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Golden Valley
The Valley challenges everything the Johnstones thought they knew about social status, work, race and family - but teaches them how to be themselves. For Malcolm, the new job with the Huon Council is a chance to build his idea of respectable job, nice house, pretty wife and two well-brought-up children. Marion, putting her past behind her, is firmly of the same mind - but can she find a way to keep her marriage without losing herself completely? Robert, desperate for his father's love, must find his own way to be the person he wants to be. Louise is shocked by the rough-and-tumble of the schoolyard and drifts through life, until she makes a decision that will nearly destroy her and split the family asunder. Set amid the social changes of the 1960s, Golden Valley is a warts-and-all portrait of southern Tasmanian life, written with intimate knowledge, insight and much love.
376 pages, Paperback
Published November 15, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
February 11, 2023
Ah! What can I say, to do this book justice, except to press it into the hands of all that I meet. Golden Valley is the Australian classic in full. This is a novel I can say with confidence will be read, treasured and held in households around the country, if only they knew of it.
Published by local author Marjorie Gadd in the Huon Valley, Golden Valley draws on a rich legacy of experience, living, and the vast basket of intergenerational tales present within communities like these, to draw from them a story that is vibrant and brilliant and incisive.
The novel is a joy to read, engrossing to the point that I could not put it down, and stayed up all night to finish it. The writing is evocative, lyrical and entrancing; so rich and rooted in place. It is this strength that shines through and makes Golden Valley the success that it is. You can taste the bush of Gadd's world, feel the treasured pikelets on your tongue.
The world of Golden Valley is one now fast disappearing, as the older generations pass on, which is part of why I say it will remain a classic - it locates 'australia' in a time and place, brings you into that world, and turns you inside out as it does so — as all classics should do.
Golden Valley is based, in part, on the world of the Huon Valley. The book elevates itself above its counterparts in interweaving the hard truths of the time in which it was set, and telling them with truth. This is book that does not shy away from the racism of the time, of the misogynist farming culture that held women should have only one place (the home) - and then subverts, satirises, and throws into relief these uncomfortable truths, transcending us above and against them. This is a novel unafraid of telling the whole picture, something many similar 'Australian period farming novels' erase altogether, and then forming a full, moving story beyond that limiting scope.
I love the characters, the way the plot of the novel is not one story, but many, woven into this greater tale of the Valley itself, and the people within it. The writing of Malcolm in particular made me loathe, rage at him, pity and empathise in equal measure. When you read the book, and encounter his character, you too will understand why this is testament to the power of Gadd's writing, and the success of the novel in pulling off his complex, difficult character.
Not only does Gadd reveal and tell truth and write an engaging story with brilliance (and balancing all with great mastery), she also works in the fact, lesser-acknowledged both in the fictional and the real Valleys, of Tasmanian Aboriginal peoples (Nuenonne Nation), who, returning to their Country during this period, were ostracised and quietly separated from the stories of history. To include them in the novel is one point alone, but Gadd goes beyond, shaping their characters with truth and great respect, giving them life and autonomy of their own. It is testament to the careful, deep research Gadd must have done, that so much of these characters is got right, their culture and ways of being represented accurately, respectfully.
Though the Aborginal characters are fictional, they could be any of those I grew up knowing, so real and accurate are the characterisations. As an added note, I loved the inventiveness of textual use when writing about racism, reflecting the bigotry and biases of the characters - lower-case i in Indigenous, or a in Aboriginal — a clever way of showing racism, without reverting to unnecessary slurs.
This is how deeply developed, written, well-told, and effective Gadd's novel is.
Read this book, and spread word of it to your friends. You will not regret it. As a person who rereads books I treasure, Golden Valley is one I will be rereading and recommending to those around me all my life!
Published by local author Marjorie Gadd in the Huon Valley, Golden Valley draws on a rich legacy of experience, living, and the vast basket of intergenerational tales present within communities like these, to draw from them a story that is vibrant and brilliant and incisive.
