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Summary: imaginative
Review: Pobby and Dingan, Ben Rice. In his first novel, Ben Rice tells a story full of imagination of Ashmol's family. The twelve year old Ashmol Williamson lives in an Opal mining town, Lightning Ridge, with his parents and his younger sister and her two imaginary friends: Pobby and Dingan. Ashmol gets frustrated by how stubbornly Kellyanne insists on her friends being real. She would even go as far as to take her invisible friends to school and set places for them at dinner (only Kellyanne could see them.) One day Pobby and Dingan get lost in the Williamson's opal mine. While looking for Pobby and Dingan Ashmol's dad is accused of ratting on someone else's claim (poaching). "Ratting, you see, is the same thing as murder at Lightning Ridge-only a bit worse.EKelllyanne gets sick and it seems that the only cure is to find Pobby and Digan. Ashmol must overcome his feeling of ridicule to save his family's honor and his sister's life and embark on a mission to find Pobby and Dingan and clear his father's name. Ben Rice tells an excellent story in the voice of the Australian twelve year old, which sucks you right into lightning Ridge. He makes us reconsider reality and the power of the young mind, but leaves the wanting to know how the family will turn out in the end.
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Summary: Entertaning and Vived Novel
Review: The novel Pobby and Dingan is a refreshing though short read. It takes place in the "small" town of Lightning Ridge, an eccentric opal mining town in the Australian outback. The novel is narrated by a vividly portrayed young boy by the name of Ashmol Williamson and consists of his adventures and growth in terms of his views of his life and of his sister and her imaginary friends Pobby and Dingan. The narrator is the son of a failing opal miner who drives to the field every day and brings back nothing but dreams and a mother who wishes she was back in England, while she goes of to her work behind a cash register to keep the family going for another day (it would be nice if her character was fleshed out a bit more). This is the back drop of Ben Rices first novel Pobby and Dingan. Rice tells it in a nice interesting Australian accent of the outback opal miner (although he could be just BS-ing it). However the book does have it's flaws, the narrators voice can get irksome after a while, the book spends too much time dealing with imaginary people (even if that is what it is about), and it's steady progression to a less realistic outlook rubbed me wrong. On the whole I found it an entertaining one sitting read, for the book is quite excessively short, there isn't much there. It might have even benefited from being published as a part of a collection of storys rather than being published on its own. The book is an important though odd section of a boy's childhood, which is entertaining, vivid, tragic and full of fantasy.
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Summary: Sometimes you have to believe BEFORE you can see...
Review: The tale of what happens to the town of Lightening Ridge, New South Wales when little Kellyanne Williamson's father loses his daughter's imaginary friends in Australia's opal mines is one of the most touching and humorous tales I've read in a long time. It's unfortunate that this book hasn't received more attention - Ben Rice has somehow managed to pack more life and emotion into the 94 pages of his debut novel than can be found in most of what's on current bestsellers lists. Pobby and Dingan may be imaginary but I'll never forget them.
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Summary: Pobby and Dingan
Review: This book is EXCELLENT! It's rare that you come across a truely enjoyable read from cover to cover. Even though the book is short, it is a very satisfying read. It's well written. It flows naturally from beginning to end. The story is sweet and original. I highly recommend it.
If you are thinking about getting it, and you must be, since you're reading this review. GET IT!
Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT!
Review: This book is EXCELLENT! It's rare that you come across a truely enjoyable read from cover to cover. Even though the book is short, it is a very satisfying read. It's well written. It flows naturally from beginning to end. The story is sweet and original. I highly recommend it.
If you are thinking about getting it, and you must be, since you're reading this review. GET IT!
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Summary: An Odd Book
Review: This book is very short (less than 100 pages) and leaves you with an odd feeling afterwards. It's in general an odd sort of book with its quirky characters and plot. Despite all this, it well explores the concept of faith and belief in that which cannot be seen.
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Summary: Lose Your Heart in 94 Pages
Review: This elegant and lyrical little book grabs you by the heartstrings and doesn't let go. One would need the soul of a lizard to not be moved by the oh, so real (& not so real) characters in the story. Lovely.
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Summary: Reads like a short story
Review: This is an excellent first book for Ben Rice. It's both beach reading and intellectually stimulating, with the simplicity of words and narrative. It's fantastic without being unbelievably so. And at the end, the author made me believe the story can really happen. I'd stretch my suspended disbelief and look forward to reading more of Rice's work.
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Summary: Lovely tale of belief
Review: This lovely novella tells the story of Kellyanne Williamson's love for her imaginary friends, Pobby and Dingan, and how her brother exhibits his love for her after these *friends* are lost. Despite his exasperation with his sister's behavior, Ashmol does his best to find her invisible friends and to help her recover from her mysterious but desperate illness.Although small in size, this book gives the reader a great deal of information about Australia and about opal mining, using authentic vocabulary and the artless, wry, and down-to-earth voice of the young Ashmol. This young man is wise beyond his years in the way of life lived in the opal-mining area of Lightning Ridge. His voice was a refreshing change from many contemporary angst-ridden narrators.
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Summary: Diamond in the rough
Review: To put it simply, I loved this book. I read the excerpt first on Amazon, then, while at a book store sat down to read what I thought would be a few pages. 94 pages later I was done, and wanting to sell the book to everyone in the store. I bought the book even though I had read it, and I will read it again very soon. I don't want to give any of the book away, so I won't even comment on what happens. I'll simply say that this is the type of book that can appeal to anyone who enjoys literature. There is a message that this book conveys, and once you read it, you will feel it too.
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