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Miss Fisher's Terra Nullius
Jun. 12th, 2019 06:59 pmI have now read all but the last of the Phryne Fisher books, and in general liked them very much; they fall exactly into that niche of cosy British(-adjacent) murder mystery I like so well, with lots of food and clothes porn to boot. Even more so than the TV series, Phryne is a wish-fulfillment character that women almost never get to be, she's wealthy and gorgeous and bangs attractive men whenever she wants to (and not if she doesn't), and looks out for other women and creates her own found family with them. I could stand to read a lot more Golden Age-set detective novels about women like Phryne.
As I said, though, these books are British-adjacent, not British; they're set in Australia and Phryne is the Australian-born child of a British family who has chosen to immigrate permanently. They are also books which are set in a deeply racist (and sexist, and homophobic, etc) time and place. Overall they do their best to portray that thoughtfully and spend time with people from Melbourne's immigrant communities, particularly the Chinese and Jewish communities; the challenges and realities of women's daily lives permeate every book; the queer community tend to be dead or evil a lot in early books, but there's evolution in action and by the latter half of the series Phryne is positioned firmly as an ally to the queer community and her lesbian sister is a major recurring character.
But. But. We're in Australia. And there's a hole in the backdrop of this series that starts out minor and becomes....not.
( Indigenous Australians in Phryne Fisher's world )
As I said, though, these books are British-adjacent, not British; they're set in Australia and Phryne is the Australian-born child of a British family who has chosen to immigrate permanently. They are also books which are set in a deeply racist (and sexist, and homophobic, etc) time and place. Overall they do their best to portray that thoughtfully and spend time with people from Melbourne's immigrant communities, particularly the Chinese and Jewish communities; the challenges and realities of women's daily lives permeate every book; the queer community tend to be dead or evil a lot in early books, but there's evolution in action and by the latter half of the series Phryne is positioned firmly as an ally to the queer community and her lesbian sister is a major recurring character.
But. But. We're in Australia. And there's a hole in the backdrop of this series that starts out minor and becomes....not.
( Indigenous Australians in Phryne Fisher's world )
