Bring Larks and Heroes [Mass Market Paperback]

Thomas Keneally (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1995

This novel is set in a remote British penal colony in the 1790s. It gives an insight into the settlement of hungry transports and corrupt soldiers, and tells the story of Corporal Phelim Halloran, and the demands made on him - by superior officers and, most often, by his conscience.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (September 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140109293
• ISBN-13: 978-0140109290
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #926,222 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A bard of prose, January 20, 2001

By 

Stephen A. Haines (Ottawa, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bring Larks and Heroes (Mass Market Paperback)

The best way to review Keneally is to use the allotted thousand words to cite quotations from his work. Bring Larks and Heroes is an item within a well established genre - Irish writers conveying their intense feelings of who and where they are. In this case, however, the Irishman is a third generation Australian, the place is half-way around the planet and it's in the founding years of the Port Jackson prison colony.

Keneally's Corporal Phelim Halloran represents nearly every aspect of Irish traditions. He's even been jailed for taking part in a subversive meeting before shipment to Australia. He wasn't shipped as a felon, however, but as part of the guard contingent. Beset on all sides by the harshness of British military governance and the Australian environment alike, he's confronted with a succession of difficult choice s. Ann Rush is a fellow Irish Catholic who Halloran considers his "wife" even without the sanctity of a Church-mandated ceremony. Keneally gives her a subtle power to influence Halloran's thinking. She becomes a pivot point of his considered options. Confronted by a rebellion of Irish prisoners, who seem to be the only ones capable of organizing one, Halloran studiously avoids taking any lives. But a new opportunity arises, one promising a new kind of freedom. Halloran makes a choice; with eternal consequences.

Is it stereotyping to say that an Irishman remains Irish no matter where the British or Nature has driven or taken him? Keneally's ancestry gracefully emerges through his words. He is able to convey the mixture of Celtic traditions, Roman Catholicism under Anglican rule, felon and Marine interactions, brought together on the eastern shores of The Last Continent. While relating his tale of people embroiled in heart-rending events, Keneally remains able to convey the uniquess of the Australian environment. The morbid greyness of gum tree forests, sky and sea in collusion to overwhelm the senses, the sterility of the coastal soils, all conspired to bend the minds of the English exiles.

Keneally is Australia's bard. In fact, he's the Bard of the English language. His prose echoes the the beauty of the best bardic poetry. He has no peers as a storyteller, building characters from minimal sources. He's done it with THE PLAYMAKER, WOMAN OF THE INNER SEA, GOSSIP FROM THE FOREST and many others. Even his works dealing with more contemporary events present us with people we come to know intimately by the end of the story. Of all the historical fiction he's done only THE PLAYMAKER displays his talents more fully than does BRING LARKS AND HEROES. This book is truly a paean to his abilities and it's time and location mustn't deter you sampling what he can accomplish. He is a man of feeling, and without making his characters into something artificial, he can impart those feelings through them. If you haven't experienced Keneally, this is a fine place to start. There's a price, though. Like me, you may find you won't stop with this and your shelf will be filled with all his work you can find.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Bring Larks and Heroes Thomas Keneally, July 24, 2000

By 

Lorel Thomas (Victoria, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bring Larks and Heroes (Mass Market Paperback)

Bring Larks and Heroes draws a stark and realistic picture of life in a penal colony.

It is overlaid with dread and a pervasive sense of doom. It is not an easy book to read, due both to the bleak subject matter and the convoluted writing style.Kenneally is a master craftsman, providing some stunning descriptive passages,the images evoking smells, sounds and sights with immense clarity. However his erudition at time leads to writing that is obscure and difficult to follow

The finely drawn characters span a range of diverse personalities, from the idealistic to the brutish and mindlessly cruel. The central character, Phelim Halloran, is intelligent, imaginative and spiritual.His response to circumstances did not seem satisfactory to our group and is one which sends him spiralling into disaster.

We are also presented with a range of social issues and viewpoints, set against a harsh,bleak backdrop of penal colony life.

Bring Larks and Heroes was a challenging read and one which elicited much lively and rewarding discussion.

Review by Glen Waverley 6 Book Discussion Group, Victoria Australia

4.0 out of 5 stars difficult style - worth the effort, November 27, 2009

By 

Steve Rogers (Azur, Israel) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bring Larks and Heroes (Mass Market Paperback)

The book is an interesting historical construction, it is very bleak but powerful and interesting. One does feel some insight into the mind sets of its characters set on a bleak penal colony in the 17th (?) century. The harshness and injustice of the life is well conveyed and the central characters convincingly presented.

However I found Keneally style difficult - he uses language to great effect but it is not easy to read and get used to his prose style. This is the first book I have read by him and I will certainly try another but I hope this style of heavy, overladed writing; like a canvas with many layers of oil paints slapped on, is not used by him in his other works. If so the entry price may be too high.