Book Review: Love Without Hope
Miles Franklin Literary Award Shortlisted Novel by Rodney Hall
Wrongly committed to a rural mental institution, Mrs Shoddy must escape into the safety of her memories in order to isolate herself from the suffering around her.
Set in country New South Wales, Love Without Hope (Picador, 2007) by Rodney Hall is a complex story about the resilience of the human spirit and the power of memories. Shortlisted for the 2008 Miles Franklin Literary Award, Love without Hope will have readers questioning their initial assumptions and cheering for those characters who reach beyond their limitations to perform acts of compassion.
Love Without Hope Overview
Lorna Shoddy is elderly and lives alone on the property on which she grew up. Abandoned by her husband many years previously, she focuses on caring for her beloved horses until a bushfire destroys them.
She descends into a deep depression where she no longer takes care of herself or her surroundings. Her only focus for attention and affection is her few remaining horses.
Mrs Shoddy is reported to the local Health Department and is admitted to a mental institution, at that stage still referred to as the Lunatic Asylum. Physically restrained and emotionally and mentally abused, she struggles to hold on to a belief in her own sanity.
During a rainstorm, Mrs Shoddy escapes and makes her way back to her home, 150km away. In the months of her absence, local opportunists have taken advantage of her abandoned property. Although she is able to return physically, mentally she is scarred by her experiences and the betrayal of others jeopardises her future.
Complex Central Characters in Love Without Hope
Around the central character of Lorna Shoddy and her difficulties and distress, there revolves a montage of local personalities. In their own way, each of these characters struggles against the expectations of those around them and their own limited expectations for themselves.
An elderly doctor with a drinking problem and unknown military commendation, a repressed and lonely wife of a greedy and domineering real estate agent, a narcissistic and arrogant nurse at the mental institution and the insecure and overbearing woman running the local Country Women’s Association all have their own personal struggles and limitations to overcome. Only a few succeed.
Themes and Preoccupations of Love Without Hope
The interaction of the central characters highlights the subjective nature of memories and perception of people and events. Each character’s own perception of themselves and their role in the community colours how they perceive and interpret the actions of those around them and how they choose to interpret their own behaviour.
The landscape and animals are described with a rich and complex imagery that conveys a sense of compassion and insight, with the land particularly portrayed as having depth of understanding and awareness. This contrasts sharply with the largely self-absorbed and self-serving behaviour of many of the central characters.
While the depiction of many of the characters and their motivations is bleak, there are rays of hope as some characters reach beyond their personal boundaries to defend Lorna Shoddy or seek to correct the injustice she has suffered.
Rodney Hall Profile
A previous winner of the Miles Franklin Literary Award for Just Relations (Penguin, 1981) and The Grisly Wife (Macmillan, 1993), Rodney Hall was presented with the gold medal of the Australian Literature Society in 1992 and 2001. He has published seven novels, including the Miles Franklin award shortlisted The Day we had Hitler Home (Macmillan, 2000).
A Challenging Story of Hope and Resilience
Although often bleak with an over-riding air of despair, the instances of human compassion and the demonstrations of the resilience of the human spirit prevent this novel from overwhelming. Well deserving of a place on the Miles Franklin Award shortlist, Love Without Hope is a work of Australian fiction that is rich and complex in its characters and imagery.
Further Reading: 2008 Miles Franklin Literary Award Longlist
