After the Fire, A Still Small Voice

Good read. would rate it about on a par with her other book "All the Birds Singing"

Evie Wyld is a young author but one who is full of promise if this, her first novel, is an example of her work. The two main characters are Frank and Leon and their stories intertwine gently until the links between them are clear. Both are the products of disfunctional families where their fathers have been affected by the events they went through in serving their country in wartime. Frank has had a difficult childhood and is a rough drifter, after the breakdown of his relationship he moves to his family's shack by the beach. Leon works in his family's cake shop until he is drafted for Vietnam. The writing is this book is both clear and bold but the scenes and the themes are haunting - racism, being an outsider, trauma. This is a seriously good book.

Points positifs: la description minutieuse et souvent lyrique d'un coin perdu sur la côte nord de l'Australie où des hommes de trois générations de la même famille cherchent refuge après avoir souffert du P.T.S.D. J'ai apprécié l'effort de l'auteur pour nous faire sentir leurs angoisses. Je vous laisse découvrir par vous-même s'ils arrivent à chasser leurs démons et on comprend qu'ils sont nombreux, pour preuve, les passages concernant la Guerre du Vietnam vraiment éprouvants. Points négatifs: Je n'ai rien contre une construction expérimentale pas linéaire; ici on passe de chapitre en chapitre entre le père, Leon et son fils Frank, mais l'auteur semble se forcer à innover où dans le même paragraphe des passages réalistes côtoient des passages oniriques, voire carrément dans des hallucinations. On dit en passant que les grand parents, Roman et Maureen (pas vraiment le prénom pour une juive hollandaise) sont des survivants de la Shoah, mais ce thème n'est jamais développé. A un moment des voisines de Maureen se moquent de son manque de maitrise de la langue --( scène inutile et totalement artificiel) et puis c'est tout. A un autre moment on lance le débat sur les aborigènes, puis plus rien !! Sur la couverture on parle de la disparition d'une adolescente, puis d'une gamine de 7 ans. Je pensais lire un roman qui traitait de ce sujet mais ce n'est pas le cas. Ces deux disparations sont vraiment annexes. L'auteur, avait-elle une autre idée au départ qu'elle n'a pas su (pu) développer ? Mais c'est surtout l'âge des protagonistes par rapport aux différents conflits qui "pose problème". Roman, le grand père, s'engage dans l'armée australienne pour combattre en Corée alors qu'il a un petit commerce et un gamin de 14 ans, situation très peu probable. Ce gamin, Leon, serait né aux environs de 1936. Roman se bat, selon l'auteur, dans la "jungle" en Corée, ce qui n'est pas un pays tropical à moins qu'il s'agisse d'une métaphore. Plus tard, Leon qui tient le commerce, une pâtisserie, de son père est appelé pour servir au Vietnam. Il serait donc trentenaire lors de ce conflit.. Conclusion: un roman ambitieux mais pas totalement maitrisé. P.S. J'aimerais que l'auteure explique le titre, une citation de la Bible, alors que dans le roman son héros Frank semble mépriser la religion.

The highlight of this book for me is the descriptive prose. Evie Wyld has a real talent for using fresh language and images, and it shines through from the first page to the last. The story is about traumatised men who bottle up their emotions and fail to communicate, and it's well told, as we alternate between rageful Frank in the present day and his father Leon growing up and going through the Vietnam War. Much of the force that drives the novel on is discovering the reasons for Frank's anger and particularly for his hatred of his father, but this is never really resolved satisfactorily. It's consistent with the characters that nothing really gets openly expressed, but it left me feeling a bit disappointed at the end. I'd still recommend this book for the luminous prose and the deft handling of compelling themes, but just don't expect all the strands to be pulled together perfectly.

I read this book after seeing that it was advertised as the `Booktrust online reading group' choice for September 2010. The book follows the lives of two men, Frank and Leon; both live in Australia and are separated in time by several decades. Leon is principally followed during the Vietnamese War period, whilst Frank lives in present times. The theme of the book could be broadly explained as two men attempting to cope with their personal journeys in life whilst negotiating considerable obstacles involving their extended family and own varying social circumstances. I struggled to get into the first chapter as I found it difficult to make sense of what was happening. Throughout the book both characters look back in time or drift in and out of dreams and I found it confusing at times to differentiate from reality and dreams, past and present. The author has a wonderfully descriptive writing style, but for me she didn't do enough to delineate the past from the present or dream from reality. On the other hand however, I was often able to lose myself in the book with her vivid descriptions of the local scenery and of thoughts, feelings and desires. The book was quite compelling and held my interest long enough in order for me to continue to the end, but I would have wanted a little more clarity in order for me to give this a higher rating.