What do you think?
Rate this book
The Choke
A mesmerising, harrowing and ultimately uplifting novel from the 2015 Miles Franklin winner.
Abandoned by her mother as a toddler and only occasionally visited by her volatile father who keeps dangerous secrets, Justine is raised solely by her Pop, an old man tormented by visions of the Burma Railway. Justine finds sanctuary in Pop's chooks and The Choke, where the banks of the Murray River are so narrow they can almost touch—a place of staggering natural beauty that is both a source of peace and danger. Although Justine doesn't know it, her father is a menacing criminal and the world she is exposed to is one of great peril to her. She has to make sense of it on her own—and when she eventually does, she knows what she has to do.
A brilliant, haunting novel about a child navigating an often dark and uncaring world of male power, guns and violence, in which grown-ups can't be trusted and comfort can only be found in nature, The Choke is a compassionate and claustrophobic vision of a child in danger and a society in deep trouble. It once again showcases the Miles Franklin Award-winning author as a writer of rare empathy, originality and blazing talent.
Abandoned by her mother as a toddler and only occasionally visited by her volatile father who keeps dangerous secrets, Justine is raised solely by her Pop, an old man tormented by visions of the Burma Railway. Justine finds sanctuary in Pop's chooks and The Choke, where the banks of the Murray River are so narrow they can almost touch—a place of staggering natural beauty that is both a source of peace and danger. Although Justine doesn't know it, her father is a menacing criminal and the world she is exposed to is one of great peril to her. She has to make sense of it on her own—and when she eventually does, she knows what she has to do.
A brilliant, haunting novel about a child navigating an often dark and uncaring world of male power, guns and violence, in which grown-ups can't be trusted and comfort can only be found in nature, The Choke is a compassionate and claustrophobic vision of a child in danger and a society in deep trouble. It once again showcases the Miles Franklin Award-winning author as a writer of rare empathy, originality and blazing talent.
369 pages, Paperback
First published August 23, 2017
199 people are currently reading
4910 people want to read
About the author
Sofie Laguna
33 books387 followersSofie Laguna originally studied to be a lawyer at the University of New South Wales, but after deciding law was not for her, she moved to Melbourne to train as an actor. Sofie worked for a number of years as an actor at the same time as completing a Diploma in Professional Writing and Editing at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. Sofie is now an author and playright writing for both adults and children.
Her many books for young people have been named Honour Books and Notable Books in the Children’s Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Awards and have been shortlisted in the Queensland Premier’s Awards. She has been published in the US and the UK and in translation throughout Europe and Asia.
Her picture book, On Our Way to the Beach, was included in the White Raven 2005 annual selection of outstanding international children’s books by the International Youth Library (Associated Project if UNESCO)
In 2008 Sofie released her first novel for adults, One Foot Wrong, to international acclaim. It was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards and long-listed for the Miles Franklin Award. Screen rights for the book have been optioned and Sofie has recently completed the screenplay.
Sofie continues to write for a wide readership, from picture books for very young children, to series for older readers, to novels for adults.
Sofie lives in Melbourne with her partner and their young son.
Her many books for young people have been named Honour Books and Notable Books in the Children’s Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Awards and have been shortlisted in the Queensland Premier’s Awards. She has been published in the US and the UK and in translation throughout Europe and Asia.
Her picture book, On Our Way to the Beach, was included in the White Raven 2005 annual selection of outstanding international children’s books by the International Youth Library (Associated Project if UNESCO)
In 2008 Sofie released her first novel for adults, One Foot Wrong, to international acclaim. It was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards and long-listed for the Miles Franklin Award. Screen rights for the book have been optioned and Sofie has recently completed the screenplay.
Sofie continues to write for a wide readership, from picture books for very young children, to series for older readers, to novels for adults.
Sofie lives in Melbourne with her partner and their young son.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 583 reviews
October 25, 2017
Another heart breaker from this very talented writer. It starts very slowly but gradually creeps up on you - by the end I was a tearful mess.
Sofie Laguna writes about children you want to run out and adopt. In The Eye of the Sheep it was Jimmy, a delightful little boy with Asperger's Syndrome. In The Choke it is Justine, a child who is basically overlooked and neglected, a girl who is raised by men with major issues of their own and who consequently has no idea about life and its hazards. She is an accident waiting to happen and of course it does.
This would make a great book club book because the ending could be debated forever. Is it possible to break the cycle of abuse? How much help would someone like Justine need to step out of her situation and live a better life? Is she going to make it? What do you think will happen next? Read it and see what you think!
Sofie Laguna writes about children you want to run out and adopt. In The Eye of the Sheep it was Jimmy, a delightful little boy with Asperger's Syndrome. In The Choke it is Justine, a child who is basically overlooked and neglected, a girl who is raised by men with major issues of their own and who consequently has no idea about life and its hazards. She is an accident waiting to happen and of course it does.
This would make a great book club book because the ending could be debated forever. Is it possible to break the cycle of abuse? How much help would someone like Justine need to step out of her situation and live a better life? Is she going to make it? What do you think will happen next? Read it and see what you think!
November 23, 2021
3.5 rounded up
I saw Sofie Laguna recently at the Perth Writers Festival. The room was packed with people who had already read The Choke . It was a riveting session, so I couldn't wait to get stuck into this book.
This novel is set during the early 1970s, in a small rural town in Victoria by the Murray River.
Our narrator is Justine Lee, who's ten. She lives with her paternal grandfather, Pop, as her mum had left when Justine was three and her father, Ray, is a drifter. Pop has undiagnosed PTSD, following years working the Burma Railways as a PoW. He's also an alcoholic and is a bit clueless when it comes to looking after a girl, especially since he can barely look after himself. I guess he does the best he can. Justine is shy and doesn’t make any waves; she has no idea about hygiene, as her Pop only makes her have a bath occasionally. She's also dyslexic and a bit slow to understand things.
I've read many books written from a kid's perspective, more often than not, it's obvious that an adult had attributed his/her own thoughts to a child. This is not the case with The Choke. Laguna did a fantastic job showing us the world through Justine's naive eyes. As far as I'm concerned, that was the stand-out thing about this novel. It felt very authentic. And it also had a distinct Aussie feel about it.
i>The Choke is very readable - it has beautiful descriptions of the rural area and the dialogues are plentiful. Speaking of dialogue, at times, I was getting annoyed with the many "I said", "he/she said" after, what it felt, like every sentence in a conversation. It got better eventually or I got used to it.
The story was somewhat familiar. Most of the men in the novel are pretty horrible: drunks, selfish, incompetent, and violent. Justine has no good role models, male or female. At times, it was heartbreaking witnessing Justine's naivety. She's an unjudgemental observer and almost invisible to most, except to her good friend, Michael. Their friendship was very touching.
Times flies by. Justine is now thirteen, going to high school, although she can’t read. Unfortunately, her difficult life gets even more complicated as she finds herself having to deal with grown-up issues for which she’s completely unprepared.
I’m glad I finally read Sofie Laguna. I must say I had very high expectations, which I guess made me feel somewhat deflated that I didn’t love this novel. The story was somewhat familiar and it never really hit me in the gut. I think I’m getting a bit weary of what could be construed as “misery lit”.
This book goes towards my Aussie Author Challenge on http://bookloverbookreviews.com/readi...
I saw Sofie Laguna recently at the Perth Writers Festival. The room was packed with people who had already read The Choke . It was a riveting session, so I couldn't wait to get stuck into this book.
This novel is set during the early 1970s, in a small rural town in Victoria by the Murray River.
Our narrator is Justine Lee, who's ten. She lives with her paternal grandfather, Pop, as her mum had left when Justine was three and her father, Ray, is a drifter. Pop has undiagnosed PTSD, following years working the Burma Railways as a PoW. He's also an alcoholic and is a bit clueless when it comes to looking after a girl, especially since he can barely look after himself. I guess he does the best he can. Justine is shy and doesn’t make any waves; she has no idea about hygiene, as her Pop only makes her have a bath occasionally. She's also dyslexic and a bit slow to understand things.
I've read many books written from a kid's perspective, more often than not, it's obvious that an adult had attributed his/her own thoughts to a child. This is not the case with The Choke. Laguna did a fantastic job showing us the world through Justine's naive eyes. As far as I'm concerned, that was the stand-out thing about this novel. It felt very authentic. And it also had a distinct Aussie feel about it.
i>The Choke is very readable - it has beautiful descriptions of the rural area and the dialogues are plentiful. Speaking of dialogue, at times, I was getting annoyed with the many "I said", "he/she said" after, what it felt, like every sentence in a conversation. It got better eventually or I got used to it.
The story was somewhat familiar. Most of the men in the novel are pretty horrible: drunks, selfish, incompetent, and violent. Justine has no good role models, male or female. At times, it was heartbreaking witnessing Justine's naivety. She's an unjudgemental observer and almost invisible to most, except to her good friend, Michael. Their friendship was very touching.
Times flies by. Justine is now thirteen, going to high school, although she can’t read. Unfortunately, her difficult life gets even more complicated as she finds herself having to deal with grown-up issues for which she’s completely unprepared.
