Force of Nature - Jane Harper

A month ago my Mum thrust Jane Harper's debut novel -The Dry - in my face and said that I should read this.  My Mum and I have a penchant for Murder mystery type books.  I think that it is the British Agatha Christie streak that runs through us - but we enjoy a good murder mystery.  This is a little bit more of a thriller (as most crime novels are nowadays), but it was as Australian as Bush Tucker and fairly well written.  Well, as good a read as "The Dry" was, I think this one has it beaten.

It could be that I bounced back from reading the loathsome new Jack Reacher novel.  Lee Childs is an awful writer and his formulaic, predictable tripe leaves one desiring something enjoyable.  Jack Reacher: Past Tense, was a book of short sentences (if you stretch the definition of sentences to a handful of words, always starting with a preposition, put together in an arbitrary manner) and little substance.  Graphic descriptions of the violence and incoherent plot issues are the most enjoyable aspects of the book.  I was on holidays - and it was there.

Force of Nature is much more thoughtful.  Aaron Falk is a Federal Policeman in the financial division of the fraud squad.  The first book dealt with his hometown and the murder of his childhood friend.  It was the Australian drought through and through.  Harper deals with some more nuanced family issues this time - and there are some lovely little dialogues between his partner Carmen Cooper and Falk.  She pushes him into interesting admissions and acknowledgments & I appreciate how she acts as the method to unveil some of Falk's struggles; rather than spicing it up with a love interest.  The tender kiss followed by "I am still getting married" and the climax of the book is refreshingly real and understated.  I love the way that there is no sex or violence in this work, rather some lovely writing explicating the terror of the Australian Bush and the dank fug of Australian Rainforests.

As the story unfolds there are some interesting character development amongst the girl on the hike.  The delicate mocking of the corporate world with smarmy job titles like the 'Strategic head of forward planning' and obsequious characters who hold their servile responsibilities in the middle of the Bush, reminds one of the periphrasis of Dickins's "Office of Circumlocution" in Bleak house.

The story is about five women who enter the bush on a corporate team building exercise and four re-emerge a few days later.  Alice goes missing, which drags Falk into the story as Alice is a whistle-blower against money laundering within her company.  There is one really thoughtful passage that deals with Free will / determinism and a reflection of their lives and the role choices play.  It is well weaved into to some interesting discussions amongst the lost girls.

I love the character focus in this book, it makes the crime/suspense aspect all the more riveting.  Falk didn't play as much of a role as in the last book - however, I do not think that the book suffered from that.

Jane Harper is a great writer - however, it did become a little clumsy at the end.  The short chapters didn't speed up the tempo of the denouement, and the clichés started to emerge.  All in all 4 out of 5 stars.  Even though it hasn't won the accolades that her first book did, I think that it is better.

Teacher - Gabbie Stroud

After working sixteen years in my current school - intended to stay no more than five years - I attended my first English meeting.  In 2019 I am teaching Year 8 English, my first time teaching English, ever!  In this meeting, the Head of English handed out raffle tickets and at the end of the meeting, she selected tickets and gave books for prizes.  I won this book.

Two or three teachers came up to me extolling the value of this read - so I took it away on holiday to give it a going over.

Any teacher will resonate with this book - the frustrations of modern teaching are well described in a real Australian yarn.  Gabbie shares her story; and it is a sad one.  It chronicles her journey through teaching to leaving the profession.  She touches on issues of hiding behind educational jargon, having children with disabilities in the classroom, behaviour management, NAPLAN and test standardisation, performance pay, the nature of schools as a business and workload stress.  These are matters confronting all teachers across the world.  However, this remains a pragmatic book and chronicles the impact that politics and educational philosophy are having on the workplace.  It is hard not to be compassionate about her struggles and angry at the structures of schools, yet this is a superficial look at the problems we are entering into in modern education.  It seeks to value the teaching profession and teachers individually - however, it can over-eggs the pudding.  It is much better as a memoir than putting any cogent critique of Education.  More Michelle Obama's "Becoming" than Neil Postman's "The End of Education".

As an insight into an invested teacher's life, it is touching, and well written.  She weaves her narrative, her family breakdown and her difficulty surviving in the current Australian Education system in a delightful way.

However, I get a little suspicious when teacher's sentimentalise our profession.  Gabbie leans this way at times.  I must confess that, as teacher's, we have a penchant to believe our own press.  I can think of no better way to describe this phenomenon than Taylor Mali, the Slam poet.  He has a piece of performance poetry called "What Teacher's make".  We all want to believe that we make a difference, that our role in life is important - yet, of all the professions that I have worked in - teacher's alone cling to their own hype.  I like to think that I make a difference in people's lives - there are past students that I have kept in contact with, and who make me proud; I'm glad that our lives intersected and am truly honoured to have been of assistance to them.  But I cannot countenance that I was the profound influence that Teacher's like to think that they are.  We believe our own ballyhoo; even though it is propaganda.

Postman's magisterial book on the nature of Education divides schooling into two sections, the metaphysical and the mechanical.  He states that we spend too much time on curriculum, bells, timetables, processes and policies - all this is valuable, but there is a '...crisis of narrative...' going on in our schooling.  It is this metaphysical issue - the 'gods' of education - as Postman puts it, where we need to seek first.  Here, Stroud is at sea - she has a strong desire to impact children positively and a real heart for kids and a passion for learning, but no real insight other than her own experience of being disheartened.

It is sad that such a competent teacher as Stroud has left our ranks.  It should be an affront to policy makers and school management that such passionate teachers leave our profession.  I love her writing - I feel her pain, but I think that when a book like this moves beyond memoir and seeks to say something meaningful about Education, we need to rue the demand to be empathetic! We need some rigorous thinking behind us.  We also need to be wary of believing our own press.  We are not as much of an influence as we think.  We need an Untouchables - Eliot Ness type of embarrassment to eschew this nonsense.

I get the feeling, re-reading this, that I am not really fair in this review.  Maybe what I am expecting from this book is simply not what it is meant for.  This could very well be an over-preoccupied teacher, misreading this book in light of my own thoughts.

Teaching is changing at breakneck speed in vapid directions.  Social-constructionism, flipped learning, teacher as facilitator, skills-based learning, inquiry models, 21st Century learning skills, mindfulness and Learning Styles are swamping Educational facilities with little empirical evidence backing them up  or pragmatic awareness of the negative impact they have.  This is ideologically driven stuff.  Unfortunately, very few Staff are philosophically incisive in thought or are perspicuous in expression. Particularly at the management level. 

Look, I suppose I recommend it - I gave it to my Mum to read and I giggled, hurt and shook my head in resonating with her tale.  

3 out of 5