Book review: The Shiralee by D’Arcy Niland

Originally published in 1955 The Shiralee is a classic of Australian literature although better known for the 1957 film of the same name and the subsequent 1987 TV series. It had fallen out of print when Fox, Finch and Tepper* picked it up and have worked to re-popularise it.
The book follows the life of swagman (slang for itinerant worker in Australia) Macauley or Mac who returns from walkabout and finds his wife in bed with another man. After delivering a vicious beating, Mac leaves with his four year old daughter Buster, returning to his itinerant life only this time with a four year old girl, his shiralee or burden, in tow. His plan to punish his wife by taking their daughter backfires as she is pleased to be rid of the child and able to live a new life with her new partner.
Although if angered Mac is quick to turn to his fists, D’Arcy Niland also paints him as something of a deep thinker using his musings to address some of the core issues of the day; marriage, domestic violence, child well-fare, alcoholism and poverty.
Despite his initial view of Buster as a burden, Macauley comes to love her in his own way and nurses her through illness and recovers her when her mother attempts to kidnap her to spite Macauley. She is then involved in a terrible hit and run accident and hospitalised at the same time that her mother brings a custody case against Macauley. He is forced to leave her hospital bedside to defend his right to Buster.
It is worth mentioning that this book is at times both racist and misogynistic which must be considered based on when it was written but I believe that the quality of the story wins over.
I would recommend this to adults, especially parents, who enjoy biographical fiction.
*Fox, Finch and Tepper is the publishing arm of the successful bookshop Mr B’s Emporium of Reading Delights, run by Nic Bottomley. I was the lucky recipient of a Mr B’s Reading Year for my birthday and The Shiralee was one of the books I received during the year. Follow the links to find out more about Fox, Finch and Tepper and Mr B’s Emporium of Reading Delights.