Customer Reviews

The Divine Wind

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

THE DIVINE WIND: A LOVE STORY is a tense and riveting read set on the northwest Australian coast at the dawn of the Second World War. I don't care that its fiction--I will be clenching my fists for days as I recall the results of the havoc wrecked by the insanity of the adult world upon the story's three young central characters: Hart, who narrates the story, his sister Alice, and Alice's best friend Mitsy Sennosuke--a girl of Japanese parents.

Before moving to California as a young man, I had never heard of the Japanese internment during World War II--nope, it wasn't ever mentioned in the history books they used back on the East Coast in my youth. So, I am not at all surprised to learn from THE DIVINE WIND that a similar "procedure" took place in Australia. Nor am I shocked by the manner in which the Australian white supremacists in the book treat individuals of the various nonwhite groups. But the way in which those prejudices and the War engulf the three young people and totally screw up what should have been their idyllic young lives brought me to the verge of utter despair as I read page after page of Hart's touching love story:

"I fell in love with Mitsy in the darkness of the tin-walled cinema in Sheba Lane, where cowboys roamed the range and airmen spies slipped away from foreign countries in the light of the moon, and great white hunters saved beautiful women from maddened rogue elephants.
"In the daylight, Mitsy was a separate being, slim and restless and full of jokes and mischief like Alice, but when the lights were dimmed and the screen glowed with lovers and heroes, she would grow quiet and still, and settle in her seat, and imperceptibly shift until her shoulder and knee touched mine. Alice, on the other side of her, would crane her head around and meet my gaze, but never say anything, or tease, just as Mitsy would never acknowledge the intimacy when the lights came on at the end but simply treat me as one of the gang again. I sometimes thought that I dreamed of her."

In stark contrast to the other white adult characters, Hart and Alice's father, Michael Penrose, is the one that I'd want to know. A complex, good-hearted guy who makes one awful mistake, he repeatedly stands up and speaks loudly for what is right. In addition, the colorful, multiethnic supporting cast is a lively crowd that had me smiling despite the horrors that they frequently bore the brunt of.

THE DIVINE WIND: A LOVE STORY takes us to a rugged and beautiful place at a tough time in history and introduces us to three young people who I hope are still out there somewhere--old and at peace.

Richie Partington
[...]

The story had great details about the setting and descriced the character beautifully, but it was hard to fallow the plot and who were the characters, i wish there was an ending so we could find out what happens to the characters still living. Other wise--- great book that kept me reading.

A novel of war, culture, romance, drama, and takes place in the 1940's in Broome, Australia. The narrator of this novel is also the main character. His name is Hart Penrose. Some of the other main characters in this novel are Alice Penrose (Hart's sister), and Misty Sennosuke. The theme in the novel is "romance." This book wasn't hard but it wasn't easy, I guess you could say it was just in the middle. Garry Disher uses a lot of imagery in his writing. He does a good job describing the characters feelings. The main character "hart" has a very stressful life between his mom leaving him and then dieing and because his father doesn't pay attention to him. If it wasn't for his sister "Alice" who is also his best friend, Hart would be nothing. Hart has had a crush on "Misty" forever, but for some reason she doesn't go for him. Misty is also Alice's best friend. This novel shows a fight for love. Hart wants to be with Misty so bad, it breaks his heart that he can't have her. It's hard because Misty is Japanese and Hart is Australian. There's a war going on in the novel against Japan. Hart's father is on the Australian side, which makes it hard for Misty, because she came from Japan. Throughout the novel there were a lot of tragedies in the families in the novel, which made it easy for the friends and siblings to stick together and be there for each other. Garry Fisher is an awesome writer. The whole time I was reading I felt like I was actually in the novel. It was one of those novels you can't put down!

This is a divine story. It is about Hart, a boy who lives in a small Australian town before World War 2. He lives with his sister, father and before she moves away to London, his mother. Hart also has a Japanese friend named Misty who's smart funny and just plain old fun and in Harts eyes...beautiful. They are best friends Misty and he and when Pearl Harbor is attacked and all of the Japanese have to move to camps Hart and his father take Misty and her mother in to live with them. While living together Misty and Harts relationship expands and they become lovers, but can there love survive the turmoil of war? This is a brutally honest story of war, family, and first love. I highly recommend this story to anyone.

The Divine Wind is a beautifully written book, there's no doubt about that. The descriptions and setting is written wonderfully. However, the plot is way too similar to "Snow Falling on Cedars", has rather dull undeveloped characters, love with hardly a mention of the actual falling in love and a selfish and self-absorbed main character (Hartley Penrose) you dislike after a few chapters- who unfortunatly narrates the entire thing. The plot dragged on and on and on. Perhaps Disher would make a better poet.

This book would have to be the most depressing book I have ever read, there is nothing good or happy exept a couple of scenes. When I finished this book (and I only finished it because I had to) I threw it down in disgust.

What kind of a name is MITSY? And by the way what kind of a name is DISHER? We have been forced to study the Divine Wind in english and we hope this love story (if you can call it that) isn't a re-enactment of Disher's childhood. The characters in this book are undeveloped, the romance is cold and boring, the scene is as well set as a rubics cube. How can this book be compared to Romeo and Juliet? Overall leave romance to the experts.