English News

Unit 1 & 2 Literature - Dark Roots

The Unit 1 & 2 Literature students had the opportunity to hear from the author of Dark Roots, Cate Kennedy. This is one of the books being studied by the class, the talk was for Like a House on Fire, a different one of Kennedy’s short story collections, the presentation was illuminating. I often wondered how Kennedy could seem to be so many different people in her stories, while maintaining authenticity. What struck me most about Kennedy was the care that she has for her characters and the commitment that she had towards doing justice to the story being told.

One of the most exceptional aspects of Kennedy’s work is the different facets of humanity that she manages to display, and how there is always a sense of authenticity behind each character. It became clear during her talk that part of that reason was because she held a commitment to tell the stories of those on the fringes of society, who often do not get a voice in literature. She tells stories that are not triumphant, not magical, but real. To further get this point across she showed us a picture of a doctor who had just lost a patient taking a 5 minute break. It was his story that she was interested in, his struggle, not his success. Her desire to create authenticity in her stories is something that I admire. The way which she said she achieved this sounded both too simple but too scary. To be honest with how you, the author, would respond in a situation. It is not easy to reveal that to readers, it seems too personal, and at times too flawed, too human for anyone to enjoy reading. But to Kennedy, it is the personal perspective that makes the story feel real. The experience of meeting the person behind so many characters was interesting, and we all had a great time.

Isabella Kertesi - Year 12