The Natural Way of Things

by Charlotte Wood

Ebook, 2016

Status

Available

Call number

823.92

Genres

Collections

General Fiction, Digital Library

Publication

Europa Editions (2016), 208 pages

Description

"Two women awaken from a drugged sleep to find themselves imprisoned in a broken-down property in the middle of a desert. Strangers to each other, they have no idea where they are or how they came to be there with eight other girls....In each girl's past is a sexual scandal with a powerful man. The Natural Way of Things is a gripping, starkly imaginative exploration of contemporary misogyny and corporate control, and of what it means to hunt and be hunted. Most of all, it is the story of two friends, their sisterly love and courage."--Author's website.

Media reviews

National Public Radio (NPR)

Novelists have always put their heroines through awful ordeals. But over time, these tribulations change. Where the 19th Century was filled with fictional women trapped in punishing marriages — think of Middlemarch or The Portrait of a Lady — today's heroines face trials that are bigger, more

political, and more physically demanding. They fight in hunger games. This fight takes a different form in The Natural Way of Things, a ferocious new novel by the Australian Charlotte Wood whose writing recalls the early Elena Ferrante — it's tough, direct, and makes no attempt to be ingratiating. Set in a dystopian backwater, her short, gripping book begins as an allegory of thuggish misogyny then evolves into a far stranger and more challenging feminist parable.

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— 5 more

The Economist

The sly and devastating ending makes the point: Ladies, you have been warned.

Kirkus Reviews

An engrossing novel set in the barren Australian Outback in which women are held captive, victims of a violently misogynist system. ;;; Surreal yet intensely vivid, the novel is disturbing and enthralling. It makes its point—that “it was men who started wars, who did the world’s killing and

raping and maiming”—plainly, just short of perfervidly. Haunting, imaginative language brings the characters’ madness and suffering to life. An absorbing plot, lyrical prose, and discomfiting imagery make Wood's novel decidedly gripping.

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The Australian

Wood, whose previous novel was the Miles Franklin shortlisted Animal People, carefully cultivates indelible images of the women, the compound and increasingly grotesque scenes — such as the creation of a Franken-doll from hair and rabbit furs, for instance. The Natural Way of Things is a novel to

provoke thought, conversation, disgust, anger and concern, a work that will haunt the reader with its poetry and the stark truths buried within Wood’s brilliant exploration of a toxic culture in extremis.

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Publisher's Weekly

Despite its overt message, the novel seldom feels programmatic because of Wood's gorgeous, elliptical style.

The Guardian

The winner of Australia’s $50,000- dollar Stella prize, The Natural Way of Things is chillingly dark and unfashionably didactic. But it’s also compulsively readable, and bears its load of significance with effortless power. The fury of contemporary feminism may have found its masterpiece of

horror.

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User reviews

LibraryThing member Nickelini

Two women, Verla and Yolanda, wake up from a drugged sleep to find themselves captives at a dilapidated sheep station in the Australian Outback. They are wearing 19th century style clothes, and upon waking, their heads are shaved. There are eight other young women there in the same situation, but

information is scarce as they are brutally beaten if they speak or ask questions. Slowly they settle in to their bleak existence under the ever-watchful eye of their jailors, the creepy Bonsor, the dreadlocked yogi Teddy, and the crazy pseudo-nurse, Nancy. The whole lot of them are held inside the vast property by a powerful electric fence.

Eventually, the young women figure out that the one thing they share is that they were all involved in a public scandal—one that included powerful men. For example, Barb was an Olympic hopeful until she went public about the sexual assault by her swim coach.

Things go from bad to worse. It appears they are abandoned in this prison, they begin to starve and both the captives and the jailors begin to go insane. Different women try different approaches to survive, and Yolanda and Verla gain agency by learning to use the nature surrounding their jail. This is one aspect of the title The Natural Way of Things. The title has a double meaning, as it also refers to the misogynistic order of the world.

I’ve read that The Natural Way of Things is a combination of Lord of the Flies, The Handmaid’s Tale, and “Mad Max.” I can see that, but it’s also very different from all of those. And I’d further add that it’s also just a little bit like “Orange is the New Black,” and also “Rabbit Proof Fence.”