I’m glad I finally read Sofie Laguna. I must say I had very high expectations, which I guess made me feel somewhat deflated that I didn’t love this novel. The story was somewhat familiar and it never really hit me in the gut. I think I’m getting a bit weary of what could be construed as “misery lit”.
This book goes towards my Aussie Author Challenge on http://bookloverbookreviews.com/readi...
July 4, 2018
4.5★
“When Pop spoke to me, it was the same as when Dad did. The words were there, but it was as if they were speaking to themselves. I was just an excuse.
. . .
It was because I was born back to front. My words were breech, like me.”
Justine tells her own story. It’s 1971, near the fictional rural town of Nullabri in Victoria, Australia. I’m aware of Narrabri and Boggabri in NSW, both seeming to mean “place of” something. We know what “null” means, and that’s pretty apt. Except for being near the Mighty Murray, as the river's fondly known, this place has little to offer Justine.
Justine is the product of an affair between her father, Ray, (who was married with two sons). and her mother, Donna, who soon disappeared, leaving Justine with Ray’s father, Pop. Ray began life as a rascal and graduated to more serious crime, occasionally returning home to “Pop’s Three”, (three acres), to hide out.
Pop talks to his chooks when he’s not talking to his dead wife or to himself. He mutters, he cries out, he is a broken man after his time during WW2 on the Burma Railway. He also has an intermittent pain in his guts, which he shouts at as if the Railway itself is eating him up.
“He held his gut and said, ‘Haven’t you taken enough, you bastard?’ He drank the beer and looked towards the window and shook his head. He shook it and shook it and shook it.
When he’d disappear into himself in his bedroom, Justine was alone.
“He rolled over and I saw the tracks that he laid in Burma in his face. I saw the river of blood and the good boys and the Japs. They charged down the grooves in Pop’s cheeks and chin and forehead.”
When things are better, they watch old John Wayne movies. She’s internalised all the dialogue and no wonder. Pop addresses the Big Man as if he were in the room. After watching “Red River”:
“When the movie finished Pop said, ‘Wish you were around when Sandy and I were in Burma, big man. Would have been a whole different story, Duke. Bastards.’”
In “Rio Bravo”, the female lead is a card shark saloon girl called “Feathers”, who seems to catch Justine’s fancy. Justine and Pop eat mostly eggs from his beloved chickens, so chickens and feathers are what she knows best.
She collects feathers, she drops little feathers on her aunt’s sleeve, almost as a gift, and she notices feathers everywhere. Soft and light, unlike her life.
There’s also Dumbo’s blue feather (that he holds to help him fly), which her dad turns into conversational innuendo with a woman while Justine’s watching the movie.
”‘Doesn’t the elephant know he doesn’t need the feather?’
‘I need the feather,’said Dad.
‘Ray.’ [She] shook her head at him.
‘Come on, let’s be out there when the sun goes down,’ said Dad.
‘Still romantic.’
‘You know it, sweetheart.’”
That conversation may help explain why Justine “feels” feathers tickling parts of her body when she starts experiencing some new physical sensations as a teenager.
She’s been written off. She’s filthy, unkempt, ill-cared for . . . and overlooked. She can’t learn and she’s bullied. This is the early 1970s, and schools weren’t as aware as they are now of causes of learning problems. She knows, though. Her thinking is backwards because her whole life started out backwards when she split her mother open.
When she was three, her mother “split town”, and later she talks of the ground splitting around her brother and her grandfather likely to split apart from the explosives inside him from the war.
But her daydreaming is well and truly functioning, and we can dream with her even while we worry about the feathers that are bound to fly and the splits that she may suffer in the future.
Justine isn’t being raised – she’s just getting older, often disappearing to her “keepout” (a hideout) along the Murray River, where she lives in her make-believe house in her make-believe world. Here, she’s Mary Kate, Maureen O’Hara’s character in “The Quiet Man”.
“I swept the floor of my keepout with a branch of leaves. Every time Mary Kate pushed the broom her long green skirt danced across the dirt. I watched my branch-broom stir up the dirt then smooth it, seeing my green hem darken.”
There’s no green hem, no long skirt, just an amazing imagination, locked inside this mostly silent girl.
Laguna’s language is often poetic, sparing us raw, graphic details, but Justine’s desperate circumstances are clear enough. It’s a difficult story, but as with The Eye of the Sheep, you can’t turn your eyes away from this misunderstood child. And she’s still getting older, just hitting the rebellious teen years.
“When Pop spoke to me, it was the same as when Dad did. The words were there, but it was as if they were speaking to themselves. I was just an excuse.
. . .
It was because I was born back to front. My words were breech, like me.”
Justine tells her own story. It’s 1971, near the fictional rural town of Nullabri in Victoria, Australia. I’m aware of Narrabri and Boggabri in NSW, both seeming to mean “place of” something. We know what “null” means, and that’s pretty apt. Except for being near the Mighty Murray, as the river's fondly known, this place has little to offer Justine.
Justine is the product of an affair between her father, Ray, (who was married with two sons). and her mother, Donna, who soon disappeared, leaving Justine with Ray’s father, Pop. Ray began life as a rascal and graduated to more serious crime, occasionally returning home to “Pop’s Three”, (three acres), to hide out.
Pop talks to his chooks when he’s not talking to his dead wife or to himself. He mutters, he cries out, he is a broken man after his time during WW2 on the Burma Railway. He also has an intermittent pain in his guts, which he shouts at as if the Railway itself is eating him up.
“He held his gut and said, ‘Haven’t you taken enough, you bastard?’ He drank the beer and looked towards the window and shook his head. He shook it and shook it and shook it.
When he’d disappear into himself in his bedroom, Justine was alone.
“He rolled over and I saw the tracks that he laid in Burma in his face. I saw the river of blood and the good boys and the Japs. They charged down the grooves in Pop’s cheeks and chin and forehead.”
When things are better, they watch old John Wayne movies. She’s internalised all the dialogue and no wonder. Pop addresses the Big Man as if he were in the room. After watching “Red River”:
“When the movie finished Pop said, ‘Wish you were around when Sandy and I were in Burma, big man. Would have been a whole different story, Duke. Bastards.’”
In “Rio Bravo”, the female lead is a card shark saloon girl called “Feathers”, who seems to catch Justine’s fancy. Justine and Pop eat mostly eggs from his beloved chickens, so chickens and feathers are what she knows best.
She collects feathers, she drops little feathers on her aunt’s sleeve, almost as a gift, and she notices feathers everywhere. Soft and light, unlike her life.
There’s also Dumbo’s blue feather (that he holds to help him fly), which her dad turns into conversational innuendo with a woman while Justine’s watching the movie.
”‘Doesn’t the elephant know he doesn’t need the feather?’
‘I need the feather,’said Dad.
‘Ray.’ [She] shook her head at him.
‘Come on, let’s be out there when the sun goes down,’ said Dad.
‘Still romantic.’
‘You know it, sweetheart.’”
That conversation may help explain why Justine “feels” feathers tickling parts of her body when she starts experiencing some new physical sensations as a teenager.
She’s been written off. She’s filthy, unkempt, ill-cared for . . . and overlooked. She can’t learn and she’s bullied. This is the early 1970s, and schools weren’t as aware as they are now of causes of learning problems. She knows, though. Her thinking is backwards because her whole life started out backwards when she split her mother open.
When she was three, her mother “split town”, and later she talks of the ground splitting around her brother and her grandfather likely to split apart from the explosives inside him from the war.
But her daydreaming is well and truly functioning, and we can dream with her even while we worry about the feathers that are bound to fly and the splits that she may suffer in the future.
Justine isn’t being raised – she’s just getting older, often disappearing to her “keepout” (a hideout) along the Murray River, where she lives in her make-believe house in her make-believe world. Here, she’s Mary Kate, Maureen O’Hara’s character in “The Quiet Man”.
“I swept the floor of my keepout with a branch of leaves. Every time Mary Kate pushed the broom her long green skirt danced across the dirt. I watched my branch-broom stir up the dirt then smooth it, seeing my green hem darken.”
There’s no green hem, no long skirt, just an amazing imagination, locked inside this mostly silent girl.
Laguna’s language is often poetic, sparing us raw, graphic details, but Justine’s desperate circumstances are clear enough. It’s a difficult story, but as with The Eye of the Sheep, you can’t turn your eyes away from this misunderstood child. And she’s still getting older, just hitting the rebellious teen years.
August 20, 2017
Justine lived with her Pop as her father, Ray, was rarely around. Her mother had left when she was three years old having never recovered, both physically and mentally, from Justine’s birth. Pop’s shack near the banks of the Murray River where he and Justine spent their days was barely liveable – Pop had survived the war, but his memories of the Burma Railway and his part in the building of it, were forever in his mind.
Justine had two half-brothers – Steve and Kirk – and while they were young, they spent their days together, doing what kids all over did. The Choke where the Murray’s banks were closest was a site of great entertainment; Pop’s girls, the chooks, took Justine’s attention as she collected the eggs. But as she grew up, things changed. And at thirteen, Justine’s gentle, quiet and unassuming life would change forever…
The Choke by Aussie author Sofie Laguna is an emotional, dark and unsettling novel which will break your heart and give you hope all at the same time. Justine is a naïve young girl, with no-one around her but men, both old and young – no-one to explain about life to her. She can’t verbalise the questions; therefore, she doesn’t have the answers. "I never had words to ask anybody the questions, so I never had the answers." P233.
