARED FOR THE PAST THIRTEEN YEARS. AS THE DESTRUCTIVE FORCES WITHIN EACH OF THEM MOVE TOWARDS A CLIMAX, BARBARA IS IMPELLED TOMAKE THE FINAL SACRIFICE.
- GenresFiction
Hardcover
First published May 21, 1971
6 people are currently reading
77 people want to read
About the author
Thomas Keneally
115 books1,262 followersThomas Michael Keneally, AO (born 7 October 1935) is an Australian novelist, playwright and author of non-fiction. He is best known for writing Schindler's Ark, the Booker Prize-winning novel of 1982, which was inspired by the efforts of Poldek Pfefferberg, a Holocaust survivor. The book would later be adapted to Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List (1993), which won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Often published under the name Tom Keneally in Australia.
Life and Career:
Born in Sydney, Keneally was educated at St Patrick's College, Strathfield, where a writing prize was named after him. He entered St Patrick's Seminary, Manly to train as a Catholic priest but left before his ordination. He worked as a Sydney schoolteacher before his success as a novelist, and he was a lecturer at the University of New England (1968–70). He has also written screenplays, memoirs and non-fiction books.
Keneally was known as "Mick" until 1964 but began using the name Thomas when he started publishing, after advice from his publisher to use what was really his first name. He is most famous for his Schindler's Ark (1982) (later republished as Schindler's List), which won the Booker Prize and is the basis of the film Schindler's List (1993). Many of his novels are reworkings of historical material, although modern in their psychology and style.
Keneally has also acted in a handful of films. He had a small role in The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (based on his novel) and played Father Marshall in the Fred Schepisi movie, The Devil's Playground (1976) (not to be confused with a similarly-titled documentary by Lucy Walker about the Amish rite of passage called rumspringa).
In 1983, he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO). He is an Australian Living Treasure.
He is a strong advocate of the Australian republic, meaning the severing of all ties with the British monarchy, and published a book on the subject in Our Republic (1993). Several of his Republican essays appear on the web site of the Australian Republican Movement.
Keneally is a keen supporter of rugby league football, in particular the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles club of the NRL. He made an appearance in the rugby league drama film The Final Winter (2007).
In March 2009, the Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, gave an autographed copy of Keneally's Lincoln biography to President Barack Obama as a state gift.
Most recently Thomas Keneally featured as a writer in the critically acclaimed Australian drama, Our Sunburnt Country.
Thomas Keneally's nephew Ben is married to the former NSW Premier, Kristina Keneally.
Often published under the name Tom Keneally in Australia.
Life and Career:
Born in Sydney, Keneally was educated at St Patrick's College, Strathfield, where a writing prize was named after him. He entered St Patrick's Seminary, Manly to train as a Catholic priest but left before his ordination. He worked as a Sydney schoolteacher before his success as a novelist, and he was a lecturer at the University of New England (1968–70). He has also written screenplays, memoirs and non-fiction books.
Keneally was known as "Mick" until 1964 but began using the name Thomas when he started publishing, after advice from his publisher to use what was really his first name. He is most famous for his Schindler's Ark (1982) (later republished as Schindler's List), which won the Booker Prize and is the basis of the film Schindler's List (1993). Many of his novels are reworkings of historical material, although modern in their psychology and style.
Keneally has also acted in a handful of films. He had a small role in The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (based on his novel) and played Father Marshall in the Fred Schepisi movie, The Devil's Playground (1976) (not to be confused with a similarly-titled documentary by Lucy Walker about the Amish rite of passage called rumspringa).
In 1983, he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO). He is an Australian Living Treasure.
He is a strong advocate of the Australian republic, meaning the severing of all ties with the British monarchy, and published a book on the subject in Our Republic (1993). Several of his Republican essays appear on the web site of the Australian Republican Movement.
Keneally is a keen supporter of rugby league football, in particular the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles club of the NRL. He made an appearance in the rugby league drama film The Final Winter (2007).
In March 2009, the Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, gave an autographed copy of Keneally's Lincoln biography to President Barack Obama as a state gift.
Most recently Thomas Keneally featured as a writer in the critically acclaimed Australian drama, Our Sunburnt Country.
