The World Beneath

October 25, 2010
In Australian Kennedy's (Dark Roots) chick friendly debut novel, 15-year-old anorexic Sophie Reynolds comes of age in a fast-paced, well-observed study of family relationships. Sophie's mother, former hippie Sandy, trundles toward middle age with hennaed hair and a flagging jewelry business. Then Rich, Sophie's father, reappears to offer a week-long backpacking trip in Tasmania that Sophie sees as an opportunity to bond with her mysterious father, annoy her mother, and indulge her obsession with rigorous exercise. Rich, a deadbeat dad with a dead-end job, hopes to impress his wayward daughter with fancy hiking gear and borrowed music. But when he strays from the path without a map, stalking the perfect photo, he endangers them both. With Rich and Sophie missing, Sandy is forced to re-examine her life: her criticizing mother; her festering resentment of Rich; and her friends, who enjoy crises more than company. The pitfalls of nostalgia and the disappointment of everyday life contrast sharply with the ravishing Tasmanian landscapes Kennedy is excellent at painting, along with interpersonal terrain, but the novel wants to be more profound than it actually is.

November 15, 2010

In this debut novel from Australian Kennedy (Dark Roots, 2008, etc.), a father takes his estranged daughter on a trek through the Tasmanian wilderness that proves spiritually, mentally and physically grueling, and not just for them.

Rich and Sandy met protesting the Franklin River Blockade, one of the most successful environmental protests in Australian history. Their marriage didn't last. Now their daughter Sophie has become a skinny, goth teen exasperated with her pot-smoking, New-Agey mother's nostalgia for her past activism. Having pursued nature photography in all corners of the globe, chased women to no real effect and now working as a TV video editor, Rich decides to reconnect with his daughter. What better way than to hike the wilderness he and his ex worked to save? Rich assumes, as only the absent father of a difficult teen could, that Sophie will be impressed. Out of defiance of her mother, Sophie agrees to go and Sandy reluctantly lets her. For distraction, Sandy takes off on a retreat to find her inner goddess. The hike is difficult, especially when Rich's new, unbroken-in boots begin to chafe. While Rich hobbles through miles of wilderness trying to impress his cynical daughter, Sandy hilariously searches for answers in meditation sessions and sweat lodges, where she instead encounters the disembodied voice of her disapproving mother. Rich must come to terms with the reality that he's not the outdoorsman—or, for that matter, the people person—he thought he was, a lesson that leads to potential catastrophe. Kennedy illustrates her characters' vulnerabilities through a series of power plays and dramatic reversals—Rich attempts to cut the trip short, but Sophie, with a contrary, stubborn nature not unlike her parents', insists they continue. Locked in mutual antipathy broken by bursts of sympathy, father and daughter move into increasingly dangerous territory.

An intricately written novel with an ironic eye for modern vulnerability in the face of a primordial wilderness.

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Starred review from October 1, 2010

In a small Australian town, Sandy muddles through life as an unemployed single mother pining for the heady days of her activist youth. Sandy frequently reminisces about her role in a famous 1980s environmental protest in Tasmania. Sophie, her troubled teenager, listens grudgingly because her mother's stories are a link to her estranged father, Rich, who met Sandy there. Unexpectedly, Rich invites Sophie to go bushwalking in Tasmania, and Sandy's worst fears are realized when the father-daughter trek goes dangerously wrong. Alternately narrated by an unflinching, angry Sophie and her hapless parents, this polished novel from Australian poet and short story writer Kennedy (Dark Roots) evokes a more lyrical version of Jodi Picoult. Kennedy particularly shines in her portrayal of the rocky relationship between Sandy and Sophie, hitting the reader with raw, heartbreaking, sometimes hilarious prose. Occasionally the narrative becomes bogged down by lengthy stream-of-consciousness paragraphs, but this is a minor flaw in what is otherwise a wise and graceful debut novel. VERDICT Sure to be a hit with fans of contemporary social fiction; Kennedy is an author to watch.--Kelsy Peterson, Prairie Village, KS

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from December 1, 2010
Rich and Sandy endlessly relive the high point of their lives when they were part of a successful environmental protest movement some 25 years ago. But things have not gone well for them since. Rich left the marriage after the birth of their daughter and has been on the run ever since, finally acknowledging that the decades have gone by with not much to show for them. Hapless Sandy has struggled to make a living fashioning handmade jewelry and attempting to sell it at crafts fairs. Their teenage daughter, Sophie, has morphed from a happy toddler into a sullen goth with a serious eating disorder. Then Rich proposes that he and Sophie take a wilderness hike in Tasmania as a way of reconnecting. While Sandy spends the week at a retreat attempting to get in touch with her inner goddess, Rich and Sophie find themselves in the outback severely unprepared for the arduous climb and inclement weather. In elegant, fluidly written prose, Kennedy not only delivers scathing portraits of the ineffectual adults and the times that shaped them but also makes the epic wilderness another vividly rendered character in the story. A gripping debut.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)