brother fish is a nice big chunky read by Bryce Courtenay, this is the most recent book on the 'back to the library' pile. i've read a few of Courtenay's other books (The Power of One, Thommo and Hawk) and my brother's a huge fan, so it wasn't an unexpected choice when i saw it in the new books section at the library. brother fish is a story about mateship and the aussie battler, something typically australian, combined with something also typically australian - undercurrents of narrow-mindedness, racism and grappling with a national identity. narrated by brother fish himself: jacko, who is a tasmanian from a poor fishing background with the luck to have been taken under the wing of the local unmarried former english rose spinster -librarian and justice of the peace - (hence the mix of aussie slang with wordy literary passages). he goes off to war (korea, a neglected war in the Australian history books) and meets jimmy, an african american who has the knack of bringing the best out in everyone and united men for the greater good, even in the most awful of circumstances. however, jimmy consistently refuses credit for these personal virtues and attributes their successes to jacko's prowess as a harmonica player (his nickname is derived from a folksong that he learned from a korean guard). their friendship is the backbone of the story and a good half of the book tells (at great length) of their experiences as POW in various locations. the second half of the book focuses on what they do after the war - return to tasmania and resume the friendship (and tutelage) of the librarian, building a (cray)fishing empire and learning more about the mysterious past of the librarian.
while the book is an easy read, a real yarn which connects you from the beginning with the well fleshed out characters, i found myself several times in the book wondering where on earth it was heading to, and how it would ever draw to a close. it probably would have been just as good a read for me if he had rounded things off after the war, as the second half was fun to read but i missed the substance and a strong reason to keep reading. Courtenay does make a point in the second half of the book, that insidious racism still very apparent in australia today, and even more blatantly then: the white australia policy being the reason why jimmy must struggle to be allowed to settle in tasmania in the first place. while it's a story you would probably hear at any anzac day breakfast, it's well researched and full of facts and figures neatly disguised in colloquialisms.
while the book is an easy read, a real yarn which connects you from the beginning with the well fleshed out characters, i found myself several times in the book wondering where on earth it was heading to, and how it would ever draw to a close. it probably would have been just as good a read for me if he had rounded things off after the war, as the second half was fun to read but i missed the substance and a strong reason to keep reading. Courtenay does make a point in the second half of the book, that insidious racism still very apparent in australia today, and even more blatantly then: the white australia policy being the reason why jimmy must struggle to be allowed to settle in tasmania in the first place. while it's a story you would probably hear at any anzac day breakfast, it's well researched and full of facts and figures neatly disguised in colloquialisms.
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