I really enjoyed this. It's a pot boiler to be sure but it's very well written. The description of action in particular. Also, it has a strong sense of place and there's always something going on - West's radio training in particular. It is a novel of its time - the aboriginals are savages - but at least they have dimension.
It's the sort of book I can imagine Tony Abbott enjoying - a bit pervy in a Catholic way (the breasts of the natives, a horny neglected housewife), macho man getting redemption by being speared, the dogged policeman who wants to have sex with the wife but also does his duty, men being manly, communing with the natives but also bossing over them, sacrificing your love to do the right thing.
It plunges into the action straight away with the rancher Dillon being speared. The makers of the film said the female character wasn't much but to me her journey is clear - she's neglected, lonely, and this experience flings her to the policeman but then out of it she grows up and takes over the running of the station. That's how they should have made the movie - more of her story, with her growing up and falling in love with the territory.
I've got to say I enjoyed it a lot - the pace was quick, the action intense. You can see why it played well in Europe with its sexy tormented whites and exotic native fauna and why so many people were interested in turning it into a film. A film would have to make a clearer version over whether the rancher and the policeman were good or bad though... and should have given the action to the wife.
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