A Dutiful Daughter

Anyone accustomed to some of Keneally light-hearted work, such as Jacko: the Great Intruder, or his narrative adventures, such as Victim of the Aurora, may be shocked by the depth and seriousness of this strange allegory of sin, responsibility, and the inability of generations to communicate about basic issues. Damian Glover, age seven, and his sister Barbara, age thirteen, are young people living on a remote farm in Australia when Barbara reaches puberty, an event for which she has received no advance preparation and which convinces her she is dying. Her harsh, fundamentalist parents are unprepared to deal with the emotional aspects of this event, and Barbara's coming of age ultimately transforms their lives, as she becomes a frightening force with whom they must reckon.The growth of Barbara and Damian into independent people responsible for their own decisions takes place against a background of family secrets and trauma as they come to terms with sexuality and love and try to understand how and why their most basic instincts are considered sins by the moral authorities. Their parents have always simply accepted the values imposed upon them by the One True Church, and they offer neither guidance nor example to their needy children as Damian and Barbara try to answer questions about Nature and figure out how it ever came to be associated with Rightness or Sin.This is neither an easy nor a pretty story. Its subject matter is sometimes bizarre and discomforting. The characters' behavior makes them hard to like and difficult to identify with, and Keneally's point of view is off-putting. Scenes are set and events are described in the usual third person, but all references to Damian, the character through whom we observe the action, are in the second person. A statement, such as "You are Barbara's brother Damian, sweating by the gate," may be descriptive, but it holds the reader at arm's length. Originally published in 1971, this allegory deals with some of the conundrums with which Keneally must have dealt during his years in the seminary and establish many of the themes which have informed his novels for the past thirty years. (3.5 stars) Mary Whipple