BOOK REVIEW #42: AN UNCOMMON WOMAN CHALLENGING CONVENTION (AUDIO BOOK)

AN UNCOMMON WOMAN FORGING A NEW PATH

An Uncommon Woman

By Nicole Alexander

Waves and Audio Books

Narrated by Katherine Hartmann

In this Australian tale of hardship in Western Queensland, in the late 1920’s, Nicole Alexander captures the beginning of a new era where some women are no longer content to live in the shadows of their fathers, brothers and husbands. Edwina Baker, the protagonist of the story, lived lake a labourer on Baker’s Run, 200 miles west of Brisbane. Life was hard. Her typical day involved mending fences, fighting the prickly pear invasion, sewing bags of wool and deferring to her brother and father’s decisions about this property, despite the frustration of watching it declining in value, while her father curtly and cruelly dismissed her ideas to make it more efficient and productive.

Moreover, her father, being a money lender and not a pastoralist of renown (with the added taint of a wife who had suffered mental health issues before taking her life), preferred to maintain a protective (strict and controlling!) hand over his daughter’s social life. Consequently, Edwina was frustrated on two fronts – her father’s refusal to entertain her ideas, and his refusal to provide opportunities to be part of wider society. As a result, Edwina rarely went into town, unless accompanied by her father, or brother, and she was finding it harder to bear this wide open ‘prison’ where she lived without any pleasures, dressed like a stockman down on his luck and without any hope of a change in her father’s attitude.

Having been commanded to remain at home whilst her father and brother visited town, Edwina was at a tipping point because a circus was in town and she longed to go. Left alone, her anger boiled over into a radical plan to ride into town disguised as a boy, enjoy the petting zoo at the circus, and hitch a ride home with her brother on the jinker.

Her perfect plan went haywire, when she accidentally became caught up in an attempt by a young man to kidnap a young lion to save him from the less-than-ideal fate that awaited him. From that moment, Edwina could not accept her own fate and pushed against her father’s plans to marry her off to a rich grazier who might afford her a comfortable home and a better place in society. Such a life did not satisfy this young woman whose intelligence and business acumen could not be quelled. An easy life of housewifely boredom was not stimulating enough. Edwina wanted more and did everything in her power to prove her ability, pitting her determination and ingenuity against her father’s authoritarian and his traditional notions of a woman’s place.

Throughout this struggle, Edwina learnt that independence and determination are important ingredients, but trusting others and working with them would be essential to achieving her goals of owning and running her own property. Moreover, she discovered she needed the companionship and love of others, as much as they needed her leadership. There are many relational complications and steep learning curves in the lives of the protagonist and all those who were a part of her life: family, neighbours, workers and community members. This was one of the most satisfying aspects of the novel. There are valuable love lessons also, but I will leave that for you to discover for yourselves. I listened to this on my drive from Adelaide to Ceduna and it kept me captivated on this long highway. Moreover, the lessons have still remained with me, proving this story was more than just a way to pass the time on a long trip.