Review:
Read by Julie Nihill.
Louis Braille Audio, 2007. ISBN 9780732033415
(15+) Sometimes you listen to a story that keeps reverberating long after you finish it. Love like water is one such audio that has stayed with me. It's always wonderful when you listen to a deeply moving tale that gives you insights into many things. Julie Nihill perfectly captures the voice of Cathy, the young woman who arrives in Alice Springs after the death of her fiance in a crop dusting accident. Deciding to put the past behind her, Cathy leaves her country life behind to find a new existence with her friend Margie, a fun loving city girl. When she meets Jay who is working for the local radio station, black and white worlds clash and lives change.
Nihill's reading highlights the subtleties of McDonald's story - white binge drinking at Bachelor and Spinster balls, black suicide because of racism, colour bars at hotels. Not only has this compelling reading made me ponder racism, and given me a greater understanding of its effects, but it has made me think about white people's relationship with the land and the tradition of properties passing only into a son's hands. If you were a woman and wanted to stay on the land, you had to marry someone who had land, and younger sons often had to find a job away from their parents' properties.
A complex, confronting story about black and white relationships, love, friendship and country life, this is an audio that is not to be missed. Highly recommended.
Pat Pledger
Love like water by Meme McDonald
Read by Julie Nihill.Louis Braille Audio, 2007. ISBN 9780732033415
(15+) Sometimes you listen to a story that keeps reverberating long after you finish it. Love like water is one such audio that has stayed with me. It's always wonderful when you listen to a deeply moving tale that gives you insights into many things. Julie Nihill perfectly captures the voice of Cathy, the young woman who arrives in Alice Springs after the death of her fiance in a crop dusting accident. Deciding to put the past behind her, Cathy leaves her country life behind to find a new existence with her friend Margie, a fun loving city girl. When she meets Jay who is working for the local radio station, black and white worlds clash and lives change.
Nihill's reading highlights the subtleties of McDonald's story - white binge drinking at Bachelor and Spinster balls, black suicide because of racism, colour bars at hotels. Not only has this compelling reading made me ponder racism, and given me a greater understanding of its effects, but it has made me think about white people's relationship with the land and the tradition of properties passing only into a son's hands. If you were a woman and wanted to stay on the land, you had to marry someone who had land, and younger sons often had to find a job away from their parents' properties.
A complex, confronting story about black and white relationships, love, friendship and country life, this is an audio that is not to be missed. Highly recommended.
Pat Pledger
© Pledger
Consulting, 2007