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The Year of the Farmer
In a quiet farming town somewhere in country New South Wales, war is brewing.
The last few years have been punishingly dry, especially for the farmers, but otherwise, it's all Neralie Mackintosh's fault. If she'd never left town then her ex, the hapless but extremely eligible Mitchell Bishop, would never have fallen into the clutches of the truly awful Mandy, who now lords it over everyone as if she owns the place.
So, now that Neralie has returned to run the local pub, the whole town is determined to reinstate her to her rightful position in the social order. But Mandy Bishop has other ideas. Meanwhile the head of the local water board - Glenys 'Gravedigger' Dingle - is looking for a way to line her pockets at the expense of hardworking farmers already up to their eyes in debt. And Mandy and Neralie's war may be just the chance she was looking for...
A darkly satirical novel of a small country town battling the elements and one another, from the bestselling author of The Dressmaker .
"Rosalie Ham deftly sharpens the razor edge between comedy and tragedy. The Year of the Farmer is a book that delights, appals but never waivers in its brutal honesty. If you didn't laugh, you'd cry." Sue Maslin, producer of The Dressmaker
The last few years have been punishingly dry, especially for the farmers, but otherwise, it's all Neralie Mackintosh's fault. If she'd never left town then her ex, the hapless but extremely eligible Mitchell Bishop, would never have fallen into the clutches of the truly awful Mandy, who now lords it over everyone as if she owns the place.
So, now that Neralie has returned to run the local pub, the whole town is determined to reinstate her to her rightful position in the social order. But Mandy Bishop has other ideas. Meanwhile the head of the local water board - Glenys 'Gravedigger' Dingle - is looking for a way to line her pockets at the expense of hardworking farmers already up to their eyes in debt. And Mandy and Neralie's war may be just the chance she was looking for...
A darkly satirical novel of a small country town battling the elements and one another, from the bestselling author of The Dressmaker .
"Rosalie Ham deftly sharpens the razor edge between comedy and tragedy. The Year of the Farmer is a book that delights, appals but never waivers in its brutal honesty. If you didn't laugh, you'd cry." Sue Maslin, producer of The Dressmaker
336 pages, Paperback
Published September 25, 2018
119 people are currently reading
776 people want to read
About the author
Rosalie Ham
8 books233 followersRosalie Ham was born, and raised in Jerilderie, NSW, Australia. She completed her secondary education at St Margaret's School, Berwick in 1972. After travelling and working at a variety of jobs (including aged care) for most of her twenties, Rosalie completed a Bachelor of Education majoring in Drama and Literature (Deakin University, 1989), and achieved a Master of Arts, Creative Writing (RMIT, Melbourne) in 2007. Rosalie lives in Brunswick, Melbourne, and when she is not writing, Rosalie teaches literature. Her novels have sold over 50,000 copies.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 206 reviews
October 21, 2018
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Mitch’s life has been hell. His crops are failing and his sheep are hungry but he has decided that life is going to turn around and this is going to be his year.
First the rain comes then the love of his life, Neralie, returns home after 5 years in Sydney and it looks like he may get the year he envisaged. The only problem is the rain has come too early and may ruin his crop and he is now married; to the town’s nemesis.
The Year of the Farmer is a cleverly written satire, a dark tragicomedy, that will have you laughing out loud at the overly exaggerated characters all placed neatly in their respective boxes and performing perfectly on cue.
The small town is under threat from the drought and the water authority is doing everything it can to make life more difficult (on the pretense of helping them) for the farmers whilst making a little money on the side for themselves; that retirement fund. But the biggest threat will come from one of their own! A furious wife hell bent on fitting in but letting her hurt fuel her need for revenge.
I loved this story! There are a multitude of characters introduced one straight after the other which I found hard to sort out but as the story progresses everyone fits into their place.
The story brings to light the plight of the farmers and the devastating effect of the drought and the nonsensical stipulations and regulations set by the water authorities.
Ham shows the deep connection that the farmers have with their land and how they have intense feelings of letting their ancestors down when they lose their farm that has been handed down through the generations.
They were a town that stuck together when hearts were broken but even more so when their farms and livelihoods were at stake.
‘Then suddenly, in groups of two or three, the councillors, irrigators, riparians and townies left the pub and went, united, into the black star-speckled night, the smooth barrels of their loaded guns frosted silver by the moonlight’
I felt quite sorry for Mandy, Mitch’s wife, her only aim in life was to be someone, to fit in, but the whole town despised her and where Mitch’s moments of infidelity were encouraged hers were frowned upon. I’d be very interested to know what other readers thought of Mandy and her actions.
In today’s life where we expect everything, including our reads, to be fast paced and instantly gratifying this slow paced and slightly quirky novel may not appeal to everyone.
Content: for those that are sensitive to animal deaths; animals die in this story.
*I received a copy from the publisher to read and review
Mitch’s life has been hell. His crops are failing and his sheep are hungry but he has decided that life is going to turn around and this is going to be his year.
First the rain comes then the love of his life, Neralie, returns home after 5 years in Sydney and it looks like he may get the year he envisaged. The only problem is the rain has come too early and may ruin his crop and he is now married; to the town’s nemesis.
The Year of the Farmer is a cleverly written satire, a dark tragicomedy, that will have you laughing out loud at the overly exaggerated characters all placed neatly in their respective boxes and performing perfectly on cue.
The small town is under threat from the drought and the water authority is doing everything it can to make life more difficult (on the pretense of helping them) for the farmers whilst making a little money on the side for themselves; that retirement fund. But the biggest threat will come from one of their own! A furious wife hell bent on fitting in but letting her hurt fuel her need for revenge.
