The Lieutenant

by Kate Grenville | Literature & Fiction |
ISBN: 1847673473 Global Overview for this book
Registered by wilksie of Sheffield, South Yorkshire United Kingdom on 3/4/2012
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1 journaler for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by wilksie from Sheffield, South Yorkshire United Kingdom on Sunday, March 4, 2012
Read May 2010.
So many books are described as uplifting but are no such thing. Thankfully, 'The Lieutenant' deserved the description. Beautifully and poetically written, it tells of a young lieutenant of the Marines who was among the first colonists of Botany Bay. The whole book is about empathy for other human beings, no matter how different they may first appear and Lieutenant Rooke’s love of the aboriginal people of Australia is wonderfully told, as is his friendship for the young girl, Tagaran. I loved the slow understanding of language and the importance of context and emotion. The chapters written in Australia are exceptional but less perfect are the parts detailing Rooke’s early life and much later old age which slow the pace and don’t quite fit in. I do realise that Rooke’s social awkwardness (shyness, not ASD as some have conjectured) is one of the reasons he isolated himself from the colony and was therefore alone and found it easier to contact the native people. And once we were told that Rooke was based on the real life Lieutenant William Dawes, it seemed unnecessary to fictionalise his later life. I would have liked to see the novel finish with Rooke’s farewell to Tagaran as he left Australia for an uncertain future and then the afterword could console with details of Dawes’ survival and life as an anti-slavery campaigner. But it was good to find that our so-called ‘modern’ views on race and humanity were also held by an ordinary marine in the 18th century

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