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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'When Paulina dies mid-dance, she leaves 12-year-old Zav and 7-year-old Sealie with their loving but unstable father, Hal. The grieving family decides to plant a tree in her memory - a magnolia which, growing along with the children, offers a special place where secrets are whispered and feelings can be confessed.
But as the memory tree grows, Hal, bereft, and increasingly suspicious of the world, turns to his own brand of salvation to make sense of the voices that bewilder and torment him. Mrs Mac, housekeeper and second mother since Paulina's death, cooks, cleans, loves and worries about her 'family'. She is even more concerned when Hal brings a larger-than-life stranger to the house for a beer; but Pastor Moses B. Washbourne, founder of the Church of the Divine Conflagration, ex-sergeant of the US Army, soon becomes part of the family, with surprising and far-reaching consequences.
As the seasons pass, Sealie blossoms into young woman, the apple of Hal's eye while Zav, having spent his childhood quietly trying to win his father's lost attention, is conscripted for duty in Vietnam.
And all the while, the voices continue to murmur poisonous words to Hal who knows he must keep them hidden . . . until he is persuaded into the most tragic of acts' (publisher blurb).
But as the memory tree grows, Hal, bereft, and increasingly suspicious of the world, turns to his own brand of salvation to make sense of the voices that bewilder and torment him. Mrs Mac, housekeeper and second mother since Paulina's death, cooks, cleans, loves and worries about her 'family'. She is even more concerned when Hal brings a larger-than-life stranger to the house for a beer; but Pastor Moses B. Washbourne, founder of the Church of the Divine Conflagration, ex-sergeant of the US Army, soon becomes part of the family, with surprising and far-reaching consequences.
As the seasons pass, Sealie blossoms into young woman, the apple of Hal's eye while Zav, having spent his childhood quietly trying to win his father's lost attention, is conscripted for duty in Vietnam.
And all the while, the voices continue to murmur poisonous words to Hal who knows he must keep them hidden . . . until he is persuaded into the most tragic of acts' (publisher blurb).
Notes
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Epigraph:
O chestnut-tree,great-rooted blossomer,
Are you the leaf, the blossom or the bole?
O body swayed to music, O brightening glance,
How can we know the dancer from the dance?
-W.B. Yates, 'Among School Children'
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Braille.
Works about this Work
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Take Three : Fiction
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: Sunday Canberra Times , 15 April 2012; (p. 26)
— Review of Dancing to the Flute 2012 single work novel ; The Memory Tree 2012 single work novel -
Not Just for She Who Does the Cooking
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 25-26 February 2012; (p. 21)
— Review of The Mistake 2012 single work novel ; The Memory Tree 2012 single work novel
-
Not Just for She Who Does the Cooking
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 25-26 February 2012; (p. 21)
— Review of The Mistake 2012 single work novel ; The Memory Tree 2012 single work novel -
Take Three : Fiction
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: Sunday Canberra Times , 15 April 2012; (p. 26)
— Review of Dancing to the Flute 2012 single work novel ; The Memory Tree 2012 single work novel
Last amended 27 Sep 2021 13:19:21
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