The Road from Coorain by Jill Ker Conway.

Jill Ker Conway began life on a primitive sheep ranch in the undeveloped reaches of Australia, then continued to push the limits of female acheivement in academics. It is as if she had leapt from a childhood as a pioneer in the Old West to adulthood as a pioneer in the feminist career trenches of the last half of the 20th century. This first book of her autobiography covers her life from childhood to the decision to move to the United States to pursue a university career -- with striking observations of the harsh and beautiful Australian outback, the urban Australian culture still drawing its models from England, and her own careful dance of dependence and separation from a mother who had the strength to do much and was reduced to pushing her ambitions through her children. The story carries enough drama for three novels. And the book is much better written than this review!

I found her experiences and her interpretation of them as illuminating as the harsh light that dessicated their ranch in times of drought. Ms. Conway uses her own life to open a window on wider events in Australia and the world -- including the effects of drought and war on her own family, explaining the particularly Australian development of the large sheep ranches called stations, and the stoicism that served as the best response to an unpredictable climate. The Road from Coorain satisfies on many levels -- as joyfully clear and observant prose, as coming of age adventure, as Australian travelogue, and as revelation of the mind and emotions of a strong woman. If you enjoy any of these types of story, you will enjoy this book -- if you like them all, you will find the sum even better than the parts.