The writing is sparse and beautiful, especially the way the author uses the nature of the Outback. It’s structured in short chapters, which makes the novel highly readable. I would like to hear more from Charlotte Woods, but I’m not sure if her earlier novels are published outside of Australia.

[The Natural Way of Things] won the 2016 Stella Award (for Australia women writers), was nominated for the Miles Franklin Award, and has been optioned for a film. It was inspired by true events that happened in the 1960s (now I’m off to learn about that hidden Australian history).

Rating: Definitely one of the best books I’ve read this year, but I can’t quite give it 5 stars because

1. It took me about 40 pages to get into it (5 star books have to grab me right away)
2. I’d have liked more information on the faceless corporation that took the women captive. I think the anonymity and lack of details is most likely purposeful because it’s irrelevant, but I find the concept interesting and want to know more
3. I’d have loved more detail on each of the women’s background stories. I was looking forward to a short chapter, or even a page, on how each of them ended up there, but it was all just too vague and I think a missed opportunity
4. I wanted to know the background story and motivation of the three jailors—their lives were no picnic either

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15 more

LibraryThing member drmaf

Interesting mixture of almost lyrical writing and grubby, sordid brutality. A group of eight women find themselves abducted and brought to a farm in outback Australia, where they are dehumanised and made to do arduous physical labour while being brutalised by the two male guards. It transpires the

only thing they have in common is that they were all involved in sex scandals with powerful men. Two of the women, Verla and Yolanda form a fragile friendship while each in their own way attempting to subvert the conditions of their captivity. As the food gives out and the conditions worsen, Verla and Yolanda more or less take charge of the camp, but when rescue comes, both realise it is really no rescue at all and elect to take their chances beyond the electrified fence. The book is rich with symbolism, rabbits, horses, mushrooms, and flows with lyrical grace, only interrupted by blunt and brutal descriptions of violence and degradation. Despite the confronting subject matter, this is ultimately a feel-good story, of friendship, survival and empowerment, enthralling and horrifying by turns from beginning to end.

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LibraryThing member missizicks

I want to say so many things about this book. I want to talk about it as allegory, as fact, as reportage, as fucked up fairytale. But equally I don't want to say too much, because I don't want to take away from anyone the experience I've just had. This book contains an important truth. It is brutal

and grubby and horrifying. And yet it is gentle. It doesn't bludgeon. It doesn't preach. It just tells the truth. I want everyone to read this book. It is important, and it is beautifully written.

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LibraryThing member shizz

The Natural Way of Things - Charlotte Wood

Gosh. Wow. These were the only two words that spring to mind after reading this book. But I have a feeling that they don’t constitute a credible review. I found this to be an extraordinary book and possibly not for the faint hearted for it is not a feel

good read. My understanding is that the book has already won an award in the author’s native Australia and I’m not surprised.

It is a disturbing, dystopian work with a premise that should alarm us all. Several girls are kidnapped and imprisoned on what seems to be an abandoned sheep station in the outback and spiral down into degradation and abject desolation. The redemption is ambiguous with intention. For this is not a tale that should leave the reader comfortably believing that they all live happily ever after. It’s almost a Lord of the Flies for the 21st century.

It is an exquisite piece of writing, well crafted descriptive prose and to a certain extent you have to distance yourself from the actual storyline, which is harrowing, to fully appreciate it.

I found the story to be almost allegorical, a parable of our time,s which doesn’t make for comfortable reading. There is an undercurrent of anger as much on the part of the writer, I feel, as her characters. None of them, the abducted women nor their jailers, are especially likeable. But the situation into which they all have been thrust defies belief.

I suppose one of the infuriating things about this book is that it poses questions that maybe have no answers. That isn’t intended as a criticism but it places a high demand on the reader to respond rather than remain passive. It has lot to say about bigotry, feminism, sexism.

This is a very powerful book and I’m not sure I’ve done justice to it with my powerless words. It is a remarkable piece of work which I won’t forget in a hurry.

