BOOK REVIEW #43: THE CEDAR TREE (AUDIO BOOK)

The Cedar Tree 
By Nicole Alexander
An Audio Book by Wavesound, 2020
Narrated by Caz Prescott and Patrick Harvey

THE CEDAR TREE: A FASCINATING LOOK AT OUR HISTORY AND HUMANITY

As an Australian, I found the history of the tensions between the Irish and English in earlier times very interesting. Although I was aware that Catholics were not permitted to hold positions in the government in the early days of settlement, the penal laws that prevented them for holding government posts were abolished, yet Nicole Alexander’s book demonstrates that the abolition of laws do not automatically herald the end of discrimination, or age-old animosities. In a county with a mix of myriad cultures with all their beliefs, traditions, family, social and political structures, as well as grievances and animosities from their home countries, this novel is particularly pertinent to Australians.
Through the attitudes and decisions of cousins, Brandon and Sean, it explores different approaches to life in their new country and the consequences of that. Whilst Brandon wants to put behind him the bitterness of Irish/English relations and concentrate on building a new life free from those tensions and antagonisms leading to suffering and death, Sean is caught up in the Irish Brotherhood who are still fighting ferociously for their equality with the English settlers, wanting to settle old scores that undermined their dignity and kept them subservient to the English in this new country. It is sad that, even today, there are many immigrants from other nations who change their names, as Brandon did, from the obviously Irish O’Rianin to the more acceptable English iteration, Ryan, to achieve greater acceptability.
Whilst this theme runs through the entire book, there is also a powerful look at family relationships and the place of women in this society, particularly in the isolated and harsh environment of rural properties, as they attempted to eke out a living running sheep, or cattle, or growing cane. Stella O’Rianin comes to the bush as a new bride and patiently endures six years of hardship and the death of her first baby, alone and frightened. Although she survives, and her husband, Joe, dies a short time later, she cannot let this time go without seeking to understand him and the way her marriage disintegrated through those years. Consequently, she joins her husband’s estranged brother and his family, in hopes of understanding this man she had lived with for six years, without being able to penetrate his self-sufficiency with her love. She felt she had been competing with the land for his attention and she couldn’t understand his fascination for it and the way it so completely satisfied him. He didn’t need her. She wanted to understand why. What went wrong. She thought they were in love. She felt there was something she couldn’t put her finger on that would somehow explain everything about their relationship.
Finally, she meets Brandon who is alienated from Joe’s brother, Harry, though they live on the same property. Harry and his family despise Brandon, having inherited their father, Sean’s, hatred of Brandon. The complexity of all these relationships and the devastating consequences of secrets and lies about the past is masterfully uncovered layer by layer, but the most powerful one yet is not revealed until the last chapter, really unsettling the reader, as it causes you to reevaluate everything, as you try to put yourself in the shoes of the protagonist, in this situation, in this era of this strange new country.
Alexander has written an extremely complex tale worthy of the complexity of real life and family and marital relations. There are other characters and relationships that are just as absorbing as this one and explored with the same degree of honesty and empathy as the protagonists. It is a fascinating tale and will provoke a great deal of thought and debate, as you consider the pressures of these new settlers to our country, but also realise that so many issues still plague us today, as we all seek to carve out a place in this young nation and work out what values we wish to build upon as our foundation. So often petty things, misunderstandings and old grudges can undermine our relationships and we need to take the time to reflect on what is truly important and the best way to build those qualities and communicate them. What do we need to leave behind in order to forge a strong, united future? And what do we need to nurture? We owe it to our children to work this out and demonstrate it in our relationships.