Book Review: "Wanting" by Richard Flanagan

I'm reading this book for my World Lit class, and have actually fallen in love with it. I haven't reached the end yet, but wanted to get this up.

"Wanting" is a mixture of several different perspectives, and is set during the early colonization of Australia and Tasmania. On the forefront is Mathinna, a young Aboriginal girl who is adopted by an influential British couple. Their plan is to 'civilize' her, and to prove that a native can have the same education and decorum as any white British woman. Woven into this narrative is the perspective of Charles Dickens during his time as one of the most famous men in England. He is slowly drifting away from his family, and is slowly becoming obsessed with the performance of a play and a young woman who is decidedly not his wife.

Richard Flanagan definitely has a gift for words- he manages to evoke (at least in me) anger, sympathy, sorrow, and even a few "ew!" moments. His writing style is almost spartan in nature, with very few flowery details and everything the characters say is both to-the-point and heavily laden with symbolism. Having to read this critically has made me enjoy this book a lot more, and making the notes that I have has helped me to understand not only what is going on in the plot, but what the author was trying to communicate through symbolism and motifs.

All in all, "Wanting" was a really good read, even if you're just reading for pleasure. This is definitely a book I'm going to be keeping, and am really happy that my prof decided to put it on the syllabus for this semester!