Thomas Keneally's nephew Ben is married to the former NSW Premier, Kristina Keneally.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
November 27, 2018
A very strange short novel - a dysfunctional family story with elements of magic realism set on a flood-plagued small dairy farm on the Australian coast.
The main protagonists are Barbara and her younger brother Damian, whose return from university frames the story. Barbara has been running the farm since a crisis provoked by her first period, and her parents seem to be turning into cows, leaving the mother with an advanced and untreatable case of mastitis. Meanwhile the father has developed a sexual interest in heifers. Barbara sees her duty as keeping the farm going in the face of this, and the flooding, and she also has an obsession with Joan of Arc who she sees as a spiritual sister. Meanwhile Damian is in a half-hearted relationship with Helen which is overshadowed by his obsession with his sister. Throughout the distinctions between the human and the animal are blurred, and there is plenty of earthy sexuality including incest.
I am not really sure what Keneally was trying to say or do with this one, but it is certainly original...
The main protagonists are Barbara and her younger brother Damian, whose return from university frames the story. Barbara has been running the farm since a crisis provoked by her first period, and her parents seem to be turning into cows, leaving the mother with an advanced and untreatable case of mastitis. Meanwhile the father has developed a sexual interest in heifers. Barbara sees her duty as keeping the farm going in the face of this, and the flooding, and she also has an obsession with Joan of Arc who she sees as a spiritual sister. Meanwhile Damian is in a half-hearted relationship with Helen which is overshadowed by his obsession with his sister. Throughout the distinctions between the human and the animal are blurred, and there is plenty of earthy sexuality including incest.
I am not really sure what Keneally was trying to say or do with this one, but it is certainly original...
April 18, 2010
It's interesting that, of the handful of people who've admitted to reading this book, I'm the only one who's rated it highly.
Quite what that says about me I don't know, but this little piece of madness set in a deserted corner of Australia is exactly the sort of book I love most.
It's hardly a romp tho', being one of the bleakest things I've ever read. It's hopeless to begin with, set as it is in an infertile, dying patch of land at the end of the world, and then Keneally chooses to kick things into a whole new level of brutality by deftly introducing just the right amount of magic into the mix.
A Dutiful Daughter is a thought experiment into what might happen to the heads of those people who are abandoned on a corner of the earth with nobody but themselves for company, with no hope of escape and every minute bringing them lower, breaking their pride and their sense of compassion a little more. It is all about loneliness and sickness of the mind.
It is as frightening as it's deeply sad, pathetic even, and, while this is far from my idea of a good time, I'd still swear that it is a great, great book.
Quite what that says about me I don't know, but this little piece of madness set in a deserted corner of Australia is exactly the sort of book I love most.
It's hardly a romp tho', being one of the bleakest things I've ever read. It's hopeless to begin with, set as it is in an infertile, dying patch of land at the end of the world, and then Keneally chooses to kick things into a whole new level of brutality by deftly introducing just the right amount of magic into the mix.
A Dutiful Daughter is a thought experiment into what might happen to the heads of those people who are abandoned on a corner of the earth with nobody but themselves for company, with no hope of escape and every minute bringing them lower, breaking their pride and their sense of compassion a little more. It is all about loneliness and sickness of the mind.
It is as frightening as it's deeply sad, pathetic even, and, while this is far from my idea of a good time, I'd still swear that it is a great, great book.
December 11, 2019
Weird story line, but a great read
October 29, 2018
A student returns home to his parents' dairy farm during the holidays, but seems reluctant to do so. His sister has stayed on the farm, running it and caring for the parents, who are unwell or afflicted in some way. The siblings have feelings for each other which are complex and somewhat incestuous.
This is a strange little book, which I don't want to say too much about because of spoilers. I am assuming that it is allegorical at some level, rather than simply weird, but I never quite worked out where Joan of Arc (or Jehanne d'Arque) fitted in.
This is a strange little book, which I don't want to say too much about because of spoilers. I am assuming that it is allegorical at some level, rather than simply weird, but I never quite worked out where Joan of Arc (or Jehanne d'Arque) fitted in.
December 15, 2017
Beautifully written, vivid, and one of the weirdest books I've ever read. Proves Keneally can do anything, write brilliantly in any style.