I loved this story! There are a multitude of characters introduced one straight after the other which I found hard to sort out but as the story progresses everyone fits into their place.
The story brings to light the plight of the farmers and the devastating effect of the drought and the nonsensical stipulations and regulations set by the water authorities.
Ham shows the deep connection that the farmers have with their land and how they have intense feelings of letting their ancestors down when they lose their farm that has been handed down through the generations.
They were a town that stuck together when hearts were broken but even more so when their farms and livelihoods were at stake.
‘Then suddenly, in groups of two or three, the councillors, irrigators, riparians and townies left the pub and went, united, into the black star-speckled night, the smooth barrels of their loaded guns frosted silver by the moonlight’
I felt quite sorry for Mandy, Mitch’s wife, her only aim in life was to be someone, to fit in, but the whole town despised her and where Mitch’s moments of infidelity were encouraged hers were frowned upon. I’d be very interested to know what other readers thought of Mandy and her actions.
In today’s life where we expect everything, including our reads, to be fast paced and instantly gratifying this slow paced and slightly quirky novel may not appeal to everyone.
Content: for those that are sensitive to animal deaths; animals die in this story.
*I received a copy from the publisher to read and review
October 18, 2018
I really really wanted to love this book. However I just had to give up 100 pages in (1/3). There were so many people in this small country town I couldn't keep track. I don't know lots about farm life but the water allocations parts of the story were way over my head. Don't get me wrong I'm very happy to learn to a degree - but this is a fiction book - not a non-fiction books about farming in Australia. So disappointing :(
October 17, 2018
Rosalie Ham has returned in a blaze of glory with her latest novel, The Year of the Farmer. It’s a cracking read, full of dark satire and quick wit, peopled with a cast of memorable characters.
‘We, the riparians, and your other clients, the farmers, want you to ask old Glenys Gravedigger Dingle how we are meant to do two shits instead of one without anything to shit. How much of the area’s production will vanish because of water buybacks? How will I run my store when most of my customers have no money? When can we all expect to die from fatigue and starvation, and how much money will all you water traders make out of our water?’
Rich in characterisation, Rosalie has created the ultimate villain in Mandy Bishop. I tried to feel sorry for Mandy, I really did, but she was just too loathsome. Some people are just beyond redemption and get exactly what they deserve – as is the case with Mandy. But goodness, what an outrageous woman. I couldn’t believe the nerve of her with half the stuff she did. Completely ruthless and entirely without guile. I disliked her for many things but it was her deliberate disregard for the wellbeing of her elderly father-in-law that put the final nail in her coffin for me. I can’t stand people who mistreat the elderly. In the end, she was one of those people who’d shoot her own foot off just to make her point. In other words, an idiot. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the town close ranks against Mandy, who was proving herself just as much of a scourge on the environment as the drought.
There’s a message peeking out through all of the satire, about farming and the strain hard times can bring to entire communities. I’d never given much thought to water as a resource for corruption but Rosalie crafted a scenario that was entirely credible and rather alarming to contemplate. She spotlights the challenges of modern farming, leaving no part unexamined. It’s not an easy life, a daily fight for survival that only the fittest and most tenacious can survive. There was much to muse on within the pages of this novel.
The Year of the Farmer is a highly entertaining novel, purely Australian and full snark and heart in equal measure. Fans of Rosalie’s previous novels will revel in this latest offering.
Thanks is extended to Pan Macmillan Australia for providing me with a copy of The Year of the Farmer for review.
‘We, the riparians, and your other clients, the farmers, want you to ask old Glenys Gravedigger Dingle how we are meant to do two shits instead of one without anything to shit. How much of the area’s production will vanish because of water buybacks? How will I run my store when most of my customers have no money? When can we all expect to die from fatigue and starvation, and how much money will all you water traders make out of our water?’
Rich in characterisation, Rosalie has created the ultimate villain in Mandy Bishop. I tried to feel sorry for Mandy, I really did, but she was just too loathsome. Some people are just beyond redemption and get exactly what they deserve – as is the case with Mandy. But goodness, what an outrageous woman. I couldn’t believe the nerve of her with half the stuff she did. Completely ruthless and entirely without guile. I disliked her for many things but it was her deliberate disregard for the wellbeing of her elderly father-in-law that put the final nail in her coffin for me. I can’t stand people who mistreat the elderly. In the end, she was one of those people who’d shoot her own foot off just to make her point. In other words, an idiot. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the town close ranks against Mandy, who was proving herself just as much of a scourge on the environment as the drought.
There’s a message peeking out through all of the satire, about farming and the strain hard times can bring to entire communities. I’d never given much thought to water as a resource for corruption but Rosalie crafted a scenario that was entirely credible and rather alarming to contemplate. She spotlights the challenges of modern farming, leaving no part unexamined. It’s not an easy life, a daily fight for survival that only the fittest and most tenacious can survive. There was much to muse on within the pages of this novel.
The Year of the Farmer is a highly entertaining novel, purely Australian and full snark and heart in equal measure. Fans of Rosalie’s previous novels will revel in this latest offering.
Thanks is extended to Pan Macmillan Australia for providing me with a copy of The Year of the Farmer for review.
October 14, 2018
I really enjoyed the first three of Rosalie Ham's novels, but this one left me disappointed. It seemed to ramble in places, and not one of the characters were either 'likeable' or 'hateable'.
