A Review of Robbie Arnott’s “The Rain Heron”
From the Southern Half of the World
Robbie Arnott’s The Rain Heron is an important book, but not because it is a good book. It is an important read because it is that rarity of a science-fiction work that comes to us from Down Under. Arnott is an Australian writer, but, even more striking, he comes from Tasmania. I don’t know about you, but I don’t often think of Tasmania as a person from the Northern Hemisphere unless I’m thinking about old Warner Brothers cartoon characters. Because of this, The Rain Heron is, again, a welcome book. We need to have more fiction — and more science fiction — come from far-flung places such as Australia, and it is with open arms that I received this book as a result.
The unfortunate part, though, is that, as a novel and a narrative, I’m a little lukewarm on this cartoonish read. The book is about myths and past personal histories, and how they come to define an individual. The novel — at least, initially — focuses on a female character named Ren (no relation to Stimpy) who lives alone in a mountainous forest as a survivalist. A coup has ravaged her nation — although we don’t get many details about the coup or who is in power, or what may have driven people to live in the bush other than a built-up military presence in the region. Speaking of which, one day, a small unit of military members comes to Ren’s domicile and start asking questions about a mythic creature known as a Rain Heron who can change the weather at will and turn crops stricken by drought into thriving plants in rained-out fields. After much cajoling, Ren agrees to take the military to where this “myth” is situated — but does she even know where it lives or if it exists at all?
As you can tell, this is a story that is rather light on the sci-fi and is perhaps a little more literary. It is a strikingly original tale, and it is quite evident that Arnott is a talented and gifted writer. He works at his best when describing his character’s personal myths. Indeed, the best part of this novel is a flashback to one of the character’s coming-of-age when she and her aunt go off into the ocean to acquire ink from squids, a flashback story that has a ritualistic quality to it. A northerner figures into this narrative and brings doom and gloom to these characters — which illustrates how crucial it is for people in the northern hemisphere to hear the tales and criticisms from our southern neighbours. However, other parts of the book are less successful. For instance, even though the book is less than 300 pages long, there are long stretches that detail trips by motorized vehicles that add nothing to the narrative and could have been easily left on the cutting room floor. This makes The Rain Heron a little boring and dull from time to time. These sections ultimately feel like padding.
The other major piece of criticism I have for The Rain Heron relates to character motivation. I don’t want to give anything away or spoil anything, but one of the main characters has a change of heart regarding her actions at one point — and, to me, it is never fully explained by the author what caused this character change. You can make inferences if you will, but it seems as though this character’s behaviour changes on a dime, which makes it hard to connect with this novel. As well, the novel is rather predictable. One character disappears from the narrative for a stretch and — this might be a bit of a spoiler, even though I’m going to be skimpy on the details, so quit reading here if you want to come to The Rain Heron cold — is presumed to be dead, but then reappears at the novel’s end. I was able to predict the reappearance. It just seemed that the character was important enough to not have been eliminated fully from the text.
However, I don’t want to give the impression that The Rain Heron is better left being read about than actually read. For one, Arnott is gifted with the powers of descriptive writing, even though I did think he went a little overboard with it. You’ll have pictures unspooling in your mind usually quite clearly as Arnott weaves his unconventional tale. As well, The Rain Heron is certainly unique in that it is original. It is a bit science-fiction-y without being fully science fictional. It is not really a fabulist tale nor is it really slipstream, so Arnott may have invented a new strain or sub-genre of SF here. It is that daring and perhaps a bit different.
Still, The Rain Heron is not perfect. I’ve already outlined the reasons why, and don’t want to flog a dead horse, but, as noted, the narrative could have been tightened up. (I also think the squid hunting part of the book should have been expanded and become the true novel itself as it is the most compelling part of the read). The book is sometimes a bit on the cartoony side, as some of the myth and stuff related to the myth feels a bit juvenile to me. However, no matter what faults you can find with this book, it still should be read. There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of books coming from Australia that I’m aware of, so any time a book from there lands on northern shores, it should be investigated. There’s a power imbalance between the hemispheres and both sides of the world have different ways of seeing things. That makes it important to read books from the “deep south” side of the world as a northerner. People down there have important things to say about how the other half lives, and The Rain Heron deftly falls into that category — which makes it worthy of being checked out and investigated. Ultimately, this is a flawed but invigorating (and necessary!) read.
Robbie Arnott’s The Rain Heron will be published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux on February 9, 2021.
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Get in touch: zacharyhoule@rogers.com
