The Harp in the South

I was inspired to go back to Ruth Park's Harp in the South novels after reading her autobiographies. I read the final volume, Poor Man's Orange, years ago for school, but I wasn't even aware that Park had written a prequel, Missus, in the 1980s. So I pounced on this omnibus edition when I found it at the Athenaeum.

Well, I tried Missus, but it wasn't for me. Somehow I couldn't connect with the characters and the story seemed forced. But once I plunged into The Harp in the South, all was forgiven. Mumma and Hughie, Dolour and Roie, leapt off the page in their brave struggles with poverty and bad luck. I can see why The Harp in the South caused such controversy when it was first published, with people protesting that such scenes of deprivation couldn't be true. But Park and her husband had themselves lived in the streets of Surry Hills and witnessed the lives of people like the Darcys firsthand. 

There is much humour and joy in this novel, but Park doesn't shy away from either the everyday sufferings like bedbugs, rats, ragged clothes and shared beds, or the grimmer realities of alcoholism, violence, and back street abortion. (The latter was probably the true source of the outrage at the time.) I remember being very confused by Roie's name when I first encountered it -- was it a fancy way of spelling Roy? Eventually I realised it was short for Rowena. I'd also forgotten, or never realised, that Charlie, Roie's eventual husband, has Aboriginal heritage, though he is disconnected from his people. It'll be interesting to see how much of Poor Man's Orange, if anything, has stuck since Year 9 English!