| |
 James
Moloney- ANGELA
-
& What we think about
it
 Our
book-review
what
we think about "Angela"
an
Australian student about "Angela"
what
others said about "Angela"
Book
review of "Angela"
(gesa & christina, AUR) “Angela”,
written by the Australian author James Moloney, was first
published in 1998. It's the third volume of a trilogy treating the problems, attitudes and
relationships of white Australians and Aborigines in today's Australia.
The two main characters, Angela, a white girl, and her Aboriginal friend
Gracey, graduate from a prestigious Brisbane high school.
- After their holidays, they both start courses at the University of
Queensland. Angela, who was looking forward to her time at university, enjoys herself,
whereas Gracey is confronted with other non-white students and therefore
develops an awareness for her Aboriginal heritage. She turns more and
more political and starts fighting for the Aborigines' rights. Gracey's
change provokes a rupture in her friendship with Angela and the book
describes the gentle reconstruction of this friendship and its obstacles.
The author lets the reader gain an insight into the confusing world of
two clashing cultures, of young Aborigines having to find their way of
connecting their traditional Aboriginal background with Australia's
modern society.
- James Maloney was able to integrate the topic of the "Stolen
Generation" very
cautiously in his book, living together with Aborigines
in the outback of Australia for a couple of years taught him a lot about this.
- Summing it up, one can say that this is the story of a friendship which
has to be treated with care and demands a very diplomatic approach because
of Australia's history.
|
Our Impressions of "Angela" by James Maloney
- I think that "Angela" is more or less a book for younger
readers, but for foreign students it is probably ok.Apart from
that, the
content is alright, especially for us learning things about Australia and the
indigenous- non-indigenous conflict. I have to admit that the actual action most
of the time is predictable, but I consider this story as being a point to go
further from in order to deal in a more serious and profound way with the topic of Australia as a bicultural country with all
its richness and problems. I am sure that without this book, none of us
would have thought about whether sorry books are really helpful or not, we
probably wouldn't even know about Australia having a racism problem - as
some Aboriginal activists (like Eddie Mabo or Geoff Moore) say.
- Gesa
I don't agree with the book being o.k. for learning about
Australia. The way
it deals with the whole topic is very superficial and teenage-like. Everything
happens exactly the way you expected it to and the style in which things are
described reminds me of a soap-opera. The characters and feelings are totally
overdone.They make everything look extremely tragical or dramatical or whatever
you want to call it.Most of the statements that are supposed to be educational and
paedagogical seem really ridicolous to me. Not that the topic isn't worth dealing
with or not interesting, but it should be done on a more sincere and less
naive level.
Lotte
- In my opinion the book is very
easily written, no strange or difficult words, except the
Aboriginal names, but you can find out these words. The book is
about a topic in which I am really interested. At first it was
very funny that a man writes about feelings of two women, but
you get used to it. But sometimes the book was strange to
understand in my eyes. All the problems Angela has with Gracey's
wish to go back to Cunningham.... But in the end I enjoyed
reading it and understanding perhaps a little more about
Australian problems.
- Maraike
From my point of view the book
"Angela" written by James Moloney isn't very interesting.
The story is about normal teenager-life and the everyday problems
they have with their friends. Just the aspect of the friendship
between a white Australian and an Aboriginal girl is a special
occasion in "Angela".
The book "Angela" includes too many
traits of childish behaviors from Angela, which make the story silly.
The easy vocab in the book doesn't make it
more interesting than it is.
- According to our topic about reconciliation
we learnt a bit about the attitudes of the Australians and the
Aboriginies, but I'm of the opinion that we learnt more
concerning this topic by watching some documentaries about the
"stolen generation".
- by Nicole
We really like the book because it was easy to
read. It is about the relationship between two girls.The problem is
that they have different backgrounds. Angela is a white Australian
and Gracey is an Aboriginal. First they are best friends and want to
do everything together but since they go to uni their friendship
drifts apart. Gracey gets to know other Aboriginals and spends a lot
of time with them. She even wants to live with them. Angela feels
very lonely and misses Gracey. She wants to talk to her like they
used to. The big problem is that Angela doesn't understand Gracey's
wishes and feelings, because Gracey notices something which she has
nearly forgotten that is her heritage. She wants to spend more time
with her family.
- When Angela and Gracey are in Sydney they
spend some time together and Angela gets to know an Aboriginal
family and learns how they live and think. She also gets to know
|