April 17, 2019
“The smell of sheep permeated the car and all around the plains were brown and grey. The air was perishingly dry and it was only eight in the bloody morning. And always, the stalking ravens on electricity wires and prehistoric eagles hanging overhead. Nothing was as it was supposed to be. Nothing exciting ever happened. The stupid drought came and everyone went broke or left town; those who remained succumbed to the drought and it just continued on and on…”
The Year of the Farmer could probably be best described as a tragicomedy. It’s set in a small Australian farming community caught in the stranglehold of drought, and is centred on a small group of the towns residents.
Mitch Bishop’s crops are failing, and his stock is half starved, but he refuses to give up on the land he loves. This could be his year- if Neralie comes back, if it rains. Mitch’s wife, Mandy, doesn’t share his optimism. She’s had it with the farm, with her business, and with the town that refuses to accept her, but she’s not quite done with her husband-yet.
“‘The farmers are appreciated and all water authorities aim to celebrate and support the farmers and the vital role they play in feeding, clothing and sheltering us all.”
So says the Water Authority, while their local representatives plot to line their own pockets at the farmers expense. Mitch isn’t fooled by the hard sell and empty promises, but the towns options, like its water supply, are dwindling fast. Ham does a commendable job of illustrating the flaws in the government scheme and its effects on a farming town at its mercy.
Neighbours bicker over land management, feral dogs run wild, sides are chosen, the sun shines and Mandy, well Mandy is just getting started.
The Year of the Farmer is a slow paced novel with a sly wit, which exaggerates and encapsulates, everyday life in a struggling farming town.
The Year of the Farmer could probably be best described as a tragicomedy. It’s set in a small Australian farming community caught in the stranglehold of drought, and is centred on a small group of the towns residents.
Mitch Bishop’s crops are failing, and his stock is half starved, but he refuses to give up on the land he loves. This could be his year- if Neralie comes back, if it rains. Mitch’s wife, Mandy, doesn’t share his optimism. She’s had it with the farm, with her business, and with the town that refuses to accept her, but she’s not quite done with her husband-yet.
“‘The farmers are appreciated and all water authorities aim to celebrate and support the farmers and the vital role they play in feeding, clothing and sheltering us all.”
So says the Water Authority, while their local representatives plot to line their own pockets at the farmers expense. Mitch isn’t fooled by the hard sell and empty promises, but the towns options, like its water supply, are dwindling fast. Ham does a commendable job of illustrating the flaws in the government scheme and its effects on a farming town at its mercy.
Neighbours bicker over land management, feral dogs run wild, sides are chosen, the sun shines and Mandy, well Mandy is just getting started.
The Year of the Farmer is a slow paced novel with a sly wit, which exaggerates and encapsulates, everyday life in a struggling farming town.
July 29, 2018
I really enjoyed this book. There were some laugh-out-loud moments. Ham seems to be exploring themes around fitting in, isolation, free-will, consequences of your decisions and the affect of other’s decisions on you. Needless to say it is a very rich story written in Ham's distinctive style.
There were also some really sad moments, probably the saddest being that involving the donkeys Cleo and Mark.
There were times when I felt for Mandy, and it was clear that she was damaged by her past. However, she still knowingly treated others badly and her relationship with Mitch did not have its genesis in love but in her consciously seeking status in the small town. Nonetheless, Mandy was right when she accused Mitch of being weak. His weakness was probably trying to do the ‘right’ thing rather than being true to his heart, which immobilised him and left him looking a bit pathetic at times. I also thought that it was a bit much that Neralie, after leaving Mitch and the town, then returns and considers that it is possible that she might take up where she left off with Mitch. But then this is a story about people and all their petty jealousies, foibles, grasping attempts to exert some agency over their lives and their hastily made decisions. I always felt that Neralie and Mitch would prevail because theirs was a real and natural love, of which Mandy was very aware of when she manipulated her way into Mitch’s life.
The backdrop to this drama is the machinations in the small town, a good many of which Mandy has engineered. The most interesting one is the drama of the corrupt application of government water allocations and policy during a drought. It seems everyone has their secrets. The human skeleton found at the bottom of the drained lake represented this.
The donkeys Mark and Cleo represent true unconditional love in the story, and for me were true victims in the story, suffering as a result of everyone’s focus being distracted by the small town machinations. They taught Mitch more about love than anyone or anything else in the story. I felt like the animals in the story seemed to represent different aspects of human nature, especially the pack of dogs which symbolised humans at their mobbish worst.
The end was a nice conclusion showing that nothing and no one lasts forever even though time moves on.
There were also some really sad moments, probably the saddest being that involving the donkeys Cleo and Mark.
There were times when I felt for Mandy, and it was clear that she was damaged by her past. However, she still knowingly treated others badly and her relationship with Mitch did not have its genesis in love but in her consciously seeking status in the small town. Nonetheless, Mandy was right when she accused Mitch of being weak. His weakness was probably trying to do the ‘right’ thing rather than being true to his heart, which immobilised him and left him looking a bit pathetic at times. I also thought that it was a bit much that Neralie, after leaving Mitch and the town, then returns and considers that it is possible that she might take up where she left off with Mitch. But then this is a story about people and all their petty jealousies, foibles, grasping attempts to exert some agency over their lives and their hastily made decisions. I always felt that Neralie and Mitch would prevail because theirs was a real and natural love, of which Mandy was very aware of when she manipulated her way into Mitch’s life.
The backdrop to this drama is the machinations in the small town, a good many of which Mandy has engineered. The most interesting one is the drama of the corrupt application of government water allocations and policy during a drought. It seems everyone has their secrets. The human skeleton found at the bottom of the drained lake represented this.
