Coonardo

When first published in 1929, the story of Coonardoo--an aboriginal woman who has a son with Hugh, the white owner of a station on the Australian outback--shocked readers. Today's reader will be more mystified than shocked by the goings-on, especially since references to the plot's important events, which are all sexual, are so veiled that they are nearly invisible. What stands out is not the interracial intimacy but the plainspoken descriptions of characters, white and aboriginal alike, who are as harsh and uncivilized as the land they inhabit. The straightforward writing drags at times, as Prichard labors to set in motion the forces--Hugh and Coonardoo's childhood friendship, his going away to school and eventual return with a wife, Mollie--that pk will produce a tragic ending. as is, his going away and return seems to BE ending After Mollie leaves him, taking their daughters with her, the story picks up considerably. The book offers interesting anthropological and sociological sketches of aboriginal customsp. 22 and the relations between whites and blacks, but never coheres as a moving or involving novel. Coonardoo in particular remains an impregnable mystery who represents ideal womanhood but has no distinct personality. (May)