The novel is a joy to read, engrossing to the point that I could not put it down, and stayed up all night to finish it. The writing is evocative, lyrical and entrancing; so rich and rooted in place. It is this strength that shines through and makes Golden Valley the success that it is. You can taste the bush of Gadd's world, feel the treasured pikelets on your tongue.
The world of Golden Valley is one now fast disappearing, as the older generations pass on, which is part of why I say it will remain a classic - it locates 'australia' in a time and place, brings you into that world, and turns you inside out as it does so — as all classics should do.
Golden Valley is based, in part, on the world of the Huon Valley. The book elevates itself above its counterparts in interweaving the hard truths of the time in which it was set, and telling them with truth. This is book that does not shy away from the racism of the time, of the misogynist farming culture that held women should have only one place (the home) - and then subverts, satirises, and throws into relief these uncomfortable truths, transcending us above and against them. This is a novel unafraid of telling the whole picture, something many similar 'Australian period farming novels' erase altogether, and then forming a full, moving story beyond that limiting scope.
I love the characters, the way the plot of the novel is not one story, but many, woven into this greater tale of the Valley itself, and the people within it. The writing of Malcolm in particular made me loathe, rage at him, pity and empathise in equal measure. When you read the book, and encounter his character, you too will understand why this is testament to the power of Gadd's writing, and the success of the novel in pulling off his complex, difficult character.
Not only does Gadd reveal and tell truth and write an engaging story with brilliance (and balancing all with great mastery), she also works in the fact, lesser-acknowledged both in the fictional and the real Valleys, of Tasmanian Aboriginal peoples (Nuenonne Nation), who, returning to their Country during this period, were ostracised and quietly separated from the stories of history. To include them in the novel is one point alone, but Gadd goes beyond, shaping their characters with truth and great respect, giving them life and autonomy of their own. It is testament to the careful, deep research Gadd must have done, that so much of these characters is got right, their culture and ways of being represented accurately, respectfully.
Though the Aborginal characters are fictional, they could be any of those I grew up knowing, so real and accurate are the characterisations. As an added note, I loved the inventiveness of textual use when writing about racism, reflecting the bigotry and biases of the characters - lower-case i in Indigenous, or a in Aboriginal — a clever way of showing racism, without reverting to unnecessary slurs.
This is how deeply developed, written, well-told, and effective Gadd's novel is.
Read this book, and spread word of it to your friends. You will not regret it. As a person who rereads books I treasure, Golden Valley is one I will be rereading and recommending to those around me all my life!
February 4, 2023
Brilliant! I enjoyed this a lot. I would love to see this is a TV series or a movie. The characters were so... real. They were deep and I felt invested with all of them even the minor character. This book took me to some deep places, made me laugh, reflect and cry.
Can't recommend highly enough! Thank you Marjorie. I enjoyed every moment of this adventure.
Can't recommend highly enough! Thank you Marjorie. I enjoyed every moment of this adventure.
December 26, 2022
Thoroughly enjoyed this. A wonderful sense of time and place along with wise insight into the complexity of family relationships.
March 2, 2023
Thankyou Marjorie Gadd. I loved this book so much. Interesting and relateable from the start. Wonderful characters. An easy read, wonderful descriptions of everything. Hard to put down. Highly recommend.
January 25, 2023
Outstanding book!
Tremendous dialogue, characterisation and humour is displayed by the author in this book. There is a neat, surprising conclusion that relates nicely to the beginning of the text.
The epoch is the mid sixties to early seventies in an area of regional Tasmania. The author has profound, retrospective insights into this era. I found the book to be highly entertaining too.
I highly recommend Golden Valley!
Tremendous dialogue, characterisation and humour is displayed by the author in this book. There is a neat, surprising conclusion that relates nicely to the beginning of the text.
The epoch is the mid sixties to early seventies in an area of regional Tasmania. The author has profound, retrospective insights into this era. I found the book to be highly entertaining too.
I highly recommend Golden Valley!