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LibraryThing member mjlivi

Oof. Angry, brutal and memorable - I'll be thinking about this one for ages.

LibraryThing member ajarn7086

The Natural Way Of Things by Charlotte Wood is a multi-layered novel with many complex and well-developed characters. It begins as a mesmerizing tale of women in captivity. How did they get there? Who are their captors? Why were they selected for capture and extended confinement? The reader will be

immediately presented with all these questions. Some will be answered as details are presented slowly and in an obscure manner as a tale of survival unfolds. Questions about some of the captives’ backgrounds will only be answered by reader imagination. This tale of captivity, survival, and human cruelty is a modern-day horror story.

The number of characters is large. Charlotte Wood develops each character to illustrate a set of human frailties. How will each character react to extreme, life-threatening adversity? Will each character be able to appreciate her own change? The changes come about primarily to the women captives although there is one female captor as well as two males. The female captor character is well developed, the two males less so. Looking at the characters, we have:

Yolanda: She had a boyfriend, Robbie, who was only interested in himself. He may have had a hand in her captivity.

Verla: the political girl A lot of her time will be spent self-interpreting her dreams. This may have something to do with mushrooms. She feels superior to the other captives and is sure she will soon be released.

Isobell (Izzy): the airline girl.

Hetty: the cardinal’s girl.

Maitlynd: the school principal’s head girl.

Barbs: the rough, independent girl. She is injured early in the captivity to serve as an example to others.

Rhiannon: the gamer girl.

Lydia: the cruise ship girl.

Leandra: The Army girl.

Joy: The Asian girl, a singer.

All the captives have been judged to be promiscuous, loose, sluttish women with no morals. It is hinted to be the reason for their captivity. They have all been “handed over” by some significant other.

Nancy: She is not part of the captives, instead she works with Teddy and Bonce as a captor. Her role seems to be a nurse, that is the good news. The bad news is she has no medical training.

Teddy: One of the captors, a diver who likes his own company as he meditates. He can’t avoid occasional interactions with Bonce and Nancy as they work together to manage the captives. Teddy and Nancy will have a romantic relationship; Teddy will not attempt to molest the other captives (at first).

Bonce: A captor and a thoroughly unlikeable guy. He would like to molest all the captives but is prevented from doing so by his boss, the unknowable and never to appear “Hardings.”

The captive women wake up to the reality of their captivity. When they are finally able to communicate with each other, they relate to each other the moments just before they are “handed over” to an agent that transported them to the camp. They are initially under the control of Bonce and Teddy; the existence of Nancy is a rumor. The women are kept apart, their heads are shaved, they are locked daily into separate compartments, and are fed barely enough to keep them alive. Most of the food is in the form of unrecognizable gruel; taste is not a factor. On a tour of the facility, taken when they are chained together on a type of chain gang, they are allowed the knowledge that the compound is surrounded by electrified fencing which will kill any attempting to get over it. The captives are frequently gratuitously hit, kicked, and tortured by Bonce with something resembling a leather sap. Teddy observes.

At some point, electricity to the compound fails although that is not true of electricity to the fence. Food begins to run out. The length of the captivity can be deduced from the chapter titles: Summer, Autumn, and Winter. Somewhere in mid-Autumn the food is all but gone and the captives are eating plants and anything they can scrounge. Yolanda finds some animal traps and begins to trap, kill, and eat rabbits. Vera discovers mushrooms to season the rabbit stew. By this point, it should be obvious to the captors that they are just another type of captive but they never explicitly admit this. They just share in the misery.

As the women begin to scramble in a search for food, they each develop a way to deal with their captivity; they choose a favorite activity to fill the day. The captors are reduced to the role of observers; the torture and punishments decrease. Yolanda retreats into and is consumed by trapping rabbits. Vera gathers mushrooms of all types and, knowing that some may be poisonous, keeps a record of the types she believes them to be. Joy, Izzy, and Lydia spend their time grooming each other in a setting without showers, or soap. Maitlynd takes care of her pet frog and collects moths. Hetty spent time in prayer until she got the doll. Leandra chopped kindling for the cooking fire. Barbs tended to the stockpot in which everything was dumped into and cooked. Rhiannon sat for hours in the skeleton of an abandoned vehicle.

