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Praiseworthy
Praiseworthy | Alexis Wright
2 posts | 1 read | 5 to read
An astonishing and monumental masterpiece from the towering Australian writer Alexis Wright whose words explode from the page (The Monthly) In a small town in the north of Australia, a mysterious cloud heralds both an ecological catastrophe and a gathering of the ancestors. A crazed visionary looks to donkeys to solve the global climate crisis and the economic dependency of the Aboriginal people. His wife, seeking solace from his madness, follows the dance of butterflies and scours the internet to find out how her Aboriginal/Chinese family could be repatriated to China. One of their sons, named Aboriginal Sovereignty, is determined to commit suicide. The other, Tommyhawk, wishes his brother dead so that he can pursue his dream of becoming white and powerful. Praiseworthy is an epic which pushes allegory and language to its limit; a unique masterpiece that bends time and reality, opening new literary vistas; a cry of outrage against oppression and disadvantage; and a fable for the end of days.
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mjtwo
Praiseworthy | Alexis Wright
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Panpan

25 Sep-6 Oct 24 (audiobook)
Such a chore, but I felt I could not be too critical without pursuing it to the end. I wish I hadn‘t.
I quite liked magical realism at uni - Rushdie in particular but others also. Maybe I have lost my patience for it with age.
This book needed a brutal editor. It was repetitive to the point that it could have been a good short story or novella. But as is, was a bloated 700+ pages. I do not understand the acclaim.

LeeRHarry I picked this one up when I went to hear the author speak at the Melbourne Writers Festival - now I‘m not sure I‘m going to like it and it feels pretty intimidating. 1mo
mjtwo @LeeRHarry I think I am being harsh. I don‘t usually mind a long book but the audio seemed to go forever and was so slow and repetitive. I expect it may have been better in print, but it has been sitting on my shelf for a while and I was too intimidated by its girth. Curious to hear what others think. 1mo
12 likes3 comments
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JenP
Praiseworthy | Alexis Wright
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I am really trying to get through this. Trying being the key word here.

Tamra I hope it pays off. I understand it‘s a chunkster. 4mo
JenP @Tamra I hope it doesn‘t make the longlist for the booker so I can abandon it. I‘m sure it‘s very good but I think it does require a certain baseline knowledge of Australian politics and sociopolitical conflicts to truly appreciate. It‘s a very challenging book to read. Also satire isn‘t my favorite genre within literary fiction 4mo
Tamra @JenP hmmmmm, I might need to unstack it. 4mo
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JenP @Tamra it‘s just very dense and requires a significant amount of concentration. 4mo
squirrelbrain It‘s high up on the Booktubers‘ Booker predictions at the moment. I imagined it being more accessible, so I‘ll hang fire on starting it until I know if I ‘need‘ to. 😬 4mo
JenP @squirrelbrain yes, I am debating whether I want to put it on my prediction list but even though it‘s won lots of awards, that doesn‘t always match up with longlist nominees. 4mo
24 likes1 stack add6 comments