July 25, 2023
I just recent finished reading Marjorie Gadd’s debut novel ‘Golden Valley’, which very intimately follows the lives of the Johnstone family as they adapt to rural life and try to navigate people’s expectations of them, even if it means wrestling their ambitions to the floor and squashing the truer parts of themselves.
The beauty of this book to me is in its raw authenticity, especially in the way it captures small town life. There were so many inner conflicts that I assumed would find some resolution, or at least be brought to a head and outwardly seen and addressed by other characters….but life doesn’t neatly resolve. Most people don’t have miraculous transformations after a personal epiphany or a come-uppance. They more often continue to be their flawed self, and often carry their hidden struggles with them their whole life, buried deep. This seemed to me to be one of the books central themes, and I found it deeply sad, and deeply honest. Tragic but true.
In reading this book I also had to let go of the expectation that most introduced point of view characters would recur and play a greater role in the story, whether it was Salty, or Julie, or any of the others who were so well realized in their introduction only to fade again into the background of the Johnstone’s lives. These characters make up the many little vignettes in this book. Snapshots of all the different lives being lived in Golden Valley in the 1960’s.
This book is slow and meandering and beautiful. It languishes in its surroundings, and so accurately describes the feeling of growing up in a small town.
As a resident of the valley myself, it was wonderful to have my surroundings so lovingly described. I could see them so vividly as I read, and yet there was always a quirk to the prose that made it feel utterly unique to Gadd, making me consider images I was very familiar with from a new angle, and more feelingly, whether it was ‘the green muscle’ of a wave, or silence described as ‘a shaft of nothing in the ether.’
I know I will miss Louise, Robert, and Marion, (Malcolm not so much). And look forward to reading Marjorie’s next project.
The beauty of this book to me is in its raw authenticity, especially in the way it captures small town life. There were so many inner conflicts that I assumed would find some resolution, or at least be brought to a head and outwardly seen and addressed by other characters….but life doesn’t neatly resolve. Most people don’t have miraculous transformations after a personal epiphany or a come-uppance. They more often continue to be their flawed self, and often carry their hidden struggles with them their whole life, buried deep. This seemed to me to be one of the books central themes, and I found it deeply sad, and deeply honest. Tragic but true.
In reading this book I also had to let go of the expectation that most introduced point of view characters would recur and play a greater role in the story, whether it was Salty, or Julie, or any of the others who were so well realized in their introduction only to fade again into the background of the Johnstone’s lives. These characters make up the many little vignettes in this book. Snapshots of all the different lives being lived in Golden Valley in the 1960’s.
This book is slow and meandering and beautiful. It languishes in its surroundings, and so accurately describes the feeling of growing up in a small town.
As a resident of the valley myself, it was wonderful to have my surroundings so lovingly described. I could see them so vividly as I read, and yet there was always a quirk to the prose that made it feel utterly unique to Gadd, making me consider images I was very familiar with from a new angle, and more feelingly, whether it was ‘the green muscle’ of a wave, or silence described as ‘a shaft of nothing in the ether.’
I know I will miss Louise, Robert, and Marion, (Malcolm not so much). And look forward to reading Marjorie’s next project.
September 2, 2023
A thoroughly enjoyable read, a book I couldn’t put down, thank you Marjorie Gadd!!
An insightful and interesting look at a family adjusting to both personal and social issues in the Huon Valley in the 1960s
An insightful and interesting look at a family adjusting to both personal and social issues in the Huon Valley in the 1960s
January 26, 2023
A wonderful book that I found highly relatable, having grown up in an area not all that far from where this book is set. It beautifully captures the era and the inevitable societal changes.
April 25, 2023
Moderately entertaining, but a it bland. An interesting depiction of life in country southern Tasmania a few years back. Realistic characters, events & dialogues. Gorgeous cover painting!
December 8, 2022
Wonderful and heartfelt description of a woman's coming of age in Tasmania's rural South in the mid 1960s-70s.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews