AMNESIA ROAD: LANDSCAPE, VIOLENCE AND MEMORYLuke StegemannNewSouth BooksREVIEWED BY JESSIE NEILSONWith its focus on the legacy of trauma, invasion and massacre in two historical eras, Amnesia Road is a harrowing read. Yet, aside from these specific instances, much of the book pulls back the camera to pan across each landscape and past events, better to mimic the themes of general amnesia and selective memory. Using the land industrially led to a whole new soundscape, dismissing earlier signifiers and erasing entire ways of life and knowledge codes. In Spain, this past which had been laid to rest by surviving elderly people is being dug up by the grandchildren. Amnesia Road in part is a threnody, a wailing lament for the dead, where even with such persuasive discussion, there never can be straightforward reconciliation.

Source: Otago Daily Times September 10, 2020 01:18 UTC