Review:
Apr 22 2007
Swallow the air by Tara June Winch
Louis
Braille Audio, 2006. 3 CDs
Age 14+ Tara June Winch's narration of her novel leaves the listener
breathless with the beauty of her lyrical language as she describes the
sea and the land with loving detail. Her voice gains a lilting quality
and gives the prose a poetic feeling that is wonderful to listen to.
This is such a contrast to the almost matter-of-fact voice that she
uses to recount the huge and often disturbing themes that the book
explores: drug and alcohol abuse, domestic violence, single parents and
searching for identity.
This is the story of fifteen year old May who, with her brother Billy,
goes to live with Aunty when their mother dies. They both are searching
for their place in the world and find it increasingly difficult to live
with Aunty and her abusive partner. When Billy disappears after a
violent episode, May decides to find her father and trace her
aboriginal identity. Her journey takes her to the Northern Territory
and the outback and through the people she meets, she discovers what
family means and where she belongs.
Listeners will gain an understanding of what it is like to be a young
girl straddling two worlds, with a 'head-sick' Aboriginal mother and a
white father who has abandoned her. We all need acceptance and family
and this reading will help its listeners recognise those who love us
and whom we love.
The author, of Wiradjuri, Afghan and English heritage, is the 2004
Winner of the David Unaipon Award for Indigenous Writers. This quality
audio production could be listened to as a series of inter-linked short
stories or as a whole and would be a very valuable addition to texts
looking at adolescents coming of age and Aboriginal experience. Highly
recommended.
Pat Pledger
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Consulting, 2007