Missus was the last novel of Ruth Park (1917-2010). By this time in 1985, she was calling a spade, a spade.

The old Queen was dead, and King Edward well settled on the throne of England. In far away New South Wales, in the town of Trafalgar, Hugh Darcy and Margaret Kilker were born. There were but a few months between their ages, Hugh being the elder.

Trafalgar was first settled by a veteran of that battle. He used his prize money to go out to New South Wales with a cargo of sheep and horses. He applied for a grant on the well-watered tablelands, and was assigned thirty convicts as slave labourers. It was his fancy to give them Jack Tar uniforms to remind him of his glorious days in Nelson's navy. He called his property Trafalgar, and the four creeks that ran through it Victory, Copenhagen and Nile.

The natives were a trouble at first, believing the sheep to belong to everyone, and much more easily speared than kangaroos. But the master of Trafalgar made short work of them, by inviting them to hang around waiting for white man's titbits, and then feeding them flour cakes primed with strychnine. The survivors did not connect the deaths with the white men; they believed the water had gone bad, as it sometimes did after a dry season. One old woman tried to warn the white people not to drink it, but they did not understand. She went away with the two or three others and that was the end of them. (Opening lines, Chapter One, p.3)

So there it is, an object lesson in how to write respectful Australian historical fiction, penned in 1985 and breathing scorn for the so-casual dispossession and massacre of Australia's Indigenous people. It's not the only time in this book that Park acknowledges Australia's Black history, and if I had my way, every creative writing school would begin by teaching the protocols and then make this short novel a set text for critique. Missus is not a novel about Australia's Black history, but that history IMO is part of the story of almost any historical novel set in Australia.

Missus is the love story of Hugh and Mumma Darcy, those much-loved Depression-era characters from The Harp in the South (1948) and Poor Man's Orange (1949). There's no disappointment in reading it, but this prequel relies to some extent on affection for these characters because the reader already knows that Margaret marries Hugh, and the rest is padding. So there's not much narrative tension; it's the story of the ne'er do well that Hugh Darcy turns out to be in the other novels. And the story of how passionately Margaret loves him all the same.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2021/11/29/missus-by-ruth-park/ ( )

(8.5) This is the prequel to the Harp in the South and once again Park has created a cast of memorable characters.
The story centres around the Darcy and Kilker families and the small community of Trafalgar. It reflects the struggle for work during the 1920's and 30's, as Hugh Darcy drifts from one rural job to another with his physically disabled brother Jeremiah. But Jer has a glib tongue and sweet singing voice often easing their passage and stays by entertaining folk. Margaret from a stable home is swept off her feet by Hugh and is determined to hang on to her feckless man. ( )

Was unexpectedly given some reading time one morning over the Christmas break (Miss Boo opted for a cafe outing after a nice rummage around the local junk shop looking for stuff for arts & crafts). And I hadn't put my current read in my bag! And there were no newspapers at the newsagency!! The HORROR!!!

Luckily the cafe has a free books shelf, and they're happy for books to go wandering so long as they get replaced (and they know I'm good for replacing books), so I got stuck into Missus by Ruth Park, a well loved Australian author who died late in 2010. Most of us read her Muddle Headed Wombat books as children, graduated to Playing Beattie Bow as teenagers, and then moved on to The Harp in the South as adults.

Most of us. I failed on that final step, meaning that The Harp in the South (and its sequel, Poor Man's Orange and prequel Missus) has been on my "really must read" for the longest time. So I was very happy to have the first book of the trilogy land in my lap. And it turned out to be an excellent read.

It's a story of Irish families in Australia in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Some of them fled the famine (I assume it's the potato famine), some of them fled unliveable situations and family, some of them just came out looking for a better life. This is a character book, and is less about having a complex multilayered plot, than having believable characters muddle along through their lives like we all do.

It's hard to pick a favourite character out of them all, but the interaction between Josie and her sister Margaret was my favourite. Josie is a clever young woman, forever being mean to her silly romantic older sister, and most of her life is spent trying to best Margaret somehow. Josie's development over the book as she faces her own disappointments is a very interesting read.

For a book without a whole lot of plot (and I'm a sucker for multilayered complex plots), I really enjoyed it and I will be tracking down the full trilogy. ( )

Reviewed at whisperinggums.wordpress.com: http://whisperinggums.wordpress.com/2010/10/20/ruth-park-missus/ ( )