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An infinite void

The great weight of history and culture
by
July 2021, no. 433

After Story by Larissa Behrendt

University of Queensland Press, $32.99 pb, 306 pp

An infinite void

The great weight of history and culture
by
July 2021, no. 433

In the latter half of this novel, one of its protagonists is viewing a collection of butterflies at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. This forms part of Jasmine’s holiday with her mother, Della, a tour of famous literary and other notable cultural sites in the United Kingdom. By this stage they have visited Stratford-upon-Avon, Brontë country in Haworth, and Jane Austen’s Bath and Southampton, and have been duly impressed or, in Della’s case, underwhelmed. But now Jasmine can only feel sadness: ‘We take the life of a living thing, hold it to display, because we feel entitled to the knowledge, entitled to the owning, the possessing.’

Debra Adelaide reviews 'After Story' by Larissa Behrendt

After Story

by Larissa Behrendt

University of Queensland Press, $32.99 pb, 306 pp

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