| Chwała Rajdowi Katyńskiemu, którego uczestnicy odwiedzili Jindabyne i Dalgety! Otóż sprawdzając w google kilka faktów historycznych, związanych z Dalgety, wpadłam na trop znakomitej powieści z tym miasteczkiem związanej. Chodzi o "The Trout Opera" autorstwa Matta Condona. Jej bohaterem jest Wilfred Lampe, który przez całe swe życie przesiedział nad Snowy River, nagle jako 100-letni człowiek porwany jest do Sydney, gdzie ma wziąć udział w uroczystościach rozpoczęcia Olimpiady! Fajnie się zaczyna? Na temat książki Condona przeczytałam kilka recenzji, ale najbardziej do gustu przypadła mi ta, której fragmenty przytaczam poniżej.
Any great civilisation must have its mythic river. America has the Mississippi, Africa the Nile, India the Ganges, Europe the Rhine. And Australia might have had the Snowy River coursing through its capital, after the new federation briefly considered the settlement of Dalgety (population: 75) as the nation's capital before settling on Canberra instead. Sixty years on, a series of environmentally disastrous damming projects reduced the Snowy's flow by 99%. Yet the river still figures in the nation's consciousness, thanks to a late 19th-century ballad, "The Man from Snowy River", by the bush poet Banjo Paterson (who also wrote the words to "Waltzing Matilda"). Even if the poem is not imprinted on every Australian's heart, it is secreted in their wallets, as the text appears along with an image of Paterson on the Australian $10 note.
Matthew Condon draws on this enigmatically remote corner of New South Wales to concoct a tale in which the Sydney Olympic Committee decides to appoint its own Man from the Snowy River to feature at the opening ceremony of the games. The figure randomly selected by computer is Wilfred Lampe, the oldest surviving inhabitant of Dalgety, who has spent a lifetime foraging and fishing in the region and is due to turn 100 when the games begin. Unfortunately the committee's representatives arrive to find Lampe on the point of expiring, and are obliged to airlift him to Sydney for emergency resuscitation.
(...)"The Trout Opera" is a long, meandering novel which, like the denuded bed of the Snowy River itself, shows evidence of some fairly deep-lying cracks. But Condon's affinity for and love of the landscape is obvious, and the book stands as a moving elegy to the death of the river – sluggish and "tea-hued" and in many places "narrow enough to jump across". It also forms a notable postscript to Banjo Paterson's poem; and perhaps in generations to come, the Man from Snowy River will be known as Wilfred Lampe.
Cała recenzja w Guardianie - tutaj
Polecam recenzję, polecam książkę, a sama już lecę do księgarni. Będzie uczta!
Matt Condon, autor wydanej w 2007 r. powieści pt. "The Trout Opera" |
Historyczny pub w Dalgety. Fot. Bogumiła Filip |
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