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Mateship with Birds

Mateship with Birds | Carrie Tiffany

2 posts | 6 read | 3 to read

WINNER OF THE STELLA PRIZE 2013 "clever, original and richly rewarding" Australian Bookseller & Publisher "it might just be the sweetest book about sex you will ever read" Sydney Morning Herald On the outskirts of an Australian country town in the 1950s, a lonely farmer trains his binoculars on a family of kookaburras that roost in a tree near his house. Harry observes the kookaburras through a year of feast, famine, birth, death, war, romance and song. As Harry watches the birds, his next door neighbour has her own set of binoculars trained on him. Ardent, hard-working Betty has escaped to the country with her two fatherless children. Betty is pleased that her son, Michael, wants to spend time with the gentle farmer next door. But when Harry decides to teach Michael about the opposite sex, perilous boundaries are crossed. Mateship with Birds is a novel about young lust and mature love. It is a hymn to the rhythm of country life - to vicious birds, virginal cows, adored dogs and ill-used sheep. On one small farm in a vast, ancient landscape, a collection of misfits question the nature of what a family can be. Shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award 2013 Winner of the NSW Premier's Literary Awards' Christina Stead Prize 2013 Finalist of the Melbourne Prize for Literature for Best Writing Award 2012 Shortlisted for the VIC Premier's Literary Awards' Prize for Fiction 2013 and Prime Minister's Literary Awards' Prize for Fiction 2013 Longlisted for Nita B Kibble Literary Awards for Women Writers' Kibble Literary Award 2013

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Mateship with Birds. Carrie Tiffany | Carrie Tiffany

Meh

so-so

002. Carrie Tiffany: Mateship with Birds (2012)

Exploration of sexual maturity on an Aussie dairy farm, looking at unrequited love between an older couple plus his ‘birds & bees‘ lessons with her teenage son. Interesting enough, but the prose-poem style felt distant.

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Mateship with Birds | Carrie Tiffany

Pick

pick

A strong, singular novel about two middle-aged people navigating country life and relationships. Harry is a bird-watcher & ‘logs‘ the life of a nearby family of kookaburras in poetic form. Betty is a dedicated single mother, lonely but almost a wife to her aged care patients. I love the economy & truth of Carrie Tiffany‘s writing, which makes these ordinary lives poignant & beautiful. Her wry humour is sparing but effective. Great Oz fiction.

CarolynM I'm not sure about Carrie Tiffany. I didn't particularly like Everyman's Rules For Scientific Living while I was reading it, but I found myself thinking about it a lot after I'd finished. This one I found problematic - there was something off about the adult / child relationship. It left me feeling very uncomfortable. 5y

MrsMalaprop Oh I remember really liking this one. Interesting @CarolynM 🤔 I don‘t recall feeling like that, but it was a while ago that I read it. 5y

CarolynM @MrsMalaprop It's a while since I read it too. I don't remember the details, just that feeling😒 5y

Abailliekaras @CarolynM @mrsmalaprop that‘s interesting - i read it as a healthy father-figure/ mentor relationship but given their isolation it‘s risky as well (thinking about it as a mother!). So it‘s ambiguous but I think she deals with it sensitively. And Harry is a sympathetic character - I don‘t think he‘s untoward. But I like that she doesn‘t spell it all out. 5y

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