Homecoming

Although Jess’s perspective in the 2018 timeline represents the “narrative present” and the primary storyline of Homecoming, the entire Prologue takes place in 1959. This stylistic decision immediately places emphasis on the importance of the earlier timeline, foreshadowing the fact that it will hold great significance for Jess’s own life. Given these alternating time frames, the novel as a whole is written from a third-person limited perspective that shifts from character to character throughout the novel. By beginning the story from Isabel’s perspective, Morton immediately brings this character to life in a way that simply recounting the details of the murder scene would not. For many years, Isabel herself will be blamed for the Turner Tragedy, but by offering insight into the woman’s innermost thoughts, Morton immediately undercuts the community’s popular narrative about the unsolved crime, casting doubt on the prevailing theory and emphasizing the theme of Transforming History into Myth.

While Isabel is allowed only a brief moment to make her voice heard in the novel, Percy’s account allows the narrative to skip forward in time and emphasize the aftermath of the Turner family’s deaths. This shift also introduces Percy as a significant figure in the 1959 narrative, for he is almost as important as Isabel herself. As the story continues, the relationship between Isabel and Percy will illuminate the underlying motives of the crime: motives that remain deeply hidden beneath the dominant narrative for many years and only come to light as Jess’s investigation begins to bear fruit. Thus, the emotionally laden details of Percy’s experiences in the Prologue create a sense of urgent immediacy and deeper relevance that continues to resonate throughout the 2018 timeline as well. However, although the Prologue offers a few early hints of the truth, Percy’s actions on that day will resonate quite differently as further information is revealed.

In a subtly ironic twist, the macabre scene that Percy stumbles upon by the water hole has an air of serenity, for the summer heat creates a peaceful, somnolent atmosphere that causes Percy to assume that the family is merely asleep. This initially innocent portrayal of the scene contrasts sharply with the brutality of the crime. Percy’s narrative also establishes the larger context of the Australian landscape by personifying aspects of the environment in a vaguely foreboding way. For example, the gum trees, with “streaky skins glinting metallic, […] had seen it all before” (7). Similarly, Morton uses strategic contrast when she juxtaposes the natural landscape with the formal beauty of Halcyon, which is “not so much a house as a castle” (22). In this passage, the novel’s larger connection to the essence and mood of Victorian literature is emphasized, for Percy draws a direct comparison between Halcyon and Pemberley, Mr. Darby’s estate in Pride and Prejudice, thereby raising the theme of Connection Through Literature.

The thread of this theme is continued almost immediately in Chapter 1 as protagonist Jess Turner visits the Charles Dickens Museum in London and reflects upon her own lifelong appreciation for this era of literature. Like Percy, Jess finds a personal sense of connection and belonging by immersing herself in literature, and just as Percy reflects upon the works of Austen, Jess uses her fondness for Dickens to offset the loneliness that she experiences in London. However, with one phone call from Australia, her fragile sense of belonging is shattered, and “where she once felt part of [London], now she felt as if she were outside, an observer looking in” (43). Jess’s determination to succeed at Finding Home and Belonging will continue to be a strong thematic thread as she returns to Australia and finds herself investigating the long-buried secrets of her family’s history.

Thus, this early section of the novel accomplishes a variety of ambitious narrative goals, for in addition to establishing the underlying tension between the two timelines, the narrative also crafts a protagonist whose status quo has been destroyed by a present-day family emergency that, unbeknownst to her, will precipitate a deep dive into her grandmother’s secrets of the past. While Jess’s subsequent chapters will function to establish key characterizations and dominant themes, her personal journey will be punctuated by chapters devoted to relating the events of the 1959 timeline. With this approach, Morton injects constant reminders of the Turner Tragedy and the effects of its aftermath upon Percy and the other residents of Tambilla. With this early attention to the surrounding community, Morton uses these flashback chapters to create a real-time account of the crucial events in question, thereby offering readers a more engaging account of the crime than the dry secondhand accounts and anecdotes that Jess will have to sift through to solve the mystery of the Turner Tragedy.