Book Review: Wearing Paper Dresses by Anne Brinsden

Wearing Paper Dresses

by

Anne Brinsden

'A compelling story of country Australia with all

 its stigma, controversy and beauty.'

FLEUR McDONALD

Publisher: Macmillan Australia 

Publication date: 24th September 2019

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Pages: 384

RRP: $32.99 AUD

Format read: Trade paperback

Source: Courtesy of the publisher

Discover the world of a small homestead perched on the sunburnt farmland of northern Victoria. Meet Elise, whose urbane 1950s glamour is rudely transplanted to the pragmatic red soil of the Mallee when her husband returns to work the family farm. But you cannot uproot a plant and expect it to thrive. And so it is with Elise. Her meringues don't impress the shearers, the locals scoff at her Paris fashions, her husband works all day in the back paddock, and the drought kills everything but the geraniums she despises.

As their mother withdraws more and more into herself, her spirited, tearaway daughters, Marjorie and Ruby, wild as weeds, are left to raise themselves as best they can. Until tragedy strikes, and Marjorie flees to the city determined to leave her family behind. And there she stays, leading a very different life, until the boy she loves draws her back to the land she can't forget...

Wearing Paper Dresses is a beautifully written, heartbreaking story of mental illness and a family struggling to keep their head above water in the harsh Australian Mallee region.

The drought is in full force and son Bill is sent to the city to earn money to help support his parents back on the farm. He meets city girl Elise, refined and beautiful.

“Bill was from the Mallee, which meant he didn’t muck around either. He asked Elise to marry him – even though she was a non-catholic. And out of his league.”

They marry and have two children, Ruby and Marjorie. When Bill’s mother dies the family returns to the farm. Elise came from hats, gloves and pearls and tea in the Botanical Gardens to the dry, parched heat of the Mallee. Elise’s city ways never seem to fit in. The heat is oppressive and her French meringues are scorned. Ruby and Marjorie become as wild as the land around them.

Wearing Paper Dresses is captivating and immersive. It is not an easy read and does take some concentration but the reader is rewarded with a story that will capture your heart and leave you wondering if things could have turned out any differently.

The story follows Ruby and Marjorie as they grow up trying to protect their mother, always on alert for when the next bout of depression will hit. The girls are shunned at school and teased about their crazy mother.

In a place and time when men didn’t talk and feelings were kept inside the townsfolk offer Bill and Pa help in their own way.

Brinsden uses personification expansively and skilfully. Everything comes to life; the house, the trees, the weather. It’s a feast for the mind!

Wearing Paper Dresses is a story about life with all its harshness but from the depths of despair comes a glimmer of hope.

Anne Brinsden’s riveting debut has placed her firmly on the list of authors to watch out for.

 

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my rating  5/5

This review is part of the Book Lover Book Review Aussie author challenge

book #31 in the Australian Women Writers challenge

Photo credit: Pan Macmillan Aus

 As far back as Anne can remember she has loved stories. Mostly, she would read them. But if there were no stories to read, she would make up her own. She lives in the western suburbs of Melbourne now with a couple of nice humans, an unbalanced but mostly nice cat and a family of magpies. But she lived all of her childhood in the Mallee in northern Victoria before heading for the city and a career as a teacher. She received the 2017 Albury Write Around the Murray short story competition, judged and presented by Bruce Pascoe; and was highly commended in the 2018 Williamstown Literary Festival short story competition. Wearing Paper Dresses is her first novel.

 

Book Review: Khaki Town by Judy Nunn

Khaki Town

by

Judy Nunn

Khaki Town, Judy Nunn's stunning new novel, is inspired by a wartime true story which the Government kept secret for over seventy years.
 

Publisher: Penguin Random House Australia 
Publication date: 1st October 2019
Genre: Historical Fiction
Pages: 382
Format read: Uncorrected proof paperback
Source: Courtesy of the publisher via Better Reading

It's March 1942. Singapore has fallen. Darwin has been bombed. Australia is on the brink of being invaded by the Imperial Japanese Forces. And Val Callahan, publican of The Brown's Hotel in Townsville, could not be happier as she contemplates the fortune she's making from lonely, thirsty soldiers.

Overnight the small Queensland city is transformed into the transport hub for 70,000 American and Australian soldiers destined for combat in the South Pacific. Barbed wire and gun emplacements cover the beaches. Historic buildings have been commandeered. And the dance halls are in full swing with jitterbug and jive.

The Australian troops, short on rations and equipment, begrudge the confident, well-fed 'Yanks' who have taken over their town (and women). And there's growing conflict, too, within the American ranks. Because black GIs are enjoying the absence of segregation and the white GIs do not like it.

Then one night a massive street fight leaves a black soldier lying dead in the street, and the situation explodes into violent confrontation.  

Judy Nunn knows how to write a great Aussie story filled with quintessential Australian characters.

Khaki Town, set in wartime Townsville, is a character driven story centred on the rumoured uprising of African American soldiers during their time in Australia helping to build airfields.

