Philip McLaren

Philip McLaren, a Kamilaroi man from the Warrumbungle Mountain region in northwestern New South Wales, is a most extraordinarily versatile author: Wikipedia tells me that he’s an academic with a Doctor of Creative Arts degree at Southern Cross university, lecturing in Canada, England, France, Spain, Germany, New Zealand and of course Australia. He writes literary fiction, detective stories and thrillers, and also non-fiction, social commentary, screenplays and academic essays. Of his seven novels, I’ve read Sweet Water, Stolen Land (see my review). Alas WP doesn’t tell me which four have been translated and distributed internationally. He’s won the David Unaipon award (in 1992) and the 2010 Prix Litteraire des Recits de l’ailleurs (a French prize for foreign literature).

But, says Wikipedia, McLaren has also worked as a professional musician and exhibited paintings and sculpture in London, Toronto, Vancouver, Nassau and Sydney. He’s also

a writer, producer, director and editor in film and television; and previously as a set designer, animator, illustrator, graphic designer and scenic artist for networks NBC, CBS and ABC in the USA; CBC and CTV in Canada and the Seven, Nine and Ten Networks in Australia as well the NZBC in New Zealand. He has amassed well over 100 on-screen credits.

It’s these experiences which enliven the provocatively titled There’ll Be New Dreams. The books I’ve read about Aboriginal culture have been enlightening about the ways in which the Dreaming lives on in the present, but in McLaren’s novel new dreams and a contemporary sophisticated and sometimes international lifestyle are superimposed on an ancient land and a people keen to be successful survivors of a catastrophic invasion by European settlers. It’s written in the form of linked short stories about an array of people from different eras and living in different places, but the one constant is their Aboriginal identity.

The Table of Contents brings together what seems at first to be a bewildering confusion: there are eleven dreams, starting with Ralph in Coonabarrabran in 1950 and then in Dream Two his relationship with Lottie in 1952, in 1961, then moving to Redfern in 1961 and 1966, then Parramatta in 1967 and 1969, then back to Redfern in 1973, this period coinciding with the historic referendum in 1967 and the emergence of land rights and other human rights for indigenous people from 1972 onwards. Dream Three brings us Emma in New York in 1952 and 1953, followed by Dream Four, which starts in La Perouse in 1905, and then back to 32,000 BC in Yabbra, on to Matlong in 1770, back to La Perouse in 1905 and concluding in Woolloomooloo in 1929. Except that ‘concluding’ is the wrong word to use because as the Dreams progress the reader sees that nothing concludes, everything is connected through time and place and family.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2017/07/07/therell-be-new-dreams-by-philip-mclaren/… (más)

There are a lot of reasons why I move heaven and earth to get hold of a Philip McLaren book when I hear there's a new one in the offing. Firstly, as you can probably pick from the synopsis above, there's a very dry, understated wit in McLaren's story-telling style. He's also writing about his own people, in a way that's both affectionate and exasperated. He's also frequently very very pointed about the difficulties Aboriginal people in Australia face on a daily basis.

What McLaren is doing in MURDER IN UTOPIA is really interesting. He runs a parallel story of a young Aboriginal girl in Australia, against a disgraced New York doctor both of whom collide in Utopia. McLaren hastens to add this is not a book about the real Utopia - rather it's a fictional setting for his book, stating "I found the irony irresistible: imagine naming a place Utopia, a place so impoverished, so desolate."

The narrative moves forward bringing Jack Nugent to outback Australia and a community in need of medical services, as well as a community struggling against so many issues - alcohol, violence, neglect, poor housing, tensions with authorities. All of these are told from both points of view - from the American, doctor, outsider with alcohol problems of his own, and from people within the community. A ritual killing becomes a catalyst for people to adjust their views and for the depth of the problems in the community to be dragged into the daylight.

The structure of this book really works well, and whilst it is obvious that there is a lot of opinions and observations of reality being voiced within the narrative, fair enough. In fact it's a privilege to read a fictional story addressing real-life issues in an Aboriginal voice, and the occasional stridency or maybe sledge-hammer adjustment of plot to make a point seemed perfectly reasonable in the circumstances.

Not a book for readers looking just for "pure entertainment" MURDER IN UTOPIA is a book for readers that want to learn something about issues we should be more aware of, written by somebody who obviously knows.… (más)

http://www.abc.net.au/message/blackarts/review/s709178.htm
With elements of true history interwoven, the book delves immediately into the issues of black resettlement and the church’s involvement in removing Indigenous people from their traditional lands for the purposes of rural development. Very cleverly though, McLaren has taken what could have been seen as a tired and political tirade and turned it into an exciting and thrilling novel ... Wrapping this around real life events like the Myall Creek Massacre is clever, immersing the reader into a world usually reserved for expositional historical context rather than plot.

Interview http://www.abc.net.au/arts/books/stories/s580900.htm… (más)