[YPO]≡ Read Gratis The Family Made of Dust Laine Cunningham Books

The Family Made of Dust Laine Cunningham Books

Download As PDF : The Family Made of Dust Laine Cunningham Books

The Family Made of Dust Laine Cunningham Books

I save my five stars for books that books that make me think so hard I can't sleep at night. I'm a sucker for all stories set in Australia any way, and this book also clearly delineates the inner life of a broad cast of characters with beautiful writing and devastating rage and sorrow. I had not known the particular bit of history, and cannot come up with an adequate response to that outrage. A beautiful book about an ugly situation.


Tags : Amazon.com: The Family Made of Dust (9780982239902): Laine Cunningham: Books,Laine Cunningham,The Family Made of Dust,Sun Dogs Creations,0982239904,Thrillers - Suspense,Aboriginal,Aboriginal; Australia; dreamtime; literary; paranormal; supernatural; suspense; thriller; psychological suspense; stolen generation; native; ethnic literature; diverse literature; dreaming; psychological; culture; heritage; award winning; award,Australia,FICTION Literary,FICTION Native American & Aboriginal,Fiction,Fiction Thrillers Suspense,Fiction : Suspense,FictionFamily Life - General,FictionNative American & Aboriginal,FictionPsychological,FictionThrillers - Suspense,MysterySuspense,dreamtime,FICTION Cultural Heritage

The Family Made of Dust Laine Cunningham Books Reviews

Message Stick is a supernatural adventure set in the outback. Gabe, a multiracial man in search of his childhood friend runs afoul an aboriginal Shaman/Criminal. Dana not only uses his black magic to get his way and even kill but has no problem poaching and raiding gravesites for money. When Gabe's investigation leads him toward Dana's grisley trail, the shaman has no qualms about getting Gabe out of his way. This story confronts a lot of the racial tension in Australia, an issue the main character actually deals with in himself. While Dana despises anyone with pale skin and those that have turned away from their heritage, Gabe comes to find out about a side of himself that never thought to explore. This story is great with its thrilling mystery and supernatural additives. A great read.
Message Stick is an audacious and timely novel. It begins with a white Australian tracking an Aboriginal elder and his rough-neck white sidekick who are stealing and trading in Aboriginal antiquities. It’s an intriguing premise, which quickly drew me in, and once in, the author Laine Cunningham did not let go! Ian, it turns out, is not the hero of this story; his friend Gabe is. Gabe is a middle aged member of the Stolen Generation. On the quest to find out what has happened to his friend, he is drawn into the red desert of the Australian interior, and closer and closer to the Aboriginal life that was denied him when he was stolen as a child and assimilated into white society by the racist government policy of the time. Here, his entanglement with the Dreamtime, a shaman with his own agenda (none of which fits with Eurocentric laws or ways), and his commitment to find the truth, whatever it takes, leads to a novel rich in mystery, culture, and a questioning of identity. It was terrific to read a book with complex Aborigine characters, rather than the Westernized fantasy version we often see, and I really admire how Cunningham understands the genetic attachment to landscape and environment, and how she weaves the past and present together – fitting for a book exploring Aboriginal ideas, where the continuum is eternal. It’s a terrific book – a great mix of harrowing adventure, myth, culture, and real mystery, and I’d recommend it to anyone who is willing to venture somewhere that might deeply unsettle them in a way that has nothing to do with gore or fake thrills.
When Ian McCabe goes missing in outback Australia, his friend Gabriel (Gabe) Branch leaves coastal Queensland to search for him. Ian is a ‘roo shooter, a peripatetic lifestyle which makes it difficult to pin down when he went missing. This will be a difficult journey for Gabe. Identifiably Aboriginal, removed from his parents as a child, the world of his ancestors is alien to him.

‘The only thing that seems to hold any promise is an artifact Ian mailed the week he disappeared.’

In Alice Springs, Gabe discovers that the artifact is a message stick. He’s told that it is something to do with death, but he needs to find someone from the right tribe to read it. Gabe’s journey through the outback draws the attention of Dana Pukatja, a Pitjantjatjara medicine man who does not want Gabe to find the truth.

This is an interesting and at times convoluted tale. Gabe needs to become more aware of his own Aboriginal past and culture. He needs this awareness in order to understand both the world in which he finds himself, and what happened to Ian. The journey is difficult, both physically and emotionally. The supernatural also has a large role. Gabe encounters people who help him, and those who discriminate against him. Where does Gabe belong? And what about Dana Pukatja can Gabe find the truth despite his best efforts?

‘White men, with their metal and machines and their mania for conquest, never understood Aborigines or their land.’

The vastness of the Australian outback is vividly depicted in this novel a remote place which can be very unforgiving of those who enter it. The outback is both backdrop to the story and a character within it. In addition to the search for Ian, and Gabe’s search for himself, Ms Cunningham also raises a number of the social issues that continue to bedevil Australia as a consequence of the treatment of the Indigenous Peoples.

Did I enjoy this novel? Not entirely. But that is mostly my discomfort with the story presented rather than the way it is written. This is a novel which invites you to consider the background as well as the events.

Note I was offered, and accepted, an electronic copy of this novel for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith
Dense with emotion and tension, but relieved by warmth and laughter that is the mark of deep caring relationships, The Message Stick is beautiful, painful, humbling. The undercurrent of powerful spirit and energy drives this excellent story forward,
Depressing story!!!
This is a novel you can't put down. It is superior on all fronts. I have a thing for lyrical writing, having unsuccessfully
used that mode in my earlier work. She has mastered it down to a "T". Her descriptions of places and things gave me
a ringside seat as if I were there witnessing them myself. Her climatic final chapters were suspenseful, memorable and
brilliant. I feel fortunate to have discovered this great piece of writing and thank her for introducing me to the
Australian outback.

Nathan Boya who survived a ride over Niagara Falls in a barrel.
It isn't easy to tell a tale that has twists and turns unlike anything commonly read. It is a feat to create a surreal world in a real world setting. Laine accomplish these things and more in her wonderful write, Message Stick. A wild ride and an educational read through the Outback. Thank you for this.
I save my five stars for books that books that make me think so hard I can't sleep at night. I'm a sucker for all stories set in Australia any way, and this book also clearly delineates the inner life of a broad cast of characters with beautiful writing and devastating rage and sorrow. I had not known the particular bit of history, and cannot come up with an adequate response to that outrage. A beautiful book about an ugly situation.