Into White Silence
by Anthony Eaton, Random House Australia, 2008
In this fabulous book Eaton gives us a new take on the polar adventure. Having recently spent some time at Casey Station with the Australian Antarctic Division, he blurs the boundaries between what is true and what is invented in this account of an ill-fated Antarctic expedition, embarking from Hobart in 1921.
The narrator confesses (in an introduction bearing Eaton’s name) that he removed an expedition journal found secreted in the Casey library, intending to use it for his personal gain. Yet the journal has haunted his dreams ever since.
Eaton has done his homework and makes this expedition, secretly planned by Edward Rourke in 1921, very realistic. Rourke has gone to enormous effort and expense to avoid the pitfalls of his predecessors. The black ship is appropriately named Raven (and if “never more” comes to mind it is probably more than a coincidence). Rourke is wealthy but also driven, having in his youth been rejected by the likes of Scott, Mawson and Shakleton. But he also lacks in empathy for his companions, and even more so as things go on, and go wrong.
But the journal which is the major source of this story is written by Will Downes, a decorated hero of the First World War. Returning to his family property in Victoria and becoming engaged to his sweetheart, Elsie, has not completely cured Will’s restlessness. The expedition is a challenge – the challenge of a lifetime – and he makes a fateful decision to put off the settled life for a bit longer.
Eaton in the language of his narrative uses Downes’ memories of the war as a yardstick upon which to measure many of the occurences on the expedition. Will’s heroic nature and strong sense of conventional responsibility make him both a good leader and a loyal servant. But he is not without his flaws. His loyalty to Rourke may be one of those. Rourke is surely mad, but was he mad from the start, or did he, like other expeditioners, merely respond to the shocking conditions of their fate? But Downes was not the only one who let his better judgement be over ruled by fear of his leader.
Rourke is repeatedly referred to in the book as “the Leader”, recalling another man developing his leadership skills in Eurpoe at that very time .
But in spite of all, Downes is still a sensitive observer of life who is able to note in his journal quite late in the piece:
“It is a stunning place, this frozen world, and despite our ongoing predicament, at times … I cannot imagine that I might have lived my life without ever having experienced it.”
If you haven’t yet read an account of one of the great Antarctic expeditions then you will find some good places to start in Eaton’s bibliography. Bickel’s This Accursed Land recounts the horrors of Mawson’s 1910-1913 journey, for instance, and the TV production Shackleton is also excellent.
Reviewed by Mrs Thomson
Read another review of Into White Silence by a teen reader on the YARA website. If you have read this book please add a comment below.