I’m finding it difficult to review The Choke as I feel I’m unable to do the author justice. Her writing is unique; her descriptions, both of the area Justine lives, and Justine’s life and her internal traumas is outstanding. I could see the danger coming for Justine, but it was like watching a train wreck and not being able to do anything about it.
I loved The Eye of the Sheep and Sofie Laguna has another winner with The Choke in my opinion. Very highly recommended.
With thanks to Allen & Unwin for my ARC to read and review.
Justine had two half-brothers – Steve and Kirk – and while they were young, they spent their days together, doing what kids all over did. The Choke where the Murray’s banks were closest was a site of great entertainment; Pop’s girls, the chooks, took Justine’s attention as she collected the eggs. But as she grew up, things changed. And at thirteen, Justine’s gentle, quiet and unassuming life would change forever…
The Choke by Aussie author Sofie Laguna is an emotional, dark and unsettling novel which will break your heart and give you hope all at the same time. Justine is a naïve young girl, with no-one around her but men, both old and young – no-one to explain about life to her. She can’t verbalise the questions; therefore, she doesn’t have the answers. "I never had words to ask anybody the questions, so I never had the answers." P233.
I’m finding it difficult to review The Choke as I feel I’m unable to do the author justice. Her writing is unique; her descriptions, both of the area Justine lives, and Justine’s life and her internal traumas is outstanding. I could see the danger coming for Justine, but it was like watching a train wreck and not being able to do anything about it.
I loved The Eye of the Sheep and Sofie Laguna has another winner with The Choke in my opinion. Very highly recommended.
With thanks to Allen & Unwin for my ARC to read and review.
January 17, 2018
I thought about this book for a couple days before deciding on a rating, it was definitely going to be at least 4 but I have decided to give it 5 stars. I feel Sofie Laguna has nailed it, the characters and the setting were so raw and authentic and it’s no mean feat to write from the perspective of a child, Justine, who was 10 years old in the first two thirds of the book and 13 and 14 years old for the remainder.
We’re in the 1970s in country Victoria, Australia, and Justine lives with her grandfather, Pop, a Vietnam veteran who is scarred by the experience and battling his mental demons. Pop talks to himself and his chooks a lot about anything and everything and we get the sense there’s a lot of guilt surrounding the passing of Pop’s wife Lizzy some years prior. In the background is Justine’s father Ray, a menacing figure who lives an itinerant life, turns up at Pop’s unannounced and who is frequently on the wrong side of the law. Ray’s older sister Rita, Aunty Rita to Justine, is one of the few people not scared of Ray and she and Justine get on very well but Rita is unable to visit Pop’s place very often. I loved the friendship that developed between Justine and Michael at primary school. The teacher initially made Justine sit next to Michael as a form of punishment. Michael has a physical disability and is cruelly referred to as ‘elastic spastic’ by some of the other kids but Justine and he end up the closest of friends. Justine actually has a learning disability (probably dyslexia) but this goes unnoticed right throughout her schooling and Michael helps her in class and with homework.
Although The Choke referred to a narrow section of the Murray River, I thought it was a great metaphor for the suffocation and oppression that many of the characters felt by their circumstances and life experiences. Another reason I gave it 5 stars was that I really didn’t want the book to end, I wanted to read on and find out what happens to everyone next. Let’s hope Sofie Laguna writes a sequel. Highly recommended.
We’re in the 1970s in country Victoria, Australia, and Justine lives with her grandfather, Pop, a Vietnam veteran who is scarred by the experience and battling his mental demons. Pop talks to himself and his chooks a lot about anything and everything and we get the sense there’s a lot of guilt surrounding the passing of Pop’s wife Lizzy some years prior. In the background is Justine’s father Ray, a menacing figure who lives an itinerant life, turns up at Pop’s unannounced and who is frequently on the wrong side of the law. Ray’s older sister Rita, Aunty Rita to Justine, is one of the few people not scared of Ray and she and Justine get on very well but Rita is unable to visit Pop’s place very often. I loved the friendship that developed between Justine and Michael at primary school. The teacher initially made Justine sit next to Michael as a form of punishment. Michael has a physical disability and is cruelly referred to as ‘elastic spastic’ by some of the other kids but Justine and he end up the closest of friends. Justine actually has a learning disability (probably dyslexia) but this goes unnoticed right throughout her schooling and Michael helps her in class and with homework.
Although The Choke referred to a narrow section of the Murray River, I thought it was a great metaphor for the suffocation and oppression that many of the characters felt by their circumstances and life experiences. Another reason I gave it 5 stars was that I really didn’t want the book to end, I wanted to read on and find out what happens to everyone next. Let’s hope Sofie Laguna writes a sequel. Highly recommended.
December 7, 2017
Justine was abandoned by her mother when she was only a small child. It was her Pop who came to her rescue and raised Justine on his own. On the odd occasion her father would visit. Her father was a man who kept dark and dangerous secrets and it was a good thing that Justine was not in his care.
Pop was an old man who'd been through the war and survived it, but to this day visions of the Burma Railway still haunts him.
To escape into another world, Justine enjoyed spending time with Pop's chooks and The Choke which is where the banks of the Murray River are so close together they are almost touching. A tranquil spot that was so peaceful and beautiful.
As Justine begins to get older things are on the verge of changing and life as she knows it will take a turn for the worse. How will she get through the next stage of her life and what impact will it have on her?
This was a BRILLIANT read and now that I've read both Sofie Laguna's novels, it's certainly not difficult to tell why this talented author was given a Miles Franklin Award. A fabulous book that will have you feeling emotional and rather heart broken at times, but well worth reading. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
Pop was an old man who'd been through the war and survived it, but to this day visions of the Burma Railway still haunts him.
To escape into another world, Justine enjoyed spending time with Pop's chooks and The Choke which is where the banks of the Murray River are so close together they are almost touching. A tranquil spot that was so peaceful and beautiful.
As Justine begins to get older things are on the verge of changing and life as she knows it will take a turn for the worse. How will she get through the next stage of her life and what impact will it have on her?
This was a BRILLIANT read and now that I've read both Sofie Laguna's novels, it's certainly not difficult to tell why this talented author was given a Miles Franklin Award. A fabulous book that will have you feeling emotional and rather heart broken at times, but well worth reading. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
May 22, 2018
Anyone who has read Eye of the Sheep by Sofie Laguna will know that she has a special gift for writing special children and also excels at painting a uniquely Australian landscape for those characters. Her characters portray the expected gender roles of the time. Her books are not easy reads, they can leave you emotionally drained and often, for me anyway, will make you question your own thoughts and behaviours and bring dormant lying guilt back up to the surface.
Essentially this book is about Justine who lives with her grandfather, Pop, and his chickens (chooks) in a rural area near Echuca on the Victorian side of the river. But it features two other big and significant forces. First, the mighty Murray River and surrounds in what was the mid-1970’s, I would have been about Justine’s age myself at the time this book was set. It is remarkably accurate and detailed in its descriptions of this part of Victoria. Ray, the character that plays father, brother, son and cousin to some neigbouring family and friends in this town is the other mighty force in the book. Everyone’s life seems to revolve around him whether they like it or are even aware of it. He is ever present and distant at the same time. He is an a**hole of extreme proportions playing off people who love him against each other. He is the worst role model, immature and cruel.
Rural in every way, more so because Pop has three acres and is suffering from severe PTSD after returning from being a prisoner of war in Burma. His symptoms and his attitude to life and people bring Justine into an even more insulated, isolated and remote part of rural life with the one exception of her going to school for a few hours each weekday.
During the four years that this book is set in you will see Justine suffer from extreme neglect, poor hygiene and bordering on malnutrition, if it wasn’t for those damned eggs. Your heart will break but the prose is so beautiful you won’t be able to put the book down. Highly recommended reading.
Essentially this book is about Justine who lives with her grandfather, Pop, and his chickens (chooks) in a rural area near Echuca on the Victorian side of the river. But it features two other big and significant forces. First, the mighty Murray River and surrounds in what was the mid-1970’s, I would have been about Justine’s age myself at the time this book was set. It is remarkably accurate and detailed in its descriptions of this part of Victoria. Ray, the character that plays father, brother, son and cousin to some neigbouring family and friends in this town is the other mighty force in the book. Everyone’s life seems to revolve around him whether they like it or are even aware of it. He is ever present and distant at the same time. He is an a**hole of extreme proportions playing off people who love him against each other. He is the worst role model, immature and cruel.
Rural in every way, more so because Pop has three acres and is suffering from severe PTSD after returning from being a prisoner of war in Burma. His symptoms and his attitude to life and people bring Justine into an even more insulated, isolated and remote part of rural life with the one exception of her going to school for a few hours each weekday.
During the four years that this book is set in you will see Justine suffer from extreme neglect, poor hygiene and bordering on malnutrition, if it wasn’t for those damned eggs. Your heart will break but the prose is so beautiful you won’t be able to put the book down. Highly recommended reading.
