Mutant Message Down Under

Marlo Morgan claims to have gone on a walkabout (a journey with no set destination or duration) with a small tribe of Aboriginals of Australia. This book is a retelling of her journey into knowledge given to her by these people that ave chosen to die out rather than remain on a planet that is being killed by the inhabitants, what the tribe calls Mutants.

I must say that by taking this book as a work of fiction it seems that I have a better view of it than most of the other readers. I don't know much about the Aboriginal culture or peoples, but I have always been fascinated with older, native tribes of any continent, hence why I picked this book up in the first place. I was a little hesitant to read it once I had discovered others' views of it, but I wanted to form my own opinion.

This book was not horrible, in my opinion. No, it was not a classic work of art, but it was not the trash many claimed. Yes, some of the notions, such as the selecting of the author to pass on the ancient ideas of this race, seemed far-fetched, but some of it made sense. Many of the views and ideas are not new ones, simply pure ones that I believe any culture would hold if they had been around long enough to truly gain wisdom.

My only big issue with this book was the writer's poor writing. As a memoir, maybe this book is done as best as it can be. But taken as a novel, she is clearly not a writer, or should have considered editing it once more before publication.

All in all the book was an interesting read, if not an entirely pleasant one.