Babylon Remembered

 Babylon Remembered by David Malouf is a poetic, post-colonial novel set in Australia. There is no single protagonist--each chapter centers a different character--but the novel is concerned with the story of a white man who stumbles into a nineteenth-century outback village after being raised, mostly, by Aboriginal Australians. Most of the villagers treat this man with suspicion. Using hazy, impressionistic vignettes, Malouf tells a story of frontier life, poor communication, racism, poverty, and sadness. Some of the narration was convoluted, purple prose that overwhelmed the clarity of the story. In other places, the details were illuminating and haunting. 

The "Babylon" of the title was difficult to locate. Was it the Aboriginal society? England (or for some characters, Scotland)? Was it the colonial era in general, as the last chapter is set fifty years hence? Since none of those were given more than a half chapter or so, each, they did not seem to drive any character's motivation. Ultimately, the text was beautiful in places and consistently melancholic, but would have benefitted from greater cohesion in the narrative.