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Water man
Gunner Fitch, a near-legendary water diviner, has been dead for over fifty years., but people in the town of Logan's Reef are still trying to escape his strange legacy.
His son Mal, a famous Sydney theatre director, returns every year to the drought-stricken town for reasons he is only beginning to understand. An old story of rivalry and passion rules his blood, involving an unkept promise and "a chain of hurt reaching down from a cruel, courageous action taken by a barely remembered woman in the name of love".
When Ida, Mal's actress lover, writes a play based on the life there, matters left unfinished in one generation begin to clamour for attention in the next.
It takes three men in Gunner's old truck, one of them an uncanny fit-throwing outcast with a nose for hidden water, to finish what Gunner had set in motion all those years before. To allow the past to break through and the circle to close. And, in so doing, to reveal to those lost in their lives a simple truth: "The thing about change is it shows you who you were all along. It brings you to yourself."
His son Mal, a famous Sydney theatre director, returns every year to the drought-stricken town for reasons he is only beginning to understand. An old story of rivalry and passion rules his blood, involving an unkept promise and "a chain of hurt reaching down from a cruel, courageous action taken by a barely remembered woman in the name of love".
When Ida, Mal's actress lover, writes a play based on the life there, matters left unfinished in one generation begin to clamour for attention in the next.
It takes three men in Gunner's old truck, one of them an uncanny fit-throwing outcast with a nose for hidden water, to finish what Gunner had set in motion all those years before. To allow the past to break through and the circle to close. And, in so doing, to reveal to those lost in their lives a simple truth: "The thing about change is it shows you who you were all along. It brings you to yourself."
315 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1993
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November 15, 2021
A great book let down by the ending. While the writing style is a little dated, I loved the build up of characters in the country town & the development of the story - a definite 4 stars until the last 50 pages. I don't want to spoil the book for others (so won't describe it), but I found the ending too vague & it felt like a cop-out, akin to the cliched "and then they woke up". Interesting to see Roger McDonald's development as a writer ... his more recent "Ballad of Desmond Kale" and "When Colts Ran" were both brilliant.
Displaying 1 of 1 review