The Battlers

De: Kylie Tennant

Narrado por: Jacklyn Kelleher

Snow was one of the drifters and wanderers of Australia in the '30s whose home was the open road; Dancy, a hard-bitten young woman, had been deserted on the track. Their story, and that of the motley crowd of battlers that travelled the roads looking for work or avoiding it, is told with compassion and humour in this rich, human tale of life in the raw.©1941 Bennison Rodd (P)1996 Bolinda Publishing

I'm mostly enjoying this book...

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

As a period piece about my adopted country, this gives insight into the reasons the Depression years left such scars on the generation that lived through it. The raw racism and sexism is quite shocking to my ears tuned as they are to the politically correct censorship of my generation. For someone trying to understand the attitudes of many of those now in their eighties and nineties, this book would be a very good start.

What did you like best about this story?

For the most part I find myself concerned about the fate of the characters, both those who are centre stage and the bit players. There is also the feel there is nothing exaggerated but while names may be changed, everything was experienced by the writer who made such a journey.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

The attempt at Angus's accent is a quite unacceptable mish-mash of Irish and Scottish and almost made me fast forward. Also, the descriptive passages are read with a genteel English intonation - a more robust Australian accent would have been far more authentic and would not have left the listener with the feeling that the true voice of the author is not being allowed to come through.