This story follows the development of a tortured mind as it tries to navigate the brutal reality of its existence. The clever use of 1st and 3rd person points of view takes us into a constructed reality built by emotional suffering. For lovers of this genre, this is the book for you.
- Kenneth N.Price
Overwhelming melancholy shot with shafts of light and hope permeate the pages. Congratulations, Rosemary, on a scholarly account of the cruelty of others at a time when psychological damage was not understood. I was deeply moved by your writing.
- Judith Flitcroft
Contemporary philosopher and writer Alain de Botton attributed the root cause of most blighted human lives to the fact that one "is forced to live before one knows how." Such is the case in the life of Rosemary Duncan, orphaned at the age of five and forced to grow up with a debilitating stutter. Rosemary is the daughter of the legendary Australian flying ace and war hero, Charles Curnow Scherf, who having returned without a scratch after WW2, mysteriously dies three years later in a car crash near Emmaville, NSW.
The circumstances and scandal surrounding Scherf's death are hushed up, setting his young daughter up for a life-long search for answers. Raised fatherless on the margins of wealth but cruelly excluded from it, Rosemary is shunted off to live with relatives in another town and never sees her home again. Her mother, Hope, abandoned with four children, too readily accepts the rejection from her dominating in-laws who never considered her "good enough". In exposing the many forms of violence others casually inflict on the disenfranchised, Rosemary paints a harsh picture of post-war country Australia.
At the centre of this gritty autobiography is the larger-than-life character of Charles Curnow Scherf, whose charismatic energy radiates off the page. Charles' early athletic accomplishments, instincts and confidence are emblematic of the Australian landed class and set him up for spectacular success as a Squadron Leader in the RAF where he mixes effortlessly with British aristocracy and military elite. Expecting to be admired on his return he is undone by the attitude of the small community who resent his status and sass. Scherf is of German origin as well, so must face his inner demons and a spiralling sense of disconnection. A Gatsbyesque collision of worlds ensues and an early tragic death shatters the family and community for years to come.
This is a novel so resonant of the grand Australian classical works, themes and archetypal characters who grapple with their changing fates in a harsh landscape. With scholarly research and an extraordinary ability to get under the skin of her characters, Duncan seeks to understand their contexts, their shortcomings and, more importantly, herself. Ultimately the reader is left with the same feeling one experiences at the end of a Greek or Shakespearean tragedy: that though great damage has been caused, one has learned so much.
- Maureen Bushell M.A. M.Litt. J.D.
*Maureen Bushell is a freelance writer for a range of publishers including Cengage: National Geographic, OUP (Asia), and a former academic, teacher and syllabus evaluator in the fields of Literature and English education.