The donkeys Mark and Cleo represent true unconditional love in the story, and for me were true victims in the story, suffering as a result of everyone’s focus being distracted by the small town machinations. They taught Mitch more about love than anyone or anything else in the story. I felt like the animals in the story seemed to represent different aspects of human nature, especially the pack of dogs which symbolised humans at their mobbish worst.
The end was a nice conclusion showing that nothing and no one lasts forever even though time moves on.
January 14, 2019
It wasn't a bad book but it wasn't a good book. It was more of a palette cleanser type of read, in which nothing really happens. More of a slice of life rather than a compelling plot.
August 30, 2021
‘Why was the weather never straightforward, timely or generous?’
Picture this: a close-knit rural community, somewhere in New South Wales, plagued by years of drought. And if the farmers are not earning money, then they are spending less. The whole community suffers – except, perhaps for the opportunists.
Meet Mitchell Bishop. When his ex-girlfriend left town, he fell into the clutches of the truly awful Mandy. Mandy makes the lives of Mitch and his father Cal utterly miserable: she can’t cook, she wastes water, and they never get to hear the weather report. Mitch’s crops are failing, and his stock is starving, but he refuses to give in. All he needs is rain, and for his ex-girlfriend Neralie McIntosh to return. Wishful thinking.
But then, Neralie does return to run the pub and sparks fly.
In addition to the truly awful Mandy Bishop, there’s Glenys ‘Gravedigger’ Dingle waiting for an opportunity to, umm, redirect some of the scarce water into a business opportunity. Mitch isn’t fooled by the empty promises made by the water authority:
‘The farmers are appreciated, and all water authorities aim to celebrate and support the farmers and the vital role they play in feeding, clothing and sheltering us all.’
but the town is running out of options. Neighbours argue over land management, feral dogs make life even more complicated.
‘Isn’t blood thicker than water?’
‘At this point, water is blood.’
Full of black humour and quick wit, this satirical novel is peopled with some very memorable characters. Mandy does her best to undermine Mitch but then spreads her nastiness more broadly.
How will it end? I kept reading: Mandy’s comeuppance was what I wanted, and drought-breaking rain.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
Picture this: a close-knit rural community, somewhere in New South Wales, plagued by years of drought. And if the farmers are not earning money, then they are spending less. The whole community suffers – except, perhaps for the opportunists.
Meet Mitchell Bishop. When his ex-girlfriend left town, he fell into the clutches of the truly awful Mandy. Mandy makes the lives of Mitch and his father Cal utterly miserable: she can’t cook, she wastes water, and they never get to hear the weather report. Mitch’s crops are failing, and his stock is starving, but he refuses to give in. All he needs is rain, and for his ex-girlfriend Neralie McIntosh to return. Wishful thinking.
But then, Neralie does return to run the pub and sparks fly.
In addition to the truly awful Mandy Bishop, there’s Glenys ‘Gravedigger’ Dingle waiting for an opportunity to, umm, redirect some of the scarce water into a business opportunity. Mitch isn’t fooled by the empty promises made by the water authority:
‘The farmers are appreciated, and all water authorities aim to celebrate and support the farmers and the vital role they play in feeding, clothing and sheltering us all.’
but the town is running out of options. Neighbours argue over land management, feral dogs make life even more complicated.
‘Isn’t blood thicker than water?’
‘At this point, water is blood.’
Full of black humour and quick wit, this satirical novel is peopled with some very memorable characters. Mandy does her best to undermine Mitch but then spreads her nastiness more broadly.
How will it end? I kept reading: Mandy’s comeuppance was what I wanted, and drought-breaking rain.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
January 23, 2019
No. A zero, not a 1 star.
This is a book club read and as I have been chosen to lead the discussion on this, I was commitment bound to read it, otherwise, I would have deleted it off the iPad after the first chapter.
This is predictable, cringe-worthy stuff. Set in a rural Australian town beset by drought, the author mentions every kind of Australian flora and fauna in the first 10 pages. Almost as if she had a list in front of her, she mentions kookaburras, magpies, goannas, "a mob of dull sheep", "dusty eucalyptus air", galahs, cumbungi weeds, on and on. I get it, we are in Australia.
The 500 person town seems inhabited by 3,000 people, each named without context ad nauseam. There are Lanas and Larrys and Levons and Collums and Mandys and Digbys and and and. Thirty to fifty names are bandied about and you don't know who is who and what is what. Is Tink a person or a dog? Do I need to keep track of who Esther is? How about Cleo? Oh, she's a donkey, okay.
The characters are caricatures and exaggerated. There is zero nuance. Zero. Mandy, the villain of our story, is just nasty, straight up nasty. Rosalie Ham tries to write some backstory to make us understand that all Mandy wants to do is fit in but then she writes her bending aerials, throwing her husband's mementos in the trash, scratching someone's car with a keyring, wasting water, reading her husband's texts and emails and deleting them, on and on and on. This is a one-dimensional nasty character. We are led to think that she "trapped" Mitch into marriage and Mitch, well Mitch. What can we say about this character? Stupid, much? Passive in the face of Mandy's bitchy behavior? And he is supposed to be our protagonist, a respected person in the town. A nice guy. Stop it, this guy is as nice as a needle in your eye.
