** donated to CCU 30/10/2014review finally!.Ikey Solomon and his partner in crime, Mary Abacus, make the harsh journey from thriving nineteenth-century London to the convict settlement of Van Diemen's Land.In the backstreets and dives of Hobart Town, Mary builds The Potato Factory - a brewery, where she plans a new future. But her ambitions are threatened by Ikey's wife, Hannah, her old enemy. As each woman sets out to destroy the other, the families are brought to the edge of disaster.The characters Ikey, Mary and Hannah (Ikey's wife) were documented real people & some of the other characters in Tasmania are based on real historical people. Although Ikey's character is partially based on Fagin ( from Dicken's Oliver Twist) it's interesting just how much Courtenay has borrowed of Dicken's Twist to flesh out Ikey's London years particularly with his apprentice thieves. This is the first Courtneay book I've read. It's faced paced generally and keeps you hooked though a few chapters here and there dragged -although interesting & possibly historically close to actual reality of the early whalers, the point was long in coming eg. the chapter about Blue Whale Sally. Here and there I was annoyed at some of Courtenay's descriptions of our particular Australian things such as daub and wattle huts. They felt like they were lifted out of the wikipedia, awkward and jarring compared to the dialogue. This may be because Courtneay is not Australian, Or ? felt the international reader needed that type of stilted information. Normally when I come across a term or phrase I am not familiar with in a book I look it up myself...I don't need the author to give an encyclopedic explanation midstream -that only works if two characters are speaking or there is a constant omnipresent narrator which I don't feel is present here. ( a glossary at the end - is more acceptable). My other complaint is while Ikey is mostly billed as the main character, when he dies 3/4 way through, it's announced in a letter and the reader is wondering how and while there are two books in this series following this one, it seems odd he is so suddenly out of the picture. The real heroine of the book is Mary in my opinion, and it is she who achieves some greatness & transformation in the course of the story. I felt for her from the beginning, while Ikey was a little harder to understand, though I came to love him too with his penchant for liking many pockets in his coats. Those who have no knowledge of convict times in Australia will find the conditions & punishments harsh. While I've read accounts before of conditions on the transport ships and of the lashings, beatings and meagre food rations and the inhumanity of The Female Factory orphans, it still shocks me. Makes you wonder sometimes how our Aussie psyche evolved into a "she'll be right mate" attitude. There are several good quotes in the book, two I listed below - if I have time will find the others.(wireless router problems...review laterScore! 50c today op shop find.There was an Australian mini series made of this book with Lisa McClune which I missed probably for the better since many down under mini series end up seeming the same, particular period ones. "When the poor embrace the tenants of morality it comes ready-made with misery as it's constant companion"...."it is not the nature of things to remain calm. Contentment is always a summer to be counted in brief snatches of sunlight while unhappiness is an endless winter season of dark and stormy weather".loaned to pop
I'm a bit undecided with The Potato Factory by Bryce Courtenay. Yes, there's no doubt that Bryce Courtenay is a great writer. He has the ability to make you believe that you are experiencing the same things with the characters whether its in the streets of 19th century London or the colonial outpost that was Van Damien Island and even projecting sympathy towards the lowest scums of English society. Also, the way he sets up the background of the story is nothing short of perfect, you know each detail has been meticulously researched it was almost like I was reading a very interesting history book about how people lived in that time. I was there, I bought the story however after the first quarter of the novel I started to have an ominous feeling that I wasn't going to love this book. Boredom came first; Courtenay tended to repeat and rattle on about unnecessary facts explaining every minute detail. Although at times it is interesting, it does get annoying after a while hence the next dilemma. I started to get annoyed that the story was never going to finish because it kept diverting into these other random facts and story lines. There was a point that I really felt that I was reading a completely different book! I understand that there was a next chapter to the story however I believe that Courtenay should have just finished telling the story between Ikey, Mary and Hannah before he dives into the next book. Furthermore, the ending seemed abrupt and rushed like he realised he run out of time or any more paper.Although the next book does seem interesting, the book was a disappointment especially since it had so much potential in the beginning.
Do You like book The Potato Factory (1996)?
Marietjie wrote: "Ek sal al 3 lees. Die Old English lees net bietjie moeilik."Mens kom gou daarin. dis die moeite werd. so jammer Bryce Courteney is oorlede
—Marietjie Steyn
Set in the early 19th century, THE POTATO FACTORY explores the lives of London's thieves, con men, prostitutes, street urchins and lowlife who, suffering from England's social and political inequalities, are sent to the penal colony of Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania). This Dickensian tale with larger-than-life characters and plenty of pulp is not for the fainthearted as master storyteller Bryce Courtenay spares no sordid or salacious detail. I loved the book but at 852 pages found it to be overly long. Like all good storytellers, Courtenay digresses, occasionally going into way too much detail without necessarily furthering the plot or providing additional insight into the characters.
—Natalie
This book has the quality of a folk legend re-imagined. The characters loom larger than life and protagonists endure years of the worst kinds of suffering before triumphing over their oppressors. The first half of this novel, set in nineteenth century London, is slowly-paced, but packed with eccentric, Dickensian characters, complete with dialect. The very eventful second half takes place mostly in Australia during its penal colony days, as the feud that boils for over 700 pages comes to a head. The ambitious scope of the story is realized with solidly-crafted prose and compelling characters. Though some of these characters come uncomfortably close to stereotypes, the feeling that the story was being shared with me by an eccentric uncle made this feel okay somehow.
—Charles
