English Passengers

Nominated for the Booker Prize in 2000, English Passengers is, on the surface, a picaresque adventure of sailors going to Tasmania, but it is also the vivid, sorrowful drama of the extermination of the aborigines there. With a cast of characters engaged in all manner of mischief during their voyage from the Isle of Man to Tasmania, this engaging and thoughtful novel uses nineteen different voices, four of them major characters, incorporating personal memoirs and/or letters which provide depth and interest. Through the wide variety of characters and their attitudes and beliefs, the seemingly incompatible plot lines, both comic and tragic, come to life and provide focus for the ship's meanderings. Illiam Quillian Kewley, the irrepressible ship captain from the Isle of Man, is always just a heartbeat away from apprehension by authorities. Rev. Geoffrey Wilson, his Bible-thumping passenger, believes that a literal interpretation of Genesis puts the Garden of Eden in Tasmania, and he's about to prove it. Dr. Thomas Potter, another passenger, is a phlebotomist who believes that his own success is proof of his high position on the chain of being, with the Manx crewmen far below him, and the aborigines just a step up from the apes. Peevay, a minimally educated aborigine with whom the reader greatly identifies, is a foil to show how the tunnel-visioned, British colonial/missionary spirit produces everything but "improvement" for the aborigines. The story and setting are further fleshed out with entries from Tasmanian colonial governors, landowners, schoolmasters, prison inspectors, prison superintendents, and their wives. As the characters come alive, interact, brawl, and otherwise reveal the colonial and philosophical attitudes of their day, the novel's broad scope and action are alternately very dramatic and very funny. Finely constructed and thoroughly enjoyable, the journey and explorations around the island would have been easier to visualize if the publishers had included a map of Tasmania. Not a book to be read in dribs and drabs, this book benefits from being read in big chunks to keep the action and all the characters in focus and to allow the scenes to develop fully in all their humor and drama. Also recommended for those who are interested in Tasmania: Peter Conrad's Behind the Mountain: Return to Tasmania (ISBN 0671705733), a stunning memoir and excellent source of information about the island, including maps. Mary Whipple

The once popular genre, associated with Richardson, Laclos, Scott, Fielding, Sterne and Austen has pretty much fallen out of fashion. Kneale revives it brilliantly here. He employs 19 seperate narrators to tell this tale of exploitation, genocide, greed, adventure and misadventure. In the hands of a lesser artist, such a crazy quilt arrangement would lead to chaos. Kneale manages the seperate voices like a master marionette artist. Each character rings true, even the most eccentric. Each scene, even the most fantastic, remains true to the logic of the book as a whole. No small accomplishment, indeed. The narrative focuses primarily on the arrival of Europeans (primarily English settlers) to the island of Tasmania and to the expansion of their "civilization" in the middle of the 19th century. In order for this civilization to thrive and expand, the aboriginal population had to go. They just didn't fit in. Several of them, including one of the narrator's (Peavy's)mother, were downright intractable. Conflict ensues. Though the aboriginal peoples come out on the short end of the stick, one half-caste does enact some good old fashioned revenge towards the end of the tale. The other main thread deals with a scientific exhibition led by a minister (Wilson) in search of The Garden of Eden, and a doctor (Potter) interested in collecting human samples of various peoples in the hope of advancing his theory of a natural order of races, just as Darwin had advanced his theory of the order of species. A third English passenger, a young geologist named Renshaw, doesn't figure as prominently in the plot as the aforementioned, but does provide some clear-headed satirical insight into the goings on. The funniest and most sympathetic character, apart from the Aboriginal narrators, is Illium Quillian Kewely, an old salty smuggler from the Isle of Man, Captain and proud owner of the uniquely designed sailing vessel "The Sincerity." He, Peavy, and Renshaw provide the only reliable main narratives. He's also one of the most colorful and memorable characters in recent fiction. He and his Manx-speaking crew are involved in an entirely different mission than that of the passengers. The manner in which Keale juggles the intertwining plots is another example of his artistry. The villains are true rotters. The Reverend Geoffrey Wilson is full of conceit and self delusion. His sole preoccupation is with securing fame and fortune by proving his hair-brained notion that Tasmania is the actual location of the Tigris and Euphrates mentioned in Genesis. His stubborn pig-headedness will have dire consequences for the expedition. The manner in which Kneale eventually deals with him is brilliant. Wilson's mortal enemy is Dr. Thomas Potter. Potter is based in part on Jean-Louis Agassiz, whose evolutionary theories involved a break-down of races into various categories, the dark races occupying the bottom rung. Such categorizing had obvious ramifications on much of the history and conf