There is something "nasty" in Rosalie Ham's depiction of her people, she doesn't love her characters. And I hated them. She uses terms like "bicycle Mandy" to refer to Mandy's numerous sexual liaisons. Her men and women are crude. Stacey wants to "root" Lana, Mandy exposes her cleavage to attract Stacey, Lana is screwing a married man, Mitch is screwing his ex-girlfriend, Mandy is screwing Stacey, ferals who smell (hippies) blah, blah, blah.. and then, one morning when Mitch surprises Mandy naked in the bathroom and sees her saggy butt, he THEN is reminded that there is something wrong in their marriage and starts fantasizing about his ex-girlfriend's breasts. Ewwww. This author is sexist and writes mean-spirited, ugly characters.
There could have been some interesting issues explored as to how water is managed in rural areas, the workings of the Water Authority and how the water is allocated. Ham writes quite a lot about it in this book, but it is a complex subject and pretty much after a while, I couldn't be bothered. Mostly, because she has the managers and agents of the Water Authority be corrupt, ugly individuals who are lining their pockets and stealing the farmers' water, reselling it to them at a higher price.
So, this is a book that exaggerates how ugly and unlikeable people can be, about greed and nastiness and about a country where water is as valuable as gold. But we are left with no insight into how to live better in a country that is burning up and with farmers who are losing the battle for survival. A missed opportunity at best, a nasty and manipulative waste of time at worst.
This is a book club read and as I have been chosen to lead the discussion on this, I was commitment bound to read it, otherwise, I would have deleted it off the iPad after the first chapter.
This is predictable, cringe-worthy stuff. Set in a rural Australian town beset by drought, the author mentions every kind of Australian flora and fauna in the first 10 pages. Almost as if she had a list in front of her, she mentions kookaburras, magpies, goannas, "a mob of dull sheep", "dusty eucalyptus air", galahs, cumbungi weeds, on and on. I get it, we are in Australia.
The 500 person town seems inhabited by 3,000 people, each named without context ad nauseam. There are Lanas and Larrys and Levons and Collums and Mandys and Digbys and and and. Thirty to fifty names are bandied about and you don't know who is who and what is what. Is Tink a person or a dog? Do I need to keep track of who Esther is? How about Cleo? Oh, she's a donkey, okay.
The characters are caricatures and exaggerated. There is zero nuance. Zero. Mandy, the villain of our story, is just nasty, straight up nasty. Rosalie Ham tries to write some backstory to make us understand that all Mandy wants to do is fit in but then she writes her bending aerials, throwing her husband's mementos in the trash, scratching someone's car with a keyring, wasting water, reading her husband's texts and emails and deleting them, on and on and on. This is a one-dimensional nasty character. We are led to think that she "trapped" Mitch into marriage and Mitch, well Mitch. What can we say about this character? Stupid, much? Passive in the face of Mandy's bitchy behavior? And he is supposed to be our protagonist, a respected person in the town. A nice guy. Stop it, this guy is as nice as a needle in your eye.
There is something "nasty" in Rosalie Ham's depiction of her people, she doesn't love her characters. And I hated them. She uses terms like "bicycle Mandy" to refer to Mandy's numerous sexual liaisons. Her men and women are crude. Stacey wants to "root" Lana, Mandy exposes her cleavage to attract Stacey, Lana is screwing a married man, Mitch is screwing his ex-girlfriend, Mandy is screwing Stacey, ferals who smell (hippies) blah, blah, blah.. and then, one morning when Mitch surprises Mandy naked in the bathroom and sees her saggy butt, he THEN is reminded that there is something wrong in their marriage and starts fantasizing about his ex-girlfriend's breasts. Ewwww. This author is sexist and writes mean-spirited, ugly characters.
There could have been some interesting issues explored as to how water is managed in rural areas, the workings of the Water Authority and how the water is allocated. Ham writes quite a lot about it in this book, but it is a complex subject and pretty much after a while, I couldn't be bothered. Mostly, because she has the managers and agents of the Water Authority be corrupt, ugly individuals who are lining their pockets and stealing the farmers' water, reselling it to them at a higher price.
So, this is a book that exaggerates how ugly and unlikeable people can be, about greed and nastiness and about a country where water is as valuable as gold. But we are left with no insight into how to live better in a country that is burning up and with farmers who are losing the battle for survival. A missed opportunity at best, a nasty and manipulative waste of time at worst.
October 11, 2018
3.5-4 stars... not as brilliant as The Dressmaker but still had me giggling, cringing and crying and wanting justice!
December 9, 2018
Wasn't a bad read but not really a page turner. Glad to have it finished. Too many uninteresting characters and not the best storyline
January 2, 2019
I was very disappointed in the story but kept going to see where it ended up ... and wished I'd given up when I decided I wasn't going to enjoy the book. None of the wit of The Dressmaker, just small minded, nasty, hypocritical small town bogans. No redeeming features in this one.
January 3, 2019
Yawn 😴. What a boring book!
October 25, 2018
Ham does Australia spectacularly well : you can smell the stale beer, see the dust in the donkey's fur, feel the chill of the early morning and hear the screech of the birds as they start the day. You just know she knows what she's talking about. I'm sure she understands the complexities of irrigation and water buy back too, but I can't say it was particularly clear in my mind. There was something shifty about it, I understood that much but it did occur too me that the complexity was part of the issue. The locals were being deceived by smooth talking con men out for a quick buck on the side, and eventually they got their own back. Everyone got their own back, it seemed. The characterisations are neat, when they need to be, and blurry when they don't. Lana and Jasey merge a bit, but then that's how they live their lives.
Not beautiful, not tidy, but nor is country life and there was enough to empathise with, and understand through the insights provided. A fun read.
