Recently on the Sunshine Coast a retiring school teacher suggested that all students should be required to read the book "A Fortunate Life" by A B Facey. As I had read this book years ago and had a copy of it on my bookshelves I filled in some waiting time to once again acquaint myself with this book.
As in these times many people are facing difficulties and in some cases, under misguided advice, absolute disaster, it may be well to read this book and see what real hardship meant many years ago for A B Facey. We can now contrast his experience with what hardship our children now face, and I would have to agree with the school teacher that many lessons can be learned by current school children, what life and hardship really is all about.
It is still an interesting, intriguing and beautiful life and " The unquenchable spirit, the mark of man ( humans)", is capable of weathering most events. Cheers.
A Fortunate Life
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A Fortunate Life
by cungevoi » Sun Jan 11, 2009 8:01 am
Last edited by cungevoi on Tue Jan 13, 2009 6:44 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: A Fortunate Life
by catron » Sun Jan 11, 2009 2:49 pm
Hi Cungevoi,
I should say at the start that my wife and I share your enthusiastic appreciation of Bert Facey's book, However, I don't think there is any need to make it compulsory reading in Australian schools where it is already well known, if not universally appreciated.
I suspect from your comments that you see some hope for the book to be inspirational to the rising Australian generation. I am less optimistic about that. We may be more directly linked to Facey's times through, say, grand parents who were his contemporaries and who may have passed on their own experiences to us or perhaps taken us to Anzac Day marches and made us part of the ongoing tradition. I suspect that many young Australians view the book as distant from their own lives as tales from Dickens.
Below are comments by two young Australian readers who responded to a book review of Facey's book last year by "Kylie" together with Kylie's rejoinder to the comments. Certainly one would wish for a wider sampling of views but I wondered if you might care to comment on them.
Cheers,
Catron
I should say at the start that my wife and I share your enthusiastic appreciation of Bert Facey's book, However, I don't think there is any need to make it compulsory reading in Australian schools where it is already well known, if not universally appreciated.
I suspect from your comments that you see some hope for the book to be inspirational to the rising Australian generation. I am less optimistic about that. We may be more directly linked to Facey's times through, say, grand parents who were his contemporaries and who may have passed on their own experiences to us or perhaps taken us to Anzac Day marches and made us part of the ongoing tradition. I suspect that many young Australians view the book as distant from their own lives as tales from Dickens.
Below are comments by two young Australian readers who responded to a book review of Facey's book last year by "Kylie" together with Kylie's rejoinder to the comments. Certainly one would wish for a wider sampling of views but I wondered if you might care to comment on them.
Cheers,
Catron
3 Responses to “A Fortunate Life by AB Facey”
Ashleigh said
May 15, 2008 at 8:58 am
I am sorry, but I whole heartedly disagree. I had to read this book for english, I found it painstakingly slow, over discriptive and monotonous. I suppose it comes down to personal taste, but the bush setting did nothing for me.
Gretta said
September 16, 2008 at 3:55 am
I fully endorse your review. I absolutely loved and devoured this book. I especially recommend it to people who move newly to Western Australia (from overseas like me or the Eastern States I guess too) as it is a wonderful introduction to WA and gives the reader a great introduction to the history and story of WA. Beautiful book.
Does anyone know if it has been published in languages other than English?
Kylie said
September 17, 2008 at 10:52 pm
Thanks for the comments. I can see how some people might not like this book. AB Facey was clearly not a ‘writer’ as such. He dealt more with the facts than with poetical language. Still, I find that in this case, the story itself makes up for any lack of style.
I’m from NSW (have travelled a bit around WA) and it certainly gave me a desire to see more of the state, and in particular the places mentioned in the book. And it certainly does work very well as a historical account.
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