Patrick White won the 1973 Nobel Prize for Literature. He is one of Australia's great writers. His novels (to a greater and lesser extent) are dense, full of symbolism and allegory and poetic resonance.

Tree of Man is one of the more accessible, but still a demanding read, not the least for the emotional journey it carries the reader on.

Set at turn of the twentieth century, character Stan Parker takes a wife and sets off into the Australian wilderness to become a farmer. It's a family saga of life in a harsh land where the only certainty is that things will change. A major Australian work.

BOOKRAY going to:
1 Rrrcaron (USA)
2 jenvince (USA)
3 jenndiggy (USA)
4 megi53 (USA)
5 gill846 (Canada)
6 Fellraven (UK)
7 nikel27 (Germany)
8 silentmiaouw (Switzerland)
Please PM me if you would like to join

Received this in the mail today. I will be starting it soon.
Ruth

I went through so many emotions while I read this book. Although I ended it being teary eyed, I also felt good. You will see what I mean when you read the book. It took me awhile longer than the usual for me, but I was almost savoring this read. Thanks so much for sharing Ada 2! Sending it off to jenvince as soon as tomorrow!
Ruth

This book arrived yesterday. Arrived along with another of Ada2's rings I'm participating in. It always happens that way! LOL! I'll read the other one first and then start this one and continue it on its journey.

Loved the postcard - wow! You are so lucky to live in such a beautiful area!!!

Update 7/25: Was able to start this book today.

I have to be honest. I've been really struggling with this book. So much so, that I am going to pass it on without finishing it. Maybe one day, I'll track this book down and give it another go, but it is just not working for me right now. Thanks for giving me a shot, though! :)

Am mailing to jenndiggy 08/07/04.

I thought this would take a long time to read, but was, for me, a rather quick read considering how deep the book is. (Does that make any sense?) :)

It isn't something I would normally read, but I'm glad I did. There isn't much of a plot compared to the books I'm used to, but it was basically about the circle of life.

I loved the symbolism of the nutmeg grater.

Packed to be mailed to Megi53 tommorrow. :)

From the back cover: "tragic..."; "...grim..."

I've scheduled this ray book for Labor Day reading (Monday, Sept. 6). I'll be so happy being off work that a tragic and grim plot won't faze me!

I can imagine this book being assigned in many literature classes. The students would probably groan as they noticed how many pages long it was; how fine the print. But it is truly a work of great literature. I found it hard going most of the time, but some of the turns of phrase White used were profound and unique.

I've already sent it to gill846 and so can't quote exactly, but the first time I noticed something very special was when one of the characters felt that virtue was like an iceberg.

The flood and the fire were gripping scenes. At the end, nature played a tremendously important part.

The family around which the book was centered had children who seemed like archetypes: the rotten son and the perfect daughter. And, of course, which one had children? I would love to know what became of Ray's two boys.

I truly appreciate having the opportunity to read this; mailed off to British Columbia a few days ago.

Received this yesterday and started reading it immediately. I'm only a couple chapters in and have just got past the marriage, but am really not sure whether I'm going to like this or not. The main character just seems to stand around in a daze while things happen all around him; I hope he starts coming to life soon! I'm glad everyone had such good things to say about this one; I will keep at it!

Well, I have to say, I was kind of disappointed by this book. I had a hard time gettting into it at first, but kept at it, driven mostly by all the positive comments in the journal entries, as well as Patrick White's powerful writing style. Also, I was intrigued by the nutmeg grater mentioned by jendiggy, thinking there would be some fascinating story attached to it. So I read the entire book, truly enjoying the simple, powerful prose and the pastoral sense of the novel. However, as the story opened up and began to include the children, I kept thinking there would be some real discussion on good vs bad in human nature (kind of like East of Eden), but there wasn't. Or I kept thinking that maybe the characters would find some resolution, some meaning to their lives, but they didn't really seem to. In a lot of ways, reading this book was quite frustrating: I kept feeling like I was following strands of storyline, and following them, and following them, only to have them just dead-end themselves. Like the whole Madeleine thing for instance. She represented so many different things to both Stan and Amy, so when she came back into the story, you expected something, anything, to come of her re-appearance, but instead, she just blipped in and then was gone.

Reading this book was akin to, well, watching the grass grow. But I don't mean it in the sense of the expression; it was literally, like watching a little tomato seedling sprout on a patch of bare earth, watching as it grows up, flowers, produces a bounty of fruit, then as the frost comes, watching as it greys and dies, leaving only bare earth again. But one shouldn't look for meaning in the watching of a plant live out its life cycle, and that's kind of how I felt about this book.

I think I'm glad I read it though... I'm still puzzling over it, wondering if it really was how I perceived it, or whether it was just me, that I just didn't "get it". I am also glad to have read a Nobel Prize winner that is not as well known as many of the others--it's all about broadening our horizons. Having read this and Tim Winton's Dirt Music, I can't help but wonder: is bleakness an integral part of Australian literature, perhaps due to the vastness and nature of the land itself? Anyways, this is being mailed on to Fellraven tonight. Enjoy!

Eeek. Another bookring book lands on the mat. They're coming at me thick and fast!

