4.5 ★sThe publicity blurb for this intriguing book touts it as Part family saga, part history and part gothic thriller. This is a pretty accurate description of a grim but compelling story.The title does not reflect any reality, but rather is a reference to the White family who once owned a large pastoral station, Kuran, on the northern fringes of the Darling Downs, west of Brisbane. With that dynasty long gone, the property is now in the hands of John McIvor, son of the former station manager, Daniel McIvor. The father had grandiose plans for John to acquire ownership of Kuran Station through marriage to the last remaining White descendent. His big ideas came to nought and subsequently John worked long and hard to purchase Kuran, which he saw, in some misguided way, as his birthright.When the story opens in 1993, John is an elderly widower , living in the dilapidated ruins of a once grand mansion, Kuran House, amid the memories and ghosts of the previous occupants. Deeply conservative in both his morals and politics, John becomes an activist, campaigning against the proposed legislation for Native Title, in the wake of the Australian High Court’s Mabo judgment.While John is a key figure in The White Earth, the story revolves around his 9 year old great nephew, William. The young boy recently lost his father in a farming accident, and he and his mother, the vapid Veronica, are taken in by John, to live at the crumbling mansion, which is falling down around them. McGahan’s descriptions of the House (the word is always capitalised through the book) contribute to the Gothic atmosphere of the book. The sense of neglect, mould, decay, and sadness saturates the pages, and the brooding, grim House with its weird noises and mysterious rooms becomes like a character in the novel. Outback version of the classic ‘haunted house’? You betcha! The motif of rot is a dominant theme in this book. The decay which pervades all areas of Kuran Station is echoed by the stinking rot eating away inside William’s head, as his medical condition is allowed to continue undiagnosed and untreated by the negligent adults around him. The other key motif of The White Earth is fire. This is not warm, healing, nurturing fire, but rather damaging flames, cruel, catastrophic, surreal. It is throughout the device of fire that the paranormal elements of this book are best conveyed.Not being a fan of paranormal novels, I approached the ‘ghost story’ part of this book with a degree of scepticism. In the end I found that McGahan’s skill as a writer eased my anxieties, and the supernatural elements added greatly to the story and to the sense of the Gothic. While the narrative of the book is driven by the story of John McIvor’s passion for possession of land and, ultimately, ownership of Kuran Station, the underlying story is that of ideas about ‘country’, and the dispossession of the indigenous inhabitants. McIvor’s obsession plays out in his creation of an arch-conservative political lobby group, eerily similar to the emergence in Australian society of Pauline Hanson and One Nation in the mid 1990s. The earlier history of the Whites and McIvors is gradually disclosed, of brutal treatment of indigenous people as white settlers invaded ‘country’ in pursuit of their dreams of ownership and wealth from the land. And indeed, that brutality comes back to haunt the present generation.It is interesting to read this novel some 20 years after the Mabo decision and the passage of the Native Title laws. Although I did not plan it, I was fortunate to read this book during NAIDOC Week 2015, and during the days that the Constitution Committee was meeting with Aboriginal stakeholders about the plans for a referendum to formally recognise the first inhabitants in the Australian Constitution. How timely was that? It caused me to reflect on the plight of indigenous Australians today, and whether anything much has changed since the heady days when the passage of the Native Title Act promised great benefits for our Aboriginal population.I must confess that it took me a long time to read this book. Every so often I had to put it down and have a little rest. Although brilliant, it is an unremittingly grim story. I had this deep compassion for young, sweet, naive William, who is surrounded by some of the most unattractive characters you could ever read in a novel. His mother, Veronica, is a weak, self-centred person, hell-bent on acquiring McIvor wealth for herself. The gaunt house-keeper Mrs Griffith is a sinister presence, straight out of English gothic novels (think Mrs Danvers), with her own agenda regarding ownership. John’s estranged daughter Ruth returns to Kuran House at Mrs Griffith’s request, but their relationship remains embittered and ugly. Each of these unpleasant women manipulates William in some way to further their own unscrupulous ambitions. Above all, William is trapped in the thrall of his dour, scheming, hard-hearted great uncle. John harbours a wish for William, his last remaining male relative, to inherit Kuran, but the boy must prove himself worthy of what is, in his deluded mind, a priceless bequest. Driven relentlessly by his vision for the future, he puts the 9 year old through some cruel experiences, designed to test the boy’s mettle. Meanwhile, the child has a serious medical problem, is half-starved, rarely clean, and prevented from leaving the property to attend school or mix in society.I had to know William’s fate, so I kept reading to the very end, despite my reservations. There is not a single positive female figure in this book. Most of the males are either incompetent or evil. The land is blighted, by years of drought and by its hidden history of bloodshed. The house and all the outbuildings are ruinous. Even the one sweet spot in the landscape, the deliciously cool, green waterhole, has its dark secret.Yet, despite all these negatives, I think The White Earth is a brilliant book, and well worth reading. It won the Age Book of the Year - Fiction in 2004, deservedly so, in my opinion.
