A.C.T. Marke’s droll sense of humour will have you in stitches for weeks, so order a copy of Love on the Run before supplies run out.
FROGMOUTH PRESS Pub. Date: 2008 ISBN 9781740274807 314 pp
PO BOX 90
AINSLIE
ACT 2602
TEL:0428833212
$25 or $30 Posted
The cover is catching and conjures up dreams!
The geographical expanse and character portrayal in this amusing tale makes for pleasurable and easy reading.
From the rural West Country of England to a bleak sheep farm in the Falkland Islands, we are taken on a journey to Australia and Papua New Guinea.
Temlett Conibeer, a young Englishman, artlessly steers his life, with something of the innocent abroad about him, in manoeuvres and tactics in search of a wife: from his rather inept and clumsy socializing to advertising in the personals, to visiting coupling agencies- we jaunt with Temlett on a psychological and sexual adventure.
We are told of a loving but slightly censorious mother who discourages Temlett’s romantic endeavours and a lusty possessive older Hungarian woman, Mayar, who he keeps at bay sexually. There is a vast variety of women such as Evelyn in the Falklands and the Argentinian, Manuella, with her full figure and pretty looks in Brisbane.
A collection of strange, romantic and passionate women come and go in Temlett’s life. The world, as it were, was his oyster but the pearl he wants eludes him.
The love scenes are always tasteful but they reveal more than mere hints of female cleavage and ample thighs.
The reader will find the male characters in the book highly entertaining. ‘Farmer’, Temlett’s uncle with his snuff and mean and wily ways - Dr Petrolov, the urbane Russian medical doctor, and David Ware with his get- rich plans, with many others are jocular and amusing. The accounts of conversations in the clubs of the old Territory of Papua and New Guinea among expatriates have a realistic tone about them. In fact, the whole novel is, I suspect, something of a roman à clef .
This book is hilarious and is highly recommended for the suburban commuter or others wanting to enjoyably while away their time.
James Wall starts his book by pointing out that when he was young he was told: “Don’t believe anything you hear and only half of what you see.”
His friend, Tom Hayes at James’s funeral in 2004 said: ” It is only a short book but it covers a lot of ground. Typically of James, the English is pared to the bone.”
In this book the reader is taken on a philosophical, theological and scientific journey looking at what we know and what we can believe.
The grist of what James writes broadly speaking goes along these lines: Philosophy seeks to understand the nature of reality, an intellectual endeavour that is as dynamic as it is reflective. Belief is not knowledge and religions can and do change. “Of course, human beings have always adapted to changes.” “All depend totally on the earth.” ” Neither philosophy nor Christian Theology has kept pace with developments in the arts and sciences.”
Given all the evidence we have it is not possible to prove or disprove the existence of God but there are strong motivations for faith. We will never understand God and James quotes St Augustine: “If we have understood, then what we have understood is not God?”
The “godlike characteristics” of men and women lead us to know something of God. Love is the rational for everything in philosophy, theology and even science. The reason for reform and change in the Catholic Church and elsewhere.
I hope James would forgive me this sweeping generalization of his thoughts but I know that James in challenging traditional beliefs and practices was motivated by devotion and love for humanity.
Boys, Pat
Coconuts and Tearooms: Six years in New Britain, New Guinea in the 1930s - The Colonial days, Pat Boys: Auckland, 1993
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What a fascinating and informative tale of pre-war expatriate life in New Guinea this book is!
As a post-war resident of PNG myself, this account of the bipos or befores as pre-war Territorians were known, I found most illuminating. They were highly regarded by all who lived in PNG after the war.
Pat Boys in her mother, Margaret’s words and in insightful writing, conjures up bygone years: The allure yet isolation of plantation life, the liveliness of Rabaul’s social life are all related in language replete in the domesticity of food recipes and daily life. Accounts of ship voyages add to the appeal of the time.
The book is made more interesting with the number of photos and maps included.
The undercurrents of human experiences are mentioned and implied: Coping with Japanese trochus poachers to natural disasters like the volcanic eruption in Rabaul. Margaret’s marriage breakdown and her return to New Zealand with Pat seem analogous to a breakdown of expatriate pre-war life in New Guinea with the coming of the Second World War.
This book tells us so much by implication in words, pictures and maps of a life that is gone. It is easy to read and enjoy.
For those readers wanting a copy, I would suggest writing to: Mrs Pat Boys, 19 Andresen Street, Foxton Beach, New Zealand 4815
As a former ASAG Officer I was privileged to live in PNG for over twenty years. I lived in this strange, beautiful land in Taim Bilong Masta. In those slowly declining years of Australian involvement in the then Territory of Papua New Guinea; those transition years leading to premature independence, the time proudly referred to by politicians as: PNG Lukim Nau or Black Masta Olgeta. The view about the untimeliness of independence depends on your assessment of the economy and the political situation when it took place. The point I am simply making is: I was living in PNG roughly in the same period that the novel by David Wall was set in. Perhaps this fact gives me a certain kinship with the book in knowing the location settings and the type of characters he describes.
This novel by David Wall portrays a topnotch collection of sketches, psychologically impressive, masterfully collated and skillfully presented. The life stories of expatriates from many parts of the world in the administration and in private enterprise are described as they cope successfully or otherwise with living in PNG. In a land where over 700 languages are spoken they communicated with the indigenous as best they could in Pidgin English. One can criticize them and disagree with the attitudes of many expatriates, who are the characters in this novel, while understanding some of their motivations.
Some of the criticism of this novel centres on the attitudes of the characters and too strongly tends to identify the author with these same attitudes. I myself would not endorse all that went on in the PNG of old, however, all criticism should be impartial and not couched in poorly disguised envy.
As one of his admiring readers I sincerely hope that David Wall will continue writing more earthy fiction about far away places. Perhaps a big request but one I know he can fulfill and I extend to him my thanks and as they would say in Port Moresby: Bamahuta turagu (Goodbye my friend).
Frank Sibl
26th April, 2008
Critical reviews of your novel point out your mistakes so you can learn. All novels receive a variety of reviews.
There are terrible paintings by people who are raving mad, yet are seen as very valuable: Jackson Pollock’s Blue Poles, Lucian Freud’s After Cezanne and Brett Whiteley’s works are only good as firewood. Peter Carey’s books are unreadable and disgusting and Richard Flanagan writes offensive rubbish.
Your novel: Sepik Blu Longpela Muruk To what readship is it addressed? If to PNG expatriates, then why the Pidgin translation? If aimed at the general population your detail of Dr Marek Karski visiting Angoram, for example, would have left them puzzled. Karski visited, drank and worked without visible effect, remarked on the English gentle race and operated on a dying woman very successfully, now the reader will say, so what?
You cannot have leads going nowhere e.g., James Ward’s son goes to Riverview. The reader waits for something to come from this. What happened to him at St Ignatius? If nothing happened, why mention it?
Every novel must tell a story from the very first page. The reader must be interested enough to keep reading.
The drawings are poor and old hat: who did them? We all know haus tambarans, birds of paradise and colourful highlanders. What about a taipan, butterfly or beetle?
The title is wrong too, the lay reader may think it is a novel from Chad or some other African country. I don’t know if there is anything ‘proud’ about a cassowary, that is not Wall speak.
The last thing you need is people not being constructive in their opinions. I could go on for hours!
My work has a lot of faults but I have learnt from that.