April 10, 2023
I found this novel in a box in my attic: I remember reading it as a young teenager. I’d thought it a weird story then and started to read again to see if I would have the same opinion now, in my 60s. Still a strange story. Not enjoyable.
February 18, 2018
What a weird book
November 24, 2018
What an odd story. I enjoyed it very much, but still don’t quite know what to make of it!
December 11, 2021
A difficult read on many levels.
October 12, 2025
So bizarre it’s fantastic
June 20, 2025
My main thought while reading was this was whether Keneally wrote this on a bender with Timothy O'Leary. Or if not, had he joined Doris Lessing (Briefing for a Decent Into Hell) Hunter S Thompson (Fear and Lothing in Las Vegas) and Mordecai Richler (St Urbain's Horseman) for a writing retreat sponsored by the narcotics industry. 1971 was a weird year and Keneally's book is just my latest encounter with its weird fruit.
In some ways Keneally plays it relatively straight - this is out-of-mind outback, beyond the back of beyond. It's a Boomer kid having a countercultural moment with the folks. It's also a book about incestual longing for a sister whose evil eye has just turned her parents into cattle. I might just need to turn back two pages. Nope, seems I did just read that right.
Plaudits to Keneally for taking a risk and keeping it fresh, but that just adds one star onto a bottom rating. In every other sense, this was bull.
The magical realism of a milkable mother with mastitis might have worked with humour, or maybe going full Brothers Grimm, but here it stalled in the sort of brown-and-sepia, heavily flowered patchouli oddness that makes me glad to have avoided what must have been an outbreak of mass hysteria in the early 1970s.
In some ways Keneally plays it relatively straight - this is out-of-mind outback, beyond the back of beyond. It's a Boomer kid having a countercultural moment with the folks. It's also a book about incestual longing for a sister whose evil eye has just turned her parents into cattle. I might just need to turn back two pages. Nope, seems I did just read that right.
Plaudits to Keneally for taking a risk and keeping it fresh, but that just adds one star onto a bottom rating. In every other sense, this was bull.
The magical realism of a milkable mother with mastitis might have worked with humour, or maybe going full Brothers Grimm, but here it stalled in the sort of brown-and-sepia, heavily flowered patchouli oddness that makes me glad to have avoided what must have been an outbreak of mass hysteria in the early 1970s.
August 17, 2015
Super Moop, I thoroughly agree. This is a great book. And funnily enough I really enjoyed reading it (tho "enjoyed" is probably not quite the right word); it was bizarre, it was very strange, but it was compelling in a dark and morose kind of way. One of those stories about out of the way places which appear utterly conventional to the casual observer, but turn out to hide the most unconventional characters and hideous secrets.
At heart it's a story of fractured and disintegrating family dynamics, amidst their own unique challenges ("unique" barely begins to describe this family's challenges).
I loved Thomas Keneally's attention to the mundane; his vivid descriptions of sounds, smells, rooms, clothing, weather. Details of everyday banality and minutiae that seem starkly at odds with the mad and malevolent trip the plot later takes down the rabbit hole.
This book was such an oddity (but immensely readable). It's a book that's stayed with me; and now a year or two after reading a borrowed copy, it's back in my head today. Weird doesn't begin to describe it, but weird-in-the-best-way. Some people won't like it but I loved it, and think I need to get a copy of my own (this is a book that would be even better the second time around).
At heart it's a story of fractured and disintegrating family dynamics, amidst their own unique challenges ("unique" barely begins to describe this family's challenges).
I loved Thomas Keneally's attention to the mundane; his vivid descriptions of sounds, smells, rooms, clothing, weather. Details of everyday banality and minutiae that seem starkly at odds with the mad and malevolent trip the plot later takes down the rabbit hole.
This book was such an oddity (but immensely readable). It's a book that's stayed with me; and now a year or two after reading a borrowed copy, it's back in my head today. Weird doesn't begin to describe it, but weird-in-the-best-way. Some people won't like it but I loved it, and think I need to get a copy of my own (this is a book that would be even better the second time around).
June 23, 2012
I found this quite disturbing and not enjoyable at all, although it's well written.
February 28, 2015
What an interesting book about family relationships, and the heavy use of symbolism. I loved the use of language, and the darkness of the book.
Read
May 13, 2016Too depressing.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews