Asylum
Isobel Blackthorn
Ratings and Recommendations
Rating:4 teacups
Recommended:Yes
Book Club Worthy: Hampton Roads Book Club
July 2015
Review
When life does not go
the way the Yvette Grimm plans, she seeks asylum in Australia knowing the only
way to stay is to get married; as she will not qualify under family unification
laws to reunite with her mother and sister. What will happen if she overstays
her holiday visa? She is free to roam the country against the backdrop of “legitimate”
asylum seekers who have no other place to go and are running for their lives
instead of just heartbreak and disappointment in Malta are kept in penal colony
like conditions on smaller outer islands from the mainland…?
This book rated a 4 for a few reasons. While it was humorous
in a sad way at times, it seems that Yvette is destined to stay the same
throughout. There is hope that she may do more growing as a character a few
times in the book, but she chooses to be herself and remain self-centered and
resist change that could be for the better. She chooses to buy into a
prediction made by a fortune teller that makes the choices she makes easier for
her and lessen what might have been some responsibility at all in her life. I
am not sure this is what the author was going for, but, I am hoping this is not
the case.
Another aspect that bothers me about the subject matter is
that Yvette makes all the right noises about caring for the boat people and
their actual need for asylum and seeing her own plight as not quite as
deserving, however, gets her dander up when she is treated like an “illegal”
for not having a state issued medical insurance card. She feels guilty about
having the freedom of being on a holiday visa while the boat people are
detained and never even see the mainland of Australia on one hand. Then she get
quite angry when she is treated the same as any other person with no insurance
would be treated by the medical system, so even she sees herself as the same
but somehow different.
Even with the two exceptions above, the book is quite
comical in the way that Yvette acts and sees others and herself. She easily
overlooks the log in her eye and is willing to point out the splinter in
someone else’s eye. She seems quite willing to overlook the amount of people willing
to help her out while feeling quite sorry for herself also, but rallies just in
time to let someone else help take care of her. It is a fast read because you
cannot wait to see what else she is going to do to further herself from her
goals.
Is this the novel for
you? Do you like your serious subjects with a large grain of salt and a serious
side of funny? Do you like to look at topics from a wickedly twisted way that
puts normal on its head? Can you watch the main character pass up a number of
humorous chances to change for the better and just say not gonna do it? Then
this is the one for you.
Disclosures
*I would like to thank Odyssey Books via
NetGALLEY for giving me an unreleased copy for an honest and fair review.
* If you buy this book through the above link money is
generated, however, donated to the non-profit American Association of
University Women (AAUW).
www.auww.org
AAUW works empowering women,
since 1881, standing up for causes in the areas of educational, social,
economic and political issues especially important to women. Marie Currie was one
of the first beneficiaries of the group that would
become AAUW receiving monetary help to attend college. I am a proud
member and believe that the profit from books seems a fitting donation.
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