Through all of this, relationships change. No one wants to sleep with Bonce but it becomes obvious that someone must be sacrificed for the common good. Remember Hetty and the doll? How did she get it in the middle of a situation that did not include toys? Captives will get sick. Who will take care of them? It must be a volunteer captive. People will die. How will captives and captors relate to death?

The action is fast paced for a novel that seems so constricted in terms plot and scene. The complexity of the characters makes for slow reading in a novel that is 320 pages. That is because the reader is forced to think and contemplate background scenarios only hinted at. The conclusion will not please all and, in its vagueness will stay with the reader for a long time.

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LibraryThing member LordKinbote

I bought The Natural Way of Things for my mother and I to read on Christmas Eve, in the Icelandic tradition. What a book to choose! It is difficult, engaging, confronting, terrible, and brilliant.

The story unfolds from the perspective of two very different women, who wake up imprisoned and have to

navigate their new reality. Bit by bit, we learn more about the small group of women being kept in an isolated location and subjected to an array of cruelties and violence, all seemingly aimed at teaching them their place, and punishing them for their sexual "transgressions".

The dynamics between the women and their gaolers serve as a microcosm of our own world. They judge each other by the internalised standards of society, whether it be for their actions, their appearance, their relationships within the new situation, or the perceptions arising from their notoriety. As many have commented, there is a lot of anger in this novel and perhaps I'm jaded and cynical, but it is difficult to see that as unwarranted. When feminism is treated as a dirty word, and victims of sexual assault or harassment are continually blamed for their own experiences by other women and men alike, it is hard not to be angry.

This is not an easy read by any means. It is beautifully written with an economical but evocative style, though stands in stark contrast with the violence, brutality, and rawness of the narrative, itself. Its confronting nature will make it difficult for some people to read but to me, it felt like an important, pointed story that needed to be told. If nothing else, it should make us all think about our own behaviour and opinions of women whose sexual experiences become news, for whatever reason.

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LibraryThing member Dianekeenoy

Two young women wake up in an ugly prison dressed in very coarse old-fashioned clothes. They don't know how they got there or why. It gets worse as they realize that there are other young disoriented women in this grimy compound in the Australian outback surrounded by an electrified fence. As the

story unfolds, the hunted become the hunters and it's not pretty. It's also disorienting for the reader as well as the characters which kept me turning the pages. I'm not sure that this book would be good for a tender reader but it certainly has a lot to say.

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LibraryThing member brakketh

A group of variously fallen women are taken to a remote location and slowly unravel.

LibraryThing member RidgewayGirl

Charlotte Wood's impossibly grim novel tells the story of a group of women who find themselves imprisoned on an old sheep ranch in the Outback. Each has been involved in some sort of sex scandal, from the girl who was gang-raped in the toilets of a nightclub to a the girl who had been sexually

abused by a priest. Each carries both notoriety and the aftermath with her into this make-shift prison ruled over by a small group of utterly untrained people.

Yolanda was the girl in the nightclub. As her shock at incarceration fades, she learns to assess her situation and to make the most of it. She forms a tenuous bond with Verla, who had a relationship with a married politician when she interned for him. As conditions at the camp worsen, both women learn to rely on themselves and find themselves changed.

This isn't a story where a group of teenagers band together to defeat the bad guys. It's certainly set in a dystopian world, but one only a small step removed from our own. There's no great lesson learned (at least none that these women hadn't already learned when their stories became media fodder) and no grand triumph at the end. But while The Natural Way of Things sometimes makes for uncomfortable reading, it was a well-written and superbly imagined novel.

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LibraryThing member siri51

Awful book - kidnapping, imprisonment in barbaric conditions, sexual abuse, physical violence, mental anguish, suicide, murder, .... and a unicorn!
The gorgeous Australian flowers on the cover and the innocuous title does not prepare you for the plot.

