As winner of the 1999 Miles Franklin Award and the 1999 Commonwealth Writers Prize this was a novel I was looking forward to becoming immersed in. The first 3 pages of the book are filled with glowing reviews.
Eucalyptus tells the story of Holland, a widower and his young daughter Ellen who find themselves on a rural property in NSW. Holland becomes passionate about his land and starts to plant eucalyptus trees on the property. The property eventually has hundreds of different types of such trees on it. As she matures Ellen becomes a beauty with news of her beauty known far and wide. As possible suitors begin to make advances on Ellen, Holland makes an incredible decision. The man who can correctly name every eucalyptus on the property will win the hand of his daughter.
The story is a modern day fairy tale as is evident when Holland is introduced into the narrative by the phrase “once upon a time there was a man”. Ellen is the beautiful princess in the tower of the castle, or the remote rural property, waiting for her prince to march up and rescue her from her over protective father.
I am disappointed to say that I did not enjoy this book whereas many literary experts have. I stopped reading the book on a couple of occasions as there is only so much I need to know about eucalyptus trees. I found the book dull and at no time did I become interested in any of the characters or the stories told within the story. Way too much time is spent in describing the trees themselves and I found this distracted from the characters and their journeys.
However, there is no doubt the book has been praised far and wide by many and mine is only one view.
