Susan H. (SuLu) reviewed Remembering Babylon : A Novel (Vintage International) on + 14 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Compelling and sophisticated novel about interactions between Europeans and Aboriginals on the Australian frontier.
This was a wonderful book, best read slowly, and at times aloud, for the pure poetry of the language. Do not expect a narrative line or characters who are visible and understandable. Instead, expect encounters with the unknown and original to suffuse the soul, and to witness moments of change. It is an attempt to write what is unwriteable, that place in Babylonian headspace before words and language colonize and order the ideas. I think it is quite successful in doing that. And one need not understand the author's artistic or intellectual project to enjoy the experience. Australia here, in its aboriginal state is/was western humanity's last encounter with the truly unknown. It's fleeting and miraculous. Anyone can feel that.