September 1, 2017
*https://mrsbbookreviews.wordpress.com
Sofie Laguna, the brilliant Australian author of The Choke, first came to my attention when she won our country’s top literary prize, the Miles Franklin Award in 2015, for The Eye of the Sheep. It is a book I am yet to read but I am hoping to bring it to my book club as my pick, due to the accolades it has received. Sofie Laguna’s latest labour of love is a touching and heart wrenching read of a young girl named Justine Lee, living with her grandfather, in close proximity to the banks of the Murray. The Choke is in reference to a small body of water that lies between two almost adjoining banks. The Choke is the pivotal platform where Justine’s life plays out as she teeters between childhood and adulthood.
Justine Lee was born as a breech baby, who sees the world upside down. She lives a life surrounded by men and is in the sole care of her troubled grandfather, a Burma Railway World War II veteran. Justine’s mother abandoned their family many years ago. Justine’s father Ray is a figure who floats in and out of Justine’s life. Ray’s inability to remove himself from criminal activities has a devastating impact on the impressionable Justine. Justine often retreats from her cruel and violent world in the sanctuary she has built in The Choke, by the banks of the Murray. She also takes solace in her Pop’s chooks, finding these animals offer no brutality or judgement. The Choke is a novel told in two parts, the first outlining 10 year old Justine’s experiences of the world around her, in year 1971. This part of the narrative covers Justine’s turbulent time at school, through to the beautiful friendship she forms with a disabled classmate, to the defining moment of violence Justine’s father unwittingly involves her in. The Choke is ultimately a harrowing coming of age tale. The Choke then moves three years forward and we see the world through the eyes of an adolescent Justine, now aged 13 years old. A little tougher but still naive and vulnerable, Justine’s future again comes under threat as she is taken advantage of by those she sees as worthy of her trust. The repercussions of this incident has lasting damage on a child that has been exposed to far too much in her young life.
I probably mulled over my review for The Choke for far longer than normal. I can see this is warranted, like a handful of reviewers before me, they too have struggled to find the words to do this book and the very talented author Sofie Laguna justice. What I will do is urge you to read this novel and I hope my review will more than tempt you to pick this novel to read. It is one of those books I could easily award 6 stars to, if it was possible.
Sofie Laguna has a rare talent. It is not often that an author can so readily portray the voice of a child, in this case a 10 and 13-year-old girl with such conviction. Laguna’s ability to slot herself so freely into the mind and soul of a child is confounding to say the least. I was absolutely convinced of Justine’s narration from the beginning to the end of this brilliant novel. Laguna is adept in balancing Justine’s world view of a young girl who is perceptive, vulnerable, naive, self-deprecating and giving all the same.
Laguna’s talent in the area of characterisation extends further. In the case of Pop, Justine’s grandfather, Laguna outlines this protagonist with a deft hand. Pop is survivor, a troubled older man with a severe case of PTSD, who struggles to care for himself, let alone love and care for his young granddaughter. His attempts to care for Justine earned both my ire and my respect. His efforts to ensure Justine was not placed in care and stayed with her family had a redeeming quality. There were times when I disagreed completely with his actions but by working to understanding the root of this character, his wartime experiences and the tempestuous years that followed, clearly held impact for this character. Ray, Justine’s criminal father, also earned my wrath early in the piece. He was an odious, violent and unfeeling character, well presented by Laguna but he was a man who deserved all that came to him, a hefty jail sentence. There are a collection of periphery players in this novel, such as Justine’s largely absent aunt, a redneck band of neighbours and cousins and of course, Michael, a gentle soul who shines some light in Justine’s dark world. All are memorable and dimensional figures, drawn carefully by Laguna.
The Choke, in which the title of this book is named after, is almost a character in itself. It commands a strong presence throughout this novel. The sense of place is remarkable in this book. I could easily picture myself on the banks of the Murray, with Justine, seeking out the solace the natural beauty this area. I appreciated the significance The Choke played to the overall turn of events and to the formation of Justine’s character over the progression of the novel.
The Choke was a consuming tale. There were times I held my breath, turned my eyes away from the book and felt my heart warm completely. I made sure I grabbed firmly onto moments of hope, while simultaneously found myself shuddering at the treatment of a young girl who was forced to confront a cruel and unforgiving world, far too soon. Sofie Laguna is an author with extraordinary storytelling abilities, her dexterity in bringing to life a dysfunctional working class family’s trials and tribulations from the 1970’s, with specific focus on a young girl’s haunting experiences with such a commanding force is simply exceptional.
*I wish to thank Allen & Unwin for providing me with a free copy of this book for review purposes.
Sofie Laguna, the brilliant Australian author of The Choke, first came to my attention when she won our country’s top literary prize, the Miles Franklin Award in 2015, for The Eye of the Sheep. It is a book I am yet to read but I am hoping to bring it to my book club as my pick, due to the accolades it has received. Sofie Laguna’s latest labour of love is a touching and heart wrenching read of a young girl named Justine Lee, living with her grandfather, in close proximity to the banks of the Murray. The Choke is in reference to a small body of water that lies between two almost adjoining banks. The Choke is the pivotal platform where Justine’s life plays out as she teeters between childhood and adulthood.
Justine Lee was born as a breech baby, who sees the world upside down. She lives a life surrounded by men and is in the sole care of her troubled grandfather, a Burma Railway World War II veteran. Justine’s mother abandoned their family many years ago. Justine’s father Ray is a figure who floats in and out of Justine’s life. Ray’s inability to remove himself from criminal activities has a devastating impact on the impressionable Justine. Justine often retreats from her cruel and violent world in the sanctuary she has built in The Choke, by the banks of the Murray. She also takes solace in her Pop’s chooks, finding these animals offer no brutality or judgement. The Choke is a novel told in two parts, the first outlining 10 year old Justine’s experiences of the world around her, in year 1971. This part of the narrative covers Justine’s turbulent time at school, through to the beautiful friendship she forms with a disabled classmate, to the defining moment of violence Justine’s father unwittingly involves her in. The Choke is ultimately a harrowing coming of age tale. The Choke then moves three years forward and we see the world through the eyes of an adolescent Justine, now aged 13 years old. A little tougher but still naive and vulnerable, Justine’s future again comes under threat as she is taken advantage of by those she sees as worthy of her trust. The repercussions of this incident has lasting damage on a child that has been exposed to far too much in her young life.
I probably mulled over my review for The Choke for far longer than normal. I can see this is warranted, like a handful of reviewers before me, they too have struggled to find the words to do this book and the very talented author Sofie Laguna justice. What I will do is urge you to read this novel and I hope my review will more than tempt you to pick this novel to read. It is one of those books I could easily award 6 stars to, if it was possible.
Sofie Laguna has a rare talent. It is not often that an author can so readily portray the voice of a child, in this case a 10 and 13-year-old girl with such conviction. Laguna’s ability to slot herself so freely into the mind and soul of a child is confounding to say the least. I was absolutely convinced of Justine’s narration from the beginning to the end of this brilliant novel. Laguna is adept in balancing Justine’s world view of a young girl who is perceptive, vulnerable, naive, self-deprecating and giving all the same.
Laguna’s talent in the area of characterisation extends further. In the case of Pop, Justine’s grandfather, Laguna outlines this protagonist with a deft hand. Pop is survivor, a troubled older man with a severe case of PTSD, who struggles to care for himself, let alone love and care for his young granddaughter. His attempts to care for Justine earned both my ire and my respect. His efforts to ensure Justine was not placed in care and stayed with her family had a redeeming quality. There were times when I disagreed completely with his actions but by working to understanding the root of this character, his wartime experiences and the tempestuous years that followed, clearly held impact for this character. Ray, Justine’s criminal father, also earned my wrath early in the piece. He was an odious, violent and unfeeling character, well presented by Laguna but he was a man who deserved all that came to him, a hefty jail sentence. There are a collection of periphery players in this novel, such as Justine’s largely absent aunt, a redneck band of neighbours and cousins and of course, Michael, a gentle soul who shines some light in Justine’s dark world. All are memorable and dimensional figures, drawn carefully by Laguna.
The Choke, in which the title of this book is named after, is almost a character in itself. It commands a strong presence throughout this novel. The sense of place is remarkable in this book. I could easily picture myself on the banks of the Murray, with Justine, seeking out the solace the natural beauty this area. I appreciated the significance The Choke played to the overall turn of events and to the formation of Justine’s character over the progression of the novel.
The Choke was a consuming tale. There were times I held my breath, turned my eyes away from the book and felt my heart warm completely. I made sure I grabbed firmly onto moments of hope, while simultaneously found myself shuddering at the treatment of a young girl who was forced to confront a cruel and unforgiving world, far too soon. Sofie Laguna is an author with extraordinary storytelling abilities, her dexterity in bringing to life a dysfunctional working class family’s trials and tribulations from the 1970’s, with specific focus on a young girl’s haunting experiences with such a commanding force is simply exceptional.
*I wish to thank Allen & Unwin for providing me with a free copy of this book for review purposes.
