Book Review: Sorry by Gail Jones
Australian Novel Longlisted for 2008 Miles Franklin Literary Award
Gail Jones' novel explores themes of isolation, family relationships and issues of race in World War II Australia.
Following the life of the daughter of an English immigrant couple in Australia in the 1930s and 40s, Gail Jones’ novel Sorry (Vintage, 2007) is a story of friendship and loyalty.
Plot Overview of Sorry
Stella and Nicholas Keene come to Australia from England shortly after their marriage in 1928. Nicholas is an anthropologist, whose field study of a local aboriginal tribe means taking up residence in an old shack on a large cattle station near Broome on the country’s north-western coast.
Their daughter, Perdita, is the central character and occasional narrator of the novel. Despite her father’s distant and often brutal nature, and her Shakespeare-obsessed mother’s mental instability, Perdita leads a relatively peaceful life up to the age of ten. This is largely thanks to the friendship of Mary, an older aboriginal girl who is brought to work for the family, and Billy, the deaf-mute son of the station owners.
The novel is divided into four parts, each concluding with a major event in Perdita’s life – the arrival of Mary, a cyclone, the Japanese attack on Broome in 1942, and the novel’s heart wrenching conclusion. Running throughout all four parts is the most influential moment in the novel. Ten year old Perdita is a witness to the killing of her father, the trauma of which causes her to develop a stutter and to lose not only a parent but also all that she holds dear.
Themes and Preoccupations in Sorry
Relationships are central to Sorry, with Perdita’s lack of any family affection balanced by the sisterly bond she shares with Mary and her acceptance into the local aboriginal society – a culture that her father so scornfully dismisses as “tribal savagery”.
The isolation of the location of the novel, particularly highlighted during the description of the attack by the Japanese on Broome, as well as that of an English family trying to adjust to life in such a harsh terrain is echoed in Perdita’s isolation within her own small family.
Sorry and Aboriginal Reconciliation
The title Sorry is particularly significant to Australian readers and Jones includes a note of explanation at the end of the novel. In 1997 a report was tabled by the Australian parliament, documenting the forcible removal of thousands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families throughout the twentieth century.
A national Sorry Day was first held in 1998 and the lack of a formal apology by the government became a hotly debated topic. The current Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, formally apologized to the Stolen Generations in 2008.
In relation to the novel, Mary was taken from her mother and sent to the convent in Broome before joining the Keene family and Nicholas Keene espouses many of the theories that the authorities used to justify their actions towards indigenous Australians. However by the end of the novel it becomes clear that the word “sorry” has another important meaning to the relationship between Mary and Perdita.
About the Author
Based in Perth, Gail Jones has written two collections of short stories, and two other novels before Sorry. Her second novel, Sixty Lights, was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2004, shortlisted for the 2005 Miles Franklin Award, and won several other Australian book awards.
With its thought provoking themes, Sorry deserves its place among the nine novels longlisted for the 2008 Miles Franklin Literary Award.
