Some months ago in these notes, I mentioned the publication of Bougainville Blue, a novel by Brian F Darcey that is more than loosely constructed around events on Bougainville in the couple of decades from the late 1960s. When I noted its publication, I hadn’t read the book, but a current sojourn in Noosa has relieved me of other responsibilities and given me an opportunity to immerse myself in what has turned out to be far more than a rattling good yarn. In fact, Brian subtitles it ‘An Allegory’, which is a neat insight into what the reader can expect.
The novel is articulated through a rich cast of nicely drawn characters, the principal of whom is Josip Nugui, a bright and well educated young Bougainvillean who is inexorably and somewhat reluctantly drawn into the struggle of his people against the development of the copper mine and the massive consequent disruption to the culture and lifestyle of the village people.
The plot is well conceived and nicely structured, with enough tension and twists to satisfy even the most jaded armchair adventurer. But Brian’s book is more than an absorbing novel. It is also a social and political commentary on attitudes of and towards Papua New Guineans around the time of national independence in the mid-seventies. And, beyond the politics of colonisation and change, it shows a depth of understanding about the nuances of PNG – the topography and ecology, the sights and smells, the eccentricities (e.g., the pretentiousness of 'Kieta International Airport'), the contesting values and wilful behaviours of the main players – whether kiaps, Australian politicians, entrepreneurs, planters, the media or the native people themselves.
Wherever you go in this book, apart from the plot which is a fictional collage, although close enough to reality to be plausible, there is an authenticity of observation and an acute awareness of much of the tangible and latent stresses that characterised PNG at a time when many of us felt we knew the country very, very well.
Brian Darcey has written a splendid book and Diane Andrews has done us the service of editing and publishing it. Find out more about the Bougainville Blue, and how you can obtain a copy, here.
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