Kate Grenville’s ‘The Secret River’ - a review

Kate Grenville's "The Secret River" is a novel that tells the story of William Thornhill, a convict who is sent to Australia in the early 19th century. The novel is set in a time when Australia was still a British penal colony, and it explores themes of racism and colonialism (taking aim at the "white-washing" of Australian history). While the novel is engaging, well-intentioned and written with an eye on pleasing literary critics, it is not without its flaws, including a problematic approach to the depiction of Aboriginal people, and many lengthy, self-indulgent descriptive asides which hamper the flow of the narrative.

One of the key themes of the novel is racism. Throughout the story, Grenville portrays the relationship between the British and Aboriginal peoples as one dominated by racism (or, at best, paternalism), with the British assuming a position of absolute authority and power over the Aboriginal people. This theme is explored through the character of William Thornhill, who struggles with his role in the colonisation of Australia and his interactions with the native inhabitants of his new homeland.

However, while Grenville does a good job of exploring this theme, she does not delve deeply enough into the consequences of the unequal relationship between the British and Aboriginal people. The novel portrays the latter as passive recipients of British hegemony, rather than active agents in their own history. This approach perpetuates the myth of the "noble savage" and reinforces the idea that the Aboriginal people were unable to (and did not, to any appreciable extent) resist colonisation.

Grenville otherwise explores the theme of colonialism and its effects with some accuracy, portraying the British colonisers as a group of people who are motivated by greed and a desire for power, rather than a desire to help the Aboriginal people. This is seen in the character of Smasher, who is depicted as a ruthless and violent man who is willing to do whatever it takes to secure his position.

While on balance, Grenville does a good job of portraying the negative aspects of colonisation, she also perpetuates historical inaccuracies. For example, the novel portrays the Aboriginal people as a homogenous group, with little regard for the diversity of the Aboriginal cultures and languages. Additionally, the novel depicts the Aboriginal people as living in a state of perpetual harmony with nature (the "noble savage" myth again).

It is somewhat ironic that in writing a novel critical about racism and colonialism in the Australian context, Grenville's writing ultimately falls into the trap of perpetuating aspects of paternalism and neo-colonialism to the present day. 

Finally, the novel is marred by lengthy, seemingly redundant, descriptive asides that frequently slow the pace of the story. While Grenville's descriptions of the Australian landscape can be vivid and evocative, they are also largely repetitive and overdone. For example, her frequent descriptions of the river and the wooded land on the banks can go for pages without contributing any new information, and with many passages using virtually identical descriptors. These asides distract from the narrative and disrupt the flow of the story. I can't imagine I'm the only person to have wanted to skip these intrusive asides, especially as the novel wore on and I found the same descriptions re-emerging, albeit with minor variations.

"The Secret River" is a well-researched and exhaustively written novel that explores the consequences of the colonisation of Australia. However, it is also flawed, perpetuating historical inaccuracies and indulging too heavily in descriptive asides that obviously please the author but do not provide pivotal information, contribute to character development or drive the plot. While the novel is a timely contribution to the field of Australian literature, it should be read with an awareness of these limitations - which are becoming more and more apparent with the passage of time and the increasing awareness of the reading audience to stereotypes and other biases that continue to confront Aboriginal people in Australia (not the mention the audience's information-era intolerance for authorial self-indulgent diversion).