A book from Tassie called Flames has to be about bushfires, right? Well, not quite. This strange and beautiful book begins with the tale of the McAllister women, who reincarnate after death to deal with unfinished business, old grudges, forgotten chores. And they do it with flame…
Levi McAllister sees the transformation:
Our mother returned to us two days after we spread her ashes over Notley Fern Gorge. She was definitely our mother – but at the same time, she was not our mother at all. Since her dispersal among the fronds of Notley, she had changed. Now her skin was carpeted by spongy, verdant moss and thin tendrils of common filmy fern. Six large fronds of tree fern had sprouted from her back and extended past her waist in a layered peacock tail of vegetation. And her hair had been replaced by cascading fronds of lawn-coloured maidenhair – perhaps the most delicate fern of all. (p.1)
She stays for four days, but on the third day ceases showering to keep the foliage moist:
… on the fourth she walked out the front door, smiled at the winter sun and hiked for a full day to our father’s house, where she waited on his lawn for him to find her.
By the time he did she’d been without water for two days. Her foliage was brown, cracked and dust-dry. As our father walked towards her, she began vigorously rubbing two of her large tree-fern fronds together. When he was within speaking distance a thin curl of smoke began rising from her back. And when he reached out to touch her mossy face a crackled lick of fire spread up, over and through her. He recoiled, falling backwards as her body swarmed with flames and she burned, fast and bright and loud, blood-orange in the night. (p.3)
Intrigued? I certainly was…
What follows is a series of what seems initially like disconnected short stories which vary in weirdness from a fisherman who works in tandem with a seal pup to catch Oneblood tuna fish, to a psychotic farmer of wombats, to a gin-swigging tough-dame detective, to a water-rat who’s god of the Esk River, but these elements are all linked to form an extraordinary tale. Once you surrender to the world of the novel, it has a compelling narrative arc as Charlotte McAllister flees her brother who is building a coffin for her, in order (he thinks) for her to escape her fate in flames. The Tasmanian landscape is magnificently evoked – which is interesting because in an interview (see below for the link) Arnott says he doesn’t mention Tasmania once, and it’s true, I didn’t recognise any of the place names except for the Esk River and I know Tassie reasonably well. The quirkiness of the characters – a staple of novels set in small town Australia – allows for good-natured humour as well as biting satire, but it’s the mythic qualities of this novel that make it special… it’s as if Arnott has invented a whole mythology that is all our very own.
You can hear an illuminating interview with the author here.
If you like the fiction of Jane Rawson, I think you will like this one too.
Author: Robbie Arnott
Title: Flames
Publisher: Text Publishing, 2018
ISBN: 9781925603521
Source: Kingston Library
Available from Fishpond: Flames
ANZ LitLovers LitBlog 
A book from Tassie called ‘Flames’. Well that intrigued me. And then! And then, the excerpts you’ve given us . . . I am more than intrigued now. It sounds fascinating indeed.
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By: karenlee thompson on May 21, 2018
at 1:16 pm
LOL I did think of Flame Tip straight away and I know it influenced my reading of this book:)
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By: Lisa Hill on May 21, 2018
at 4:51 pm
This one sounds like a ripper.
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By: Michelle Scott Tucker on May 21, 2018
at 8:10 pm
Yes. Good fun, and interesting!
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By: Lisa Hill on May 21, 2018
at 9:13 pm
That’s a great test isn’t it, to be able to evoke a place without naming it.
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By: wadholloway on May 24, 2018
at 11:00 pm
Indeed. I went to a workshop run by Mairi Neil this week where we focussed on using images from the senses. It’s hard to do. I discovered when I was trying to convey the smell of an empty house full of old furniture, that I just don’t have the vocab to describe the smell of things.
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By: Lisa Hill on May 25, 2018
at 10:35 am
I find Mairi’s posts very good at ‘evoking’ – with their mix of prose, images and poetry.
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By: wadholloway on May 25, 2018
at 10:40 am
She’s amazing, isn’t she? Her photography is great too.
