Black Lightning

by Dymphna Cusack

Cusack's classic that broke new ground in its treatment of the values of present-day Australia and in its picture of the changing Aboriginal world.

For Tempe Caxton, glamorous television star, life has lost its lustre. Her son was killed in the war, her lover has walked out on her, her job is over and life seems meaningless. Suicide seems to promise an easy way out.

While recovering from a failed attempt, she discovers a surprising secret in the pages of her dead son's diary - she has a granddaughter. And she soon finds out that her grandchild is in trouble - the family that have raised her are being unfairly evicted from the land they have held for four generations. Gradually Tempe is pulled into an alien world, with a new purpose; she is forced to rethink her long-held prejudices, fight for principles she has never before thought about, and find a new reason for living.

Genres: Fiction, Australia

249 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1964

About the author

Dymphna Cusack AM (21 September 1902 — 19 October 1981) was an Australian author. Born in West Wyalong, New South Wales, Dymphna Cusack was educated at St Ursula's College, and graduated from Sydney University with an honours degree in Arts and a diploma in Education. She worked as a teacher until she retired in 1944 for health reasons.

Cusack wrote twelve novels (two of which were collaborations), seven plays, three travel books, two children's books and one non-fiction book. Her collaborative novels were Pioneers on Parade (1939) with Miles Franklin, and Come In Spinner (1951) with Florence James.

Reviews

[Stef Rozitis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I expected to cringe my way through this (not sure why) but I found it a beautiful critique of gender, class and race while being romantic enough to count as escapism. My favourite things was how Aunti Lilian who you are sure is going to be the stereotypical spinster aunt is actually beloved and a point of emotional stability for the messed up family. I also liked how Christopher's journal with it's irritating wrong spelling that he explains he is partly doing to annoy people (but also to hide his actual ignorance behind) becomes a lot more adult sounding and with fewer mistakes once be becomes involved with Zanny. So in another reverse stereotype the young Aboriginal woman has a civilising influence on the white family.

The ironies and cruelties of the racist system in the book are all too real and even in such a romanticised tale the author could not get rid of these. I think it is good to keep them in. I was all set for ableism when Tempe....I don't want to give a spoiler actually but I was braced for ableism because she was such an ableist but she had to get over herself there too. There was a small instant of fat shaming, I wish there had been another way to make fun of that character. I liked the subtlety of the punishment visited on one of the villains. I was disappointed Aunt Lilian was not in at the ending or that we didn't get a bit more of her.

[Joan Garvan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book. I left it on the shelf for a long time thinking the story was something about Lightening Ridge but it certainly wasn't. Cusack is a thoroughly modern writer. I kept reflecting on the fact that she was born in 1902 and yet the themes and storyline could well have been written by someone born much later. I'm now a convert to Cusack's writing and will certainly follow-up with much more of her work. I've been wanting to read from this genre of Australian women writers and have read something by Eleanor Dark and Christina Stead, though I have to say I am liking Cusack the most. I've now ordered Inconvenient Women Australian Radical Writers 1900 to 1970 by Jacqueline Kent and looking forward to following up with this. I've been surprised that with some of these authors, both 19th and 20th century, the main character is male but pleased to see that at least in this book Cusack has a featured story about a woman. For a book first published in 1964 so good to see a strong element of the story featuring an aboriginal family and the way they were being treated. Certainly recommend this book to you.

[Owen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an odd sort of novel, in that it starts off in a competent vein with considerable literary skill and yet suddenly merges into a more skittery, school-girlish text that is quite at odds with the introductory chapters. And yet it is attempting to consider an important subject that in 1950s Australia was well nigh untouchable.

Anyone reading this text without having the faintest notion about the history of European treatment of Aboriginal Australians will find it hard to believe. And yet, black/white relations in Australia have still not found a genuine point of understanding even now in 2012. The events recounted here as background to the novel are no doubt understating things.

The novel itself is quite a patchwork of interesting and sometimes vital characterization (one of the most powerful characters only makes an appearance two thirds of the way through the book), mixed with an obvious degree of uncertainty about the subject matter. No doubt Cusack wanted to highlight the poor treatment of Aborigines at that time, and it might even be said to be a brave thing to do. Yet something about the nature of this all too Australian theme seemed to caution her, and much of the story lacks the lustre that this author has shown elsewhere, including in the early part of the book.

A very interesting book if you have a particular concern for what used to be called, and was at this time, the “Aboriginal question.” But a disappointing book in many other ways and it seems to me, rather surprisingly so.