![]() ![]() So far, so good – travel and adventure in one. With them, they have a navigator, a former school teacher. So, when Peter Carey’s latest novel, A long Way from Home, came out, I thought the subject was worth exploring: in 1954, a couple embarks on a road race, the Redex Trial, across the country. I know that, like in Canada, the cities are clustered around the southern edge of the country, while up north, and in the centre, there are vast uninhabited, wild spaces. People need to talk about race, Carey says, and he hopes his book will help to keep the conversation going in his homeland.A Long Way From Home, by Peter Carey (Publisher: Knopf 1st edition Februhardcover: 336 pages my copy: Random House Canada)ĭespite two trips to Australia, I have failed to figure out the archetypal Australian or the layout of the country. "What can I say, I mostly got away with it." So I don't think anybody thought I could possibly succeed, and that I would be pilloried by everybody left, right and center - but in fact that didn't happen," he says. "Like many places in the world, including the United States, there is an enormous tension and awkwardness and fear about race. A Long Way From Home has already been published in Australia, and to the surprise of many, Carey says, it's been well received. The second half of the book takes a hard look at the mistreatment of the Aborigines, but also provides a glimpse into the indigenous culture that thrives side by side with white society. "Here were, you know, white people in the south, living in a form of ignorance and, enter on this Redex Trial, and following its path take a turn that leads them into their own history, their own personal history, their own national history - a history of crime, genocide and some considerable darkness." The Week's Best Stories From NPR Books History, Heartbreak And 'The Chemistry Of Tears' ![]() ![]() One brutal piece of Australian history that Carey wanted to explore is known as "the stolen generation." "It's only very recently that the government acknowledged that generations of Australian Aboriginal children, the light-skinned ones, had been stolen by the government and taken away to be raised with white families," he says. "Because this is the fundamental, bloody circumstance of my country." "It was only years later when I started to think, 'I can't be an Australian writer and not write about this,'" he says. Halfway through, the adventure turns into a confrontation with history and an odyssey of self discovery.īack in the 1980s, Carey was at a conference for playwrights when a well-known Aboriginal actor made this plea: "Don't write about us," he said to the mostly-white gathering, "you only add to the misinformation when you do." For a long time, Carey took that advice - but eventually he was convinced he had to write about Australia's mistreatment of its indigenous people. The book begins as a kind of madcap adventure, as the characters hit the road in a race designed to test the endurance of cars. In his latest book, A Long Way From Home, Australian novelist Peter Carey takes on his country's racist past, but he gets there by a circuitous route. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title A Long Way from Home Author Peter Carey ![]()
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