Nunn paints a vivid picture of the 1940’s. Val Callahan, one time prostitute, now owner of the local pub is beautiful, tough and astute. She watches over her two young barmaids, Betty and Jill, as if they were her own daughters. Baz Taylor the racketeer never misses an opportunity to line his pockets but he is always sure to stay on Val’s good side. Aunty Edie, an aboriginal elder, has had a tough life but she is proud and hard working. The young girls look up to her. The story follows all these characters as the soldiers invade their town.

The characters are sincere and believable and the main theme of racism rings true to the era and Nunn doesn’t soften the hate and racist talk. The story builds slowly on why the soldiers mutinied. Highlighting the effect the influx of American soldiers had on the residents of Townsville and on the Australian soldiers.

The attitude some people had to the African American soldiers is shocking but the treatment they received from their own white officers is horrifying.

Nunn has written a fictional account of the time but the main points ring true to documents that have been uncovered. This is a story that has been covered up by both the Australian and American governments far too long.

*The book contains offensive language that the author included to remain true to the era.

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My rating   4/5

This review is part of the Book Lover Book Review Aussie author challenge

book #30 in the Australian Women Writers challenge

Letter 'K' in the 2019 A-Z challenge

   

 

Photo credit: Goodreads

 

Judy Nunn's career has been long, illustrious and multifaceted. After combining her internationally successful acting career with scriptwriting for television and radio, Judy decided in the 80s to turn her hand to prose. The result was two adventure novels for children, EYE IN THE STORM and EYE IN THE CITY, which remain extremely popular, not only in Australia but in Europe. Embarking on adult fiction in the early 90s, Judy's three novels, THE GLITTER GAME, CENTRE STAGE and ARALUEN, set respectively in the worlds of television, theatre and film, became instant bestsellers. Her subsequent bestsellers, KAL, BENEATH THE SOUTHERN CROSS, TERRITORY, PACIFIC, HERITAGE and FLOODTIDE confirm her position as one of Australia’s leading popular novelists.

Book Club Book Review: The Bride Test by Helen Hoang

The Bride Test

by

Helen Hoang

Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Series: The Kiss Quotient #2
Publication Date:1st July 2019
Genre: Romance
Pages: 300
RRP: $29.99 AUD
Format Read: Paperback 
Source: Courtesy of the publisher via Beauty & Lace Book Club

Khai Diep has no feelings. Well, he feels irritation when people move his things or contentment when ledgers balance down to the penny, but not big, important emotions—like grief. And love. He thinks he’s defective. His family knows better—that his autism means he just processes emotions differently. When he steadfastly avoids relationships, his mother takes matters into her own hands and returns to Vietnam to find him the perfect bride.

As a mixed-race girl living in the slums of Ho Chi Minh City, Esme Tran has always felt out of place. When the opportunity arises to come to America and meet a potential husband, she can’t turn it down, thinking this could be the break her family needs. Seducing Khai, however, doesn’t go as planned. Esme’s lessons in love seem to be working…but only on herself. She’s hopelessly smitten with a man who’s convinced he can never return her affection.

With Esme’s time in the United States dwindling, Khai is forced to understand he’s been wrong all along. And there’s more than one way to love. 

The Bride Test is book 2 in the Kiss Quotient series. I didn’t read The Kiss Quotient book 1. I knew it wouldn’t appeal to me but after reading the blurb for The Bride Test I decided to give book 2 a go. I felt this was more in line with what I enjoy reading.

I did have a hard time staying connected to My/Esme. She started off funny, witty and determined. She knew what she wanted and was going for it. She was going to seduce Khai and make him fall in love with her. Then all of a sudden she did a back flip “I can’t marry you unless you saw I Love You”. Who was this insecure girl? I much preferred the Esme who was determined to do anything to better her and her daughter’s life. 

The character of Khai Diep, a young man on the autism spectrum, was brilliantly portrayed and I could feel his anxiety and inner turmoil as he tried to be himself and also please those around him. He always felt like he was letting everyone down which was quite sad to watch.

Esme did a lot of talking but no communicating. I feel a bit more communication could have solved most of their problems straight up.

The plot was predictable and ran along the lines that I was expecting. 

I would love to read the stories of Khai’s mother, Co Nga, who went to America as a refugee and started her own restaurant chain and Esme’s mother, Linh, who was left to bring up a child alone in Vietnam after a brief affair with an American businessman. I think these two strong women would have very interesting stories to tell.

The Bride Test was a highly entertaining, sweet, fun romance read.

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My rating  3/5

This review first appeared on the Beauty & Lace book club

 

Photo credit:Goodreads

Helen Hoang is that shy person who never talks. Until she does. And the worst things fly out of her mouth. 
She read her first romance novel in eighth grade and has been addicted ever since. 
In 2016, she was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder in line with what was previously known as Asperger’s Syndrome. 
Her journey inspired THE KISS QUOTIENT. She currently lives in San Diego, California with her husband, two kids, and pet fish.