The pearl he left behind.(After the Monsoon)(Book Review)

After the Monsoon, by Ian Callinan; Central Queensland University Press, 2005, $25.95.

AFTER THE MONSOON, "a saga of war and pearling" is no Gone with the grind. Insular hero Charlie Land is no Rhett Butler, while stoic heroine Brenda Stanley is the opposite of fiery Scarlett O'Hara. Ian Callinan's saga has none of the lush (some would say slush) romance of Margaret Mitchell's best-seller. However, Monsoon has the potential to become an epic Australian film if only the local industry could forget about alienation and return to the heroic themes of Forty Thousand Horsemen and Gallipoli.

Charlie Land's home is the Northern Rivers district of New South Wales. As a youth Charlie works as a farmhand for the local patriarch, Harry Stanley, mustering cattle, repairing fences and cutting sugar cane. He is a bright, intelligent lad. The boss likes him, but Stanley's self-willed daughter Brenda falls in love with unresponsive Charlie. This will not do. Stanley puts pressure on Charlie to join up. Charlie becomes a lighthorseman, fighting under General Chauvel's command at Beersheba and Damascus. Brenda writes to Charlie. Charlie does not reply.

Charlie returns to Australia battle-hardened' 'and ambitious. He settles in Broome, where Japanese pearlers, who cannot legally own pearling luggers, dominate the industry. Charlie becomes a legal dummy for Billy, a substantial Japanese pearler, and later his partner. During the Japanese/Koepenger riots in Broome in 1920, Charlie accidentally kills Billy and inherits his property.

Now a man of property, Charlie expands into cattle stations, a copra plantation near Rabaul, and eventually buys an interest in a Perth newspaper, "driven to be the man of affairs to match and surpass the man who tricked him into going to war".

Charlie visits Britain and, fascinated by the theatre, falls in love with a repertory actress, Janet Fickler. The couple marry and settle in Broome but the marriage does not work out. Janet returns to Britain.

The Depression wipes Charlie out. Meanwhile, ever-loving Brenda, now a successful businesswoman, has been looking after Charlie's small home property. In the final chapter he returns to the Northern Rivers a broken man. "Charlie holds out his hand and Brenda puts it in hers. 'Now you're home. That's enough for now.'"