#9: Home by Larissa Behrendt

[veleda-k.livejournal.com]

#9: Home by Larissa Behrendt


This is an incredible book. It's so painful, so unflinchingly honest, and yet so beautiful. It's about the effects of systematized and institutionalized abuse and cruelty, but also about the value of love and family. Nothing goes quite as the characters want it to, and people hurt each other for the pettiest and most ridiculous of reasons. However, there's a sense of hope in the book.

Home is about the power of history, how history can be used to oppress, but also how it can be used to reclaim. It's also about the way history changes depending on who's telling it. And it's about family, both the ways family can hurt you and the ways they can heal you.

I'm so glad I read this, and I feel the need to read much more on Australia's Stolen Generation and the North American equivalents.

Comments

[lyras.livejournal.com]

I agree, it's an excellent book. I suggested it to my book club, and one of the Australian members thanked me, saying it really brought home to her the damage that had been done.