Heart of Darkness and Other Tales

Kylie Minogue, Joseph Conrad, the fascist state that was Queensland and how I came to realise that the star rating system may not be appropriate for this book. Part two.

As I have reviewed elsewhere in The Delinquents "https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2699060809?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1"> Lola (Kylie Minogue in the film of the book) liked Joseph Conrad and so do I, but not as much as some. I suspect that Lola was reading Conrad as boyfriend Brownie was away at sea in the early days of their relationship and perhaps she was attracted to the fact that Conrad wrote about the sea and sailing. This book of 3 short stories was all about that subject. One could imagine Lola wondering what it was about this attraction to the sea hence her reading Conrad. What I find interesting is that the author of The Delinquents, Criena Rohan, should have her books heroine reading such a dense author. I mean let's be true to ourselves here, Conrad is no easy read. I came into this book expecting what I got, dark and dense paragraphs that had me rereading constantly. Is having to reread a good thing? Yes and no. Typical of books like this they can tend to pass over my tiny mind, the nuances as it were. Of the three tales Youth and The End of the Tether were easy to read and interesting stories in themselves without having me think I was reading classics. The Heart of Darkness on the other hand......... dense and deep. I was happy to reread passages but I wish it was not so. It can take away from the experience I suppose.

Though a noted classic in truth not for me personally. I get the reputation but something just did not grab me. Again it makes the star system kind of redundant in truth. How can I not give it 5 stars considering what it makes one think about? I finished The Heart of Darkness a good few days ago and have been thinking about it. In fact I played an audio version (something I had never done before) after finishing the read so as to get another voice as it were. In The Delinquents Brownie had snorted that if Joseph Conrad was a sailor he should have known better than to go writing about the sea – and who wanted to read about the sea anyway? Brownie would not have had the patience to even get past the first few pages I suspect. I can find no reference to Heart Of Darkness in the banned books lists in Qld. I presume that Lola may have got it from the library. I am going to give my copy to a young lass who I work with who is studying English Lit with a view to getting into the publishing industry. Hopefully she enjoys it.