Fictionella about lost rocks and finding your heritage
A while ago I caught wind of a very intriguing project: a collection of fictionellas, each constructed around one of forty rocks missing from a rock board found in a tip shop in Tasmania. This project resonated a lot with me. I come from a family of geophysicists, and while I am not overly passionate about minerals, my father did buy me a little rock board of my own from Tasmania which I have kept since I was very small (and have only lost two rocks). Anyway, while I am not passionate about rocks I certainly am about books so when the campaign started, I knew I had to order one.
“Crocoite” by Margaret Woodward is a fictionella about a young woman called H who decides to retrace the steps of Tasmanian prospectors past and search for crocoite and the remnants of a lost town. H’s exploration in the chapters Wood and Prospect is interrupted by correspondence from a certain F Heazlewood in the 1870s that makes up the chapter Trace. The the book is interspersed with black and white photography, most particularly at the end of the last chapter Wood where H reflects on her heritage.
This is an intriguing little book that appears to tread a fine line between fact and fiction. It is certainly a celebration of the natural beauty of the Tasmanian landscape, but with more depth than average. Having grown up among people interested in the minerals exposed to the air and hidden beneath our feet, I found it to be a warm story that gentle examines questions of history, identity, place and heritage. I also enjoyed the idiosyncratic font that links certain letters together (which, I have discovered, is called ligature).
As this is a fictionella, and necessarily short in length as well as scope, there are of course limits to what can be included. However, I think that for other books in the series, I would like to see some discussion (especially by the people themselves) of the Aboriginal Tasmanian experience and how some of those stories could be woven into the Lost Rocks project.
A lovely little book that is part of a fascinating project, I’m keen to collect more. They are all limited print though and I believe this one may already be sold out, so don’t delay if you want to get one.
Tinted Edges 