The Road from Coorain | Jill Ker Conway | This book was an extrodinary peice of work.

The Road from Coorain | Jill Ker Conway | HER BEST

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The Road from Coorain

	The Road from Coorain Jill Ker Conway Vintage, 1990 - 256 pages average customer review:based on 46 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

This book was an extrodinary peice of work.

I enjoyed this book emensily. The detail in this book was brilliant. I would recommened this to everyone.

HER BEST

Her book is a treasure to share with your mother, mother-in-law, aunts, sisters, friends....a heartwarming and interesting story of her childhood and journey to young-adulthood. A unique true tale of a childhood filled with love, adolescence with loss and learning, and facing the future. Better than any of her other books. If you like it, try Alice Taylor's work

This book was very well written; however....

I thought this book was very well written. I didn't find it all that interesting in some parts, but I can see how it could appeal to other people. I liked the beginning of the book better, when she was telling about what it was like to grow up in a remote region of Australia. I enjoyed that part because I have never experienced the hardships she went through. However, once she moved to Sidney and attended the University, her life was more commonplace, and she seemed quite egotistical.

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Unexplained Gaps Annoyed Me.

I found myself wondering if other readers were inquiring about the lapses I perceived. For example, it seemed that Alec Merton was glad for her autonomy, so why the split after 16 euphoric months? Why didn't Barry and Bob help divert Mom's attention from Jill more than they seemed to? Is it answer enough that Australian girls were expected to bear the burden of parents? If they loved their sister as much as it seemed, why were they not more involved in Mom's care? Ker Conway built up the fact that Mom's tirade against Barry's wife Roslyn caused a great problem and yet, aside from their swift leave-taking, no permanent or major rift is discussed. Ker Conway already seemed to be moving away from her mother's control so this incident would seem to have less import than that section of the book implies. Also, I kept wondering if there was not some way to better incorporate that very descriptive opening chapter so that it tied in more coherently with the rest of the book. If I did not have a discussion group to read this for, I might have quit before moving into the real action of the book as I found the extremely detailed description to be tedious. The Road from Coorain was fascinating in its discussion of Australia's settlers. Having just finished reading Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House series to my daughter, I found parallel after parallel between Ker Conway's story and the struggles of the Ingalls family in America. Ingalls-Wilder's writings completely lack interest in forwarding the position of women as a class, or even examining the possibility that U.S. women pioneers might be second class citizens. Ker Conway does discuss her mother's and her own frustrations with their status as women in Australia. She notes her feelings of frustration as the photographers and publishers and fashion designers show extreme disrespect toward women in her time as a model--making her want to buy only the most comfortable, possibly least fashionable clothing from that point on.. She discusses her mother's rage at being discounted as a contributor to her husband's estate. She explores the injustice she faced upon college graduation when she was passed over for a foreign service job apparently simply because she was a woman--"too good looking" one interviewer noted. I enjoyed the book and plan to go on to read TRUE NORTH. Dr. Conway sounds quite accomplished and interesting. I hope she gets around to writing more history of Australia.

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A childhood of sheep, colonial erudition, and sexism.

This highly lauded memoir left me slightly disappointed. While the author's life is interesting enough, and her willingness to share it allows us all the experience of childhood in the Australian bush, what begins as an engrossing descriptive narrative eventually ends as an engrossing descriptive narrative with an agenda. The author's explanation for her unexpected rejection from the Australian Foreign Service is that of simple sex discrimination. This superficial politicking seems inappropriate for a narrative that had, up to this point, presented each respective situation with subtle wit and razor sharp, substantive social insight. Innocence lost, perhaps? Or maybe scapegoating? She admits that the two male classmates selected in her stead were more than qualified candidates, each with well defined intellectual and professional goals. She even tells us that her own professional goals were all too nebulous, and that she had come to discover that a career in academics may not be at all inappropriate. Yet the episode with the Foreign Service serves as a platform for the introduction of petty feminism into an otherwise sparkling text. Its as if she's saying, "I'm perfect. Unfortunately, I'm a woman." As I read from that point forward I felt that twinge of feminist exclusivity which seemed to alienate me from her experiences because I'm a man. That's too bad, because all people (men and women) understand and experience feelings of loss, rejection, and achievement. Its part of being human, appropriately independent of gender.

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