LIMBERLOST by Robbie Arnott
I highly recommend Limberlost. It is a work of art.
Limberlost is the third novel by Australian author Robbie Arnott. It has just been longlisted for the Miles Franklin award for literature. It is the first of Arnott’s books I have read.
The story is set against the second World War, with young Ned’s two older brothers serving their country, while Ned remains at Limberlost, the family farm and orchard in north west Tasmania. He lives with his father and his recently returned sister, having lost his mother shortly after his birth.
The story is of a summer when Ned is around (I think) 15. He is catching rabbits and selling their fur pelts for conversion to hats for soldiers. In one instance, he accidently traps a quoll. He dreams of owning a boat and he spends his summer in the company of his neighbours and his sister, helping on the farm and dreaming of the life on the water.
Interspersed with this are flash forwards to Ned’s life as an adult - working on the mainland, returning to Tasmania, marriage and fatherhood, then old age.
It is, in essence a simple story. While it goes along, there is nothing about the story that is astonishing or surprising. Instead, Limberlost is a study of simple life in less than simple times.
The strength of Limberlost is the landscape. Arnott’s lush descriptions of the Tasmanian coastline, the wilderness and farmlands is as evocative as I have ever read. The environment where this book is set is, in itself, a pivotal character. It is what takes a simple story and catapults it into something so much mroe, so much bigger.
I took my time reading this book, mainly because I found myself often stopping and closing my eyes to visualise the trees, the grasses, the orchard, the river, the beaches. It sometimes felt as though I was looking at a Tom Roberts painting or, more, the watercolours of Albert Namatjira that I saw at the National Gallery of Australia several years ago. I remember standing in front of those incredible portrayals of country and being moved to tears - they were evocative, moving and penetrated my soul. Imagining the Tasmanian environment, as Arnott described, had a similar effect; I was, more than once, moved by the sense of history and home it brought to me.
I’m not sure that Limberlost is a book I might have loved had I read it before now - I don’t know that I would have appreciated it before. That said, Limberlost is a truly beautiful book. The writing is descriptive and imaginative. I loved every page and I loved meeting Robbie Arnott briefly last weekend and having him sign my copy of Limberlost. It is a novel which is being widely lauded and inevitably, I think it will be taught in English and Literature curriculums at schools and universities.
I highly recommend Limberlost. It is a work of art.