December 10, 2017
I found this a dark and depressing story for the most part, albeit a powerful one, as I had a fair idea where it was heading from the start. Justine, abandoned by her mother when she was young and rarely visited by her largely absent, shady, womanising father, lives with her grandfather. Suffering from PTSD, with recurring nightmares of his WWII experience on the Burma Railway, he does his best to care for Justine but she is nevertheless impoverished and neglected. The kids at school avoid her as she is dirty and unkempt, rarely given a bath or clean cloths. She is also struggling to learn as she is dyslexic and cannot read and write, something her teachers have somehow failed to see. Her one friend is Michael, a boy with cerebral palsy, who invites her to his home and for a time allows her a glimpse of a normal home and childhood. However, as she approaches adolescence, she must face high school and the older kids on her own with devastating consequences.
Sofie Laguna writes very evocatively about the Australian landscape, particularly the farm where Justine and her Pop live and the banks of the Murray River where Justine feels most at home. She also has great insight into the mind of a young girl growing up with little adult guidance and few of the pleasures of childhood. Most of the men and boys in Justine's life are depicted as violent and selfish and there are few women to act as role models or care givers although Justine's aunt tries to connect but is disallowed by her father and grandfather. Although her grandfather clearly loves her he is poorly educated himself and ill-equipped to deal with a teenage girl and his life is also fairly grim. Just like the Choke, an area of the Murray where the banks narrow and the river has to struggle to get through, Justine's life is almost relentlessly channeled to a point where she has few choices and must be strong to forge ahead.
Sofie Laguna writes very evocatively about the Australian landscape, particularly the farm where Justine and her Pop live and the banks of the Murray River where Justine feels most at home. She also has great insight into the mind of a young girl growing up with little adult guidance and few of the pleasures of childhood. Most of the men and boys in Justine's life are depicted as violent and selfish and there are few women to act as role models or care givers although Justine's aunt tries to connect but is disallowed by her father and grandfather. Although her grandfather clearly loves her he is poorly educated himself and ill-equipped to deal with a teenage girl and his life is also fairly grim. Just like the Choke, an area of the Murray where the banks narrow and the river has to struggle to get through, Justine's life is almost relentlessly channeled to a point where she has few choices and must be strong to forge ahead.
April 16, 2018
* 4.5 *
I picked this novel out of the 2018 Stella longlist line-up based on some great reviews and boy I was not disappointed. This might be one of the best new Australian novels I have read in some time. Set near Echuca in northern Victoria it is told through the eyes of a child, Justine, and through her we gradually come to know her fractured family and her life in this small town setting.
Laguna has such a deft hand at writing from a child's point of view. She is also a master at creating tension. I had a feeling of dread almost the entire time I was reading this. The Choke is such an Australian book from page one you are there, out in the bush with Justine and her half brothers, near the banks of the Murray surrounded by Red Gums and Galahs and feeding the chooks. It is exceptionally good writing of place. In this regard it reminds me a lot of Tim Winton.
Did it drift slightly melodramatic in places ?, try once too often to manipulate my heart strings ? Prehaps. The Black Beauty motif seemed a little too much. And yet the book is entirely riveting, the narrative voice so natural and perfect, the outcome not easy to guess at. I had this down as a certain type of book and it took me constantly by surprise the more I read.
What a great new ( to me ) Australian novelist to watch and also to seek out her previous novels.
I picked this novel out of the 2018 Stella longlist line-up based on some great reviews and boy I was not disappointed. This might be one of the best new Australian novels I have read in some time. Set near Echuca in northern Victoria it is told through the eyes of a child, Justine, and through her we gradually come to know her fractured family and her life in this small town setting.
Laguna has such a deft hand at writing from a child's point of view. She is also a master at creating tension. I had a feeling of dread almost the entire time I was reading this. The Choke is such an Australian book from page one you are there, out in the bush with Justine and her half brothers, near the banks of the Murray surrounded by Red Gums and Galahs and feeding the chooks. It is exceptionally good writing of place. In this regard it reminds me a lot of Tim Winton.
Did it drift slightly melodramatic in places ?, try once too often to manipulate my heart strings ? Prehaps. The Black Beauty motif seemed a little too much. And yet the book is entirely riveting, the narrative voice so natural and perfect, the outcome not easy to guess at. I had this down as a certain type of book and it took me constantly by surprise the more I read.
What a great new ( to me ) Australian novelist to watch and also to seek out her previous novels.
January 10, 2024
A story about the frightening loneliness of a child growing up in a hostile world, kept alive by few but meaningful friendships. Set on the Murray river in Australia. Unadorned, powerful writing: life-affirming.
August 27, 2017
“When Michael asked me questions, he waited for my answers. He wanted to find out. He wouldn’t go on until I answered. It was the opposite of invisible,”
The Choke is the third adult novel by award-winning Australian author, Sofie Laguna. Ten-year-old Justine Lee has lived with Pop since her mother split when she was just three. Pop loves his chooks and the big man (John Wayne), loves his White Ox rollies and loves Justine too, but he’s haunted by what he experienced in Burma, building the Eastern Bullet railway during the war, so his caring for Jussy is somewhat erratic. Eggs are plentiful, but baths and clean clothes less so, and her shoes pinch her toes.
Justine’s older half-brothers live with their mum, Relle. All of them wait eagerly for the reappearance of Ray, the father whose mystique only magnifies with each month of absence. The boys vie for scraps of affection, moments of notice, desperate for their father’s approval: ”Kirk and Steve came over to him. Kirk walked with his chest out, like he was a man with a slingshot, a bow and arrow, and a gun, and he could choose which one he wanted to shoot. Steve was behind him, half hidden, in the cool of Kirk’s shadow.” And when they receive insults instead of encouragement, they try to hide their dismay.
Jussy finds school difficult: the letters jump around and go backwards. Then she is seated next to the boy everyone avoids, as a punishment. But that has a surprising result: “Michael knew the answer. I looked at him; he looked back at me, his eyes steady, while the rest of him jerked and shook, as if the person pulling the strings was excited.”
Laguna splits her tale into two time periods: 1971-72 when Jussy is in primary school; and a few years later, her first year of high school. She captures early seventies rural Victoria and the prevailing social attitudes with consummate ease. The sexual discrimination, disability discrimination, the homophobia, the sexist attitudes that demote women to second class citizens, the forced adoptions, the gun culture: all will strike a chord with readers of a certain vintage.
Laguna’s depiction of a ten-year-old’s interpretation of events, how the adults react to them, and what they say, is faultless. Despite Jussy’s confusion, her impressions are often uncannily accurate: “Every time Dad spoke, it was light, like a ball being thrown in the air, easy, like a breeze, but under it was heavy as lead.” Laguna’s descriptive prose is often stunningly beautiful.
Laguna gives the reader a diverse cast of characters: most are realistically flawed, and while their poor behaviour may disappoint, it can be understood as a product of their upbringing and life experience, even when the characters themselves are unappealing. There is a good deal of cruelty which, from the children can be unwitting, while from the adults is usually intentional. But there is much kindness also, often from those with most hardship to bear.
Justine is a determined young girl, kind and impossible not to like, or even love; certainly, she is easy to care about and hope for. Laguna’s characters deal with guilt, grief, jealousy, revenge, resentment, family disputes and PTSD. While there’s some humour, there are also heartbreaking moments that guarantee a lump in the throat, if not the eyes welling up. A brilliant read from a talented author.
The Choke is the third adult novel by award-winning Australian author, Sofie Laguna. Ten-year-old Justine Lee has lived with Pop since her mother split when she was just three. Pop loves his chooks and the big man (John Wayne), loves his White Ox rollies and loves Justine too, but he’s haunted by what he experienced in Burma, building the Eastern Bullet railway during the war, so his caring for Jussy is somewhat erratic. Eggs are plentiful, but baths and clean clothes less so, and her shoes pinch her toes.
Justine’s older half-brothers live with their mum, Relle. All of them wait eagerly for the reappearance of Ray, the father whose mystique only magnifies with each month of absence. The boys vie for scraps of affection, moments of notice, desperate for their father’s approval: ”Kirk and Steve came over to him. Kirk walked with his chest out, like he was a man with a slingshot, a bow and arrow, and a gun, and he could choose which one he wanted to shoot. Steve was behind him, half hidden, in the cool of Kirk’s shadow.” And when they receive insults instead of encouragement, they try to hide their dismay.
Jussy finds school difficult: the letters jump around and go backwards. Then she is seated next to the boy everyone avoids, as a punishment. But that has a surprising result: “Michael knew the answer. I looked at him; he looked back at me, his eyes steady, while the rest of him jerked and shook, as if the person pulling the strings was excited.”
Laguna splits her tale into two time periods: 1971-72 when Jussy is in primary school; and a few years later, her first year of high school. She captures early seventies rural Victoria and the prevailing social attitudes with consummate ease. The sexual discrimination, disability discrimination, the homophobia, the sexist attitudes that demote women to second class citizens, the forced adoptions, the gun culture: all will strike a chord with readers of a certain vintage.