Not beautiful, not tidy, but nor is country life and there was enough to empathise with, and understand through the insights provided. A fun read.
May 12, 2019
This book provides a beautiful picture that contrasts the absolute best and worst of life in rural Australia.
On the best side you have wonderful people who live free from all the pretentiousness that comes with being in the city. You have fantastic community with people who all look out for each other and help each other. And the book also describes families working together to honor what the parents and grandparents have created and trying to make something worthwhile for their children to carry on.
On the worst side you have a life lived at the mercy of the unpredictable weather that can just stuff everything in an instant. You have to put up with people in the city making decisions that impact your life without adequate knowledge and driven by their own profits. And you have sometimes very harsh lives that do not always build resilience but can turn out bad people - and boy she was evil!
I loved your book Rosalie Ham, even more than the others!
On the best side you have wonderful people who live free from all the pretentiousness that comes with being in the city. You have fantastic community with people who all look out for each other and help each other. And the book also describes families working together to honor what the parents and grandparents have created and trying to make something worthwhile for their children to carry on.
On the worst side you have a life lived at the mercy of the unpredictable weather that can just stuff everything in an instant. You have to put up with people in the city making decisions that impact your life without adequate knowledge and driven by their own profits. And you have sometimes very harsh lives that do not always build resilience but can turn out bad people - and boy she was evil!
I loved your book Rosalie Ham, even more than the others!
December 23, 2018
Lots of black humour in this very Aussie book about farming. Cleverly written, with entertaining characters. Almost pantomimist - hunky men, sweet women, black hearted villain, plus cranky older folk and a few very funny hippies. Plenty of real-life referencing in the plot - corruption around water rights. Ok, drought and dying animals are never funny but there's plenty more to laugh at amongst our flawed human selves, just getting on with daily life.
June 8, 2019
Actual Rating: 2.5 Stars
Aussie Reader's June Challenge 2019: Read a book with a summer scene on the cover (ok...clutching at straws with this one, but I have a 1/4 chance that this scene represent summer :-P)
This book was given to me to read by someone who really loved it - so I went in with pretty high expectations. Ms Ham wrote The Dressmaker and so I was expecting a very Australian quirky book and that is exactly what I got. The problem is that this book was probably way too clever for me (highly likely) with its parody of farm life and small rural communities - but I was just bored for most of the book.
The characters were really interesting and I wanted more of them and their stories, but it was just intermixed with page after page after page after page of talk about irrigation, water allowances and the weather and I just felt like screaming ENOUGH! I just wanted to read about the characters and all their quirky interactions.
One last thing - if any-one has read this and can shed insight into the final chapter......
Aussie Reader's June Challenge 2019: Read a book with a summer scene on the cover (ok...clutching at straws with this one, but I have a 1/4 chance that this scene represent summer :-P)
This book was given to me to read by someone who really loved it - so I went in with pretty high expectations. Ms Ham wrote The Dressmaker and so I was expecting a very Australian quirky book and that is exactly what I got. The problem is that this book was probably way too clever for me (highly likely) with its parody of farm life and small rural communities - but I was just bored for most of the book.
The characters were really interesting and I wanted more of them and their stories, but it was just intermixed with page after page after page after page of talk about irrigation, water allowances and the weather and I just felt like screaming ENOUGH! I just wanted to read about the characters and all their quirky interactions.
One last thing - if any-one has read this and can shed insight into the final chapter......
December 13, 2019
Rosalie Ham is such an amazing storyteller. She combines comedy with drama so well and has you hanging on to every word. She describes the Australian country life so well, you can really relate to the characters.
January 14, 2019
I enjoyed this. Rosalie Ham delivers great characters again. I laughed and I cried and I struggled to put it down.
January 27, 2019
In Rosalie Ham’s new, darkly comic novel The Year of the Farmer (Picador 2018), we are returned to the microcosm of rural life in country Australia. As with The Dressmaker, Ham peers through a microscope at life in a small, isolated town and the myriad of eccentric characters and divisive issues that it contains. The book is chock-full of fascinating characters and the plot is absorbing.
As in The Dressmaker, at the centre of the story is a woman absent some years who returns to her hometown with mischief on her mind. In The Year of the Farmer, it is Neralie Mackintosh who left five years ago to find herself in Sydney, but decides to return to her farming community to run the local (and only) pub. Everything went downhill when Neralie left: drought seized the land and parched it dry; bands of bloodthirsty dogs roam the landscape; the local water authority is up to its eyeballs in corruption and underhand machinations; and most importantly, Neralie’s ex-boyfriend, the lovable but easily misled Mitchell Bishop (our hero, and the farmer of the title) has fallen into the clutches of the sly, dislikeable, gold-digging Mandy, who schemed her way into persuading Mitch to marry her and who now looks down her nose at everyone else in town as if she runs the place.
Poor Mitch lives a loveless marriage on his family farm with Mandy and his aging father, Callum, whom Mandy mistreats. But when Neralie returns to town, war is declared between the two women, with everyone taking sides. Each of the characters in this novel – even the minor ones – are three-dimensional, well-developed portraits. There is Glenys ‘Gravedigger’ Dingle, hoping to make money from her water schemes. The hapless Paul who runs the post office. Old Esther who knows more than people think. Jasey and Lana and Kevin and Debbie. The river divides the riparians from the hippie ferals from the Single Mothers from the Rural Women’s Club from the townies from the Water Authority folks. Not to mention Nurse Leonie Bergen, who views each of the locals with a cynical memory about which ones she wishes she’d rather not helped into this world so many years ago… All of them in the grip of a terrible drought, the farmers losing stock and ploughing over their unsaleable crops; everyone trying to make ends meet and still make their loan repayments; all of them battling the elements and mother nature.
