The Secret River

infobox Book |
name = The Secret River
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption =
author = Kate Grenville
cover_artist =
country = Australia
language = English
series =
genre = Historical fiction
publisher = Text Publishing, Australia
release_date = 2005
media_type = hardback
pages = 334p.
isbn = 1920885757
preceded_by = The Idea of Perfection
followed_by = Searching for The Secret River

The Secret River is a novel written by Kate Grenville in 2005. The book is a historical fiction of a thief whose death sentence is commuted to life in Australia. The story starts in England and then moves to Australia. A major part of the story is set in Australia. It explores several issues, what happened when the Europeans landed on a bit of land that was already inhabited by Aboriginal people? [ [http://sunday.ninemsn.com.au/sunday/art_profiles/article_1841.asp?s=1 Kate Grenville: Secret River, Secret Past] ] It also explores how people's ignorance leads to fear, which can lead to disasters. The book is different from the author's earlier book in the amount of action [ [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2006/02/05/bogre29.xml&sSheet=/arts/2006/02/05/bomain.html The Telegraph review] ] . The book is also one of careful observation and describes the early Australian landscape with rich precision [ [http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/books/reviews/article347291.ece Independent Online review] ] . The book has been compared to Thomas Keneally's "The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith" and to Peter Carey's "True History of the Kelly Gang" for its style and historical theme. The book won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, the Christina Stead Prize for fiction and was shortlisted for the 2006 Miles Franklin Award and the 2006 Man Booker Prize.

Background

"The Secret River" was inspired by Grenville's desire to understand "what had happened when [her ancestor, Solomon] Wiseman arrived ... [on the Hawkesbury River at the area now known as Wiseman's Ferry] and started the business of 'settling'". [Grenville, Kate (2006), "Searching for The Secret River", Text, Melbourne, ISBN 978 1921 145391, p. 13] Her inspiration to understand this came from her taking part in the 2000-05-28 Reconciliation Walk across Sydney Harbour Bridge during which she realised that she didn't know much about "what had gone on between the Aboriginal people and the settlers in those early days". [Grenville (2006), op. cit., p. 12] Initially intended to be a work of non-fiction about Wiseman, the book eventually became a fictional work based on her research into Wiseman but not specifically about Wiseman himself.

The novel is "dedicated to the Aboriginal people of Australia: past, present and future". [Grenville (2005), "The Secret River", Dedication page]

Plot summary

After a childhood of poverty and petty crime in the slums of London, William Thornhill is sentenced in 1806 to be transported to New South Wales for the term of his natural life. With his wife Sal and children in tow, he arrives in a harsh land that feels at first like a death sentence. However, there is a way for the convicts to buy freedom and start afresh. Away from the infant township of Sydney, up the Hawkesbury River, Thornhill encounters men who have tried to do just that: Blackwood, who is attempting to reconcile himself with the place and its people, and Smasher Sullivan, whose fear of this alien world turns into brutal depravity towards it. As Thornhill and his family stake their claim on a patch of ground by the river, the battle lines between old and new inhabitants are drawn. [ [http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/g/kate-grenville/secret-river.htm Fantastic Fiction review] ]

The early life of William Thornhill is one of poverty, depredation and criminality, which is also seen in Charles Dickens [ [http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/generalfiction/0,,1691961,00.html The Observer review] ] . The early settlements are described passionately by the author. The main character is an unlikely hero, though he is a loving husband and a good father, he is also the villain in the way he interacts with the Indigenous inhabitants. While the main character tries to change his life when he falls in love with a piece of land and dreams of a life of dignity and entitlement, the past comes back to haunt him. His interactions with the Aboriginal people is described in detail. It shows him starting with fear, however after careful observation, he begins to appreciate them. The desire for him to own the land contrasts with his wife wanting to return to England [ [http://esposito.typepad.com/TQC_5/Secret_River.html The Quarterly Conversation review] ] . The clash is one between a group of people desperate for land and another for whom the concept of ownership is bewildering [ [http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/generalfiction/0,,1696367,00.html The Guardian review] ]

Literary significance & criticism

While the story has a incest theme, it is treated erotically by the author. It is not a predictable one of right and wrong, but one of fear and ignorance [ [http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/review.cfm?id=104792006 Scotland on Sunday review] ] . This is a fine novel of colonial life and of "the tragedy of the confrontation between Aborigine and white settler" [ [http://www.theage.com.au/news/reviews/the-secret-river/2005/07/08/1120704543439.html The Age review] ] . Though the book does not give an insight into the minds of the Aboriginals, it goes into great depth in the troubled mind of the main character [ [http://www.newstatesman.com/Bookshop/300000110109 New Statesman review] ] . The book is a powerful, highly credible account of how a limited man of good instincts becomes involved in enormity and atrocity.

"Searching for the Secret River"

Grenville followed up "The Secret River" with a non-fiction book titled "Searching for the Secret River" in which she describes both the research she undertook into the history behind the book and her writing process. She chronicles how she changed from her original plan of writing a non-fiction book about her great-great-great-grandfather, Solomon Wiseman, to writing a fictional work. [http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20518197-5003900,00.html Clarke, Stella (2005) "Searching for the Secret River", in "The Australian", 2005-10-07] ] . Reviewer Stella Clarke writes that "Searching for the Secret River" records Grenville's five-year journey to the finished novel, which started out as nonfiction, moved from first to third person, through exhaustive dissections and revolutions, before completion. It is education in the art, and craft, of fiction, a lesson in the arduous devotion it can command. Yet is much more than a quite unbelievably generous 'invitation into her writing room'. It is a courageous public scrutiny of her motives".

References