Promised Lands

I've always been drawn to books that juxtapose our contempory world with a bygone historical world. That was what drew me initially to Jane Rogers' novel. I ended up reading it strictly for the historical sections. I followed Dawes' endeavors and evolving social conscious with delight. The sections featuring the latter-day Olla and Stephen at first appeared to be promising, but soon dwindled to insignificance. The deformed child was like a sore thumb, distracting from what seemed the book's true purpose. However, Stephen's comparisons of his own self with Dawes were intriguing. I would recommend this book only to those who love a good historical tale. I'm glad I read it.

My sister, the professor of English and sometime novelist, told me that this was a good book. She stopped short of recommemding that I read it, probably because she knows that most of my reading is done on airplanes and consists of mysteries and science fiction. "It's an interesting book," she said, "it's supposed to be about a deformed child," she paused, "...but it's not, not really. It's more than that." I started to read the book on an airplane, partly to prove to my more literate sister that I could read something serious, at least occasionally. Unlike the usual mysteries and science fiction, I did not put this book down when I got home. The writing is wonderful and the story is a whopper. The book is about families, late 20th Century Europe and the founding of Australia; it's about different people trying to do the same thing, trying to change the world so that it suits them. But, not really...It's more than that