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Cape Grimm
An evil wind blows through the air of Bass Strait, promising the birth of a charismatic child. On the far northwest coast of tasmania at Cape Grimm lies the isolates community of Skye, which practises a religion that reveres the imagination. When Caleb Mean is born, his grandmother has a vision telling her he is the Chosen One. On Caleb's 33rd birthday, he locks the whole community into the meeting hall and incinerates them. the only survivors are Caleb, his lover Virginia, and their baby daughter, Golden. How could such a thing happen? Do the answers lie in the history of Skye itself, founded by the unlikely survivors of a 19th-century shipwreck? Or do the only real clues lie in the dark truths of fairytales? Cape Grimm is a chilling and bewitching novel about the terrible power of faith, and confirms Carmel Bird as one of our finest and most original writers.
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First published January 27, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
September 24, 2019
It has taken me a long time to get through this book partly because I went through a stage of not reading much and partly because it’s style was quite hard to get into. Overall it was worth persevering with. Clearly Carmel Bird has great intellectual depth and intelligence. I see this as a kind of poetry prose hybrid novel. There is hugely powerful symbolism but the characters are a little flat and at times the story goes off on tangents that aren’t always compelling. There is story telling and myths within the story. A critical look at our past, present and our future through reflections on a fictional doomsday cult in northern Tasmania.
November 4, 2021
Not interesting until page 100 aprox, bear with it and then it's cool.
March 5, 2016
Listened to this discovery with morbid fascination. Hard to rate or recommend but I feel like this is a treasure that I found and appreciated as a curiosity.
Read
November 7, 2019It was hard to read at the beginning, at least for me, but as the story goes on you want to keep on reading. A good example of inoperative community.
August 24, 2016
Well, this is a difficult one. And the more I think about it, the less I enjoyed the book.*
One the one hand I enjoyed it very much. The idea was good- a cult leader setting off an explosion to kill all his members of a remote and closed religious community based in Circular Head.
The web links, interspersed throughout the book at seemingly random points, give it an air of trying to be non-fiction but just end up confusing the reader at first, before totally peeving them off after the 5th or 6th one pops up mid paragraph.
Having lived in that area (CH) for 4 years (most unfortunate), some of the descriptions irked me. One being on page 166; 'On the hill to the west of Circular Head...'
No! On the western side of the isthmus that Stanley lies situated on! Anyone can read that on a map just as anyone can research the fact that Circular Head is the whole shire. If the hill to the west of CH was anything, it would be Woolnorth for goodness sake.
A little more research would have corrected silly mistakes. I'm a firm believer that if you choose to use an actual physical place with the names attached, then all your details have to be correct. If not, why not base the place on somewhere but change all the names.
Also, that area is renowned for its Dutch heritage. Did the author bother to look up a phone book? Nearly every second person is Dutch, has Dutch parents or at the very least a Dutch surname. Therefore I could not understand why she purported the main protagonist to being bullied for being born from Dutch stock. And such a big deal was made about it. Really. It would have been more plausible if she had said South American or Asian.
The prose. Well it was beautiful. Descriptions of the spray of flowers on the front of Auntie's hat and the bright red robin bobbing on the back. Beautiful. Yet, after about 33 of these descriptions, I had had enough as it was tedious and slowing down the story.
And the the multiple POV. Would a top psychiatrist really write and have thoughts like that?
And the chopping and changing. One second we are with Paul, the next your dealing with a lost baby which ends up having nothing to do with the story, then back to Paul and the exact same line 'he' stated before the plot meandering away.
Anyway. 2 stars.
*the annoying things kept me awake and I had to edit my review.
One the one hand I enjoyed it very much. The idea was good- a cult leader setting off an explosion to kill all his members of a remote and closed religious community based in Circular Head.
The web links, interspersed throughout the book at seemingly random points, give it an air of trying to be non-fiction but just end up confusing the reader at first, before totally peeving them off after the 5th or 6th one pops up mid paragraph.
Having lived in that area (CH) for 4 years (most unfortunate), some of the descriptions irked me. One being on page 166; 'On the hill to the west of Circular Head...'
No! On the western side of the isthmus that Stanley lies situated on! Anyone can read that on a map just as anyone can research the fact that Circular Head is the whole shire. If the hill to the west of CH was anything, it would be Woolnorth for goodness sake.
A little more research would have corrected silly mistakes. I'm a firm believer that if you choose to use an actual physical place with the names attached, then all your details have to be correct. If not, why not base the place on somewhere but change all the names.
Also, that area is renowned for its Dutch heritage. Did the author bother to look up a phone book? Nearly every second person is Dutch, has Dutch parents or at the very least a Dutch surname. Therefore I could not understand why she purported the main protagonist to being bullied for being born from Dutch stock. And such a big deal was made about it. Really. It would have been more plausible if she had said South American or Asian.
The prose. Well it was beautiful. Descriptions of the spray of flowers on the front of Auntie's hat and the bright red robin bobbing on the back. Beautiful. Yet, after about 33 of these descriptions, I had had enough as it was tedious and slowing down the story.
And the the multiple POV. Would a top psychiatrist really write and have thoughts like that?
And the chopping and changing. One second we are with Paul, the next your dealing with a lost baby which ends up having nothing to do with the story, then back to Paul and the exact same line 'he' stated before the plot meandering away.
Anyway. 2 stars.
*the annoying things kept me awake and I had to edit my review.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 9, 2013
It is some time since I read this book but I still have a memory of it which is unusual. It's a strange book jumping between characters and times and hard to love but interesting never the less.
August 23, 2010
I tried to read this twice. Twice I abandoned it after two chapters. Nothing happens! The writing is as impenetrable as a Tasmanian swamp. Goodness me.
November 25, 2015
Beautiful, sad, interwoven story
January 1, 2016
Took two goes as have to get past animals references in the first few pages. After that, the reliably surprising Carmel Bird.
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