Laguna’s depiction of a ten-year-old’s interpretation of events, how the adults react to them, and what they say, is faultless. Despite Jussy’s confusion, her impressions are often uncannily accurate: “Every time Dad spoke, it was light, like a ball being thrown in the air, easy, like a breeze, but under it was heavy as lead.” Laguna’s descriptive prose is often stunningly beautiful.
Laguna gives the reader a diverse cast of characters: most are realistically flawed, and while their poor behaviour may disappoint, it can be understood as a product of their upbringing and life experience, even when the characters themselves are unappealing. There is a good deal of cruelty which, from the children can be unwitting, while from the adults is usually intentional. But there is much kindness also, often from those with most hardship to bear.
Justine is a determined young girl, kind and impossible not to like, or even love; certainly, she is easy to care about and hope for. Laguna’s characters deal with guilt, grief, jealousy, revenge, resentment, family disputes and PTSD. While there’s some humour, there are also heartbreaking moments that guarantee a lump in the throat, if not the eyes welling up. A brilliant read from a talented author.
September 24, 2021
Okay, now I want to find and read every single book Sofie Laguna's written. Her ten-year-old heroine Justine Lee is
🔹the poorest, shyest kid at Nullabri Primary School
🔹the devoted friend of Michael Hooper, who has cerebral palsy and a wicked sense of humor
🔹one of the youngest of a family feud
🔹an undiagnosed dyslexic
🔹tough as her hero John Wayne, even if she's much, much smaller.
Set in Australia in the early 1970s, elements of the story are grim, but Laguna shepherds readers through by focusing on Justine's resilience.
How endearing is this quotation? After Justine and her buddy Michael have been swept away by the movie Black Beauty, Michael's mother picks them up:
My only misgivings are about
210 w/m, 8 hrs
🔹the poorest, shyest kid at Nullabri Primary School🔹the devoted friend of Michael Hooper, who has cerebral palsy and a wicked sense of humor
🔹one of the youngest of a family feud
🔹an undiagnosed dyslexic
🔹tough as her hero John Wayne, even if she's much, much smaller.
Set in Australia in the early 1970s, elements of the story are grim, but Laguna shepherds readers through by focusing on Justine's resilience.
How endearing is this quotation? After Justine and her buddy Michael have been swept away by the movie Black Beauty, Michael's mother picks them up:
When we came out at the end of the movie, the light was bright in our eyes. ‘How was it?’ Mrs Hooper asked. Michael and me couldn’t talk. Mrs Hooper said, ‘That good, hey?’Indeed.
My only misgivings are about
210 w/m, 8 hrs
August 29, 2017
I adored Sofie Laguna’s The Eye of the Sheep, published in 2014 so my expectations for her latest book, The Choke, were ridiculously and unachievably high. So it’s even more remarkable that I was not disappointed.
Laguna brings the voice of Justine to life with amazing care, craft and unwavering poignancy. It’s impossible not to fall in love with the 10 year old who believes everything wrong in her life is her own fault for being born backwards. “Who comes out on their knees ? Who comes into this world begging ?” Justine would hear Pop would ask the chooks.
When we meet Justine she’s struggling at school and Laguna does a wonderful job of explaining her dyslexia (without labelling it until much much later and I suspect not doing so is a recognition of how little was known about it at the time) – though it’s heartbreaking to see the way she’s treated by her teachers and other children.
In the beginning there’s a strong sense of family. Of solidarity and of loyalty between Justine, her half-brothers and her Pop.
Things change however, and it’s sadly ironic that Justine’s father warns her against predators when he himself is the family’s biggest threat and the visit from her father that summer in 1971 changes everything.
We skip forward three years to a time Justine’s again alone. Except for Pop – her mainstay.
Which I guess is why it’s so devastating he so easily doubts her when another crisis hits.
Like young Jimmy in Eye of the Sheep, Laguna writes Justine beautifully and sympathetically. It seems an impossible task but she manages to nail the authenticity of a young girl and her simplistic innocence while simultaneously creating beautiful poetic prose.
Her eloquent words and phrases again reflect the the beauty (and harshness) of the novel’s setting and – to some extent – the time in which it’s set (early 1970s).
This story is beautiful. It’s sentimental. It’s devastatingly heartbreaking in parts and heartwarming in others. It’s ire-inducing and will have you raging against the injustice in the world. It could ultimately be depressing but there’s a sense of hope, of resilience and of tenacity.
It’s a reminder that some people have an infinite capacity for kindness and love, but it’s also a reminder that others are incapable of giving others what they know they need.
You. Must. Read. This. Book.
Read the full review on my site: https://www.debbish.com/books-literat...
Laguna brings the voice of Justine to life with amazing care, craft and unwavering poignancy. It’s impossible not to fall in love with the 10 year old who believes everything wrong in her life is her own fault for being born backwards. “Who comes out on their knees ? Who comes into this world begging ?” Justine would hear Pop would ask the chooks.
When we meet Justine she’s struggling at school and Laguna does a wonderful job of explaining her dyslexia (without labelling it until much much later and I suspect not doing so is a recognition of how little was known about it at the time) – though it’s heartbreaking to see the way she’s treated by her teachers and other children.
In the beginning there’s a strong sense of family. Of solidarity and of loyalty between Justine, her half-brothers and her Pop.
Things change however, and it’s sadly ironic that Justine’s father warns her against predators when he himself is the family’s biggest threat and the visit from her father that summer in 1971 changes everything.
We skip forward three years to a time Justine’s again alone. Except for Pop – her mainstay.
Which I guess is why it’s so devastating he so easily doubts her when another crisis hits.
Like young Jimmy in Eye of the Sheep, Laguna writes Justine beautifully and sympathetically. It seems an impossible task but she manages to nail the authenticity of a young girl and her simplistic innocence while simultaneously creating beautiful poetic prose.
Her eloquent words and phrases again reflect the the beauty (and harshness) of the novel’s setting and – to some extent – the time in which it’s set (early 1970s).
This story is beautiful. It’s sentimental. It’s devastatingly heartbreaking in parts and heartwarming in others. It’s ire-inducing and will have you raging against the injustice in the world. It could ultimately be depressing but there’s a sense of hope, of resilience and of tenacity.
It’s a reminder that some people have an infinite capacity for kindness and love, but it’s also a reminder that others are incapable of giving others what they know they need.
You. Must. Read. This. Book.
Read the full review on my site: https://www.debbish.com/books-literat...
September 8, 2018
This book is not unlike 'The Eye of the Sheep' in that it is another tragic story of a child with a flaw that is at the mercy of the adults around them.
Justine is a young girl being raised by her grandfather, a man battling his PTSD demons through social isolation and beer. Her father Ray drifts in and out of her life, but is a selfish man with no regard for his daughter.
Justine struggles in the education system, friendless and frowned upon by the teaching staff who do not realise her learning difficulties, but think she is stupid.
The few good people that she meets seem to offer her hope only to then suddenly disappear from her life.
Poor, poor Justine just cannot take a trick and the tragedy just keeps unfurling slowly breaking your heart. Sofie Laguna is able to portray such rich characters and situations that just evoke raw and pure emotion.
A book to be read when you feel able to deal with sadness on a large scale.
Justine is a young girl being raised by her grandfather, a man battling his PTSD demons through social isolation and beer. Her father Ray drifts in and out of her life, but is a selfish man with no regard for his daughter.
Justine struggles in the education system, friendless and frowned upon by the teaching staff who do not realise her learning difficulties, but think she is stupid.
The few good people that she meets seem to offer her hope only to then suddenly disappear from her life.
Poor, poor Justine just cannot take a trick and the tragedy just keeps unfurling slowly breaking your heart. Sofie Laguna is able to portray such rich characters and situations that just evoke raw and pure emotion.
A book to be read when you feel able to deal with sadness on a large scale.
April 16, 2018
WOW this was a totally captivating read, and I am so thrilled to have found another excellent Australian author. The Choke- as the title would suggest, is not an easy read. This novel is gritty, confronting, uncomfortable and challenging in its subject material. It deals with real issues, PTSD, violence and assault; but what I found most disturbing, was the abject neglect of children, that occurred around and because of these issues. These ideas, and themes are developed boldly, in a way that leaves the reader no choice but to reflect, on how such issues endure today.
Like much Australian literature, Laguna’s novel is very located in place. Rural Australia is as stark and oppressive as ever, and serves its purpose well, as character, tension builder, witness to the crimes.
What impressed me most about this novel, was the skill with which Laguna manages a child narrator. This style of narrative perspective often annoys me- but Laguna strikes the balance between innocence and insight perfectly.
This is certainly a novel which has a lot to offer, and Laguna is a talent to watch.
Like much Australian literature, Laguna’s novel is very located in place. Rural Australia is as stark and oppressive as ever, and serves its purpose well, as character, tension builder, witness to the crimes.
What impressed me most about this novel, was the skill with which Laguna manages a child narrator. This style of narrative perspective often annoys me- but Laguna strikes the balance between innocence and insight perfectly.
This is certainly a novel which has a lot to offer, and Laguna is a talent to watch.
August 25, 2017
A bleak and difficult book about a young girl growing up surrounded by male violence - it's hard going at times, but Justine is a wonderful character and Laguna leaves just enough hope amongst all the brutality.