The winner of the 2005 Australian literary prize, the Miles Franklin Literary Award, this is a stunning novel set in the Darling Downs, a diverse farming region west of Brisbane. Prior to European settlement, because of its lush indigenous grasses,the region was important as a food source and culturally to the local Aborigine tribes. The arrival of the European farmers in the 1820s and 1830s put a stop to that, and the Downs quickly became the food basket for the region. Farming communities and towns quickly developed, as did large stations and homesteads which dominated their local communities. The indigenous people, as happened many places elsewhere, were displaced and effectively disappeared. With this background in mind, the story begins in 1992 with 9 year old William's father having an unfortunate accident on the farm, resulting in his death. Forced to leave the farm, William and his depressed mother are taken in by an unknown great-uncle, John McIvor, who owns what is left of one of the big stations, Kuran station established by the White family. He lives in the huge original and now very derelict homestead. The motives for this altruistic act become fairly clear as John attempts to mould, some would say brainwash, young William into his heir. It also becomes fairly clear that John is quite mad, with an unwavering obsession to keep the property in family ownership. This, of course, makes for quite a dangerous situation for a 9 year old boy to be in. No father and a non-functioning mother means he finds himself slowly being drawn into the spell his great uncle is weaving.At the same time, law changes are taking place that will give local Aborigines greater claim to lands that were traditionally used before European settlement. John knows secrets about the land the station is on that pertain to this, and he is determined that no one else will find out about them, thus safeguarding the property for his own interests.Sinister yes, and spooky yes, underlying tension and danger oozing throughout the narrative, with young William being manipulated beyond his childish understanding. And yet, the uncle never comes across as evil. His whole life has revolved around Kuran station, he loves the land with a deep passion and enormous respect, and although he doesn't have the financial resources to make it productive again as it once was, he does not want to see it destroyed. The gift of the clever writer is that you actually do feel sorry for the old man as he tries to protect all that is important to him.Any 9 year old child left to their own devices will project their own imagination and childish perceptions of the world onto what is going on around them. As William comes more and more under the spell of his great uncle's dream, he almost begins to operate in a parallel universe so that as the reader, at times you don't quite know yourself what is real and what is not.The story is cleverly told, with chapters alternating between John's story which essentially tells the history of Europeans in the area since the 1820s and how he came to be at Kuran; and William's story. There is always a sense of impending doom, with the two symbols of 'white' and 'fire' constantly threading themselves through the story. The third character in the story is the land itself. What a love for the land this author has - the vast pastures, the hills, the water holes, the dryness, the dust, the rain when it occurs. I read an interview with the author which I now cannot find. He grew up on the Downs so has this deep seated love and respect for the land plus a number of things that happened in the book also happened to him.My only criticism of the book is that I did feel at times, William was much older than 9 years old. He has to deal with a lot, and some of his perceptions and reactions are way beyond what I think a 9 year old's brain would process. Nevertheless this is a marvellous story of Australia and the continuing conflict between the traditional owners of the land and the European new comers.
What do You think about The White Earth (2007)?
I found this book after the prologue took a long time to get started. It also jumps from generation to generation and can get a bit confusing so keep up. The story itself is interesting basically it's a history repeating itself, history catching up with you sort of story. Some of the issue in this book were interesting and the feelings of revenge were also interesting and seemingly quite human even though they were extreme. One thing I did find myself thinking with this book is about Parents and the impact they have on their children. In this story it seems like the choices the grown ups make and the actions they take DIRECTLY impacts their children's life and this book states that it lays blame on the children's shoulders. An interesting thought. Is there not an age where children can simply be children and that they feel forced by their 'superiors' the adults around them into situations and actions? This book talks about the feeling each person has following something that their parents have done to them or in front of them or forced them into and the fact that most (not so much the women) feel like they are directly to blame for what has been done, and then act accordingly with either matching those actions for the rest of their lives, or deciding to take action to destroy their parents or successors. Despite this, do not be fooled the story isn't actually THAT exciting. Overall a story that you can get through easily, won't feel too annoyed about having spent the time with it, but overall only have some thoughts about what the book means. Is it racist? Are the political thoughts in it really good thoughts? those sorts of things. But for me. Much of a not much sort of book.
—Susan
McGahan writes really well but the symbolism in this one is just way over the top heavy-handed. Heavy enough to win some Australian literary prize even. It's the story of a wealthy family (the Whites, get it?) who lost everything (and may lose more, because, Mabo), and the one son (of their racist and violent overseer) who had no choice but to keep their rotting estate and its deep dark secrets all together. (view spoiler)[Oh, and how suppressing said secrets about Australia's unjust treatment of aboriginal people LITERALLY rots the brain of the young protagonist. Ugh. (hide spoiler)]
—Eileen Mack
This book rocked! I loved every page. It is set in a mythical part of Australia that bear a striking resemblence to the area where my parent's farm is located - the Darling Downs and Bunya Mountains. This book follows the life of a boy growing up in a large historically significant homestead with his extended - and somewhat unloving - family. He grows, becomes a timber getter and learns a lot about the histroy of the region.Having lived in a community very similar I found myself constantly reading it like non-fiction - I was completely drawn in. I have since given it to my father who farms in the region and my Grandfather who was a timber getter in the region. They both loved it.Andrew McGahan is a great writer and I love all his books.
—Stephanie Kratzmann