Few books manage to provide a hilariously wry and cynical view of things and yet retain the solemn ampathy and decorum which befits perhaps the treatment of a dark chapter of history -- in this case that of colonial exploitation. 'English Passengers' achieves that difficult distinction in true style. Mr. Kneale sets his highly enjoyable novel against the backdrop of the genocide in Tasmania. I realize that it sounds rather obnoxious when I use the words genocide and enjoyable in the same sentence but allow me to explain myself. Mr. Kneale seems to be an exponent to the belief that in order to do justice to a harrowing period of history, one does not necessarily have to write an unreadable book. Therefore, inspite of his great sensitivity to the subject, his poignant sympathy for the vanquished and bitter contempt for the conquerors, his novel manages to be not only touching and thought provoking in a very profound sense but hilarious because of his great talent for creating self-righteous and smug characters brimful with dogma and pettiness. The cast of characters is colourful and engrossing and he manages to give them distinctive, believable and highly individual voices so that the beautifully flowing narrative is simply a treat to read. I seldom laugh out aloud while reading a book and apart from Mark Twain I can't think of anyone else ( at least gauging from what I have managed to read over the past few years --maybe the fault lies in what I am reading) who has provided so much joy out of clever turns of phrase and incisive exploration of the eccentricities of human character. Written like a traditional sea voyage yarn, the novel provides colourful settings and great interplay between the characters while it unfolds a heart rending rendition of the worst of colonialism. 'English Passengers' thus has an appeal at multiple levels and Mr. Kneale displays a strong sense of mood setting, charcterization and the narrative voice. Writing humour, in my opinion, is the most difficult of all writing forms and to do it so successfully against the backdrop of such sombre history is all the more arduous. Captain Kewley, Reverend Geoffrey Wilson and Dr. Thomas Potter are just a few of the beautifully crafted characters who provide their perspective on this remarkable voyage. Peevay -- the aboriginal boy tells of what befalls his people and Mr. Kneale has taken pains to achieve historical accuracy. The novel also explores the horrible experience of convict life, the cruelties and kindnesses of the early settlers and other individual experiences in the newly conquered territory All in all a highly engaging (still a vital ingredient in my view for a great book), enjoyable and satisfying reading experience.

Matthew Kneale's "English Passengers" is the best novel I've read all year and the best historical fiction since "The Sot-Weed Factor." Comedy and tragedy mix comfortably in this tale of a hapless Vicar's irrational belief that the Biblical Garden of Eden was located in Tasmania. His obsession brings together an uproarious mix of Englishmen, Manxmen, and Aborigines, as Vicar Wilson's voyage of discovery turns into an indictment of empire and racism. The novel offers a rich tapestry of plot and character, with the Manx sea captain, Illian Quillian Kewley, a true original, as its emotional center. It is Kewley's humanity that keeps the book--as well as the Sincerity, his ship--on course, even when events turn tragic, as in the genocide of Tasmania's aboriginal population. Kneale's ventriloquism has been noted elsewhere; read "English Passengers" to experience it yourself. Here, indeed, is God's plenty.

In 1857, Illiam Quillian Kewley, captain of the Sincerity, sets sail from the Isle of Mann with three mysterious English passengers who hope to discover the Garden of Eden. There is the Reverend Geoffrey Wilson, bent on proving the literal accuracy of the Bible against atheist geologists, Timothy Renshaw, a "sometimes" botanist, and the sinister, egomaniacal Dr. Thomas Potter, who is developing a revolutionary theory on the races of man. Each passenger has his own agenda, and, unknown to all three, Captain Kewley has desires of his own--he just wants to smuggle some tobacco and brandy, with a little French pornography thrown in for good measure. After the Serenity sets sail, the book jumps back thirty years, to 1828 Tasmania where a revolution is in the making. At its center is a young, half-breed boy, Peevay, whose mother was raped and abandoned by a white convict. This rightfully embittered aboriginal woman is now in the midst of a war against the encroaching whites and Peevay, so anxious to win her love and approval, can't help but join her. When Kewley's timeline intersects with Peevay's, worlds collide and lives are forever changed. English Passengers is told from the point of view of more than twenty different narrators, each distinct, yet recognizable and each adding his own necessary piece to a seamless and beautiful whole. That the individuality of each voice shines through, yet never disrupts, is testimony to Kneale's extraordinarily artistic storytelling ability. The most compelling voice, however, belongs to Peevay, who tells a fascinating and vivid story of aboriginal life. This is a novel of epic proportions, spanning forty years, replete with adventure and rich with historic detail. The mutinies, wars and the melodrama aplenty are finely handled and well-balanced with high comedy bordering on farce. English Passengers is definitely a novel to be savored, and afterwards, long-remembered. It lacked nothing.