I did find it a little difficult to follow all the intricate details of the Water Authority – the buybacks, the allocations, the TCC (Total Channel Controls), the Dethridge wheels and the solar-panelled gates – but I suspect this is due to my lack of knowledge about the impact of drought on farming communities and the importance of water as a tradeable commodity. And there are certainly a LOT of characters to keep track of, and some of them I felt I would’ve liked to know better. But this is more than accommodated by Rosalie Ham’s keen observation of the dynamics of a small community and her satirical and often hilarious astute observance of the individuals within it. And her descriptions of the Australian landscape are spot-on: the wide-open, empty sky; the flat, arid environment; the flora and fauna. Even the domestic animals – including Mitch’s faithful dog Tink and his ageing donkeys Mark and Cleopatra – emerge with distinct personalities and endearing qualities. The characterisations in The Year of the Farmer are superb and memorable, and the plot is well-paced and intriguing.
As in The Dressmaker, at the centre of the story is a woman absent some years who returns to her hometown with mischief on her mind. In The Year of the Farmer, it is Neralie Mackintosh who left five years ago to find herself in Sydney, but decides to return to her farming community to run the local (and only) pub. Everything went downhill when Neralie left: drought seized the land and parched it dry; bands of bloodthirsty dogs roam the landscape; the local water authority is up to its eyeballs in corruption and underhand machinations; and most importantly, Neralie’s ex-boyfriend, the lovable but easily misled Mitchell Bishop (our hero, and the farmer of the title) has fallen into the clutches of the sly, dislikeable, gold-digging Mandy, who schemed her way into persuading Mitch to marry her and who now looks down her nose at everyone else in town as if she runs the place.
Poor Mitch lives a loveless marriage on his family farm with Mandy and his aging father, Callum, whom Mandy mistreats. But when Neralie returns to town, war is declared between the two women, with everyone taking sides. Each of the characters in this novel – even the minor ones – are three-dimensional, well-developed portraits. There is Glenys ‘Gravedigger’ Dingle, hoping to make money from her water schemes. The hapless Paul who runs the post office. Old Esther who knows more than people think. Jasey and Lana and Kevin and Debbie. The river divides the riparians from the hippie ferals from the Single Mothers from the Rural Women’s Club from the townies from the Water Authority folks. Not to mention Nurse Leonie Bergen, who views each of the locals with a cynical memory about which ones she wishes she’d rather not helped into this world so many years ago… All of them in the grip of a terrible drought, the farmers losing stock and ploughing over their unsaleable crops; everyone trying to make ends meet and still make their loan repayments; all of them battling the elements and mother nature.
I did find it a little difficult to follow all the intricate details of the Water Authority – the buybacks, the allocations, the TCC (Total Channel Controls), the Dethridge wheels and the solar-panelled gates – but I suspect this is due to my lack of knowledge about the impact of drought on farming communities and the importance of water as a tradeable commodity. And there are certainly a LOT of characters to keep track of, and some of them I felt I would’ve liked to know better. But this is more than accommodated by Rosalie Ham’s keen observation of the dynamics of a small community and her satirical and often hilarious astute observance of the individuals within it. And her descriptions of the Australian landscape are spot-on: the wide-open, empty sky; the flat, arid environment; the flora and fauna. Even the domestic animals – including Mitch’s faithful dog Tink and his ageing donkeys Mark and Cleopatra – emerge with distinct personalities and endearing qualities. The characterisations in The Year of the Farmer are superb and memorable, and the plot is well-paced and intriguing.
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October 15, 2018I have just loved everything Rosalie Ham has written, and I was so excited when we got her new book! In this new book, again set in a small town in the Riverina area of NSW, we get more of the same quirky characters we loved in The Dressmaker. This time, the town is struggling with drought and the government’s new water restrictions and water buy back policy. The farmer of the title, is stuck in a loveless marriage with the town’s trouble maker, when the real love of his life, his childhood sweetheart returns to town after 5 years to set the scene for a stand-off. Add to that, all the fun, weird, crooked, and eccentric local inhabitants and you get a brilliant portrayal of a town and people beset by personal troubles as well as struggling with the elements and restrictive, unsympathetic government policy, just to make ends meet. For those readers who have experienced small town life this story will strike a chord and for those city dwellers it will open your eyes to the very real struggles our farmers face every day. Watch for the twist at the end... - Leanne
December 3, 2018
Because I have read 2 of this author's other books (The Dressmaker and Summer at Mount Hope) I was expecting this novel to be historical fiction full of black humour and brilliant individuals. However The Year of the Farmer is set in contemporary small town Australia. The area is suffering from drought and all sectors of the community are feeling the pinch. Mitch is a likeable character, in spite of making a mess of things by letting the love of his life get away and instead marrying a woman who is only out for what she can get. Things are getting grim and then his ex-girlfriend returns to town. It turns out that Mitch isn't the only one pleased to see her back, as many of his friends and townsfolk band together against the Water Authority and Mitch's terrible wife Mandy. I felt like there were bits of the storyline that I missed or just didn't understand, particularly some of the ins and outs of the water politics, but overall I enjoyed the understated humour amid the sadness, and I especially liked the cast of quirky characters who all felt very real.
