Divine Wind: A Love Story by Garry

¶ … Divine Wind: A Love Story by Garry Disher. Specifically it will discuss how the family suffers as a result of World War II. This is a story of mixed races in Broome, Australia during World War II. The main character is Hartley Penrose, a teenager who falls in love with a Japanese girl, Mitsy Sennosukes, who he had been friends with for years. Eventually, their differences pull them apart, and Hart finds that he is not as open and willing to accept others as he thinks he is.

Hartley looks back on this time in his life during the story, and it shows how much the family suffered during the war. He narrates the story, looking back on his experiences. The author writes, "You could say that this is a story about friendship, and the betrayal of friendship, and friendships lost and regained" (Disher 1998). It is also a story about a family torn apart by war and by their differences. One of the first signs that the family is falling apart is the departure of Ida, Hart's mother. She is British, and she never warms up to the Australian lifestyle. It is too casual and informal for her, so the abandons her family and returns to Britain to care for her elderly mother. The author continues, "By the time I was fifteen, Ida had virtually stopped talking to my father. She'd be gentle and distracted with Alice and me, but shut down whenever my father was in the room" (Disher 1998). This is an uncomfortable environment, and one that is difficult for the children to be around. It is extremely important that the narrator calls his mother "Ida" throughout the book, it shows how fractured the family is, and how he views his mother. The Germans kills his mother in a bombing raid, removing the chance for Hart and his sister to maintain a relationship with their mother, another change the family has to endure.

After Ida leaves, the characters continue to make poor choices that result in the further breakup of the family and their friends. Hart's father decides to take his pearling boat out in bad weather, which leads to a terrible accident that kills a crew member and injures Hart, leaving him with a crippled leg and unable to fight during the war. In an essay about writing the book, the author notes, "All around him, young men his age are doing heroic things, joining the armed services, being treated as heroes, but Hart feels useless. This uselessness breeds paranoia, suspicion and a sense of grievance" (Disher 2010). Therefore, his father's rash action affects Hart for the rest of his life, showing again how the war and the family's reaction to it has changed the family forever. Hart's sister Alice becomes an Army nurse, and is taken prisoner in Singapore, another development for the family.