"One does not sell the earth upon which the people walk."

On the rocks. Binalong Bay, Bay of Fires, Tasmania. July 2021.

Ridgeline by Michael Punke

Richly evocative and deeply effective, Ridgeline offers a sensitive rendering of the destructive mythos of American exceptionalism and the 'settling' of the west. The novel roots itself in real events. In shifting from the perspective of the uneasy Oglala brave Crazy Horse and the lonely isolated wife of an impetuous and capricious cavalry officer, the book resists the tendency of centralising the experience of white male soldiers and settlers.

I am not one too concerned with essentialising the gender or ethnicity of an author when it comes to telling stories, and I am certain that there will be some that may choose to question Punke's right to tell these stories. However, this is a well-researched and empathetic rendering. If not able to rectify the great crimes done to the first peoples of North America, it at least recognises the dignity of a people so often reduced to crude caricature.

That's not to say that the book is simply a worthy gesture to reconciliation. It's an exciting and masterful tale of suspense, turmoil, survival and destruction all in one. I found the narrative flew by, and although we know how the (broader) tale is going to end - although I knew nothing of the immediate events described in the novel - I was gripped the whole way through.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

Comments

Ah, Joe, you never knew the whole of it...

I still have the robot on the job. Here you can see the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery . And here is a poem: Soliloquy for One Dead Bruce Dawe Ah, no, Joe, you never knew the whole of it, the whistling which is only the wind in the chimney's smoking belly, the footsteps on the muddy path that are always somebody else's. I think of your limbs down there, softly becoming mineral, the life of grasses, and the old love of you thrusts the tears up into my eyes, with the family aware and looking everywhere else. Sometimes when summer is over the land, when the heat quickens the deaf timbers, and birds are thick in the plumbs again, my heart sickens, Joe, calling for the water of your voice and the gone agony of your nearness. I try hard to forget, saying: If God wills, it must be so, because of His goodness, because- but the grasshopper memory leaps in the long thicket, knowing no ease. Ah, Joe, you never knew the whole of it... I like Bruce Dawe. He just my be my favourite Austral

There was nothing left. No reason, no conscience, no understanding; even the most rudimentary sense of life or death, good or evil, right or wrong.

Here is a self portrait. I’m calling it Portrait of a lady in a dirty window . Shocking, isn’t it? However, it is apt! Samhain , Nos Galan Gaeaf , Hop-tu-Naa , All Saints , All Hallows , Hallowmas , Hallowe'en or HALLOWEEN . It’s Theme Thursday and we’re talking about the festivals traditionally held at the end of the harvest season. Huh? No wonder Australians have trouble with the concept of HALLOWEEN. For the record, in my thirty-two L O N G years on the planet, I can’t say I’ve ever seen ghosts ‘n goblins, trick ‘n treaters or Michael Myers stalking Tasmania’s streets at the end of October. [That said, I did once see a woman as pale as a ghost turning tricks that looked like Michael Myers in late November one time.] Despite the best efforts of Hollywood, sitcoms, and innumerable companies; it seems Australians are impervious to the [ahem] charms of a corporatized variant of a celebration of the end of the "lighter half" of the year and beginning of the "darke

In dreams begin responsibilities.

A life at sea, that's for me, only I just don't have the BREAD. That's right, Theme Thursday yet again and I post a photo of a yacht dicking about in Bass Strait just off Wynyard. The problem is, I am yet again stuck at work, slogging away, because I knead need the dough . My understanding is that it is the dough that makes the BREAD. And it is the BREAD that buys the yacht. On my salary though, I will be lucky to have enough dough or BREAD for a half dozen dinner rolls. Happy Theme Thursday people, sorry for the rush.

This will hurt me...

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