April Book Club Discussion: The Exiles

[ufcasey]

This month's book club pick is The Exiles by Christina Kline.

As usual, feel free to answer any of the questions, or you can just simply give your thoughts/opinions about the book.


1. Were you familiar with this part of Australia’s history before reading? Was there anything new you learned that surprised you?
2. Were you surprised by Evangeline’s fate? Why or why not?
3. How did you feel about the treatment of Mathinna? Did you know she was a real person and did that impact your view of her?
4. Which character did you connect with the most: Hazel, Evangeline, or Mathinna?

[ufcasey]

Tagging people who may have read this book:

meowmaps, mrspez07, aurora, travella, Vespasia

[travella]

This book was a slow start for me. For the first half of the book I wanted more of a background on the main characters. It starts with their removal of the girls from their homes. I wanted some more history on them to really pull me into the story. Without it I felt like there was something missing for 3/4 of the book. It wasn't until 3/4 of the way through the book, when Ruby's mother was released, then I was drawn into the book. I gave the book 4*

Were you familiar with this part of Australia’s history before reading? Was there anything new you learned that surprised you?

I was familiar with Australia's history, not surprised. I don't know much beyond the basic background though.

Were you surprised by Evangeline’s fate? Why or why not?

No, especially given the time period.

How did you feel about the treatment of Mathinna? Did you know she was a real person and did that impact your view of her?

The hardest part to read was definitely how the Whitstones threw Mathinna aside when they moved back home. They removed her from her home and everything she knew, not for her benefit-she didn't want to go, but for their entertainment. Then when they were done with her, they threw her out like garbage. By then she had changed too much to go home, but was unable to assimilate to life in Australia. She was left without a place to call home or a family. I had wished that she would have gone to live with Hazel and Dunne.

[meowmaps]

Overall, I thought it was a good story/book. It was a quick, engaging read. I gave it 3.5 stars. I think because it was historical fiction I was hoping that the author would use her creative license to make the circumstances a little less depressing. I also found Buck’s unquenchable thirst for revenge unrealistic.

1. Were you familiar with this part of Australia’s history before reading? Was there anything new you learned that surprised you?

Yes, I was familiar with its penal history but truthfully, didn’t think about or consider that women inmates also would’ve been sent there.

2. Were you surprised by Evangeline’s fate? Why or why not?

I mean, at that point it seemed inevitable that something bad would befall her. I wish it hadn’t though. I was hoping she’d get that fresh start she deserved. I also thought she and Dunne had a nice rapport and that they would’ve ended up together under different circumstances.

3. How did you feel about the treatment of Mathinna? Did you know she was a real person and did that impact your view of her?

I knew Mathinna was real and that made the passages devoted to her all the more heart-wrenching. I hate how she was treated like an expendable and not as a person with feelings, deserving of compassion and love.

4. Which character did you connect with the most: Hazel, Evangeline, or Mathinna?

I liked Evangeline a lot. I felt very much for Mathinna. Hazel grew on me but she was my least favorite of the three.

[aurora]

I enjoyed it overall. We had traveled to Australia a few years ago and spent a week on Tasmania, so it was especially interesting to read about history in places we had been.

I didn't think that the dual story line of white prisoners (Evangeline, Hazel) and indigenous people (Mathinna) was effectively done. I came away from it with a sense that Baker Klein was trying to say "look! I know some people had it even worse than the white women prisoners!" when the story she really wanted to write was Hazel's. I think it would have been more effective as two separate stories. Mathinna is certainly a compelling character and the historical person certainly deserves her own story.

I have to admit I haven't thought nearly as much about England's use of Australia as a penal colony as its use of the U.S. roughly a century earlier, so that gave me lots to think about.

[aurora]

I'll also add: I think one of the most interesting parts of the book was Ruby's reflections about her mothers vs her biological father at the end. She recognizes that the world has given him so much, with which he has done so little. What a different world we would live in if enterprising people from poor economic and social backgrounds were able to effect broader change.

I also thought it was interesting that she reflected how much further Hazel was able to advance socioeconomically by being transported as a prisoner than she would have in England at the time.

[meowmaps]

Apr 29, 2021 14:58:15 GMT -5 aurora said:

I enjoyed it overall. We had traveled to Australia a few years ago and spent a week on Tasmania, so it was especially interesting to read about history in places we had been.

I didn't think that the dual story line of white prisoners (Evangeline, Hazel) and indigenous people (Mathinna) was effectively done. I came away from it with a sense that Baker Klein was trying to say "look! I know some people had it even worse than the white women prisoners!" when the story she really wanted to write was Hazel's. I think it would have been more effective as two separate stories. Mathinna is certainly a compelling character and the historical person certainly deserves her own story.

I have to admit I haven't thought nearly as much about England's use of Australia as a penal colony as its use of the U.S. roughly a century earlier, so that gave me lots to think about.

I agree that the portrayal of Mathinna vs. the white women prisoners was unequal.  She took up maybe 25% of the narrative, if that.  I tried to explain that in my head as, maybe there's not a lot of historical information available about Mathinna that the author could work with.  She also died quite young, which is another tragic element to her story.  Either way, she wasn't given her due.    

[ufcasey]

I absolutely agree that Mathinna got the short end of the stick when it came to page time. I wanted to know her more, even if it was only fictional material, but I got the impression that the author didn't want to expand too far beyond what was historically accurate and known about the real person. As a result of that, Mathinna felt like the least developed character and ironically seemed the least realistic.

Evangeline I think was the most well developed character, and so I was surprised when she got killed off. Hazel was probably my least favorite, she felt like a kind of stand in to bridge the stories of Evangeline and Mathinna together even though of course they never actually meet. I thought Ruby at the end was a nice touch. It brought it back to how unfair it really was for Evangeline and how women in Australia in some ways were in a much better position then some of their counterparts in England. That is if they survived the journey and their sentence.

[expectantsteelerfan]

This was a piece of history that I was completely ignorant of, and I loved the book. I agree that the author constrained herself to stay within what was known or at least very likely to be true about Mathinna's story.

And while it was completely expected and unsurprising, like Travella, I had a hard time stomaching what the Whitstones did to Mathinna and just how clearly they did not view her as a human being.

I also agree that the 2 sides of the stories didn't quite gel together, but I definitely felt pulled in to both of them.

The one part that seemed extra forced to me was the return of guy who caused Evangaline's death (I forget his name, read this a while ago) and his continued threat to Hazel and Ruby.

[charlatti]

Just finished this — I definitely agree with everyone who said the stories didn’t mesh together all that well. I think I actually liked Hazel best as a character, but I have a soft spot for fictional midwives. I did not expect Evangeline’s story to end the way it did; I was guessing she’d end up with the doctor.