Has anyone read Mutant Message Down Under?

[Elf]

It's about a woman who goes on a walkabout with Aborigines and shows you their incredible ability to live off the land/desert, their thoughts about human behaviour etc.

I've put this in the fiction section as it seems to get more posts but the woman said she wrote it as 'fiction" only to save the identities of the people involved.

ANYWAY, I re-read it recently and felt very moved again so I googled the author and found all sorts of controversy about her and whether she just made the whole thing up and that she got all sorts of facts wrong and this, that and the other and I felt very deflated and let down.

I wondered if anyone else had read the book, it's the kind of book you then go out and buy for your friends because you want them to read it. Or did.

Yes I read this book a few years ago.

It was an amazing account of a woman (journalist?) and her experiences with living and travelling with the aborigines.

The one thing I remember so much about this book is how evident it is that we all live in a very material world - ie we have to have the best in this and that and the latest gadget etc yet the aborigines live in such a simple world living with the most basic items. I can remember her also making her way back to her hotel room after she had done her journey with the aborigines with her feet so heavily worn and in such a terrible state.

It was a brilliant book - I had it recommended to me - you never really look at life the same way again after you've read it.

Thanks Whispy, I'm glad someone else was so affected. Well, I suggest you don't do the googling that I did!

Hiya - yea I must admit I took the book as being 'true'...it will be a shame if that isn't the case. I think if you know a book to be based on true facts you read it entirely differently that a book made up by facts, iykwim!

I loved the book - although it wasn't very long it was a fascinating read and one that really made me realise how lucky we have to have the luxuries in life that we have.

The aborigines are truly amazing people - it was a great book.