August 30, 2017
Sofie Laguna’s latest novel for adults, The Choke, is a powerful story about a topic I have particularly strong personal feelings about: child neglect. A recent paper (June 2017) published by the Australian Institute of Family Studies presented a snapshot of data on child protection activity within Australia from 2011-12 through to 2015-16. Bearing in mind that these statistics only show what’s reported – there’s no way of knowing just how many children experience some form of abuse – it came as no surprise to me to see neglect as the second most common form of child abuse throughout Australia. In writing The Choke, Sofie Laguna has cast a light onto a very dark corner of Australian society. Despite being set in the early 1970s, the themes and issues presented within The Choke are highly relevant today. With The Choke, Sofie has turned the novel into a powerful sociological medium of expression, no small feat, yet she’s achieved it with an empathetic depth that cannot be rivaled.
Our protagonist in The Choke is Justine, 10 years old when we meet her, 14 at the novel’s end. Justine is a child ignored; she’s underfed, has no social skills, and is intellectually repressed with an unrecognised learning disability. Abandoned at the age of three by her mother, her father is a criminal; her aunt, one person who could have possibly made a difference for Justine, is estranged from the family. Justine’s main carer is her Pop, alcoholic, suffering severe untreated PTSD from being a Japanese prisoner of war forced to work on the Burma railway, and inadvertently responsible for his wife’s death through domestic violence. Justine exists. That’s it. Nothing more.
“When Pop spoke to me, it was the same as when Dad did. The words were there, but it was as if they were speaking to themselves. I was just an excuse.”
Experiencing the story as Justine shows us just how much this neglect impacts her. With a child’s observation, Justine goes about her days, and we see, with painful clarity, what neglect has done to her. What it does to all children. I read The Choke with a feeling of dread, knowing that there was danger ahead for Justine, in so many places, as she was completely without protection or even the intellectual and social skills to recognise harmful situations. Her repression had also left her without the verbal skills to even articulate what she wanted to say in any given situation. In order to make sense of the world, she brings everything back to having been born breech. It’s her reasoning for life; why her mother left her, why she can’t understand things, why she can’t read, why she isn’t loved.
“If I had stood somewhere else, or gone somewhere else, what difference would it have made? The only difference I made was in the breech. That was the only time I could be felt.”
“I shook my head. Pieces were missing. It was the breech. I didn’t understand.”
Yet, Justine doesn’t use ‘the breech’ as an excuse. Rather, it’s something she takes responsibility for. As if she might have actually been able to control her own position within her mother’s womb. The weight this child carries is profound and incredibly painful to bear witness to. She’s definitely not ignorant of her neglect, but she is accepting of it, and that makes it all the more devastating. She’s a child who expects the worst and usually gets exactly that. For a brief time, Justine experiences a wonderful friendship with a classmate, Michael, who suffers from a physical disability. A highly empathetic child, Michael is the first person in Justine’s life to be consistently there for her and always good to her. The affect he has on her can be summed up in this quote:
“When Michael asked me questions, he waited for my answers. He wanted to find out. He wouldn’t go on until I answered. It was the opposite of invisible.”
The river plays an important part in Justine’s story. It’s her safe place; a place she retreats to for peace and protection. Highly imaginative, she draws inspiration from old John Wayne movies and wraps herself up in these fantasies for protection. In times of stress, she puts herself into the shoes of favourite characters and tries to think as they would. It’s a coping mechanism, but also a sign of her inner distress, a way for her to escape from the harsh reality of things she simply can’t deal with. Ironically, at a crucial moment when she needs courage, John Wayne pulls through for her and she takes control of a situation, no longer content to just let everyone else dictate the terms of her life to her.
The Choke is a powerful novel, finite in its detail and tense in its delivery. It shows the complexity of child neglect, how impossible it can be to contain. There is no one thing in Justine’s life that can be considered the reason why she is neglected; no one thing to change for a different outcome. There are a whole host of social problems merging and Justine’s neglect is only one consequence of this. Setting the novel back in the 1970s doesn’t cast this social crisis as an historical one, rather, it highlights how dire the situation is; prevalent back then and prevalent now. The Choke is a novel yet it’s so much more; it is truth embedded in fiction, a case study on family crisis and social welfare in rural Australia. It has left me haunted, contemplative, and richer for the experience. Sofie Laguna is a rare talent; a writer entirely in a class of her own.
Thanks is extended to Allen and Unwin for providing me with a copy of The Choke for review.
The Choke is book 52 in my 2017 Australian Women Writers Challenge.
Our protagonist in The Choke is Justine, 10 years old when we meet her, 14 at the novel’s end. Justine is a child ignored; she’s underfed, has no social skills, and is intellectually repressed with an unrecognised learning disability. Abandoned at the age of three by her mother, her father is a criminal; her aunt, one person who could have possibly made a difference for Justine, is estranged from the family. Justine’s main carer is her Pop, alcoholic, suffering severe untreated PTSD from being a Japanese prisoner of war forced to work on the Burma railway, and inadvertently responsible for his wife’s death through domestic violence. Justine exists. That’s it. Nothing more.
“When Pop spoke to me, it was the same as when Dad did. The words were there, but it was as if they were speaking to themselves. I was just an excuse.”
Experiencing the story as Justine shows us just how much this neglect impacts her. With a child’s observation, Justine goes about her days, and we see, with painful clarity, what neglect has done to her. What it does to all children. I read The Choke with a feeling of dread, knowing that there was danger ahead for Justine, in so many places, as she was completely without protection or even the intellectual and social skills to recognise harmful situations. Her repression had also left her without the verbal skills to even articulate what she wanted to say in any given situation. In order to make sense of the world, she brings everything back to having been born breech. It’s her reasoning for life; why her mother left her, why she can’t understand things, why she can’t read, why she isn’t loved.
“If I had stood somewhere else, or gone somewhere else, what difference would it have made? The only difference I made was in the breech. That was the only time I could be felt.”
“I shook my head. Pieces were missing. It was the breech. I didn’t understand.”
Yet, Justine doesn’t use ‘the breech’ as an excuse. Rather, it’s something she takes responsibility for. As if she might have actually been able to control her own position within her mother’s womb. The weight this child carries is profound and incredibly painful to bear witness to. She’s definitely not ignorant of her neglect, but she is accepting of it, and that makes it all the more devastating. She’s a child who expects the worst and usually gets exactly that. For a brief time, Justine experiences a wonderful friendship with a classmate, Michael, who suffers from a physical disability. A highly empathetic child, Michael is the first person in Justine’s life to be consistently there for her and always good to her. The affect he has on her can be summed up in this quote:
“When Michael asked me questions, he waited for my answers. He wanted to find out. He wouldn’t go on until I answered. It was the opposite of invisible.”
The river plays an important part in Justine’s story. It’s her safe place; a place she retreats to for peace and protection. Highly imaginative, she draws inspiration from old John Wayne movies and wraps herself up in these fantasies for protection. In times of stress, she puts herself into the shoes of favourite characters and tries to think as they would. It’s a coping mechanism, but also a sign of her inner distress, a way for her to escape from the harsh reality of things she simply can’t deal with. Ironically, at a crucial moment when she needs courage, John Wayne pulls through for her and she takes control of a situation, no longer content to just let everyone else dictate the terms of her life to her.
The Choke is a powerful novel, finite in its detail and tense in its delivery. It shows the complexity of child neglect, how impossible it can be to contain. There is no one thing in Justine’s life that can be considered the reason why she is neglected; no one thing to change for a different outcome. There are a whole host of social problems merging and Justine’s neglect is only one consequence of this. Setting the novel back in the 1970s doesn’t cast this social crisis as an historical one, rather, it highlights how dire the situation is; prevalent back then and prevalent now. The Choke is a novel yet it’s so much more; it is truth embedded in fiction, a case study on family crisis and social welfare in rural Australia. It has left me haunted, contemplative, and richer for the experience. Sofie Laguna is a rare talent; a writer entirely in a class of her own.
Thanks is extended to Allen and Unwin for providing me with a copy of The Choke for review.
The Choke is book 52 in my 2017 Australian Women Writers Challenge.
July 30, 2017
Brutal, convincing and absolutely breathtaking.
November 28, 2017
Young Justine is a real outsider, poor, dyslexic, abandoned. She lives with her Pop who struggles his with demons from WWII. Her father comes and goes for months at a time. Her mother abandoned her. Justine's only friend is a classmate who struggles with a brain injury.
Laguna can set up a scene, describe people struggling with all sought of challenges and not sway from the tough subjects. The story covers revenge, rape and a non caring society. This book is very raw.
Laguna can set up a scene, describe people struggling with all sought of challenges and not sway from the tough subjects. The story covers revenge, rape and a non caring society. This book is very raw.
April 15, 2018
Finished up this frustratingly sad book today. It involves a young girl trying to navigate a confusing world without much support from the adults in her life. I was glad that she finally gained some agency near the end, but for most of the book I just wanted to help her. The writing seemed jarring to me at first, but it fits the voice of a young girl and I grew used to it.
Read
March 31, 2018I thought this was a brilliant book, but I didn’t enjoy reading it at all.
