The Harp in the South was Ruth Park's first published book; it won the £2000 first prize for best novel in a 1946 literary competition sponsored by the Sydney Morning Herald. While many readers found it unpleasantly sordid, as it depicts grim poverty in Surry Hills, Sydney, more readers (based on the Herald's report of letters it received) supported it. I thought it was wonderful. Yes, we see grime, bugs, ignorance, cheap alcohol, and death; but we also see love, growing up, joy, and optimism. (Just a couple of warnings: one brief scene involves animal cruelty, and unpleasant racial epithets are used.) ( )

Oh I absolutely LOVED this book, set in the slums of Sydney, Australia.
It tells the tale of Hugh and Margaret Darcy, how they came together and raised their children, Roie, Dolour and Thady, in abject poverty, with dirt around their feet and apathy in every bone of their bodies. But they stuck together somehow, goodness only knows how, and we hear their story.
The heartache, the cruelty and drunkeness all around, of the life in the awful slums of the big city, with a father (Hugh) that turned to the bottle whenever possible and bemoaned his fate in life.
The writing is beautiful and I was just swept away with this family. I can't wait to read the next two books in the series, to see if things change for them.
If you enjoyed Cloudstreet you will also enjoy this.
You just have to read it, soooo good!! ( )

A wonderfully evocative tale of Margaret and Hughie Darcy and family set in the slums of Sydney. Superb in its description of characters and place. I am keen to read the others in the trilogy. ( )

A very different perspective on Australian Life in the 1950's. Eye opening and one that should be on the school reading list - so many issues covered: religion, acohol abuse, sex, love, abortion, marriage, family, poverty, limitation of social class, aging and death to name a few all in a relatively small book. Characters are rounded and complex and very human. ( )

Wandering semi-aimlessly at Perth airport, waiting for my flight to Sydney for a three-week holiday, I realised I was in need of a book to read on the flight. The Harp in the South leapt to my attention, being a book I've always meant to read and being set in Sydney.

Do you know, I was discussing this with a friend who said she found it very depressing. Strange to say, despite the sadness of many of the events portrayed, I had a very different response. There's a tenderness and humour to this depiction of family and community life in the slums of late-1940s Surrey Hills that gives it a quiet loveliness..

Until fairly recently, Ruth Park was one of those authors I just hadn't got around to for no particular reason. Having now highly enjoyed the first two I've laid my hands on, I'm putting her up top of my list of authors to read at all costs. ( )