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POBBY
AND DINGAN is Ben Rice's first novel and it is a very restrained
one at that. Measuring in at a scant 94 pages, its understated tone
and first person narrative is strange for a first-time writer. After
all, novelists are not known for being so stingy with the verbiage;
but Rice seems to understand, like only a mature writer could, that
it isn't about quantity, but quality, of words. POBBY AND DINGAN
expresses its simple message of faith and redemption with the exact
amount of both words and emotion. It is a stunning example of a
real writer at work.
POBBY AND DINGAN is the title of the book and the names of the main
characters as well. Two invisible creatures, created by one magically
imaginative or emotionally troubled young girl, stir up great loads
of trouble in the small Outback home where their creator and her
family make their home. The narrator of the story is the brother,
a prepubescent teen who is embarrassed by both the strange goings-on
surrounding his alcoholic opal rancher father and the way in which
his sister's imaginary friends get mixed up in the scandal the father
causes. Since the situations are complicated, it is hard to determine
exactly what has really happened and who has really instigated these
happenings with only the boy's telling of his side of the story.
But what POBBY AND DINGAN doesn't mince with is clear emotion ---
of growing up, of growing old, of faith and hope and charity ---
all of which are at a premium in the Australian Outback of this
story.
Rice's narrator Ashmol does not have the sting and verve of a Holden
Caulfield, although he is in a similar place in his life. The reader
will marvel at the small town depravities and gossiping that go
on, but clearly Ashmol does not see these as anything other than
original elements of the place itself. As the situation with his
sister and father becomes incendiary, it is Ashmol who speaks for
them all, who wonders aloud at the possible injustices done and
who eventually acquiesces to his sister's life of the mind, pondering
a belief that he would otherwise not have thought possible.
POBBY AND DINGAN is an exquisite gem of a book. Like the ever-elusive
opals Ashmol's father searches for, it is a gem in the rough, but
a gem nonetheless. Rice is obviously on his way to bigger and better
things if he continues in this vein. An exciting young talent, Rice
will surely regale the literary world with his next work.
--- Reviewed by Jana Siciliano
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