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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Like SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS for teenagers, May 21, 2002
By A Customer
This is first and foremost a love story in the tradition of Romeo and Juliet featuring star-crossed lovers seeking happiness in the face of great odds. And it's a good, juicy, romantic love story at that. But it's also fascinating to hear about World War II from such an unfamiliar perspective. I didn't know that racial tensions were high in Australia at the time, just as they were here. Gary Disher holds a mirror to our own feelings as people, and our own experiences as a country.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Australia's Pearl Harbour, April 21, 2001
The Divine Wind tells the story of Australia's own Pearl Harbour, namely the bombing of Broome in World War Two. The cast of characters is ripe for a dramatic climax - and Disher, better known for his crime thrillers,underplays it nicely. Take an established Japanese pearling community, who have lived in Australia longer than most regional town residents in the 1930s, Aboriginal stockmen, young men preparing themselves for love or war, young women struggling with tradition, and a town on the doorstep of the war 's south-east Asian front, and mix well. The result is an engaging tale designed for teenage readers and, as often the case, refreshing for adults looking for simplicity and substance. The story starts methodically enough, portraying the young days of Hartley and his sister Alice, and their friends Mitsy and Jamie. The intensity of their destinies builds like the war itself until the final third of the book which begins: "It was an odd, edgy time. Chance was in the air in late 1941. All the world was breathless, and Broome was wound as tight as a spring." The tension is palpable on many fronts - sexually, militarily, racially, communally and within Hartley's own family. Indeed, the differences between his seagoing father and Anglo-indoors mother could almost portray a fundamental tension in Australian society between nature and culture. One can read a lot into this simple story because it has these many rich, diverse layers - no wonder it is studied in the formative educational years. Finally, the "divine wind" arrives, the winds of change, flight, pain, pleasure, heroism, cowardice, vocation and intertwined traditions. My favourite image from this book is the full-moon Festival of the Lanterns, in which Mitsy and her mother Sadako cast forth a model boat loaded with a miniature lantern, flower petals and bundled food, to honour their dead father and husband, Zeke: "And he glided, glided, glided, all the way out through Entrance Point, helped by Mitsy and Sadako, who beat tiny hammers against tiny bells and sang him sweetly to heaven." Garry Disher has completed a wonderful portrayal of Broome at a pivotal time in the maturing of a nation and its multicultural community.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Novel, January 16, 2002
By A Customer
The setting of The Divine Wind is the town of Broome, Australia during to World War Two. The plot follows the life of Hartley, the son of a pearling master, his love for Mitsy, a Japanese woman and his mixed feelings about the circumstances. An important strength of the novel is that everything is portrayed so realistically. At one point I even thought that it was a true story because of the detail that everything was described in; it seemed to have been written by someone who really had experienced it all. The town of Broome is described in detail, everything from the style of the houses to the way the harbour smelled. I found The Divine Wind different from other novels I have read because it includes the good and the bad in everything, rather than forcing things, people or events to be simply either good or bad. The characters definitely weren't stereotypes, and none of the main characters were "goodies" or "baddies". They were all shown as imperfect people who reacted in human ways to everyhting that happened. Even the main character, Hartley, had so many different facets to his personality, which were revealed over time. The theme of prejudice was important to this novel, because although Hartley loved Mitsy, there were times when he almost hated her "Japaneseness". Prejudice against the aborigines was also explored. The plot of The Divine Wind was a little unclear, and it did not seem to have a distinct storyline. However, this also made the novel more realistic, by avoiding excessive dramticism and adding unnecessary twists or suspense just for the sake of entertainment. This is a beautifully written novel, but it may not satisfy readers who are looking for thrilling and exciting war plots. I recommend this to everyone else.
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