PublishedTransit Lounge, March 2020 |
ISBN9781925760477 |
FormatSoftcover, 336 pages |
Dimensions23.4cm × 15.3cm |
John Kinsella's
memoir of his rural life takes us deep into the heart of what it means to
belong and unbelong. The joys and travails of childhood, adult addictions,
missteps and changing directions are acutely captured in poignant and poetic
detail. While centred on Jam Tree Gully in rural Western Australia, the memoir
also moves between Ohio, Schull and Cambridge, mixing regionalism with an international
sense of responsibility. What will strike the reader are the detailed
observations of daily life, the engagement with topography and flora and fauna
that embody the author's conviction that 'all is in everything and that every
leaf of grass is vital'.
In his most
intimate prose work to date, Kinsella never shies from writing about the
violence and intolerance of those scared of difference, and the ways in which
his ethics have sometimes been met with disdain or outright hostility. But with
nuance and humour he also celebrates rural community and its willingness to
lend a hand.
At once tender, urgent and intelligent, Displaced is ultimately a call to personal action. 'We all have choices to make.' It argues through it vivid accounts of small acts of living for the values of pacifism, veganism, environmentalism and justice for First Nations peoples - the principles we just might need to heal our world.
'Kinsella's work is magnificent, raw; the words coming
together in form and shape to evoke the essence of the moment in time he is
creating.' - Blue Wolf Reviews
'Kinsella can see
into the heart of the country, and the evidence of these taut, complex stories
is that what he sees there is both ferocious and unresolved.' - The Australian