Having read it all the way to the end, I can understand and appreciate the difficulties some readers have had with this book. It has at its heart ordinary people, little people, whose lives are mostly as tedious and uneventful as those of other ordinary people, ie seemingly decades which slip by, almost unnoticed, and punctuated only occasionally by something "happening".

Gill846 is right - White's novel is about watching things grow, but it's also about watching things gradually fall apart (and yes, I do think that "Things Fall Apart" could have been a good title for this novel), about effort made in optimism which turn to nothing in the long run. The garden which is Amy's pride and joy in the early decades has, by the end, turned rank and wild in the later ones, the emblematic white rose in particular. The children who should have been the future and the reward for the work and sacrifices of the parents are almost abortions in the widest sense of the word - Thelma, barren, snobbish and hideously superficial, and Ray, the petty criminal with psychopathic tendancies. And at the end,we are left with the poignant death of the last dog. With the past swept away, Amy's only ray of hope (perhaps ironically, perhaps symbolically) is her legitimate grandson, Ray.

Above all this is a book which demands to be read at its pace rather than that of the reader. If you go along with it and give it the time it demands you will find much more in it than if you gallop through it. White handles the transition of time with consumate skill. Although the novel begins c1900 and ends c1950 there are very few indicators which tell the reader precisely where they are in this time period except by intuition and decades pass on the turn of a phrase, and I wish I could pin down in hindsight the point at which "the man" and "the woman" became "the old man" and "the old woman".

Having said that this is not a book to rush, I'd also say that it's one to read in long stretches, if only to really sink into the language and imagery which White conjures up and to appreciate the way he handles the long sweeps of time and subtleties of incremental change.

Off to Nikel27 today.

arrived safe at my house.

update:
thanks for sharing, an other great Australian author...
Quick and good read.

goes out to the next member

RELEASE NOTES:

EnJoy the Book!!!

Received in the post this morning - thanks! I'll get to it as soon as I have finished by current book, which is also about Australia and the last surviving Tasmanian aborigine (fictional). I have heard a lot about Patrick White from a colleague, so have great expectations!

Oh dear, I got sidetracked with a book about an Oglala Sioux and then picked up Wild Swans which is huge (I wanted to read them before a March Challenge), but I promise I'll read this one next.

I'm going slowly with this, in fact I have to admit that I only just started it this morning! The first chapter held me spellbound. I drank in every word, feeling that I had to listen:
"The dog whistled through his pointed nose. In the light of the fire the bristles of his muzzle glistened. As he watched for an end to this interminable act."
The writing is sensuous, tactile, full of sounds in the silence.

Ada, have you anyone else lined up for the book? Can I take my time?

Hi silentmiaouw,
As this is a bookray and no-one else has signed up, please consider this book to now be yours! Take your time enjoying it and then feel free to do with it as you will.

I'm very excited by this book's journey around the world. I'm pleased to see a great classic Australian author reach new readers, and I'm thrilled by everyone's thoughtful journal entries.
Thanks to all for participating!

Today is a great day because I finally finished Tree of Man. I feel as though it has taken me a lifetime and i have grown old with it! At the same time, I feel sorry to have reached the last page.
As Fellraven said, you really have to let the book take you along at its own pace. I loved it from beginning to end, especially the imagery - the anxious froth on the milk, the room so quiet you can hear the shape of the objects in it - and many more (I will have to go through again to find these nuggets and note them all down). White depicts the characters with such microscopic attention it is almost frightening! I especially felt this with Amy and all her pent-up passion.

Thank you Ada for leaving me the leisure to enjoy it.
I'm thinking of taking it to Prague to release, unless it's on someone's wishlist.

Noted from the biography: "[Patrick White's] position as a man of letters was controversial, provoked by his acerbic, unpredictable public statements and his belief that it is the eccentric individuals who offer the only hope of salvation."

The picture is of the one and only Handkerchief tree (Davidia) in Vevey: last May it was a glorious mass of pale green bracts, this year, just one miserable branch came into flower.

RELEASE NOTES:

released at our Franco-Swiss meetup; I'm not sure who will pick it up but there's a good chance it is going to France

silentmiaouw is right ! My sister THEMIRAMIS and I went to today's meet-up in Switzerland and now I'm here in Savoy, France writing this journal entry ;-)
It was a terrific day with very nice people. Thanks to you all !!!
The book's a great traveller so far. France won't be its last stop \o/

I'm afraid I can't finish the book :-\

The writing's really rich but I don't seem to be able to get over its rythm. So this will a RABCK !

I must say that I glanced through the whole book to get an idea of the story. Shameful, isn't it ? ;-)
I should even pick it up the next few days while waiting for an answer from a bookcrosser that has this book on her/his wish list and try again to read parts of it...

Thanks for sharing it. It's really nice to meet new authors \o/

The book's on olered's wish list so let it be a RABCK...
Happy summer !

I'm tickled to receive a RABCK and disappointed that I have rings waiting and can't start this one today as I'd like!! Somewhere in this books journals I saw someone was going to be able to take their time and relish the book -- looking outside, I think 'The Tree of Man' will be my beautiful autumn season!! I was delighted also with the postcard and photos from the last two journalers. They were awesome. Thank you so much.