Blackwattle Road is a family saga that primarily involves the stories of the McLeans and the Trelelans, two clans who struggle against many odds and become entwined in complex and difficult ways. The central theme in the novel is the search for a sense of place, of belonging, but it is a mostly fruitless search as answers elude and torment almost all the characters. Limitations and curses (in this case, vengeful birds and malevolent gum trees) pass from parent to child, and the cycle of loss, silence and misinformation becomes the burden of each subsequent generation. The mood is therefore, understandably, melancholy. Blackwattle Road is a novel that I wanted to like more than I actually did. While at points I found myself deeply involved with the story, for too much of the novel I felt frustrated, partly because I felt that the early part of the story was really a tale of convenience to get to the more interesting later generations, and indeed, the novel does get much better as it goes along. But it is an uneven novel and, in parts, confusing, with unexplained slippages in the narrative. I fear that readers may give up in the early stages, long before the novel gets into its stride.

Annelise Balsamo is the assistant editor of Labour and Industry.

C. 2003 Thorpe-Bowker and contributors

Tags: ann charlton