LibraryThing member sturlington

This was a harrowing survival story about ten girls who are drugged and taken to an abandoned sheep farm in the Australian Outback, where they are kept imprisoned by an immense electrified fence circling the compound. The girls' only commonality is that they were all involved in public sex

scandals. Their captor is an impersonal corporation, which has imprisoned them for unspecified reasons, and their guards turn out to be as much prisoners as they are when the power is turned off and the food stores start to run out. The ordeal takes a different psychological toll on each character, with some breaking down and others learning how to survive off the land they are stranded in. This was often a difficult read, but also sometimes quite beautiful in its description of the landscape and the animals living it, and the transformation of the two main characters as they rejected the misogynist narrative that had landed them in this place and reverted to their more essential selves was very compelling. I did want to know more about the why of the girls' imprisonment, what the company's reason was for punishing these particular women, and how this was perceived in the outside world. Still, by keeping the focus narrow and keeping the reader in the dark as much as the characters are, we feel like we are imprisoned as well.

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LibraryThing member bodachliath

I have decidedly mixed feelings about this book. I think it was a mistake to sell it as a dystopian fantasy - there is nothing in it that requires any imaginative leaps, but instead we have a moving and well written story set in what is almost the real modern Australia.

The plot centres on two young

women Yolanda and Verla, who wake up from a drug-induced sleep in a bleak prison camp in rural Australia where their heads are shaved, they are forced to wear bonnets that restrict their vision and uncomfortable old fashioned clothes, while being locked into converted dog kennels at night. It soon emerges that what links them and their fellow captives is that they have all spoken about their sexual relations with rich and famous men. The guards are the brutal but weak Boncer, the apparently hippie-ish but self-serving Teddy and "nurse" Nancy who appears to have no medical knowledge.

The book gets more interesting when it becomes clear that the guards have also been deceived, food and power supplies run out and they only survive because the resourceful Yolanda discovers how to use some abandoned rabbit traps to hunt for food. Yolanda becomes increasingly wild, and Verla gradually loses her conviction that her politician lover will rescue her.

While the relentlessly bleak storyline makes this a difficult read, I thought it worked very well, and it is not difficult to imagine this kind of thing happening in a world so driven by hate-fuelled populism.

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LibraryThing member Widsith

Pitched by most reviewers, inevitably, as like ‘The Handmaid's Tale in the Outback’, this is an engaging feminist paranoid fantasy about male violence and control, quick to read and more nuanced than it initially appears. It starts in medias res and we have to piece things together as we go;

which is fun, but Wood never quite delivers on the intriguing set-up, and it's not even really clear what exactly we're being asked to believe has happened, let alone how believable that might be. But watching our characters get broken down and discover their inner reserves of strength (or not) is grimly satisfying – indeed, sometimes a little too inspirational – and Wood cranks the plot developments confidently. So if this is the sort of thing you like, then…well, then this is the sort of thing you'll like.

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LibraryThing member pamelad

Eight young women are imprisoned on a remote property in the Australian bush. There is no escape other than death on the electric fence and the warders are just as trapped as the women. All the women committed the same "crime": they were abused by powerful men and condemned by the press. They

include a potential Olympic swimmer who was molested by her coach, a woman who was pack-raped by a group of football players, a young woman in love with a popular, married politician, and a naive passenger on a cruise ship who was drugged and raped at an on-board party. I recognise some of these stories from the Australian press. Diane Brimble died after being drugged on a cruise ship, and too many people blamed her for putting herself in a vulnerable position. Then there was the sixteen-year-old girl who destroyed the marriage and career of a respected, middle-aged football coach. Yes, the press decided it was her fault. But the most blatant, recent example of misogyny in Australia was the treatment of our first female prime minister, Julia Gillard. Every woman I know was horrified by the contempt with which she was treated by conservative male politicians and members of the press.

So this is an angry book. It starts brilliantly and, even though the ending doesn't fulfil the promise of the beginning, is well-worth reading.

Won the Stella Prize.

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LibraryThing member Okies

Poetic language, imaginative images, but often ugly as if to shock, was the author's priority. "The big cheeked girl rocked on her haunches and groaned."

In short, I didn't get into it and only listened to 1/8 parts.

Fewer