Mutant Message Down Under
Marlo Morgan
(Reviewer - Coletta Ollerer)
1995 Harper Perennial; Reprint edition
ISBN: 0060926317

After selling her medical practice in Kansas City, a doctor goes to work with the Australian medical community.

While there she is summoned to visit an ancient Aboriginal tribe & is shocked to learn that she is to join the tribe on a four-month “Walkabout” through the Outback.

Guest Reviewer Coletta Ollerer writes:

The narrator is an American doctor, in her 50s, who is invited to live in Australia for four years to work on a project with the Aboriginal People who are trying to mainstream. News of Morgan's work gets to an Aboriginal group living in the bush. They invite her to attend a luncheon so they may honor her for her work.

She agrees expecting the meeting to take place in the city. It turns out that her escort, an Aborigine in a Jeep, picks her up & takes her out onto a highway & then into the bush for miles & miles. She has no hope of finding her way back on her own. She must stay with the people she has to come to meet.

They welcome her in the bush & ask her to turn over to them the possessions she has brought with her plus her clothing. What can she do? She decides to trust them.

The first shock comes when they take those possessions, including expensive jewelry, & her clothing & promptly burn them. “For a moment my heart was numb; I took a very deep sigh. I don't know why I didn't shout a protest and immediately run to retrieve everything. But I didn't.” (p.23) They give her a small piece of fabric to wear. All this is done with broad smiles & gentle nods.

Now her trek begins. She learns how people can live with nothing but their faith in their God. They are carrying no food or water, just a few animal skins on which to sleep or to cover themselves at night. They are wearing minimum clothing, scraps, really. After several weeks walking around with no mirror or anything else she reflects, “It was like walking around inside a capsule with eyeholes. I was always looking out, looking at others, observing how they were relating to what I was doing or what I was saying ... Without a mirror to frighten me back into reality, I could experience feeling beautiful. Obviously I wasn't, but I felt beautiful. The people accepted me as I was. They made me feel included, and unique and wonderful.” (p.100)

The Aborigines call themselves The Real People. Anyone who is not one of them is termed a Mutant. Because of their respect for her work they want her to learn how they really live. The reader is carried along on their four month trek through the Outback. It is a memorable ride!

In the Introduction, the author states that this is not a work of fiction even though that is how the book is catalogued. She had to publish it this way because the non-fiction category would require her to reveal the name of the tribe & the location of the places she visited. Resolved to protect both, she opted to publish the work as fiction. This is a fascinating tale about everyday lives of a not-so-primitive people, a very exciting & interesting tale & well worth the read.

The first incarnation of Mutant Message from Down Under was a “peaceful self-published work”. It stirred up quite a controversy & sold more than 370,000 copies, very few of which ended up on library shelves. With this new edition HarperCollins is banking on an ongoing demand with a 250,000 copy first print. Mutant Message from Down Under has garnered a Literary Guild Special Release designation.

Editor's Note: I was one of those buyers of that first edition, way back when. It is an extraordinary read -- ebullient & deeply engrossing. A DownUnder Quest of transformation.

More from Marlo Morgan: Mutant Message from Forever: A Novel of Aboriginal Wisdom
(03/07/04)

Coletta
2005©Coletta Ollerer
A RebeccasReads.Com Associate Reviewer

Reviewer's Bio:
I have always enjoyed writing. As a teenager I submitted to magazines like Seventeen, & was politely rejected. As a young mother, I had several poems published in The Chicago Tribune. Born in Chicago in 1932, I still live in the area. Since I retired, I have had some success on the Internet with my book reviews, stories & poetry. I enjoy historical fiction mostly, but will read anything uplifting, informative & fun. When I'm not reading & writing, I'm making jewelry, sewing needlepoint, & painting.