December 11, 2017
This beautiful and disturbing read brought flashbacks of The Shiralee, Storm Boy and from this author The Eye of the Sheep. The children in these books are being cared for by men who have such dark and difficult backgrounds struggle for existence. This author, like in The Eye of the Sheep has once again made the main child character physically challenged with that of dyslexia which goes un-noticed until the end of the book. This compounds Justine’s already poor existence living with her Pop, who in turn lives with his own demons from the war. She lives in a make believe world of old television movies, unable to fit in with others. The words that create the pictures given by this author leaves no doubt, Justine is unbathed, hair tatty, knotted probably full of lice, dirty clothes, poor fitting shoes with a school bag, empty, no lunch. Dad Ray is a something again, a nothing. The immediate friends and family follow the same rough and hard drinking existence. Money is always short, smoking the old rollies where men often have tobacco bits on the side of their lips, the smell of beer and cigarettes a constant odour.
The one highlight of Justine’s existence is when she is placed next to a fellow student that is also physically challenged most likely Cerebral Palsy. Through a learnt communication of movements and gaining a recognition of Michael’s speech pattern, a great friendship is formed for a short time until there are changes is Michael’s life. Justine’s poor existence into teenage years continue where a re-emergence of old family acquaintances cruelly imposes a further dark experience. Fortunately from this a self assertiveness and determination emerges from Justine’s inner self and she is able to make real positive changes in her life.
The one highlight of Justine’s existence is when she is placed next to a fellow student that is also physically challenged most likely Cerebral Palsy. Through a learnt communication of movements and gaining a recognition of Michael’s speech pattern, a great friendship is formed for a short time until there are changes is Michael’s life. Justine’s poor existence into teenage years continue where a re-emergence of old family acquaintances cruelly imposes a further dark experience. Fortunately from this a self assertiveness and determination emerges from Justine’s inner self and she is able to make real positive changes in her life.
July 23, 2018
This is a story we read and hear about often. A young, meek and innocent young girl, abandoned by her Mother and lives under the protection of her Grandfather. It's a grim story of male power and violence but more importantly of the resilience of the human spirit.
September 24, 2023
3.5/5. I love a well-told Australian story and this one started well with a charming young protagonist in Justine, the little girl raised by her PTSD afflicted Pop. Her largely absentee father is a charismatic man with violent tendencies whose return usually brings instability and tension to their family and small community. The rape scenes were just horrific. I guess there are no way of glossing over such evil acts but when the victim was the naive and sweet young child we have followed through her childhood, it truly was too much to bear. And so I admit to hit fast-forward, because it really was unnecessary for us to be exposed to the excruciating details of this atrocity. The end was strange and a bit too abrupt. Justine deserved the assurance of a happily ever after and there were too many question marks still.
Great narration.
Great narration.
May 15, 2019
Not my kind of story. It's just so bleak, another novel with yet more child abuse and rape, not to mention a particularly absurd ending. I agree with the reviewer who called it a "rural misery lit piece"
October 3, 2019
.... SPOILER ALERT....This is one of those rare books that I only come across once in a blue moon. This is a story about young Justine. Growing up without her parents on an Australian farm, with her one and only pop (grandad) who has his own demons to battle. Pop has brought Jussy up since she was 3, when her mother up and left. Her father Ray (pops only son) comes and goes throughout her life, causes trouble everywhere he goes, and never really getting caught. During part one of the book- Ray returns home. The poetic words of Laguna gives us a sense of hope that he may not be such a bad guy after all, and I craved for him to show his little girl the love she deserved. Sadly, Ray turned out to be more of a monster than we were lead to believe (or maybe just me... wanting it so badly for Jussy)
But the story runs much deeper than whos good and whos bad about town... its many many things but most of all, for me, it's about unconditional love and the silent care you have for people. The bond between Jussy and Pop is something I haven't seen before... it took until somewhere near the end of part one to really see the root of his love for this sparkling little girl, and its so lovely, and also sad in a way..
They have one another, and dont seem to want it any other way, but at the same time I think they are both suffocating and finding it difficult to cope.
The scenes at the school are heart wrenching. Jussy has friends, but as soon as Ray returns and causes chaos with the neighbouring farm, even they turn their backs on her. But this stirs on an unlikely friendship between her and a boy names Michael. Michael has cerebal palsy and nobody understands him talking... appart from Justine. Justine doesn't understand the words on the paper... but Michael helps her. Together they fight through school, and soon become two peas in a pod. This relationship is beautiful and as innocent as they come.
Part two gives us an older Justine... she's 13, nearly 14. She's gone through a lot already but here it becomes dark and disturbing. I feel like i always knew what would become of little Jussy, but kind of didn't want it to go this way. She has a special way of working things out, she's lacking in guidance in life and as a reader it was harrowing reading about her having to learn about all the nasty stuff of life the hard way.
By part two, Ray has disappeared again. But everyone knows where he is. Michael has gone too. Life is very different for Justine and pop, and its about to get even more complicated.
There's so many things that could be discussed about this book, I can imagine it being used for essays in english lit at school! Maybe A level because of the dark content. I could write so much more. Absolutely up there with some of my favorite reads ever. I already miss Jussy and her Choke... her one place to escape.
Thank you gallic books publishers for my arc copy. .
But the story runs much deeper than whos good and whos bad about town... its many many things but most of all, for me, it's about unconditional love and the silent care you have for people. The bond between Jussy and Pop is something I haven't seen before... it took until somewhere near the end of part one to really see the root of his love for this sparkling little girl, and its so lovely, and also sad in a way..
They have one another, and dont seem to want it any other way, but at the same time I think they are both suffocating and finding it difficult to cope.
The scenes at the school are heart wrenching. Jussy has friends, but as soon as Ray returns and causes chaos with the neighbouring farm, even they turn their backs on her. But this stirs on an unlikely friendship between her and a boy names Michael. Michael has cerebal palsy and nobody understands him talking... appart from Justine. Justine doesn't understand the words on the paper... but Michael helps her. Together they fight through school, and soon become two peas in a pod. This relationship is beautiful and as innocent as they come.
Part two gives us an older Justine... she's 13, nearly 14. She's gone through a lot already but here it becomes dark and disturbing. I feel like i always knew what would become of little Jussy, but kind of didn't want it to go this way. She has a special way of working things out, she's lacking in guidance in life and as a reader it was harrowing reading about her having to learn about all the nasty stuff of life the hard way.
By part two, Ray has disappeared again. But everyone knows where he is. Michael has gone too. Life is very different for Justine and pop, and its about to get even more complicated.
There's so many things that could be discussed about this book, I can imagine it being used for essays in english lit at school! Maybe A level because of the dark content. I could write so much more. Absolutely up there with some of my favorite reads ever. I already miss Jussy and her Choke... her one place to escape.
Thank you gallic books publishers for my arc copy. .
April 5, 2018
I'm going to start by saying that this was largely an entirely unpleasant yet vastly thought-provoking read.
I don't consider myself a particularly sensitive reader, but I felt nauseated throughout most of this book. Sofie Laguna writes Justine's story so brilliantly that she gets deep into your heart and core, making you feel the same confusion, voicelessness and powerlessness that Justine does. This book has such a sinister undertow that I was constantly waiting for more horrific things to happen, and I honestly did not expect the book to end on the note it did. I'm not sure I quite feel satisfied by the ending, but I suppose that was the point.
There were moments that filled me with such hope for humanity, bursting with love and appreciation for the small acts of kindness by the gentle women that appear in Justine's life.
This is not a book I would normally pursue to completion, so I'm glad I was motivated to finish it for my bookclub - it has crawled under my skin and made me think about a great many things in the way we raise and teach children, the way we interact with others in the world, and how much actually does or doesn't make a difference to a person's life.
I don't consider myself a particularly sensitive reader, but I felt nauseated throughout most of this book. Sofie Laguna writes Justine's story so brilliantly that she gets deep into your heart and core, making you feel the same confusion, voicelessness and powerlessness that Justine does. This book has such a sinister undertow that I was constantly waiting for more horrific things to happen, and I honestly did not expect the book to end on the note it did. I'm not sure I quite feel satisfied by the ending, but I suppose that was the point.
There were moments that filled me with such hope for humanity, bursting with love and appreciation for the small acts of kindness by the gentle women that appear in Justine's life.
This is not a book I would normally pursue to completion, so I'm glad I was motivated to finish it for my bookclub - it has crawled under my skin and made me think about a great many things in the way we raise and teach children, the way we interact with others in the world, and how much actually does or doesn't make a difference to a person's life.
June 9, 2020
5 haunting stars. This book was not what I expected. Set on the banks of the Murray River in the 1970s, a powerful tale of violence, friendship and fierce love. Justine, the young child who bravely navigates her way through the most difficult of childhoods, is one of those characters that gets under your skin. I ached for Justine from beginning to end, and like Eleanor Oliphant and Kya from Where the Crawdads Sing, I can’t imagine I’ll forget her anytime soon.
December 19, 2018
I’m reading this incredible book at the moment. It’s a hard one to describe. It’s packed with very tough subject matter, hopeful (surprisingly) beautiful moments and a writing style that is truly inspired.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 583 reviews