Customer Reviews

The Dreaming: A Novel of Australia

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Adding to everyone else's comments all I can say is that I could not put this book down. I know I am going to read this book again in the future. I recently purchased the paperback at my local second hand bookstore without any recommendations. However, now I am going to recommend this author to everyone I know.

I read this novel years ago, when the mass paperback was just in print. It just caught my eye and became one of the most rewarding surprises I've ever had in reading. I wish I could say I completely remembered the story, but I will never forget the descriptions of the Outback, the journey and the Songlines, the glimpses into the Aboriginal culture. It is an historical novel, and an athropological novel. I loaned it to a friend studying anthropology who has since moved, taking it with her!

I have never forgotton the feeling of reading it, soaking it all in. The feeling rushed back fresh during this year's Olympics in Sydney. My search for my own copy brought me to this site and I felt that, after 8 or so years, I could still give it the high marks that compel me to continue my search. Find one, read it with wonderment, embrace the characters, never let it out of the house, and then read it again. I can't wait to follow my own advice!

This book drew me in as if I were part of the story, and then I could not put it down. The book is filled with mystery, suspense, politics, history, and religion. All of this is blended into a fantastic story. This is the first book I have ever read from this author and I am going to stock my library with more of her books, especially if they are as good as this one.

This is a good, solid historical romance. I read another review that commented on this also being an anthropological novel, and I think that is also certainly true. The reader does become immersed in the myths, dream life, and very sad developments of the life of aborigines.

The characters are interesting and strong, and one of the real strengths of this for me was that the characters grow and develop and learn from their experiences. There are no present day villains here--just humans who learna s they go along, and I thought that was particularly nice.

There is a strong sense of the landscape and history of Australia here. Barbara Wood's plot also holds together well and comes to a strong resolution.

Generally, this was a very satisfying book. I am reminded of novels by M. M. Kaye, another novelist who blends history and fiction in marvelous ways.

An Australian woman I work with recommended "The Dreaming" to me as a fun way to learn a little bit about her homeland's recent history and about how Aboriginal cuture has been affected by the white man. I could barely put this book down! It was worth ordering as an out-of-print book...my only question is, how on earth do books as rich as this fade into out-of-print status?

This is the first book I read that was set in Australia and I got a lot more from it than just the wonderful story of the lead characters and the interesting people around them. There was not really any permanent villain, each characters whether they started as bad people had their reasons for their actions and you don't really grow to hate them even towards the end unlike the typical villain. What I love is the author had done an extensive research about the history of Australia from the convict days and the life of the Aborigines that were forced to live with the European immigrants. The heroine was a very adventurous woman who was seeking her mother's early childhood memories that cost her grandparents their lives and her mother having an amnesia of her early years of life. I could not put this book down and read it in two days. The ending was not as great as I expected because the Woods left a lot of the characters behind and I did not know what happened to them. Additionally, the main characters were not reunited in person in the end after the lead character discovered where Kara-kara is located (the place that she's been searching from the beginning of the novel). I don't want to give away too much so just pick this book and you won't regret it!

I highly recommend this book to those who love Australia, are fascinated by the good and the bad of its history, and the mysticism of the Aborigin culture. It is a wonderful read for those who just want to read and be entertained; but it has much more to offer and is deeper than your normal page turners. It explores the personal development of a number of characters as well as provides a gentle critism and depiction on a human level of some of the unpleasant sides of Australia's fronteer days and of the beauty of a culture that was trampled on.

I decided to keep this book that I found amoung so many others as I've read Wood's work before and enjoyed it and thought this book looked pretty good. I was not disappointed - It's a great book I so very much enjoyed. I found that I wanted to know what was going to happen next and just couldn't put it down. How I wish Wood would write another book and share with us the reunion of Joanna & Hugh - and what of their daughter? Did she return to the all boys school? Does she end up with her teacher she's secretly been in love with for so long? So many unanswered questions left hanging out there!

I just finished "The Dreaming" and was really captivated by the characters and by the history and traditions of the Aborigines. I was hoping to find that she had writtena sequel as I felt that there were some issues left unresolved. Wouldn't we like to know what happens to Beth and Judd, to Pauline, does Hugh run for office, tell us more about Frank and Ivy, and Phillip and Sarah. I guess we can use our imagination as to how Joanna and Beth get back home but it would be so much fun to have Barbara Wood tell us all about it.

This is a novel with a panoramic sweep, taking place in nineteenth century Australia. The author, an accomplished storyteller, weaves a spellbinding story about a young woman who goes to Australia upon the death of her parents in order to unravel a mystery that haunted her mother and drove her into an early grave.

In Australia, she finds much happiness when she falls in love with the owner of a prosperous sheep station, but the years go by, the mystery ever present and on her mind. She takes great pains to unravel it, and in the process learns much about herself. It is not, however, until she is overtaken by the forces of nature and a new path opens for her that she is able to unravel the mystery that compelled her to go to Australia.

The book is rich in its imagery and descriptions of life on a sheep station in nineteenth century Australia. It is replete with period detail. Moreover, the description of the culture and plight of the Aborigines makes for interesting reading. This book is everything that a historical novel should be, as it is both entertaining and informative. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, disappointed only in the too abrupt ending that left some issues unresolved. Still, this is definitely a book to be savored. Those readers that are fond of the historical fiction genre will definitely find it worth reading.