Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living: A Novel [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

Carrie Tiffany has written a stunning account of the folly of man's attempt to conquer nature. Well-deserving of its shortlisting for the Orange Prize and the Australian Miles Franklin Award, it is inspired by an actual 'better farming train' that travelled around Victoria in southeastern Australia during the early Depression years teaching farmers how to turn fallow soil green simply by adding phosphates; how to breed good cattle, sheep, goats, even how to make babies fat and happy by giving bottle-feeding them. Told from the point of view of the woman who falls in love with Robert on the train, the story is sensual, sometimes comic, and ultimately tragic. The book has a beautiful symmetry. A major new talent on the international literary scene

This is a wonderful book. Beautifully written, with an interesting plot and complex characters.

I was moved by the story of Jean and Robert's, at times, difficult life and fascinated by the subtle parallel story of how science and progress have their limits. It's always easier to follow rules (be they scientific, religious, cultural...) - living life is more complex than any rules can predict, as Jean and Robert find out.

It was refreshing to read a book that's not melodramatic, not overwritten, not drowning in adjectives or unncessary details, and that doesn't need to hammer in every metaphor or symbol.

I thoroughly enjoyed this little novel, EVERYMAN'S RULES FOR SCIENTIFIC LIVING. First of all I enjoy reading about Australia, a place I will probably never visit in person, but love to read about nonetheless. Carrie Tiffany, who doesn't look very old in her back cover photo, seems to have acquired a kind of wisdom beyond her years about human behavior and the complexities of family relationships and dynamics. Her protagonists here, Jean and Robert, are an interesting combination of ordinary and unique. Jean was orphaned at an early age and raised by an aunt, so escaped into the service of the 'sewing expert' home ec agent on the 'farm train' that criscrossed the interior of Australia. It was there that she met Robert, the soil expert, who we learn had a rather horrific childhood as the son of a prostitute. His uniqe talent of being able to identify where dirt comes from - what geographic locale - by actually tasting it, makes him a rather grotesque character. And yet one feels enormous symypathy for Robert, who has managed to overcome his awful beginnings.

When these two marry, it would appear to be a marriage of opposites, but then such 'opposites' really do attract. And the passion, the abrupt and near-violent couplings between this odd couple are shockingly graphic, yet without any hint of the obscene, perhaps because of their very innocence. Jean wishes they could talk about this physical side of their love, wishes for more intimacy, but doesn't know how to reach Robert, who is so very sexually repressed. Here's an example -

"I think about reaching across and touching him, but I am not sure how he would respond. I don't understand this gulf between our bodies and our minds and why it is so hard to move between the two."

Although my greatest interest here was in this couple's relationship, the book reaches far beyond them - it looks at the awful Dust Bowl years in the wheat belt of the Australian interior and the myriad hardships that the farmers of that area endured, breaking many of them both financially and emotionally. Tiffany had done her homework in depicting the grim details of drought, mice and rabbit plagues, dust storms, children undernourished and dying. It is very similar to what happened in the U.S. in the 30s. As I was reading the book, I kept thinking of another fine recent Australian novel, Goldie Goldbloom's THE PAPERBARK SHOE, although the characters in her novel were a bit further left of center, more unusual, more grotesque.

I also loved the essays that Carrie Tiffany included at the end of her story, about her real experiences as a Park Ranger in the outback and how the isolation of the job brought her closer to books as a means of escape; and also a short piece explaining the 'soil box' shown on the book's cover. I will be watching for Carrie Tiffany's next book; in the meantime I will recommend this one highly. - Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir BOOKLOVER

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