September 14, 2018
I loved this latest book from Rosalie Ham- it is satire at its best. It's every bit as good as The Dressmaker, and I laughed and laughed and cried. That Mandy is a piece of work, as my grandmother would say. Mitch, the nice young farmer, so wants this to be HIS year where something goes right, but the drought is so hard on the land, the animals, the business, the marriage, and what is that Water Board up to? I love the way Rosalie Ham always seems to have a sting in her tail and I highly recommend this tale of a small town in crisis.
February 5, 2019
This was an extraordinarily boring book. I can’t believe I bothered to finish it. I should have ditched it after 50 pages - it never improved. It had potential and the water politics could have been informative, but nothing happened. There was also a total lack of character development and far too many characters anyway considering this was a small rural town. As you can gather , I wouldnt recommend it.
April 23, 2019
Worst book I've read in a long time, not sure why I wasted my time reading it to the end. Think I was just hoping it'd get better. Not one likable character in it, weak, confusing and hard to follow plot
December 27, 2018
Following the same setting as her first two novels, small rural Australian towns, The Year of the Farmer doesn’t quite match the writing of Ham’s first novel, nor some of the writing of her second novel.
As others have said, for a small town, there are a lot of people who live there. Too many characters that don’t seem to be as rounded as other characters Ham’s has created previously; character relationships that didn’t quite make 100% sense. I can understand the position Mitch finds himself in - stuck between the family farm suffering a crippling debt because of a drought and a vinidictive wife who threatens his livelihood at every turn, there was still something missing in his character.
Whilst I feel like the ending was meant to be ambiguous, it didn’t have the same effect as other novels that have a similar ending. Instead of going ‘ah, that makes sense and I feel a sense of closure’, instead I responded with ‘ugh, what was that? What the hell was Cal on about and who was it?’
Overall, it was ok, but not something I would recommend you rush out and read straight away.
As others have said, for a small town, there are a lot of people who live there. Too many characters that don’t seem to be as rounded as other characters Ham’s has created previously; character relationships that didn’t quite make 100% sense. I can understand the position Mitch finds himself in - stuck between the family farm suffering a crippling debt because of a drought and a vinidictive wife who threatens his livelihood at every turn, there was still something missing in his character.
Whilst I feel like the ending was meant to be ambiguous, it didn’t have the same effect as other novels that have a similar ending. Instead of going ‘ah, that makes sense and I feel a sense of closure’, instead I responded with ‘ugh, what was that? What the hell was Cal on about and who was it?’
Overall, it was ok, but not something I would recommend you rush out and read straight away.
February 22, 2020
The satire of the water situation that accompanies the character driven story of The Year of the Farmer is sharp and hits the target. Its inclusion in this book is deeply satisfying for personal reasons and because water and drought are complex social, economic and political issues faced in regional Australia it absolutely merits being portrayed in contemporary Australian fiction.
The characters all cover a particular interest group in the management of water. There are the farmers, the town folk, the water barons, the water entrepreneurs, the water board implementing actions to achieve targets set by politicians, the greenies and the out-of-towners (aka city folk) who have a single perspective based on one opinion they've been given. All of them have to figure out how to get along with their different objectives, opinions and needs. Water is essential to every community, without it there is no community, but when there's not enough to go around it causes the destruction of community as well.
I thought the water satire was so novel and so well done that I even recommended this book to my father (the last novel he read was quite probably in the 1970's) and suggested that he and mum listen to the audiobook in the car together.
The characters all cover a particular interest group in the management of water. There are the farmers, the town folk, the water barons, the water entrepreneurs, the water board implementing actions to achieve targets set by politicians, the greenies and the out-of-towners (aka city folk) who have a single perspective based on one opinion they've been given. All of them have to figure out how to get along with their different objectives, opinions and needs. Water is essential to every community, without it there is no community, but when there's not enough to go around it causes the destruction of community as well.
I thought the water satire was so novel and so well done that I even recommended this book to my father (the last novel he read was quite probably in the 1970's) and suggested that he and mum listen to the audiobook in the car together.
October 18, 2018
I loved this book. It's easily as good as "The Dressmaker" with its quirky and so real characters clearly drawn by the author, Rosalie Ham. Again there are sides taken, this time over drought and the politics of water allocations all with the underlying small town politics of people who have grown up together, who know each other's secrets and who have long held alliances and enemies. It made the current water politics of the Murray-Darling basin all the more real and understandable for those living with it on a daily basis. I can see this book as a wonderful movie as well!
February 27, 2019
This novel perfectly captures small town Australia - the worries of the farmer, the factions, the pub. Mitch Bishop has been caught on the rebound by 'Bicycle Mandy' and is already regretting his marriage when the love of his life, Neralie, returns to town to run the pub. Thrown into the mix are the corrupt water officials, intent on feathering their own nests. A simple plot, maybe, but it is laugh-out-loud in some places, the characters are well-drawn (if slightly over the top) and a satisfying ending - so enjoyed the ride.
April 8, 2021
Ah the fights in Australia over water, all comes to life in Aussie vernacular and crazy country people. Irrigation wars and drought can do in an Aussie farmer somewhere in inland NSW. Then there's the jealous mean wife trying to make something of herself and the old kindly ex-girlfriend who's arrived back in town to take charge of the local pub and centre of the community.
Plenty of dark humour in this well narrated audiobook. I think it would be better to listen to it all in one sitting but that's nearly impossible to do unless you're on a long road trip. A bit over 12 hours long.
Plenty of dark humour in this well narrated audiobook. I think it would be better to listen to it all in one sitting but that's nearly impossible to do unless you're on a long road trip. A bit over 12 hours long.
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