I quite enjoyed this story about a down and out Barrister, Billy who had become a vagrant and an orphaned boy Ryan and a statue of Matthew Flinders Cat, Trim.

Unfortunately this is my least favourite Bryce Courtenay. The last third of the book felt very rushed, relationships glossed over and from previous books of his, I expected to feel satisfaction from the outcome but not this time.
The explicit details of the child sex abuse industry were hard to read for someone who is a mother.

This is a book in two parts (and two stories throughout both parts). The first half of the book is yarn telling in excellent form, and it's unlikely you'll be able to put it down. The second half, many will find the opposite as it shipwrecks on the sandbanks of 'the author seems to have lost interest too'. There's a rally of rescue which promises to haul the second half out of the mire and back onto the plot(s), but then publishing deadlines appear to step in and massacre the entire cast, leaving only a passive aggressive 'coroner's' report at the end to stop readers from howling for justice.

If you can handle the dissapointment in the crafting of the second half of the book; then the first half is not only an excellent read, despite some heavy stereotyping...it's an honest look at subjects that rarely see the light of day and renders them accessable to those who wouldn't even realise these things do go on.

5 stars for the first half....1 1/2 for the second half. Even authors are human.

As a Salvo in a former life working in Sydney, this book brought back so many memories. Courtney's description of the salvation Army's William Booth Institute was accurate and it took me back there personally, of the Majors who worked there... I'm sure I knew who some of the characters were really based on. I actually listened to the audiobook version of this book with my 16yr old daughter on a long road trip and I felt it was an extremely accurate portrayal of alcoholism, it's hold over people, it's treatment and the demons alcoholics have to live with. A real eye opener for my daughter. She found herself getting frustrated with the main character as he was going through rehab but I was able to explain that the struggle was real, yet completely foreign to those of us who are fortunate enough not to suffer this disease.

The side story of the cat is quite informative and all the other characters in the book are true to the Australian style.

We are not quite finished the book so can't comment on its ending but am looking forward to our return journey to see what happens to Billy, Trim and the rest of the crew.



2 weeks later.....
Ok so return journey now completed and the book is finished. We had more to go than I realised as there was another story woven in amongst it.

I must say that I absolutely loved this book.... Not sure if I would have stuck it out actually reading it but the audiobook was fantastic. The ending was all I'd hoped it to be.... It didn't let me down in any way.

A side note - on our journey while listening to this book we were travelling the Adelaide Plains and went through Willcannia - would have loved to see Trevor!!!

When I was younger, I read Jessica by Bryce Courtenay and it immediately became my favourite book. Both the writing style and story were both heart warming and heart breaking, but so well told.
Strangely, I have never picked up another book by Bryce. Possibly because I prefer fast paced thrillers and books that make you think as opposed to more of a drama genre.
However Matthew Flinders' Cat came into my possession by chance (with half the first chapter missing). Luckily online, you can often "preview" the first chapter, so I was able to begin the book.
Such a well told story. Able to speak straight to your heart and be able to relate and envision the characters so clearly.
I will definitely have to seek out more of Bryce's work on purpose now that I know my appreciation of Jessica was not just a once off.

This is my first experience with Bryce Courtenay, I really enjoyed it, it was a real eye-opener about the life of the homeless, alcoholics, pedophilia and the justice system. As a sailing person, I have an interest in Mathew Flinders and as an animal lover wanted to know more about Trim his cat, so I found this to be a well rounded story all up.
I look forward to read more from Bryce Courtenay in the future.

This book is largely atrocious. Confoundingly, it has some interesting ideas, and even some readable - dare I say intriguing - passages. But the clanging discordance between, on the one hand, a sweet child's story about an heroic cat, and on the other, an increasingly perverse and preposterous storyline involving an alcoholic and an international paedophile ring (including unnecessarily graphic detail), drags this story to hell. Sloppy narrative, unexplained plot points, repeated racial epithets and the adult equivalent of a child's story - "and then I woke up and realised it was all a dream" - ending, places this clanger of a novel firmly on the lowest rung of the ladder for novels I have read.

I like his style of writing and I wanted to know what happened with the characters but found the passages about the cat quite tedious and the ending a bit rushed and unbelievable.
Story of an alcoholic derelict who used to be a lawyer who meets a young boy on the street who is going through difficulties with his mother and nan. They bond over stories about a ship's cat.

The roles of Trim the Cat

This is a difficult novel to define. The three main characters are the street dwelling alcoholic, Billy O'Shannessy, Ryan Sanfrancesco the 11-year-old streetwise boy whose future is at risk, and Trim (Matthew Flinders's cat). Trim was, apparently, the first cat to circumnavigate Australia (1801 to 1803) when he accompanied Matthew Flinders.

