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........... ........... ............
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| 11 Aug. 2000 |
Frailty, Resilience and Loss: 'Thursday's Child', by Sonya Hartnett
Rosemary Williamson
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Sonya Hartnett. Thursday's
Child. Penguin, 2000. RRP: $A19.95. |
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Within many families a seam of oddness lies
beneath the surface of respectability. Sometimes it can be hidden by the
convenience of distance or the past. But occasionally the oddness is so extreme
that it is not easily suppressed, and gains such momentum from its surroundings
that a family is swept along in its path, and has little choice but to accept
and adapt.
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Such is the tale of the young enigmatic boy
Tin Flute, the eternal wanderer of Thursday's Child. Set in an
anonymous part of rural Australia during the Great Depression, the novel covers
some six years of Tin's childhood as remembered by his elder sister
Harper. The silent and elusive Tin, who was "born to burrow", is
compelled to dig a maze of tunnels beneath the desolate poverty of life above
ground. In doing so he plays an important part in the vicissitudes of the Flute
family in those grim times, and to Harper's gradual awakening to the
mysteries of the adult world. In this sense the story is about Harper herself,
with Tin's tunnelling and eventual transformation into rural legend
providing a counterpoint to her journey through and departure from
childhood.
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