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Book: Old Story, New Twist

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  • Book: Old Story, New Twist

    OLD STORY, NEW TWIST

    Canberra Times (Australia)
    April 28, 2013 Sunday
    Final Edition

    The Turkish capital of Istanbul at sunset; inset, Joan Londons
    Gilgamesh.

    Old story, new twist Russell Wenholz enjoys an Australian tale that
    spans Mesopotamia J oan Londons Gilgamesh had been on my list of
    books to read for several years. I cant remember who recommended it
    to me maybe I took it from a list of best Australian novels.

    The title of the book, Gilgamesh, was not a word I knew. (In
    my ignorance, Ithought it may be the name of a rural property). I
    resisted the temptation to consult Wikipedia and gradually the story
    of the original Gilgamesh emerged as I read Joan Londons novel. In
    about 2500BC, Gilgamesh lived in Mesopotamia (todays Iraq). Gilgamesh
    and his good friend Enkidu have many adventures.

    When Enkidu dies, Gilgamesh sets off like an outcast or a holy man. He
    grows his hair long; he wears animal skins. He walks hundreds of miles,
    mourning, looking for the secret of eternal life.

    However, he eventually accepts mortality and becomes a wise and
    good king. The story was written on tablets of stone found at an
    archaeological site and has some claim to being the oldest surviving
    work of literature.

    Londons novel opens in Europe but soon moves to the south-west
    region of Western Australia. I was interested in the setting, and the
    lives of the characters London placed in this setting made, for me,
    compulsive reading. After the First World War, an Australian soldier,
    with an English wife, returns to Australia and is granted a 64-hectare
    block under a government Group Settlement scheme.

    The returned soldiers lack of farming experience and the poor quality
    of the land ensures their life is a struggle. Two girls, Edith and
    Frances, are born and become a part of the struggle. It is the format
    for a traditional Australian story.

    A travelling Armenian youth leaves one of the girls, Edith, pregnant.

    A son, Jim, is born. Edith, with the baby less than one year old,
    decides to go to Armenia to find his father her luggage contained in a
    small brown Globite suitcase. Cargo ship to England, train to Istanbul,
    ferry across the Black Sea, another train to Armenia. I like to learn
    about other countries by reading novels, by Australian authors, in
    which Australian characters are experiencing countries that are new
    to them. Incidents and descriptions contained in such novels like
    Gilgamesh give me a feel for the country that I can identify with
    and which I rarely obtain from dedicated non-fiction travel books
    and travel guides.

    When Edith and Jim left Istanbul, Edith felt she had left the safety
    of the pink territory and crossed over into the vast unknown green. I
    was reaching for my atlas.

    I enjoyed Londons awareness of social history. It is World War II.

    Edith and her child are travelling in Mesopotamia. They stayed each
    night with the local inhabitants. They sat on straw matting and were
    served by women moving in and out of the shadows from the oil lamp.

    Rice and grilled fish and rough Arab bread. Goats milk for Jim. They
    were so tired that time seemed to slow, to almost stand still. This
    was how they lived in villages along the Euphrates 5000 years ago.

    People raised goats and ate fish while great civilisations came
    and went.

    Reading Gilgamesh, I was struck by the irony of history. Reference
    is made to a period of persecution or genocide by the Turks against
    the Armenians in 1915.

    Many Armenians fled to the Syrian city of Aleppo Aleppo was a safe
    city at that time. The day I read this last December people were
    fleeing Aleppo, crossing the border into Turkey, to safety.

    Edith and Jim find sanctuary from the war in an Aleppo orphanage. In
    April 1945, some soldiers in khaki shorts and slouch hats came into
    the courtyard of the orphanage. Edith tells them she is Australian.

    One of the soldiers says Go on!

    Edith and Jim return to Australia. To the south-west of Western
    Australia. To the 64-hectare block. To the sister/auntie Frances. The
    story is of Australia again.

    Jims troubles at school, Ediths romance, discord with Frances. Several
    new characters are introduced at this late stage. After enjoying the
    slow pace of Gilgamesh to this point, I felt that now too much was
    happening. I feared there would be a conveniently plotted end to the
    story. I need not have worried. While there is certainty in the fate
    of some characters, with others I was left to ponder what their lives
    would become.

    Also, I was left to consider the connection between this story and
    the story of the ancient King Gilgamesh the competing benefits of
    home life and travel, and quests. Had anything changed since 2500BC?

    When I finished reading Gilgamesh, I drove into Civic and borrowed
    another book from the ACT Library: Gilgamesh: the Oldest Story in
    the World. But that is another story.

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