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By: Lisa Hill on May 25, 2018
at 5:04 pm
[…] Lisa at ANZLitLovers enjoyed it too. […]
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By: Book Review: Flames by Robbie Arnott – Michelle Scott Tucker on July 16, 2018
at 6:24 pm
[…] by Robbie Arnott, see my review […]
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By: 2018 Readings Prize shortlist | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on August 21, 2018
at 3:15 pm
[…] Flames (Text Publishing) by Robbie Arnott, see my review […]
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By: 2018 Queensland Literary Awards shortlists | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on August 31, 2018
at 12:52 pm
[…] by Robbie Arnott, see my review […]
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By: Jennifer Down wins the 2018 Readings Prize | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on October 18, 2018
at 9:21 pm
[…] Flames by Robbie Arnott (Text Publishing), see my review Ironbark by Jay Carmichael (Scribe Publications) The Fireflies of Autumn: And Other Tales of San […]
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By: 2018 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards shortlists | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on December 12, 2018
at 6:42 pm
[…] Flames by Robbie Arnott (Text Publishing), see my review Ironbark by Jay Carmichael (Scribe Publications) The Fireflies of Autumn: And Other Tales of San […]
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By: 2019 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards shortlists | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on December 12, 2018
at 6:43 pm
[…] Another book with the same word in its title is Flames by debut Tassie author Robbie Arnott. Recently shortlisted in the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, this cunning novel invites a whole new mythology that builds on the idea of vengeful reincarnations who use flame to deal with unfinished business, old grudges, forgotten chores. See my review here. […]
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By: Six Degrees of Separation: From Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk, to … | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on February 2, 2019
at 1:42 pm
[…] by Robbie Arnott, see my review Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton, see Sue’s review at Whispering Gums Scrublands by […]
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By: 2019 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards shortlist | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on March 1, 2019
at 12:26 pm
[…] there I could also repeat last month’s #6Degrees with Flames by Robbie Arnott because it’s just been shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards but instead […]
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By: Six Degrees of Separation: From The Arsonist by Chloe Hooper, to … | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on March 2, 2019
at 12:31 pm
[…] Flames, Robbie Arnott (Text), see my review […]
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By: 2019 ALS Gold Medal Longlist | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on March 29, 2019
at 10:12 pm
[…] by Robbie Arnott, see my review Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton, see Sue’s review at Whispering Gums Scrublands by […]
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By: 2019 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards winners | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on April 29, 2019
at 10:05 pm
[…] Robbie Arnott, see my review of Flames […]
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By: 2019 SMH Best Young Novelists | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on May 4, 2019
at 9:50 am
[…] Robbie Arnott’s Flames (Lisa’s review)(Text) […]
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By: Miles Franklin Award 2018 Longlist | Whispering Gums on May 22, 2019
at 11:30 am
[…] Robbie Arnott: Flames (Text) (see my review) […]
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By: 2019 Miles Franklin Longlist | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on May 23, 2019
at 9:56 am
I have just read it. Wow!
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By: Jennifer on September 15, 2019
at 11:58 am
Shortlisted everywhere, but not (as far as I know) a winner. Still it bodes well for his future as a writer:)
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By: Lisa Hill on September 15, 2019
at 12:18 pm
I loved it. Such imagination, and of course the setting. Hawley Beach was one of my favourite places as a child. All overdeveloped now, sadly.
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By: Jennifer on September 15, 2019
at 1:00 pm
AH, that’s the same everywhere…
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By: Lisa Hill on September 15, 2019
at 2:08 pm
[…] Flames by Robbie Arnott, see my review […]
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By: 2019 Voss Literary Prize longlist | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on October 8, 2019
at 10:06 pm
[…] Flames by Robbie Arnott, (Text Publishing), see my review […]
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By: 2019 Tasmanian Premier’s Literary Prize shortlists | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on October 14, 2019
at 1:57 pm
[…] Flames by Robbie Arnott, see my review […]
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By: Aussies and Kiwis on the 2020 Dublin Literary Award longlist | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on November 12, 2019
at 3:55 pm
[…] Flames by Robbie Arnott, see my review […]
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By: 2019 Voss Literary Prize shortlist | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on November 15, 2019
at 3:02 pm
[…] Flames by Robbie Arnott, (Text Publishing), see my review […]
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By: Island Story, Tasmania in Object and Text by Danielle Wood and Ralph Crane | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on November 18, 2019
at 12:32 pm
[…] Robbie Arnott’s Flames (2018, novel) (Lisa’s review) […]
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By: Monday musings on Australian literature: Prime Minister’s Summer Reading List | Whispering Gums on November 28, 2022
at 11:01 pm