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The Anglican Church in Tasmania Search |
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a healthy church...transformingLIFE |
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Book review
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On a fantastic and enlightening school trip, driving through the middle of Australia from Adelaide to Darwin I took this book, Burke's Soldier, because I knew I'd be in some of the places mentioned. I was captivated from the first page. This book tells the story of the Irishman John King, the only survivor of the infamous Burke and Wills trip. John King is the 'camel man' of the trip, taken from India where he was fighting for the British, and lies on his death bed telling and reminiscing about the adventure, as he remembers it. NotoriousI found the time-line of this book a little confusing (although I was reading it in small sections, on a bus), but it gives a very clear picture of Australia in the late 19th Century and the hardships both of living there and the notorious crossing to find 'the Gulf'. Burke's Soldier is well researched, and the long list of sources at the back gave me confidence that I was reading a historically accurate book, though with some writer's licence, of course. There are few specifically religious themes in Attwood's story, but it covers some issues that are important to remember in today's flippantly superficial world. It is a tale of family love and obligations, responsibilities to friends, respect and endurance, it is a poignant reminder of our duties to serve and stand by one another through tough times. The forgotten manBurke is 'travelling for his woman', who is revealed to be the Virgin Mary, and King's sister works for several 'warm-hearted' clergymen. Burke's Soldier has some suspense (despite prior knowledge of the outcome of the expedition), but reading it just for the history was interesting. I found this book especially personal when places were discovered in the book that I had passed through just that day (such as King's Creek, named after John King). Attwood has used several interesting writing techniques, such as no speech marks, and time jumping, but overall this is a very readable book. Alan Attwood has written an amazing survival story from the point of view of the 'forgotten man' on a fateful journey, Burke's soldier. |
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