The Childstone Cycle

Kerry Greenwood (author)

Mandarin, Australia: 1994; 420pp

ISBN: 1863303820

Note: sex scenes; reading age 15+ 

Genres: historical fiction, realistic fiction

Issues: family, identity, relationships

Rebecca Gordon has had the strange dreams about the old men since she was a child. Her mother had them before her, and her grandmother before that. In fact, the dreams go back at least five generations, starting from the time when Poll McPherson failed to return the Childstones of a particular aboriginal tribe.

Rebecca searches through the diaries and letters of her female ancestors in an effort to find where the Childstones might be now. In the process she learns an enormous amount about the women who came before her, their lives and loves, their losses and griefs. Her own mother, unloved by her parents; her grandmother, a superficial and self-absorbed concert pianist, concerned only with her own security; and further back, women who lived in the bush, nursed during the influenza epidemic, all the way back to Poll McPherson, a tough woman who survived the Ballarat goldfields.

Are the Childstones really the cause of the trail of disastrous relationships of the women of her family? Or is it simply that they have made bad choices? And will Rebecca be able to break the cycle and be part of a loving, supportive relationship with the man who loves her? Finding the Childstones is only the beginning for Rebecca. It is more about letting go of the past and living in the present, rather than yearning for an impossible dream.

Greenwood has constructed an absorbing narrative and her research, as always, is impeccable, making the novel very believable. The book is divided into sections, one for each of the women involved, moving gradually backwards from Rebecca to Poll McPherson. Greenwood's strength in this piece is that she has succeeded in creating similarities of personality in the characters without actually losing their individuality. In this way it is possible for all the women to be strong-minded and, depending on the period, independent, but in very different ways. The self-absorbed concert pianist is very strong-willed, it's just that her determination takes a very different direction to other women in her line.

Interesting light reading.

Warning: graphic sex scenes - including unconventional relationships, description of whites shooting aborigines, and implied incest. None of this is gratuitous and there are only four or five such scenes in the novel, but they are there.

Same Author: The Long Walk (13+); Phryne Fisher mysteries (15+); Earthly Delights (15+); Heavenly Pleasures (15+)