Book Info
Beyond Matilda
A young soldier who has shown the highest morality in combat suffers the contrary nature of Australian civilians when he returns home. Embittered by being made to feel a national embarrassment, and haunted by circumstances surrounding his best friend's death in Vietnam, he finds a semblance of peace in the open spaces of Queensland, beyond Matilda Country.
But empires there have been built on cattle rustling, a practice the soldier finds untenable, and with the help of an American serviceman and the female schoolteacher at the Aboriginal Mission, he launches an inquiry into the centuries old crime, instigating a new war on his own turf.
Exerpt from the Novel
Was he glad to have come home early? No, of course not, and not because of the wounds. Once he'd found that civilians wanted nothing to do with the war or the soldiers they'd sent to fight it he'd wanted to rush back to the mates he'd left behind. Those men had come to mean the world to him and he'd left them unguarded. God, there'd been others he hadn't been able to save in spite of his effort. He didn't need a mortar flash to be reminded, with terrifying clarity, of his final mission - of plain men huddled in the back of a commandeered truck with expressions detached and feelings insulated around the fate of comrades. Navall, Haberecht, Lewis, Fackerell, and Baby - they'd given their lives in the service of their country.
The problem was, he couldn't talk about Vietnam with anyone other than those who'd been there. Oh, there were veterans from World War II and Korea out in the Channel Country. There were men who'd been armed and put in uniform and organized in groups, and men who weren't aggressive by nature but had come to find killing in combat situations acceptable. There were men who had lived in crude conditions, eaten C rations, and fought in rain and mud; men who'd worried how they'd be wounded and how they'd be treated if captured. There were men who never again wanted to feel the violent heart pump, the cold, clammy, bone-chilling sweat, or the gut-wrenching jolt of fear. But none of those men were interested in talking war with him because the outcome of their wars differed from his - they'd won theirs!
Reviews
Great plot. I like the sense of uncertainty in the soldier's life, the conflict he faces - a character with external challenges and internal demons. It's an interesting dilemma to place a character from an unsettled past in a setting that seems safe, introduce new threats, then force the character to face his demons again.
- Writers Digest (2006)
Sharp focus given to select events from combat situations to romantic interludes and murder. Four voices interweave, giving depth to the Aboriginal situation, the dilemma of rural itinerants, the complexities of cattle rustling, and the fallout of the proxy war that was Vietnam.
-Susie Quinn, Editor, Comox Valley News, 2003.
Pettit looks at what makes heroes, why soldiers do what they do, and why they are willing to lay down their lives. Based on true court cases about cattle rustling, this is an intriguing study of the relationship between ranchers, rustlers, and the indigenous Aboriginials caught btween them.
-Harbour City Star (2003)
A soldier's story with a strong female character.
-Gabriola Island Book Club (2004)