Potentially, there are at least three stories in this book. The one I focussed on, and enjoyed the most, was the role of Trim, as developed in Billy's imagination and then researched, in saving Billy and Ryan.

The stories of Billy and Ryan did not engage me as much as Trim, yet I enjoyed the way Mr Courtenay wove the separate stories together. There are no real heroes in this story, and yet there is hope. And a kind of irony in that Trim the cat, who was part of the voyages that helped define Australia still has a contemporary role.

Recommended. An interesting, if quirky, novel.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

What a life this cat had, travelling the seven seas, and having all kinds of adventures and troubles. This is another fantastic true story of an animal that lived life to the fullest.
The details of the cat's life are written down and taken from the historical journals of captain Matthew Flinders as he sailed and circumnavigated the world in a series of ships in the 18th century, with the cat named Trim on board. It's a really fun read.

هذه النبذة من ترجمتي بالكامل مع تصرف،
نبذة مختصرة عن الكاتب :
الاسم : برايس كورتناي 1933-2012
كاتب و روائي أسترالي من مواليد جنوب أفريقيا. تدور احداث رواياته في القارة الأسترالية أو جنوب أفريقيا. أول ما نشر له واكثر روايته مبيعا رواية The Power of the one (قوة الفرد) نشرت عام 1989 و تدور احداثها في جنوب أفريقيا. وبرغم خوفه من عدم تحقيق المبيعات الكافية والفشل بعد نشرها حققت الرواية مبيعات فائقة واصبحت اكثر كتب استراليا مبيعا وتحولت لفيلم كما تم نشر نسخة معدلة منها للأطفال.
يعتبر من أشهر وأكثر كتاب أستراليا مبيعاً للكتب وذلك بسبب اهتمامه بالتسويق والترويج الجيد لكتبه عن طريق خلق علاقات قوية وطيبة مع القراء، فكان يقوم بتوزيع أكثر من 2500 نسخة مجانية سنوياً على القراء الذين يلتقيهم مصادفة في الشوارع.
توفى في عام 2012 بسبب سرطان المعدة .
الكتاب الذي اقوم بقراءته حاليا ولظروف خاصة توقفت في منتصفه تماما واحوال الإنتهاء منه هو رواية Mathew Flinders’ Cat ( قط ماثيو فليندر)
نبذة مختصرة عن الرواية : نشر عام 2002
تدور أحداث الرواية في مدينة سيدني استراليا. عام 1996 قبل انطلاق الألعاب الأوليمبية في سيدني ب 4 سنوات..
الأفكار الأساسية :
1- حياة المدينة الحديثة التي تقهر البشر و تقودهم للتشرد .
2- محنة المشردين في شوارع المدن الحديثة
3- سياسات الطمع والانحراف
4- تاريخ دولة استراليا من منظور قط الرحالة ماثيو فلندر .

تدور أحداث الرواية عن البطل (ويليام أوشانسي) بيللي محامي ناجح سابقا، و مدمن للخمور مشرد ينام خارج مكتبة المدينة العامة اسفل التمثال البرونزي للقط (تريم)، وعلاقته الإنسانية مع الصبي ذو العشرة أعوام (ريّان) وهو اقرب لأطفال الشوارع أو في طريقه المباشر ليصبح أحدهم. يحاول بيللي خلال احداث الرواية ان ينقذ الصبي من التشرد واقناعه بالإنتظام في المدرسة وتنمية مهارته ومواهبه قبل ان تطغي عليه حياة الشارع بسبب اهمال عائلته وامه المدمنة له. في الواقع هو كان ينقذ نفسه ايضا فعلى مدار اشهر يمر الإثنان بعملية اعادة تأهيل للعودة الى الشكل الأدمي الطبيعي للإنسان، و لذا يفوم (اوشانسي) بتسجيل نفسه والانتظام في مركز اعادة تأهيل المدمنين على الخمور. يجذب بيللي انتباه ومخيلة ريان عن طريق حبك قصة مسلية بطلها قط يسرد فيها احداث من تاريخ استراليا عن شخصية الرحالة والمستكشف الجغرافي ماثيو فلندر وابحاره بمصاحبه قطه (تريم) حول سواحل القارة وتحديد حدودها.
ترجمة مع تصرف (نرمين رشدي)

Sydney, Australia my home city comes alive: NSW State Library, Royal Botanic Gardens, The Domain, Martin Place, Circular Quay, Wollomooloo, St Vincent's Hospital, Kings Cross, Newtown and more.

5 stars for the plan to rid Sydney of Indian Mynahs.